Gospel text for Sunday 25 September 2016

Luke 16:19-31        Jesus said, "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, 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.'"

Reflection      Three dead men. One wisdom tale. What is Jesus up to? Every hour of every day Lazarus dies a bit more as dogs lick his wounds until at last the unfathomable happens, “The poor man …. is carried away by the angels to be with Abraham.” Meanwhile the rich man lives in the lap of luxury; well fed and dressed in Tyrian purple, an expensive dye extracted from shellfish first produced by the Phoenician city of Tyre two thousand years before Jesus walked to Jerusalem. By all measures the man wearing purple is the image of success until he dies, is given a proper burial, and the  unfathomable happens; he finds himself irredeemably tormented, separated from Abraham by an impassable chasm.

Which leads us to the third dead man, Abraham, Father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, whose hospitality and generosity are immortalized in the tale of him lavishly entertaining three strangers, angels in disguise.(Gen 18.2-8) Like the rich man in Jesus’ parable, Abraham is a wealthy man. Unlike the rich man in purple whose actions are singularly self-serving, Abraham is generous and acts for the good of others. When the rich man wearing purple dies and sees Lazarus with Abraham, he does not pause to reflect on his actions, how day after day he ignored suffering Lazarus, he does not ask for forgiveness nor turn around to amend his ways. Instead, the self-important man still tries to wield power over Lazarus to get a sip of comfort. 

I believe it is the rich man’s attitude of entitlement ( not his wealth) that is the source of his torment. His singular concern with his security, safety, status, esteem, power and control makes it impossible for him to connect with the generosity and hospitality of God as embodied by Abraham. It is the rich man’s attitude, his frame of mind, that prevents him from being in right relationship with God or anyone else.

By contrast Abraham is the exemplar of what living in right relationship with God looks like. In fact, Christianity, Judaism and Islam stand together affirming Abraham as the earthly expression of God’s instruction that people who enjoy power, privilege and resource are to care for the powerless, the poor and the needy. This is what bridges the gap between the rich and the poor. This is what God’s economy looks like. 

Which begs the question, what are we doing to redistribute the power, privilege and resource we are freely given to provide for those with so much less? What are we doing to insure there is no chasm between God’s boundless generosity and ours? 

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Gospel text for Sunday 29 September 2013

Luke 16:19-31        Jesus said, "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, 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.'"

Reflection       Can you hear Abraham calling to the rich man, “ You spent your life and put your faith in sumptuous feasts and fine apparel. You flaunted your privilege and stepped over a man starving at your door. You never even looked at him. You are a Jew, a religious man, you knew better. You knew the words of the prophets, and you did not listen.  But when things got really bad you did not hesitate to call me your father... Abraham. How dare you presume to be favored in God’s family. On the balance sheet of life you chose death because you did not “take hold of the eternal life....a life that really is life.” You did not listen to the prophets. You did not listen to the word of God.”

Before I go on I must say this, I do not believe Jesus’ parable is about what happens after we are dead. I believe Jesus is telling us what is important right now, while we are alive. In this parable even though we may be rich we don’t identify with the unnamed man in purple because he is dead. He made his choices and on the balance sheet of life he came up short. Neither do we identify with Lazarus, though surely each one of us has our share of suffering. Still, we are neither destitute nor are we dead. I believe in this story we are the five brothers. And, if we would listen we might be convinced to “take hold of the eternal life, the life that really is life.” 

Like the five brothers, we have Moses and the prophets. We also have a voice from heaven instructing us...listen to Jesus, the prophet of prophets. You recall the dramatic mountaintop moment earlier in Luke’s gospel when “a voice came out of the cloud saying (to Jesus’ disciples), “This in my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”” (Luke 9.35) Listen to him. 

Are you getting the message? We are supposed to listen. So, what is Jesus saying? Jesus spends much time in Luke’s gospel talking about possessions and money. I do not believe he is saying money or possesions are evil. They are neutral. Rather, evil is when we allow money or possessions to own us and make us blind to the needs and rights of others. Evil is when the power, privilege and pride associated with money and possessions begins to possess us and prevent us from being the living revelation of God’s preferential care for the poor and the suffering.

The bottom line; if we call Abraham our father and claim to be God’s people we need to listen.

We need to listen to the prophets and adjust our lives to bridge the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor. We need to step out of our well meaning and comfortable ruts and adjust the balance sheets of our lives. We need to ask ourselves how will we give a little more of our selves away for the benefit of strangers today? This is the way to be truly rich; to “take hold of the eternal life, life that really is life.” This is the way to be God’s people. 

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Gospel text for Feast of All Saints Sunday 4 November 2012

John 11.32-44

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

Reflection

We preach this gospel in Lent. We preach this gospel at funerals. One of the reasons we preach this gospel is because it speaks to our grieving hearts when we have lost our physical relationship with someone we love because of illness, change in life situation or death. We preach this gospel not only to affirm that loving and weeping are integral qualities of the human experience but also to proclaim  that loving and weeping are fundamental revelations of Divine Presence.

When Jesus saw Mary and the Jews weeping, “he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved,” and he too began to weep. Jesus, the Word made flesh, the revelation of God present with us and for us, is united with us, with all of humanity, in our quintessential experiences of love and grief. Jesus personally experienced both the fullness of love and the emptiness of grief and was “deeply moved” as he shared these experineces with Mary and the others who were present at Lazarus’ tomb. And so Jesus reveals to us three things about grief. It is personal. It is universal. It is Divine. 

The thing about grief is that it feels so lonely. Emptiness and loss abound. Other people’s words and presence seem hollow and pointless. It is as if we are floundering in an ocean with no land in sight. All that we can do is weep. And, it is in our weeping that we are united with all of humanity and with God. In the depths of our desolation there is an unexpected seed of consolation. Sometimes we recognize it in the teary eyes of a friend come to sit with us in our sorrow. Sometimes we hear it in the words of a prayer offered to God on our behalf. Sometimes we feel it in the warmth of hands laid on our shoulders. However we may glimpse it, when we allow ourselves to be “deeply moved” we are intimately connected with all of humanity and with God. And when in the midst of our grieving we believe God is indeed present with us then like Lazarus we too are unbound and set free from the tomb of our isolation.

Gospel Text for Sunday, April 10, 2011

John 11:38-45

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb (of his friend Lazarus, brother of Martha and Mary). It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.