Sermon: Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Luke 16:19-31, September 25, 2022
Sermon: Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Luke 16:19-31, September 25, 2022
Faith Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman
The authors of the beloved books of the bible are typically not very fond of the off-the-charts, opulent rich. In fact, biblical writers are consistently scathing in their assessment of extreme forms of wealth.
We get a good flavor of that in today’s reading from the prophet Amos. Listen again to these salty, sarcastic words of judgment: “Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory, and lounge on their couches… who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp… who drink wine from bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest of oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile and the revelry of the loungers will pass away.” (cf. Amos 6:4-7)
We hear this kind of negative assessment of wealth and the wealthy also in today’s reading from 1 Timothy: “But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” (1 Timothy 6:9-10a)
Then we have the story from Luke about the rich man and Lazarus, the poor beggar who was not even allowed to eat the morsels that fell from the rich man’s table. Well, when they both died, the tables were turned. It was the poor beggar Lazarus who was welcomed to the bosom of the patriarch Abraham. And it was the rich man who suffered the flames of Hades, the place of the dead.
This turn of fortunes is in keeping with Luke’s version of the beatitudes in the so-called sermon on the plain earlier in the gospel, where it reads: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled… But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.” (Luke 6:20b-21a, 24-25a) Lazarus was at first poor, but then blessed with plenty when he entered the dominion of God. And in contrast, the rich man became hungry in more ways than one.
What is it about wealth and the rich that makes for such bad press in the bible? I daresay, it’s not wealth or richness in and of themselves. Rather, it’s how extreme forms of wealth can be the cause of injustice and inequality and thus do harm to those most vulnerable. Moreover, extremes of riches can get in the way not only of our relationship with other people, but also our relationship with God. These are two reasons why there are warnings against the dangers of wealth in the bible.
Listen again to the words in 1 Timothy: “As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” (1 Timothy 6:17) And “in the eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith.” (1 Timothy 6:10a)
In short, extremes of wealth can harm our relationships with others and with God.
Thus, one of the most striking images of Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke is the chasm, the gulf, between the poor man and the rich man after they died. The rich man is down in the valley of Hades, which some commentators suggest was the city dump where they burned the garbage. In contrast, Lazarus was far, far away in the presence of holy Abraham. And you couldn’t get from one place to the next.
We see this kind of extreme, seemingly unbridgeable and widening gap between the extremely wealthy and everybody else in our current Western world, where less than 1% of the wealthiest people own and control vast percentages of available resources. The gap is obscene.
I grew up in a small town in Illinois with a lot of farmers and blue-collar workers. Over the years, the small family farms were bought out by big corporations, driving farmers off the land their families farmed for generations. And the factories closed, leaving people there with precious little hope for earning a family wage. Contrast that with where I lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I had a modest apartment in a fifth floor walk up with no elevator, but it was a block away from Park Avenue in one of the wealthiest zip codes in the country.
The chasm between the people there on the Upper East Side and the folk I grew up with seems insurmountable. And such ever widening gaps are fueling so much of the division and discord that we are suffering in our nation right now.
Luke reports that in telling the parable, the chasm between the rich man and Lazarus was unbridgeable. Again, you couldn’t get from one place to the next. Lazarus could not be sent to comfort the rich man. The parable doesn’t seem to leave us with any good news.
But remember what I said in last week’s sermon that from a Lutheran perspective, the parables in the gospel serve in large part to teach us something about Jesus. And that’s true also in the telling of the story in today’s gospel.
The rich man begs Abraham to warn his brothers about his fate in Hades. Abraham replies, “They have Moses and the prophets; your brothers should listen to them.” The rich man retorts: “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” And Abraham replies: “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”
This, of course, is a reference to Jesus’ own death and resurrection. The truth is that from the perspective of the law of Moses and the writings of the prophets, the chasm of the day of judgement was unbridgeable. But in Jesus Christ, him dead, him raised, the chasm has been crossed. Christ fulfills the law and thus bridges the insurmountable gap.
Jesus’ death and resurrection make for the crossing from death to life, from evil to goodness, from sin to forgiveness and salvation, from the shadows of the night to the brilliance of daylight, from falsehood to truth, from poverty to abundance, from greed to generosity and more. In short, in Christ, we can get there from here!
In baptism, we cross over the gulf waters from the old life to new life in Christ. In the Eucharist, a bridge is built between the past and the future in our present moment, when we feast on the real presence of Christ in a simple meal of bread and wine. In the words of absolution, the chasms we create with our sin between ourselves and God are erased.
And all of this right here, each and every Sunday! Every time we are gathered in the Spirit, Christ crosses over to us again and again. This is good news indeed. Thanks be to God!
And insofar as Christ bridges the gaps between the sacred and the profane in our lives, we are called to seek to bridge the gaps and to cross the chasms that we humans erect for ourselves. And yes, there are those who refuse to walk the bridge that God in Christ builds for us – in keeping with Jesus’ observation in Luke: “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”
But Christ does not give up on us or on the “refuse-nicks.” Thus, our calling, likewise, is not to give up on humanity, ever seeking in the hope of Christ, to be bridgebuilders between the have’s and have not’s, including those excluded, bringing into the center those on the margins – even the haughty rich.
As I conclude this sermon, I moved to say that the hymn we’re about to sing from the new Lutheran hymnal supplement, All Creation Sings, is the real conclusion to this sermon, as you share by singing in the proclamation of good news for the world in Christ. Listen carefully to the words you sing. And let our song move us into the world to do God’s bridge-building work with our hands in the power of the Spirit.
To whet your singing appetite, here’s the first stanza of what you’re about to sing:
“Build a longer table, not a higher wall, feeding those who hunger, making room for all. Feasting together, stranger turns to friend. Christ breaks walls to pieces, false divisions end.” Amen! Let it be so. Amen!
Announcements for September 25:
Congregational meeting next Sunday to call as pastor Veronica Alvarez
Bible study in church office conference room this Wednesday at 10:30 and 6:00
New phone line to contact me directly: 602-265-5860 – all messages will become an email to me that includes the audio recording, allowing for my prompt replies.
Lots of member contacts during the week. So we’re beginning to get to know each other. But don’t be shy about contacting me, too!
My installation on Wednesday, October 5 at 6:00 with reception following.