A
sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Sunday 29 September 2019, Sixteenth
Sunday after Pentecost, by the Rev. Dr. Judy Chan. The scripture readings that day were Amos 6:1a, 4-7, I Timothy 6: 6-19,
Luke 16:19-31.
Good
morning.
Today’s
Gospel reading from Luke is again one of Jesus’ favorite topics – money. If you
were here last week, you heard Timothy’s very good sermon on money so you might
be thinking what’s left to say? I have to give Timothy credit for explaining a
very difficult passage – the Parable of the Dishonest Manager. I was glad I
wasn’t preaching last week. But I am preaching today and the lectionary reading
is the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. I might have the opposite problem
that Timothy had. His parable was hard to understand in many ways. My parable
seems not so hard to understand in any way. But in any case, if Jesus felt the
need to say more about money, who are we not to pay attention? So, please pay
attention and I’ll try my best.
The
Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus has two unique features. One, the setting –
it’s the only parable of Jesus that has a scene in the afterlife. Two, it’s the
only parable that gives a character a name. In this case – Lazarus, a short
form of the Hebrew name Eleazar. It means “God helps”. Very appropriate!
The
drama has two acts – the 1st act: what happens to the two men in
this life; the 2nd act what happens after they die. In this life,
the rich man is very, very rich. We know so by his extravagant lifestyle.
Lazarus, on the other hand, is very, very poor. We know so because he has to be
laid at the rich man’s gate to beg besides being covered with sores. He’s dying
to get a scrap of food from the rich man’s table. His only companions are a
pack of dogs at the gate, who lick his wounds in sympathy.
Eventually
both men die. Lazarus doesn’t get a funeral. But the Bible says he was taken by
angelic pallbearers to rest in the bosom of Abraham. Then the rich man dies. He
has a proper burial. But to his surprise, when he arrives on the other side,
he’s the one in torment – burning up and dying of thirst. Then he looks across
the great chasm. Who does he see? Lazarus right next to the great patriarch
Abraham. What a reversal of fortunes!
But
this no-longer rich man won’t give up his privilege so easily. “Father
Abraham,” he calls out. “Have mercy on me. Send good old Lazarus over here to
give me a drop of water to cool my burning tongue!” Wow, even in Hades, the
rich man still acted like he had servants. But it’s no use. “Sorry, child,”
says Abraham. “In Act 1, you got all the good things and Lazarus got all the
bad things. This is Act 2, you have to swap places. Anyway, even if he wanted
to come over to give you a drop of water, it’s impossible. This separation
between you and Lazarus is permanent.”
You’d
think the rich man would be silenced after this news. But he keeps bargaining.
“OK, then, Father. If he can’t do anything for me, send Lazarus back to my
father’s home. I’ve got 5 brothers. They probably remember good old Lazarus.
Let him warn my brothers what’s happened so they won’t end up here too.”
Now
on the surface, this might be a reasonable request, wouldn’t it? Of course, it
involves sending Lazarus as his errand boy again. But there were other stories
in ancient times when such a request was made and granted. Someone was sent
back to warn the living about the dead. And it worked. They changed from bad to
good and lived happily ever after.
So,
I’m sure Jesus’ listeners thought this was where their story was going…but
surprise! Abraham refuses. Why?
Because,
he says, your brothers already have everything they need to know. It’s in the
Bible they read every day. Doesn’t God say again and again in Scripture: show compassion to the needy? It’s in
Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Micah,
Zechariah, Malachi. What else do they need? The problem isn’t lack of
information. The problem is lack of obedience.
Well,
you’d think that rebuke would settle it. But no…the rich man tries one more
time.
“Oh,
Father Abraham, I hear you. But the Bible’s not enough for my brothers. They
need something extra to get through their thick skulls. I promise you if
someone comes back from the dead to warn them, they’ll repent.”
“Nonsense!”
says Abraham.” A miracle’s no use to this kind of people. If your brothers
won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, someone rising from the dead isn’t
going to convince them either. Believe me, it’s happened before and it’ll
happen again. Without the eyes of faith, the resurrection doesn’t mean a
thing.” End of discussion.
When
we hear this parable today, it seems things haven’t changed much in the past
2000 years, have they? There are still the super-rich in this world. There are
still the ultra-poor. And there are still those for whom the resurrection
doesn’t mean a thing. So, the message remains the same. We have to take care of the poor and
marginalized, because God is on their side. If those who ‘have’ refuse to share
with those who ‘don’t have’, be prepared to trade places in eternity.
So,
where does that leave us this morning? As a church and individually?
As
a church, I have to say, I think KUC’s got the message. For one, we’re not a
wealthy church and we don’t try to become one. Two, we generously share what we
do have: our money, our building, our pastors, our love, our time, our
expertise and our reputation. We serve both those outside KUC as well as those
in need in our church family. Of course, we’re not perfect, some may think we
don’t do enough; others think we do too much. But either way, we’ve got the
message loud and clear – God says take care of the needy. And we obey.
