“[Jesus said,] [The rich man] said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him [Lazarus] to my father’s house–for I have five brothers–that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.'” – Luke 16:27-28
O Holy One,
When I should find myself (again)
in torment I have made myself,
may my compassion and
my wisdom be enough to call
a warning to the ones I love,
and to the ones I don’t,
with my own voice, and not rely
upon the voice of those I have oppressed.
A poem/prayer based on Luke 16:19-31, the Revised Common Lectionary Gospel Reading for Year C, Proper 21 (26).
The image is “The Parable of the Rich Man and the Beggar Lazarus,” an illustration in the Codex Aureus Epternacensis (Golden Gospels), by the Master of Codex Aureus Epternacensis – The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=155243.
ordainedgeek 
O yes! indeed. And a new way to think of the story. Tempting me to go back and preach on that story again. You may laugh at me, but, having my dog whose been with me for 15 of his 19 years die last week, I was avoiding compassionate dogs.
That makes a lot of sense to me, Maren. Love and blessing to you as you grieve.
Thank you, Eric. Of course that means I am stuck with Jeremiah’s retail therapy.
“Jeremiah’s retail therapy.” That’s brilliant. I’ll never think about *that* passage the same way again!
It’s in my sermon title!