Proper 21: September 26, 2004.Amos 6:1a, 4-7 Psalm 146 1 Timothy 6:6-19 Luke 16:19-31 First Reading "There was a rich man...." When you start reading this Sunday's Gospel, people might think you have accidentally repeated last week's. Unfortunately, this parable is not quite as vague or nearly as ambiguous as last Sunday's. This week's is clear--crystal clear and awfully scary. Faced with these condemning texts, our challenge (from Amos) is to have our faith claim "not be an idle song." Jesus' intent in sharing this parable was not to scare the daylights out of everyone, even though he did a good job of that, but to motivate them toward equitable distribution of the world's resources. Our proclamation this Sunday must help people move from the place where the parable leaves them to a place of hope and invitation. We must accompany our people from a place of guilt to absolution absolution In Christianity, a pronouncement of forgiveness of sins made to a person who has repented. This rite is based on the forgiveness that Jesus extended to sinners during his ministry. , fear to repentance, shame to sacrifice. Our epistle epistle (ĭpĭs`əl), in the Bible, a letter of the New Testament. The Pauline Epistles (ascribed to St. Paul) are Romans, First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, First and Second Thessalonians, First and reading offers many good vantage points for faithful stewardship: set your hopes on God; God provides; we came to this world with nothing, we will leave with the same; be content with the simple bare necessities Bare Necessities may refer to:
adj. 1. Of or relating to capitalism or capitalists. 2. Favoring or practicing capitalism: a capitalistic country. nature and national rallying cry Noun 1. rallying cry - a slogan used to rally support for a cause; "a cry to arms"; "our watchword will be `democracy'" war cry, watchword, battle cry, cry catchword, motto, shibboleth, slogan - a favorite saying of a sect or political group 2. of competition. Capitalism is so totally ingrained in the hearts, faith, dreams, and priorities of the American people An American people may be:
n. A sticker bearing a printed message for display on a vehicle's bumper. bumper sticker n → Aufkleber m and t-shirt slogan "He who dies with the most toys, wins" gets far more airtime than Timothy's "we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it." Fighting the good fight is precisely the battle we have between our two vying masters: God and Mammon. We can scarcely grasp the concept, barely imagine what life would be like if we did not concern ourselves with material issues and store up treasures, pensions, and savings accounts here on earth. This is more than a ten percent tithe tithe Contribution of a tenth of one's income for religious purposes. The practice of tithing was established in the Hebrew scriptures and was adopted by the Western Christian church. ; this is total, radical commitment. Our commitment to our master must be clear--in our pocketbook, our calendar, our house, our family, all that we do. The rich man chose his master; he serves Mammon. He lost the good fight, maybe never even fought. What would the rich man need to have done to change his fate? The rich man does not have a name in this story, but surely everyone in the town knew his name. He was the one the boys wanted to be like, the one the women wanted to marry. I imagine he was the Gordon Gecko gecko (gĕk`ō), small or medium-sized lizard of the family Gekkonidae. The more than 300 species are distributed throughout the warm regions of the world, mostly in the Old World. Despite folklore to the contrary, their bite is not poisonous. of his time, swallowing up farms, carpentry businesses, and fisheries with reckless abandon Reckless Abandon is an episode of The WB drama series, Charmed. Synopsis Detective Morris puts his job on the line when he allows Phoebe to take a seemingly abandoned baby home so the Charmed Ones can protect him from a vengeful ghost Phoebe has seen in a , disregarding the people who formed them. The no-name rich man is contrasted with the named beggar, Lazarus--a form of the Hebrew name Hebrew names are names that have a Hebrew language origin, classically from the Hebrew Bible. They are mostly used by people living in Jewish or Christian parts of the world, but some are also adapted to the Islamic world, particularly if a Hebrew name is mentioned in the Qur'an. Eleazar, meaning "God has helped." While unrelated to the Lazarus character found in John's Gospel, the two name-twins are both helped by God and raised up to new life. For this diseased beggar, Jesus departed from his standard operating procedure standard operating procedure Medtalk A technique, method or therapy performed 'by the book,' using a standard protocol meeting internally or externally defined criteria; a formal, written procedure that describes how specific lab operations are to be performed. of not naming parabolic par·a·bol·ic also par·a·bol·i·cal adj. 1. Of or similar to a parable. 