On
a personal level, however, I think there is more that could be said. Each of us
here today is also accountable to God for how we spend our money, what we do
with our possessions, what kind of lifestyle we live. Not everyone has the same
resources and financial situation, but everyone can do something for someone
else besides themselves. God doesn’t ask us to give what we don’t have, but
what we do have God expects us to share.
There’s
a story about a Sunday School class of young boys and girls. The teacher said,
“There’s a missionary coming next week to our church. How many of you if you
had a $1000 would give it all to God’s mission? Every child raised their hand.
How many of you if you had $100 would give it all to God’s mission? Every child
again raised their hand. How many if you had $1 would give it all to God’s
mission? Every child raised their hand, except little Johnny. The teacher was puzzled.
“Johnny, why didn’t you raise your hand?” Johnny squirmed in his seat and
quietly said, “Because I have $1 in my pocket.”
Another
story. A mother gave her daughter $2 as allowance for the week. She said you
can spend $1 on whatever you like, but the other dollar is for the offering. It
belongs to God. Susie happily went to the candy store before church to buy her
favorite treat. On the way, she tripped. One dollar fell out of her hand and
rolled down the drainage hole on the street. “Oh, dear,” said Susie. “There
goes your dollar, God!”
We
may smile at the way children think, but are we that different? Generosity in
theory is fine but giving in practice is somewhat harder.
One
more dollar story – this time about adults. I heard of a minister who preached
on the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. At the end of the sermon, he
decided to take it one step further. He gave each person sitting in the
congregation a US$1 bill. He said use it the following week to help someone
like Lazarus. Any way you want, just come back next week and tell us what you
did. The response from the congregation was fantastic. The assignment set their
imagination on fire, and the next week they were so excited to share what they
had done. Many told the pastor that was the best sermon he ever preached.
Now,
don’t get your hopes up. I’m not giving away any money today. But I think the
key to the success of that pastor’s sermon was giving them money to put in
their wallet, rather than asking them to take money out. Why? So they would say
to themselves, this isn’t my money. Someone gave it to me to help someone else.
So that’s what I have to do.
Isn’t
that really the truth about all the money in our wallet? And the things in our
house? And our job and family and this earth? We don’t own any of it. It all
belongs to God. And God gave it to us to take care of our basic needs and make
sure everyone else has their basic needs met too. So that’s what we have to do.
There’s a famous saying attributed to Gandhi: "The world has enough for everyone's needs, but not enough for everyone's greed."
In
the epistle reading from I Timothy Chapter 6, St. Paul urges us to be rich in
good works, generous and ready to share. That’s how we build up our treasure
for the future. Aim for what he calls “the life that really is life”. That
starts of course with the basic necessities like food, clothing and shelter.
But that’s not where it ends. There are also things we desperately need that
even money can’t buy, things that are priceless because they’re not for sale.
A
wise person once wrote:
You can buy a soft bed with money but
not a good night’s sleep.
You can buy an expensive watch with
money but not time.
You can buy companions with money, but
not true friends.
You can buy a comfortable life with
money, but not inner peace.
You can buy religion with money, but
not salvation.
You can buy your own paradise with money but not the Kingdom of Heaven.
“Why do we love the things we can
get for ourselves better than the things God wants to give us?” It all belongs to God in the first place. And if we forget that, we
will very likely, like the rich man, find ourselves in last place.
Let me close by telling you one more
story to bring this home. It’s a folktale though I’m not sure of the origin. It
perhaps comes from Asia. The version I share comes from Fr. Anthony de Mello,
the well-known Indian Jesuit priest and spiritual writer.
An
old woman died and was taken to the Judgement Seat by the angels. While
examining her records however, the judge couldn’t find a single act of kindness
performed by her except for a carrot she had once given to a starving beggar.
Such,
however, is the power of a single deed of love. It was decreed that she be
taken up to heaven on the strength of that one carrot. The carrot was brought
to court and given to her. The moment she caught hold of it, it began to rise
as if pulled by some invisible string lifting her up towards the sky.
A
beggar appeared. He clutched on to the hem of her garment and was lifted along
with her; a third person caught hold of the beggar’s foot and was lifted too.
Soon there was a long line of persons being lifted up to heaven by that one
carrot. And, strange as it may seem, the woman didn’t feel the weight of all
those people who held on to her; in fact, since she was looking heavenward, she
didn’t notice any burden at all.
Higher
and higher they rose until they were almost near the pearly gates. That’s when
the woman looked back to catch a last glimpse of the earth and saw this whole
train of people behind her. She was furious! She angrily waved her hand at
them, shouting: “Off! Off, all of you! I paid for this carrot. It’s mine!” As
she tried to push them off, she let go of the carrot for a moment, and down,
down she fell with all those poor souls.
Fr.
Anthony concludes: There is only one
cause for every evil on earth: The words - “This belongs to me!”
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, September 29, 2019
