1

September 26, 2010

The 18th Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 21
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Pastor Dena Williams

Amos 6:1a, 4-7

Psalm 146
I Timothy 6:6-19
Luke 16:19-31

The Holy Gospel according to the Community of St. Luke in

the 16th Chapter
Glory to you, O Lord

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine
linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.
And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus,
covered with sores,
who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich
man's table;
even the dogs would come and lick his sores.
The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be
with Abraham.
The rich man also died and was buried.
In Hades, where he was being tormented,
he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his
side.
He 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.'

But 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.
Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been
fixed,
 2

so that those who might want to pass from here to you

cannot do so,
and no one can cross from there to us.'
He said, 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's
house--
for I have five brothers--that he may warn them,
so that they will not also come into this place of torment.'
Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets;
they should listen to them.'
He said, 'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them
from the dead, they will repent.'
He 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.'"

The Gospel of the Lord

Praise to you, O Christ

ASAP

Jesus is still on his way to Jerusalem.

As we traveled with him,
for several months now,
we heard him speak often about money.
Last week he challenged the crowd around him
by teaching that no one can serve both God and wealth.
The Pharisees, who were lovers of money,
ridiculed Jesus.
In response, Jesus tells the story of the rich man and
Lazarus.

The story is not unlike a common sort of joke that gets told
regularly in our day and age.
You have heard this kind of story.
There were three fellows: a rabbi, a priest, and a Methodist
pastor
standing before St. Peter,
waiting to get into heaven . . .
Now depending on the story,
 3

and, probably whether the teller is Jewish, Roman Catholic,

or Methodist,
one of the three men outwits St. Peter and is quickly
admitted through the pearly gates.

Stories about people speaking from the other side of death

were common in Jesus’ time as well.
There are many examples in ancient literature that tell tales
of adventures from the other side.
Jesus uses just such a story to teach the crowd about wealth.

Well, alright, I did hear a good one this week.

There were these two friends who loved to play baseball.
They spent all their free time from when they were children,
near a baseball diamond, watching or playing a game.
As they got older,
they speculated about heaven.
Their chief concern,
would there be baseball in heaven?
They could not imagine that life beyond death
would be worth living unless there was baseball.
They promised one another that whoever went first would
come back and tell whoever was still alive
whether or not they could play baseball in heaven.
One of the fellows died.
The other one went on with his life,
but he never gave up expecting to hear from his friend.
Sure enough, one night many years later,
his friend came to him in a dream.
“Jake!” he said, “You won’t believe it!
There is baseball in heaven and all the guys play:
Shoeless Joe, Lou Gerhig, Babe Ruth.”
Jake said, “That’s great news! Thanks for letting me know!”
The friend said,
“There’s more news Jake. You’re pitchin’ tomorrow.”

I wonder how Jake spent his remaining hours of this life.

Jesus’ story is not very different in some ways.

 4

The story of Lazarus and the rich man reminds us that we

will die,
probably not tonight or tomorrow,
but we will die.
I do not believe that violence, death, and destruction are
ever God’s idea for any reason.
Perhaps, though we can learn something from the story.

The rich man lived well.

He wore beautiful clothes of purple and fine linen.
He ate well every day.
He lived in a gated house.
At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus,
who was ill and covered with lesions.
Lazarus would have gladly eaten what fell from the rich
man’s table.
The poor man died.
There was no one to bury him.
The angels carried him away.
The rich man also died and he was buried.
He found himself in eternal torment
with no angels to comfort him.

Why did the rich man end up in torment?

What had he done in his life to receive such agony?
Was it because he was wealthy?
Well, I don’t think so.
After all, Father Abraham, who was with Lazarus in heaven
was very wealthy as well.
It was not the rich man’s wealth that brought him such an
evil existence.
It was not his wealth;
it was his failure to notice the man at the gate.
It was his failure to show compassion.
It was his failure to share his wealth by caring for others.

There is another lesson in the story as well.

The rich man begs Father Abraham to go and warn his five
brothers
 5

“so that they will not also come into this place of torment.”
Father Abraham replies:
“They have Moses and the prophets;
they should listen to them.”
“If they did not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from
the dead.”

The rich man is frantic.

He wants Abraham to warns his brothers now, as soon as
possible.
Father Abraham says it is too late.
They missed their chance.

Who are we in this story?

We are the five brothers.

We are those who are still alive.
We are those who can reassess our lives.
We can still notice who might be at our gate and under our
table.
We can still share our wealth.

Our wealth.
One kind of wealth is certainly material.
Most of us are rather comfortable and can certainly share
with those who are less fortunate.
There are things, other than money, that we can share as
well.
The most important thing we can share is love.
We are loved children of God.
We are called to share our love with others.
Sharing love calls us to consider our relationships.

I preached on this text a couple of weeks after 9/11.

I had several conversations with groups of pastors during the
weeks following that event.
Many noticed something.
After the terrorist attack on our country,
 6

people were evaluating their relationships.

They felt an urgency to examine the ways we share love
with others.
They felt a need to improve their relationships, ASAP.

Even where relationships were fairly good and healthy,

people seemed anxious to let others know how much they
care.
We saw this phenomenon at our house.
That first day, September 11, parents, children, siblings,
cousins from all over the country were contacted, just to
check in.
Then two days after the bombings,
I e-mailed an old friend,
someone with whom I really wanted to stay connected.
We agreed to get together soon.
My husband John and I do not always take the time to see
our friends socially.
In the couple weeks after 9/11,
we made it a point to get together with people for dinner.

Our daughter, Wendy was in college at the time.

Our son, Walker was still in high school.
Wendy drove down from Fort Collins to pick up her younger
brother.
He spent a couple days at college with her.
We spent time together as a family as well.
We felt the need to let others know we care.
We felt the need to share the wealth of our love, ASAP.

Other pastors commented after 9/11 that where

relationships were not particularly healthy, there was an
urgency as well.
One pastor described a woman coming to him to say,
“My husband has been driving me crazy for thirty years.
I’ve decided life is too short.
We need to find a way to be happy together.”
Another pastor talked about divorced parents
 7

who seemed unable to make enough peace to communicate

effectively about their children.
They decided to get together as a family for dinner for the
first time in a dozen years.
They made an effort to find a way share their mutual love for
their children.

A friend said to me in that week:

“You can put off making up your mind,
you cannot put off making up your life.”
He was saying that if we are not involved in sharing the
wealth of our love,
life will go on and even end without that love.
That was the lesson that the rich man learned.
It was the lesson he wanted his brothers to hear.
It is the lesson we have been given another chance to hear
once more.

Father Abraham said that if the brothers did not listen to

Moses and the prophets,
they would not listen even if someone was raised from the
dead.
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem.
He reminds us of the urgency of living our lives in loving
ways,
not to earn our salvation—
we know that God’s love comes to us even when we fail to
show our love for God and others.
God’s love is “no matter what” love for us.
We do not love others out of fear
or in order to secure eternal life in heaven.
We love others in thanksgiving for God’s saving love for us.

And . . .
someone has been raised from the dead.

Let’s not wait for a tragedy, a 9/11, a death . . .

Let’s find ways to share our love, ASAP,
 8

the love that comes to us from the one who was raised from
the dead.
Amen.