DAVID'S EMAIL BIBLE STUDY:
Heaven or Hell?
 
A. BACKGROUND  ...  It's subjective to pick "favorite" Bible verses, but still worth it.  With so much gold to mine, how do you pick? One criteria is that it leaves a life-long impression.  Or teaches you a lesson you've never forgotten.  Or creates an image in your mind that stays with you.  Or forces you to act.  Like today's .

B.  TODAY... Luke 16:19-31.

C.  SUMMARY : Jesus tells a story ("parable") about a rich man and a beggar who were neighbors.  The beggar (Lazarus) lived by the entrance of the rich man's house, availing himself of scraps and leftovers.  When they both die the rich man ends up in "agony", really hot; the beggar is clearly in heaven, hanging with Abraham, Israel's founder and hero.  The rich man tells Abraham to order Lazarus to bring him water, but learns that there is no back and forth between heaven and hell.  Then the rich man wants Abraham to order Lazarus to return to earth and visit the rich man's brother, to warn them about a bad life and its consequences.  Abraham says that God has already given people plenty of warning in the Bible; and besides, some people won't take notice even if someone were to come back from the dead.  (Foreshadowing!).

D.     KEY POINTS: 
 
1.    Another RICH MAN/Bad Guy!  Not quite.  The Bible has a tortured relationship with riches.  To summarize: riches are neutral, people are not.  Gold, diamonds, Persian carpets, etc., are things.  How you get them, what you do with them, that is about you, not them.  If I rob your house and steal your gold, the gold has not done anything wrong.  In Jesus' story the rich man's riches just sit there.  He may have worked hard for them, saved wisely, invested, earned them, or even inherited them.  So far, no harm, no foul.  Enter Lazarus, the beggar. This is the only episode we see about either man's life, their interaction.  Or lack thereof.  Notice that even when the rich man is in hell he does not talk to the beggar.  He talks about him, around him, orders him.  At no point does that rich man acknowledge their common humanity.  At no point does he see or feel any responsibility or opportunity to help. Lazarus was irrelevant (look that word), inconsequential, invisible (look at those words!).  In this story of the RICH MAN the problem IS THE MAN, not the rich.
 
2.    WHO is OUR Lazarus?  I often use Timothy Keller's book on "Justice".  Keller tells us that Jesus requires us to provide true justice for, to do justly by, the vulnerable.  But who the vulnerable are can change from generation to generation, location to location.  The Bible talks about "the LEAST", "the widow and orphan".  Our Field of Flags reminds us that today's "least" or "vulnerable" can be homeless Vets, or PTSD Vets, or a lonely soldier overseas.  Our ASP mission team can tell us about rural poverty, workers on disability, and the unemployed.  FOCI's "least" in India are lepers, the elderly, mentally handicapped kids, or girls in general.  But what about FAIRFIELD 2017, right now?  Jesus' story says we need to see who is right outside our gate.  Alcoholism and drug addiction take a daily toll.  We have elderly in nursing homes, hospice care, or shut in.  Unemployment comes in waves, with all its attendant issues.  The inner city poverty of Bridgeport and Norwalk are just outside our gate.  And there are our teenagers and children navigating a 21st Century, hyper-sexualized, highly competitive, stress-filled world that devalues the basics of our faith.  Who have I missed?  That's Jesus' question. 
 
3. HELL.  This story isn't a teaching about heaven or hell, but the lesson is clear.  We should do whatever we can to end up in one place and avoid the other.  We want details: streets paved with gold in heaven, eternal torment in a lake of fire in hell.  Jesus' detail is far more basic.  There's someone at your gate.  What you do next with your faith is the key to your life.
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