First Reading:
6Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined
with contentment; 7for we brought nothing into the
world, so that we can take nothing out of it; 8but if we
have food and clothing, we will be content with
these. 9But those who want to be rich fall into
temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires
that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10For the
love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their
eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and
pierced themselves with many pains. 11But as for you,
man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith,
love, endurance, gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of
the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called
and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many
witnesses.
13In the presence of God, who gives life to all things,
and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate
made the good confession, I charge you 14to keep the
commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our
Lord Jesus Christ,
15which he will bring about at the right time—he
who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord
of lords. 16It is he alone who has immortality and
dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can
see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. 17As
for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be
haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but
rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our
enjoyment. 18They are to do good, to be rich in good
works, generous, and ready to share,
19thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good
foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life
that really is life.
Second Reading:
19There was a rich man who was dressed in
purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every
day. 20And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus,
covered with sores, 21who longed to satisfy his hunger
with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would
come and lick his sores. 22The poor man died and was
carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also
died and was buried. 23In Hades, where he was being
tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by
his side. 24He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have
mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water
and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these
flames.’ 25But Abraham said, ‘Child,
remember that during your lifetime you received your good things,
and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted
here, and you are in agony. 26Besides all this, between
you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might
want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross
from there to us.’ 27He said, ‘Then, father,
I beg you to send him to my father’s
house— 28for I have five brothers—that he
may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of
torment.’ 29Abraham replied, ‘They have
Moses and the prophets; they should listen to
them.’ 30He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but
if someone goes to them from the dead, they will
repent.’ 31He said to him, ‘If they do not
listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced
even if someone rises from the dead.’
Our gospel text today is a parable of two worlds that really are worlds apart. The relationship between the main characters is portrayed both in life and also in life-after-death. And I wanted to start by recognizing that this is one of the few stories in our scriptures that actually speaks of what life after death looks like… And frankly it's a little scary. In fact the picture that's painted of the afterlife with all of the flames and endless torment is scarier than anything we're likely to see for Halloween tonight… There have been lots of people who have used the imagery from this passage to try to say what things are actually going to be like when we die, but that never was the intent of the passage… The worlds of life and death are the setting of the parable but they are not the most important worlds that are in the parable… the worlds that are the most important to the passage are the world of the haves and the world of the have-nots. There's no way around it, money and possessions and what people do with them are a central theme of Jesus' ministry. He spoke more about money and possessions than he did about any other topic except the kingdom of God, and money's especially prevalent in the Gospel of Luke. In the context of Luke's gospel, the people who heard this parable were definitely from the world of the haves… it was addressed to a group of Pharisees who also happened to be lovers of money. And I'm convinced that the intent of the passage wasn't to scare them about the afterlife, but rather to help them see outside of their own little world in this life. They were being encouraged to see the lives of the have-nots.
The problem of the disparity between the rich and poor is nothing new.
In the parable we have the unnamed rich man dressed in purple and fine
linen. He feasted sumptuously every day… and he lived in a
gated community. On the other hand, we have Lazarus, who sat at the
rich man's gate and waited to eat the table scraps while the dogs came
to lick his sores. It's a stark contrast; and in the story, the two
never interact… not once. It's not that the rich man was
portrayed a bad guy necessarily, it's just that he didn't seem to see
Lazarus at all in this life. Even after they've both died and the
rich man finally does see him, it's mostly because Lazarus was in the
spot that the rich man wished he was in. And then he shows how he saw
Lazarus when he said to Abraham send Lazarus to cool my
tongue… send him to convince my family
… in his mind
even then Lazarus still existed to serve his needs and his desires.
Now of course there are different messages that come from this parable depending on which of the two main characters you find yourself relating to… For the people who relate to Lazarus, the poor man, the message is one of hope and assurance… The parable says first of all, things won't always be like they presently are. God has seen your plight and heard your cry. Next, thing to notice is that Lazarus is the only one in all of the parables that Jesus tells in Luke's gospel who actually has a name. It seems like in life the rich man didn't know it… the dogs who licked his sores didn't know it, but God did. Not only has God seen what you're going through… God knows what you're going through and perhaps even more important than that, God knows you. It's a powerful word of hope to people who can relate with Lazarus… just like the Choir sang this morning, God is with you all the way.
And for the people who relate to the unnamed rich man, don't worry, God is with you all the way too there's nothing that's going to stand in the way of God being near you… but the clothes, the food, the gates and even the money might just get in the way of you drawing near to God. It's not a coincidence that the parable ends with a resounding silence after the declaration that the rich man's relatives won't be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. For the people who relate to the unnamed rich man, the message of the parable is a wake-up call… it's not that having money is a bad thing, but you better watch what it does to you, in here… because it's easy to get so wrapped up in the matters of money that we forget to see the people around us.
