Reversal Stories

My topic today will be reversal stories.  The history of our salvation is filled with reversal stories.  Both the Old Testament and the New Testament contain stories in which the outcome is the reverse of what people expect.  In each case God moves in and creates a big surprise.  Let’s begin with Chapter 39 in the Book of the prophet Jeremiah.

One day Jeremiah gave a sermon in which he held up a clay pot and then smashed it against a rock.  He said, “Our city and our community will soon be smashed and broken.”  Then he said, “God will allow the enemy to smash our city because you are not following the rules of the covenant.  You are worshipping false gods and not following the Ten Commandments and you are not caring for the widows and the orphans and the migrants. 

God has given you many chances to repent but you refuse you refuse to do so.”  His prophecy was fulfilled in 587 B.C. when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians.  The Babylonian army surrounded the city for many months so that food could not reach the citizens and the soldiers.  Thus, when they entered the city, they easily defeated the soldiers who were weak and starving.  They carried the leaders and merchants to Babylon and placed them in prison camps.

They did not capture the poor.  Instead, they gave the vineyards and the farm land to the poor.  And then they set fire to the city of Jerusalem.  This story is clearly a reversal story because the rich end up in poverty and the poor become rich.

The Book of Genesis contains a reversal story.  We hear that Sarah is more than 70 years old, but thanks to God’s intervention, she has a child and she names him Isaac.

In the Book of Judges, we hear that Manoah’s wife is barren, but God intervenes and she has a child and his name is Samson.

In the first Book of Samuel, we hear that Hannah is childless; but then she conceives and gives birth to a child and his name is Samuel.

In the New Testament, Elizabeth is quite elderly.  But then she becomes pregnant and delivers a child with no difficulty - and he is John the Baptist.  

Her cousin Mary is a virgin and she conceives by the power of the Holy Spirit and her child is Jesus. 

In each case, God intervened and created a reversal of what you might expect.  In Luke’s Gospel, Mary testifies to her experience of how God reverses the status quo.  In her Canticle, Mary says, “God has brought down the powerful from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly.  God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty-handed.”   

At the very beginning of his public ministry Jesus tells the people that he has been sent into the world to reverse the normal pattern of things.  He says that he has come to bring Good News to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and to let the oppressed go free.  And that sets the stage for today’s Gospel passage.  Jesus tells the Pharisees the parable of rich man who dies and the poor man Lazarus. 

Jesus says that there was a rich man who refused to share his food with a poor man.  After they died, the rich man found himself in the fires of Gehenna and the poor man found himself in the bosom of Abraham.  In other words, the status of each man has been reversed.  The poor man has gone up and the rich man has gone down.

The rich man knew his scriptures.  He knew the story of Abraham and how Abraham had given water and food to people passing by his tent on a hot summer day.  So, he asked Abraham to send down some water to cool his tongue.  Speaking for God, Abraham said, “We can’t do it because there is a great chasm between those who share and those who don’t share.”  The rich man said, “Father Abraham, have pity on me and give me a second chance.”

“No.”  Abraham said.  “You have had many chances already.  The prophet Amos and many other prophets told you to help the poor but you would not listen to them.  And your heart told you to help the hungry man at your door but you did not listen to your heart.  There is no hope for you.  You do not listen to the scriptures and you do not listen to your heart.”  I am here to tell you that there is a great chasm between those who share and those who refuse to share.”

Now let’s move forward to our own day and age.  In today’s Gospel Jesus is calling us to take on the ministry of sharing.  He is not condemning the rich man for being rich.  No.  Jesus is condemning him for not sharing.  He is calling us to show compassion and concern for those who come into our lives with great needs.  Their needs might be emotional.  Their needs might be spiritual. Their needs mighty be physical.  We can be agents of change. We can help them to reverse their situation.

I will close with this thought:  Sometimes we are in the situation of poor man Lazarus.  We feel weak and powerless.  We feel like we should just give up.  But we should never do so because God is in our future and God is full of surprises.  God is able to reverse the situation that we are in.  We should never underestimate God’s power.

We are called to believe that God has the power to reverse every bad situation.  But more than that…..  God loves us …..And that means that God has the will power to reverse every bad situation.