Mind the Gap

Today’s scripture is a scene from Luke wherein Jesus tells his disciples a story about a rich man and another man named Lazarus who is covered in sores and frequently lies on the steps of the rich man’s house, hoping for food scraps. But the rich man pays no attention to Lazarus, failing to see him as a human sibling. Jesus frequently in parables and in the beatitudes, for example, calls on people to love and care for others, calling on us to mind the gap between ourselves and others. In our current day and time, doing so can be a great challenge, but we are all members of God’s family, challenged to embrace those whom we might not have considered before.