2. Of or having the form of a parabola or paraboloid. characters. This sore-infested homeless man is the only parable character given a name. By naming Lazarus and not the rich man, Jesus' story completely contrasts with worldly understandings of who's who Who’s Who biographical dictionary of notable living people. [Am. Hist.: Hart, 922] See : Fame . As was his style, Jesus again reminds us that heaven is the opposite of this world in many respects, especially when it comes to rating an individual's worth in society. "Bill Gates (person) Bill Gates - William Henry Gates III, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, which he co-founded in 1975 with Paul Allen. In 1994 Gates is a billionaire, worth $9.35b and Microsoft is worth about $27b. , Donald Trump  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. , the Middle Eastern oil guys, and Oprah" were some of the names my high-schoolers listed for rich people in our society. The room went silent when I asked them for names of the people in our town who beg, or are homeless. Vague references to "that one guy who sleeps behind Menards" and "that crazy lady always asking for change when I come out of McDonalds" were sounded around the room, until one young man said "my real dad." Mouths quickly turned off and light bulbs of cognition simultaneously turned on. We all understood what Jesus was saying: God cares about everybody, even and especially those that society would rather not notice and definitely not name. Lazarus the sore-infested named beggar does not ever speak in the parable, illustrating the communal silence we like to maintain for the socially rejected. Homeless are not to be seen or heard, do not have value, do not need to vote, do not have rights. The poor are viewed as a menace to society whose only talent is lowering the property values of their neighbors. Pastoral Reflection Gorgeous irony and a beautiful reversal of agony and comfort take place in this story. How much the rich man wants just a small sip of water after denying similar simple comforts to the man he now envies. I imagine if Lazarus were quoted in this story, his request from the gate would have been the same as the rich man's: "Dip the tip of your finger into water and cool my tongue." The imagery of this story provides the most powerful illustration of the lesson "Do to others as you would have them do to you" found earlier in Luke 6:31. With which character do we identify? "I feel most like the rich man," high-school senior Tony said. Youth can be so honest (yet another reason why Jesus urges us to have the faith of a child). Adults have a much harder time coming to terms with or at least verbalizing a negative image of themselves. Whenever I have read or heard this story, I have always cheered: "Go get him, God! Enough with the 'love even your enemies' stuff; let's get down to business and go Old Testament on the greed monger!" But I can already notice a difference in my reaction to this parable. It was easier to read this story when I was in seminary, a poor graduate student tying together odd jobs and depending on the generosity of others for many things. Now that I am a pastor of a suburban congregation, I struggle with issues of poverty and plenty, attempting to recognize my place in this unjust society. Realizing his mistaken life, the rich man finally considers someone other than himself when he asks for Lazarus to go warn his brothers. The fictional rich man did not have the opportunity to hear this story. Through Jesus the warning is given to us. Do we heed it? We are the rich man's brothers. Do we get the message? Do we have a clue? We get to answer. Because of Jesus, we have the privilege of knowing, reading the story. We have been warned; we must heed. The torment and agony Lazarus must have felt in life--peering through a locked gate at his only hope for survival, having his sores licked by dogs as he attempts to feed off the few crumbs the rich man inadvertently and carelessly allows to fall to the ground where Lazarus lies, and seeing a lavish lifestyle taken for granted Adj. 1. taken for granted - evident without proof or argument; "an axiomatic truth"; "we hold these truths to be self-evident" axiomatic, self-evident obvious - easily perceived by the senses or grasped by the mind; "obvious errors" . Now the rich man feels the torment and agony Lazarus experienced. The worst part of the rich man's hell must be seeing Lazarus in paradise. Despite this chasm in life and death, it does appear that the rich man knew Lazarus by sight and name. The chasm remains, however, as it is clear that knowing Lazarus' name did not inspire the rich man to help. The Good News is that God has helped Lazarus. But it is not true that only God could help Lazarus. Some two thousand years of Christianity and we still have not figured out a means of equitable distribution so that this chasm can be filled. Here in the U.S., there is a colossal chasm between the lifestyles of the rich and famous and those of the poor and needy. Christ, the great mediator, bridges the chasm. In Christ we are all one. The church is one of the very few places where the chasm can be nearly closed. I have witnessed this most powerfully in small communities where the rich and poor, the wealthy and the needy, all go to the same church. The church has a role in closing the chasm. One powerful way we can do this is to follow Jesus' example and name each immigrant, refugee, homeless person An individual who lacks housing, including one whose primary residence during the night is a supervised public or private facility that provides temporary living accommodations; an individual who is a resident in transitional housing; or an individual who has as a primary residence a , and beggar in our community. Provide opportunity and challenge folks to move beyond their comfort zone, and come to know and help these folks that God has helped. SKB SKB Smithkline Beecham SKB Steve Kimock Band SKB St Kitts, Saint Kitts And Nevis - Golden Rock (Airport Code) SKB Sportsklubben Brann (football club, Norway) SKB Smart Knee Board |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion