Pentecost 16C
September 29, 2019
Luke 16:19-31
INTRODUCTION
Back at the
beginning of Luke, when Mary first found out she was pregnant with Jesus, she
sang this beautiful song known as the Magnificat. In it, she states all the
ways that this child, Jesus, would bring about a great reversal of the world as
she knew it. “The mighty will be thrown down and the lowly lifted high,” she sang.
“The hungry will be filled and the rich sent away empty.” These themes have
proven strong ones in Luke’s Gospel, and today’s passage is one explicit
example: the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Where last week’s parable of
the dishonest manager is difficult because it is confusing, this week’s is
difficult because it is clear: the rich, lover of wealth ends up tormented in
Hades after his death, and Lazarus, the poor man at his gate, enjoys comfort
and the company of angels for all eternity. Paired with Amos, who also rails
against those who care more about their riches than about caring for the poor,
and Timothy, who warns us that the love of money is a root of all kinds of
evil… we have a very convicting line-up for today!
But don’t feel
condemned too quickly. None of these texts say that wealth, by itself, is a bad
thing. Each of them compel us to look around us at those who suffer, and to use
our resources – be that wealth, or talents, and position, or power – to bring
about God’s vision as expressed in Mary’s song: to fill the hungry, lift up the
lowly, and, as Paul writes to Timothy, “pursue righteousness, godliness, love,
endurance and gentleness.” Easy-peasy, right?
As you listen,
notice when you feel convicted in this word. You might even have a pencil ready and just
circle those parts. And then, just sit with that. Let those convicting parts
work in your heart, reflect on why you feel convicted, and listen for what God
might be trying to say to you through them. Let’s listen.
[READ]
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
In the past
week or so, millions of young climate activists have taken the world by storm,
led by 16-year-old Swede, Greta Thunberg. Greta, who cites her Asperger’s as a
“superpower” that has helps her to focus so singularly on this important issue,
spoke powerfully to world leaders of the United Nations, as she articulately
and passionately expressed the urgency of addressing our warming planet. Now, I
am someone who cares deeply about the environment and tries to do my part – but
I still felt very convicted and uncomfortable as I listened to her powerful
speech.
I’m by no means
the only one. In the days that followed, though many praised her for her bravery
and activism, Greta also became the object of ridicule by news personalities,
social media, and even the president. In my own circles, I witnessed people say
things like, “Who is feeding her these words, anyway?” and, “She is a puppet of
someone rich, using her to promote the liberal agenda,” and, “She’s just a kid
– what does she know?” And these were just the sermon-appropriate comments! Even
as comments like these enrage me… I also get it. Because her message is a
really, really difficult one to hear. And to heed the warning she and other
young activists are giving would require some big and scary changes – changes
that will drastically affect the way I live my life and the comforts I enjoy,
changes that will disrupt our world economy in a very real way. All that is
very unsettling, and it is a lot easier, at least in the short term (the very
short term, according to the report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change that also came out this week), it is easier to ignore this
problem, discredit this passionate young women and the millions of youth
activists she has helped rally, and just go about business as usual. After all,
I don’t live on an island that is slowly disappearing, or in a coastal city
that gets bombarded by hurricanes each year. I’m not one the 200 species going
extinct every day. My home isn’t burning, at least not yet.[1]
So I can just ignore this problem… right?
I wonder if
that is how the rich man felt each day as he walked by the beggar, Lazarus,
sitting by his front gate? “Well that’s sad,” he probably thought. “I wonder
what he did to get himself in that situation? Well, at least he’s got some dogs
for company, and oh look, they are even helping him clean his sores! Aren’t
dogs the best? But that’s really a shame about Lazarus. Maybe I’ll say a prayer
for him later. Hm, I wonder what is for dinner tonight? Something sumptuous,
I’m sure!” And then he lifted his purple robe, skirted around Lazarus, and went
back to his comfortable home to lounge and love life.
“Alas for those
who lounge on their couches,” Amos exhorts, “and eat lambs from the flock and
calves from the stall. Alas.” Yes, Greta Thunberg isn’t the first prophet in
history to call people out of their comfortable lifestyles to take a good hard
look at the consequences of their negligence. Really, that’s kind of the
prophet’s schtick – we’ve been hearing such things from Amos and others these
past weeks. “You cannot go on living this way,” Amos and the other prophets
say. “This is not what God has called you to do. This is not what is in the law
given to Moses. You’re focused more on wealth than on caring for the poor. You
keep living this way, and you will meet your doom.” Or as Greta said in her
speech, “People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are
collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk
about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!”
It’s hard not to hear words like Greta’s,
and feel the churning in our stomachs, and feel our blood pressure rise, and
imagine that this must be what it felt like to hear the words of the biblical
prophets. Because whether in the 8th century BCE or the 21st
century, whether on a personal scale or a global one, being faced with a
difficult truth is no fun at all. We are, by nature, resistant to change. We are
resistant to recognizing our complicity in the Big Issues of the day. Our first
response to words like these is more likely indignance than thoughtful
reflection. Just like Adam and Eve’s very first sin, we are inclined first
toward blame and finger-pointing, rather than taking responsibility.
Greta was interviewed on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show last week. Host Trevor Noah asked her, what is
one thing everyone should do to address this? Her answer was, “Inform
yourself.” I was waiting for her to say something like, “Give up meat,” or,
“Drive less,” but no: she asked humanity to look inside our hearts with
humility, make ourselves vulnerable enough to learn, to face the uncomfortable,
inconvenient truth of our sin and complicity, and truly see the problem.
To see the people dying, the people suffering, the ecosystems collapsing, the
edge of mass extinction, the eye instead toward a greedy economy. To see the
ruin of Joseph, the ruin of Earth. To see the beggar Lazarus at our own gate –
to look into his eyes, and see his dog-licked sores, his pain, his hunger, and
not only to care about it, but also to recognize in it our own humanity, our
own mortality, our own brokenness and pain.
This is difficult, painful,
vulnerable work. Isn’t it remarkable that God did that work for us? That God
sent His own Son to see us in our humanity, our pain, our sores, our poverty?
That God went so far as to become one of us, to see us that up-close? You see,
God knows, Jesus knows, our struggles, and how easy it is for us just to turn
away, or discredit the messenger, or lift up our purple robes and step around
the problem. Yes, Jesus knows all of this about us… and he loves us still. He
died for us still. He defeated death for us still – so that even when we are
faced with such uncomfortable truth, we need not be too afraid to listen and
respond. We can face that reality, and the immense change addressing it will
require of us – and we can step out in faith to do something about it.
In the torment of Hades, the rich man
begs, “Please send Lazarus to warn my brothers, so that they may not come into
this place of torment.” Abraham reminds him that his brothers have Moses and
the law, and they have the difficult words of the prophets like Amos, and that
should be enough – why would a man sent back from the dead make any difference?
But for us, a man who comes back from the dead makes all the difference –
because that man, Jesus Christ, when he defeated death, he also defeated all
the fears that would hold us captive and keep us from fulfilling God’s
difficult, demanding, and sometimes very inconvenient mission. That man raised
from the dead gave us the life that really is life. Assured of this promise,
let us be bold to listen to the prophets, to see the beggar, and to serve the
world.
Let us pray… Creator God, we are resistant to change,
even change that is necessary for the flourishing of your creation. Give us
wisdom and courage truly to see the brokenness of the world, and transform our
fears into trust, so that we would be bold to take necessary risks for the sake
of healing the world. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
[1] My
hometown in Northern California: https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/Fearful-of-being-the-next-Paradise-Grass-Valley-14061525.php
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