Money means a lot of different things to a lot of different people… for some of us it represents security. Many of your parents went through the great depression you may have learned it from them… for some of us money's simply a medium of exchange, a tool, a means to a desired end, perhaps retirement… and for some of us it is a constant source of frustration as we try to cut corners and raise children and worry about how we're going to paying for weddings and college. But for all of us money holds meaning and that meaning has been further shaped by these last few years of economic uncertainty.
It's been the worst economic trouble in America since the great depression and the experts say that we're coming out of it. There are some of us who have begun to see the emergence… and I hear that it's a good thing, but there are others of us who aren't quite sure yet. For weeks I've been hearing about the problems with foreclosures and how that might end up sending us back to the depths of the great recession… when you hear the political rhetoric that's going on right now, both sides of the aisle say it's a long process but they know the way out… I have to wonder how that can be… when you think about how much your house isn't worth anymore or how hard it is for you or people you know to find a jobs, it's pretty clear that there's still a lot of fear and uncertainty in the system right now.
But the experts say that the low point was somewhere toward the end of
2009. And it was right about then, in the heart of the recession that
the chair of the stewardship committee of one of the big churches in
one of our partner denominations went to her pastor and said, You
know we are in the midst of hard financial times… it's tough
out there and people are really having to stretch to make ends
meet… perhaps we should think about not asking people to pledge
this year at all… they could just give what they can when they
can.
And the pastor thought for a second and then
replied, No… now's the time to encourage people to give but
instead of giving from their abundance we should encourage them to
give of their substance because that's where their faith will grow and
that's how God will transform them.
Giving from our substance
says that we recognize that God is an integral part of our lives and
that we want to be an integral part of what God's doing. It's a risky
kind of giving and it's different than giving out of abundance or out
of what's left over. Giving from our substance really is a spiritual
discipline that's aimed at our own spiritual growth because when we
give of our substance, three things are going happen.
The first thing that happens is that we will grow in our relationship
with God… One of the things about spiritual disciplines is that
we don't often get to see the growth that they bring until after we've
started doing them. We don't see the benefits of prayer unless we
pray, we don't know the benefits of worship unless we worship, we
don't know the benefits of reading scripture unless we read and we may
not see the benefit of giving until we give. But in the sermon on the
mount Jesus said where your treasure is there your heart will be
also…
we often get that confused don't we… we say
I'll put my money where my heart is… if something moves me,
I'll give to that cause… in and of itself that's not bad, but
it's not what Jesus said… He said where your treasure is there
your heart will be also… so if you want your heart to be
somewhere other than where it is, if you want your heart to be more
closely aligned with what God wants, which is something I hear people
say often, put your treasure there and let your heart do the catching
up because spiritual growth happens when we practice giving generously
of our substance.
The second thing that happens is that God teaches us about who we are and what's important… there is a difference between what we need and what we want… I think we know that on some level. When it comes to our basic needs, they're pretty much the same for everyone. We need water to drink, we need food to eat, we need air to breathe. We need dignity to know that we belong and that we have value, we need security for ourselves and for our families. We need a sense of purpose and meaning for our lives. But when it comes to what we want, the possibilities are as endless and varied as we are. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have wants or that we shouldn't fulfill them, but we've been conditioned to turn wants into needs. Our whole culture in 21st century America is based on an identity that's forced on us from every angle imaginable… the identity of consumer. But we don't have to be owned by it, there is another one available. Making a commitment to give of our substance is a way of claiming freedom and claiming a new identity. It helps us to see the difference between wants and needs and to be intentional about what we choose.
And the third thing that happens really flows from the other
two… God opens our eyes to the need of the rest of the world.
Most of us won't relate directly with Lazarus or the rich man in the
parable… most of us are somewhere in between, but I'm pretty
sure that we can all stand to hear the wake-up call from the parable
because we live in a culture that's so wrapped up in me
that
it's easy to forget to see the people in need around us. When we
differentiate between our needs and our wants and when we realize that
our basic needs are the same as every other person on the earth and
when we put our treasure where we want our hearts to be, we can't help
but be moved by compassion for people who are in need. We can't help
but see outside of our own little world. And that was the intent of
the parable.
When you put our two scripture passages together today, it's pretty clear that they're primarily about keeping perspective on money. And the spiritual discipline that has the most to teach us in that regard is giving generously, not from what's left over but as a part of who we are. It won't look the same for all of us. Not everyone is going to give the same amount, not everyone can, not everyone is going to give to the same organizations… but the important thing is to give regularly and to understand your giving as an act of faith trusting that God is at work through you and through the organizations that receive your gifts. Because when it comes right down to it, there aren't two worlds… there's only one… and whether we're rich or poor or anywhere between we share it as brothers and sisters, who are all created and loved by God. Amen.
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie on October 31, 2010.
© 2010 Daniel Holland
