Chasms Between

Chasms Between
Pentecost 16; Luke 16:19-31
Over the years and across the wide Earth
those who have much exclude those who are poor –
maybe with claims of superior birth,
whiteness or maleness, tradition or law.

Some say that wealth is a blessing they’ve earned:
fittest survive while the lesser won’t thrive.
Those they keep down find best efforts are spurned:
doomed as outsiders, they’re barely alive.

Jesus tells stories that turn upside down
all such pretensions that keep a closed gate.
Francis left riches to serve as God’s clown:
left behind Father and fortune and hate.

“Rebuild my church!” was the call that he heard;
poverty chosen in joy was his way,
walking the roads with a fresh humble word,
challenging wealth of the Church in his day.

Is there a chasm we try to maintain,
keeping out God and the suffering poor?
Do we inherit a balancing pain
when we keep difference outside of our door?

“Poor lifted up and the mighty brought low?”
Prophets like Mary have sung this bold song,
seeing that change is too late and too slow,
calling for action to right what is wrong.

Chasms are many and most we have made,
blasting away and not counting the loss.
When we seem stranded in fire we have laid,
bridges appear in the shape of Christ’s cross.

Do we hear truth from one raised from the dead,
open our hearts to compassion and hope,
gifts of God’s kingdom in wine and in bread,
or, heedless, slide down our wealth’s slippery slope?
	Barbara Messner 24/09/2025