PENTECOST 18 PROPER 21- 2007
September 30, 2007
(Amos 6:1-7; Ps. 146:4-9; 1st Timothy 6:11-19; Luke 16:19-31)
St. Christopher’s,
MAY THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH ... AND THE MEDITATIONS OF ALL OUR HEARTS ... BE ALWAYS ACCEPTABLE TO YOU --- OUR STRENGTH AND OUR REDEEMER AMEN
Another familiar Gospel story — the rich man and the poor man Lazarus, a story which is frequently mis-taught — I believe. Please remember my approach that “God is right all the time .... I am not God ... therefore I must be wrong some of the time” That said, I believe the people who preach this lesson as a specific, detailed description of heaven, hell, and the timing of our personal judgment have missed the boat.
One major reason for my belief is that portions of this story, if taken as a detailed, specific description conflict with other teachings. Furthermore, a more illustrative understanding fits perfectly into the flow of Jesus’ teachings.
For today let’s look at the gospel as I believe Jesus intended for it understood. Remember our flow as we work as way through this section of Luke. Jesus taught three parables about God’s willingness to go to any length to reach us: leaving the 99 sheep to find the one, the widow searching for the lost coin, and the prodigal son.
Then last week we heard the somewhat confusing story of the unjust steward or manager. At the end Jesus says very clearly that we cannot serve two masters ... money and God. We will make a choice.
Then between that teaching and today’s teaching we have that wonderful exchange with the pharisees. They have laughed at Jesus’ comments about money. Jesus says to them that they want to look good in public but God abhors what is in their hearts.
After a couple more teaching points, Jesus tells this story to stress His teaching. I want to call our attention to a few things we could easily miss. First, Jesus never says the rich man is a crook. There is no hint of dishonesty. He is simply rich enough to eat well.
What really strikes home as one of those things that does not change with the centuries is that the Pharisees understood wealth as a sign of God’s blessings. ..... Ever heard that from a preacher? .... It is actually a fairly difficult argument to make scripturally — not impossible but difficult. But the idea that wealth shows God is blessing us more than other people — that is such an attractive feeling that we hear it whether it is scriptural or not.
Next notice that the rich man was a Jew, a child of Abraham. So one of the teachings here is that simply being connected to Abraham is not sufficient. The man fully expected Abraham to respond to his plea, at least partially because he was Jewish and expected that was all it took.
Remember the passage about the people who are left outside when the gate is closed ? ... they cry out to the master saying “you taught in our streets and ate with us!” and hear: “I do not know you!” .... A superficial relationship is not enough ... Again, nothing has changed over the centuries.
Notice then that the rich man does not repent or learn. He asks Abraham to send a messenger to his family — and ONLY his family! He is not worried about anyone else. He is still a self centered selfish ... person.
Abraham responds that the Law of Moses, essentially the first five books of the Bible, repeatedly calls on us ... and it is US, not them .... commands that justice be done for the poor. The rich man STILL does not understand that.
I wonder about the next phrase .... “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.” .... That’s an obvious prediction of Jesus’ resurrection — and an obvious prediction of the reaction to the resurrection — then and now. ... Was Jesus sounding a bit discouraged when He made this statement?
OK, now jump back to the 1st Timothy reading. Again we should go back a couple verses to understand the point being made. Timothy has just said that wealth is not important ... we brought nothing into the world and will take nothing out of it ... and the famous teaching that “love of money is the root of all evil” ... which leads into today’s passage: “shun all this” — that is love of money ... and focus on being in right relationship with God — godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.
It is the next phrase I want to call your attention to: “Fight the good fight of faith”. The more I thought about this phrase the more depth and power it brought into the conversation. I think Timothy is telling us — “its not easy” .... Avoiding the temptations and actually following God is not easy. It is a fight.
I don’t particularly like that image ... but you know, it does make sense. Maybe I don’t like it because I hate to think of it as being a fight ... but it is.
Some day soon I will preach on the existence of evil in the world, and in us. I will expand on the idea that it doesn’t matter whether you think of evil as twisted chromosomes, biochemistry which is off, a supernatural force, societal influences, or any combination thereof! We can wander around on that discussion but the point is: evil exists in this world, and in our lives. Evil exists. Bottom line: There are forces trying to pull us away from God ... from good. And it is a battle, a fight, that we will be engaged in or we will lose.
Let me say that again .... either we fight evil or we lose. There is no “non-combatant option” ... we cannot be conscientious objectors in this war.
We do have the option of being collaborators ... to side with evil through our inaction ... as the rich man did. To join evil’s side through our inaction. That option is available to us. But sitting on the side lines and pretending the war does not exist — that is not an option.
When I was doing highway design studies I found the similar issue to be greatly frustrating. People would see the traffic, complain about how it was getting worse, but then argue that nothing should be done about it. I tried to make them understand that forces beyond them would continue to make the situation worse if nothing was done — but frequently there was no comprehension. I told them we could discourage people from driving, we could encourage people to use buses and carpools, or we could build more roads but without some action — things would get worse. It always shocked me how so many people wanted to sit on the sidelines and pretend nothing was happening ... then get upset when things did bet worse.
With evil we do the same thing. We want to sit on the sidelines and pretend there is no such thing as evil and no fight is necessary. The rich man wanted to send a message to his brothers to feed the one beggar at the gate .... He was not ready to consider that the love of money is the root of evil ... I am not sure about the “all evil” part but certainly of much evil.
Timothy goes on to explain what it means for the wealthy to fight the good fight ... and by the way ... Timothy, and Jesus, are not talking about people who make twice what we do ... or own a house twice the size of ours ... they are talking about US. We don’t want to acknowledge that by any standard, most of us are pretty darn wealthy. ..... Timothy says to US, that the good fight is to do good, be rich in good deeds, liberal (not a political statement!!), generous.
I submit to you that it is a battle ... a fight for us to meet those objections ... to be rich in good deeds, generous. There are so many other things we want to do and it is so easy to allow ourselves to slide away from the good and gently, quietly, unintentionally slide into the evil.
Example — in all seriousness, how difficult is it to give a pint of blood? ... Oh, I know some people cannot do it for good reasons. But is not the real challenge for most of us NOT a fear of the needle but we just got other things to do? ... Is choosing the good over the convenient not the real challenge? The real fight?
When we are at the office or store or family gathering and someone is being picked on ... how difficult is it for us to stand up for the good — the fair — see justice done for the person being hurt? Is not the challenge, the fight, to choose good over comfortable?
When we think about things like prayer time and Bible study — deliberate actions to bring us closer to God .... how difficult is it for us to take the time? Is not the real challenge for us to, in Timothy’s words, to lay up for ourselves a good foundation for the future — rather than an easier path today?
To see our wealth ... not just money, but health, time, talents, skills, contacts, resources .... our wealth is not a blessing from God because we are nice people but a challenge, even a test of who and what we really are?
That sounds like a fight to me. Sounds like a good fight to join, and eventually win.
AMEN
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