Proper 21, Year C,
2016
Rev.
Adam T. Trambley
Sept 25, 2016, St.John’s Sharon
Rock my
soul in the bosom of Abraham
Rock my
soul in the bosom of Abraham
Rock my
soul in the bosom of Abraham
O, Rock
my soul
This
morning’s gospel reading over the years has spoken to people who could identify
with Lazarus. People who were poor,
ignored, sick, hurting. People who
longed for the crumbs that fell from the tables of the wealthy. People who had nothing but the hope that
someday, somewhere, things would be different and they would be the ones being
comforted by Father Abraham, while the powers that be were somewhere on the
other side of an unbridgeable chasm, unable to torment them any longer.
Really,
if your vision of a good eternity is being held peacefully by an old Jewish
guy, things are probably not going in your favor on earth. But being cared for like a little child,
sitting on grandpa’s knee in a rocking chair while he tells you that everything
is finally all right – that is the stuff of dreams for way too many of God’s
children. O Abraham, rock my soul.
Of
course, when Jesus was telling this parable, he wasn’t speaking to poor
people. He was speaking to wealthier
people. But the funny thing is that they
didn’t write songs about it, at least none that I know. I don’t know what they’d be:
I’m so
hot and my tongue is parched down here…
Last week,
we heard Jesus say, “You can’t serve God and wealth.” The Pharisees made fun of him for it. Many of the religious leaders of that day, as
well as of our day, had taken passages of the Old Testament and misapplied
them. When God said he would take care
of people who obeyed him, they took it to mean that if they had money, then God
was obviously pleased with them. God
meant that when you don’t have enough, keep doing what is right and trusting
God and you’ll be OK because God will work it out somehow. But instead of
allowing these passages to provide hope for people in need, the wealthy leaders
decided that they meant that people without money had done something wrong, that
God wasn’t helping them, and that it wasn’t their responsibility to help them
either. We hear that kind of prosperity
gospel message in some circles today, and it is not right.
So Jesus
lays out this rather stark contrast between the rich man, who is so fully
scorned in the parable that he isn’t even named, and Lazarus, an exceedingly
poor man. The rich man is a pretty
extreme exaggerated character. Not only
is he rich with purple clothes and a daily feast, but he is also totally
uncaring. He could give Lazarus just the
crumbs from his table, but he doesn’t.
He could recognize Lazarus as a human being in the afterlife, but he
still expects him to be the slave – I mean, dip the tip of his finger in water
to cool my tongue – really. And, he
doesn’t seem to be at all sorry for any of it.
All he is sorry for is that he is in agony. But he does care enough that he doesn’t want
his brothers joining him in the fires of Hades.
He doesn’t care about Lazarus, but he asks Abraham to send someone to
warn his brothers.
Here is
the place that the parable drips with irony, and where you see Jesus at some of
his snarkiest. “Your brothers should
listen to Moses and the prophets,” Abraham says. “Ah,” the rich man replies, “no. They won’t listen to them. But if someone were to come back from the
dead, they would surely listen.”
“No. If they didn’t listen to
Moses or the prophets, they aren’t listening to someone even if they come back
from the dead.” And guess, what. They didn’t listen, even when somebody came
back from the dead.
But we
can. We can listen to Moses and the
Prophets. We can also listen to the one
who came back from the dead. The message
isn’t complicated. Love people. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome
the stranger, care for the sick, and visit those in prison. Don’t leave someone at your gate with nothing
but a few stray dogs for comfort. Anyone
who can’t respect the dignity of every human being enough to be generous in
meeting people’s basic needs ought to be on the other side of the Hades chasm.
It wouldn’t be much of a heaven for everybody else to have to spend eternity
with them.
Beyond
these basics aspects of generosity, Paul provides a couple of other
instructions about wealth in this morning’s reading from his letter to Timothy. He has a set of instructions for those who
are rich, and many of us this morning could be described with wealth like that
of the rich man in Jesus’ parable. Most
of us have beautiful clothing of a variety of fancy colors, and most of us are
able to eat as much as we want whenever we want, which is just like the rich
man putting on his purple and feasting sumptuously every day. For us, the instructions are pretty clear. Don’t be haughty or think that somehow you
are better than people who have less.
Then Paul writes not to put our trust in riches. Wealth is uncertain. Only God is truly trustworthy, so rely solely
on God. Seek first the Kingdom of God
and let him provide for you instead of working to maximize income and trust in
it. Then Paul’s final advice to the rich
is to be generous and use the wealth for good works. Instead of seeing how we can use our money to
do what we want or advance our agenda, we should see how we can do good with
our resources and advance God’s agenda.
Instead of increasing the number in our bank account, we should be
focused on increasing the list of good deeds written after our name in the
heavenly ledgers. Money doesn’t
necessitate a spot next to the rich man in the parable, but, as Jesus says in
another place, “to those whom more is given, more will be required.” Those who can afford to do more good need to
do it.
St. Paul
also provides advice to everyone about money, whether we see ourselves as rich
or poor or somewhere in-between.
Basically, he says not to run after money, but to be content with what
we have. If we have the basic
necessities of life, then we should just focus on godliness. If we don’t have those basic necessities,
then certainly we should ask for them, and God wants them for us. But once we have food to eat, clothing to
wear, and a roof over our heads, then we need to stop being concerned with how
much more we can get. When people chase
wealth instead of godliness, all sorts of bad things can happen. Paul writes that “the love of money is the
root of all kinds of evil.” Instead of
being tempted by envy and greed, we can focus on doing what God wants for us
and allowing him to provide what we need, because he will. We may not be keeping up with the Jones, but
our lives will be richer in ways that really matter, and the creator of
everything worth having in the universe can also supply anything he wants us to
have.
Instead
of pursuing wealth, Paul tells Timothy to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love,
endurance, and gentleness. Keep the
commandments and honor God. If we truly
want to serve God instead of wealth, then we keep our minds on the virtues that
God wants us to acquire. Living into
such virtues like generosity and love will allow us to become the people whom
God made us to be, and we will use our wealth and resources in the right way as
a natural by-product of the righteous, godly, loving choices that will become
our habit. Whether rich by the world’s
standards or not, we will become rich in everything that matters in the kingdom
of God.
Perhaps even more importantly, if we follow Paul’s instructions
about wealth, we will be people whom the Lazaruses of this world will know and
love and want to spend eternity with.
Their situation will be better in this life because of our love and
generosity, and we will joyfully join them with Abraham, Paul, and all the
saints in the courts of heaven before God’s throne. Rock my soul!
