“Our Eternal Destiny”

Lectionary 26 C 2007

Luke 16:19-31

Let us pray:  Lord, how many years did Lazarus lie at the rich man’s gate?  Any day, any time, the rich man could have crossed the chasm that separated him from the poor beggar.  But the rich man never once crossed that chasm.  Now the chasm is permanent.  Lazarus can no longer help him.  Lord, what broken, needy people wait for a gesture of mercy from us?  Whom have we ignored and made invisible with self-interest?  Can we still cross this chasm and find salvation?  Lord, open us to the needs of our neighbors.  Help us to respond to the many opportunities to give of ourselves, to share our blessings, to be your servants, your hands and feet in the world.  In your name we pray.  Amen.

              Our gospel lesson for today is a hard word that gets at the heart of what it means to be a disciple.  Over the past number of weeks, Jesus has challenged us with what it means to be his followers. He told us that we must enter by the narrow door, that the first will be last and the last will be first.  He taught us about humility and about inviting the outcast and the undesirable to our dinner table.  Jesus told us to count the cost and to carry the cross and to rejoice over one sinner who repents.  Today, Jesus confronts us with perhaps the greatest test to discipleship, wealth and riches.  In an earlier verse, Jesus said, “You can not serve God and wealth.”  He illustrates the effect that wealth and riches can have on our eternal destiny in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.

              The first picture that we have in this parable places us here on earth.  The descriptions of the two characters are very telling.  Jesus begins, “There was a rich man.”  He had everything that a person might want or desire.  He was dressed in beautiful, expensive clothing and he had more than enough to eat every day.  You could say, “He had it made.”  His whole life was focused upon being rich.  There was nothing else that impressed itself in his own mind, and on the minds of others who knew him, than that.  He was rich.  The other interesting thing noted is that he remains unnamed.  We do not know his name.

              The other man is Lazarus, the poorest of all beggars.  He was literally thrown down at the gate to lay there all day long hoping to get a handout.  His body was covered with sores.  He would have been satisfied to eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, but no one gave him anything.  His condition is even more pronounced as Jesus describes how the dogs came to lick his sores.  Lazarus’ only consolation is hinted at in his name, which we are told.  It means, “God is my helper.”  Except for God, nobody paid any attention to poor Lazarus.  It was as if he were invisible.

              I find it hard not to get caught up in this story.  Back in August, I went to see the production of Spamalot at the Ordway Theater in downtown St. Paul.  It’s always a treat to go to a Broadway show.  As we were on our way to the theater, we had to cross through Rice Park.  It is a beautiful park right across from the Ordway.  Nicely dressed, excited for the show, I wonder how many people noticed the other people who were in the park, homeless people sitting on the park benches and on the grass with their belongings in a backpack or a large plastic garbage bag.  It’s was hard not to stare.  I wondered who they were and where they came from.  Most people are probably not aware of the Dorothy Day center located across from the Xcel Center that provides shelter and feeds hungry people three times a day.  These people are all too often invisible to us.

              In July, Susan and I went to Washington D.C. to see our daughter Tessa who was there on a summer internship.  She worked in Gaithersberg which is the last stop on the red line underground.  We stayed in a nice hotel in Bethesda on Wisconsin Avenue, one of the main roads leading into DC.  We had to walk about five blocks to get to the underground station.  Every morning we would get a cup of coffee at Starbucks and head to the station.  Every morning we would pass a man sleeping on a bench in front of one of the storefronts.  He had his head on his backpack and was covered by a blanket.  At night, we would find him in the same spot.  It appeared that that was his home.  My tendency was to look straight ahead and keep on walking, pretending not to see him.  Susan, who is much better than I, stopped every night to ask if he had something to eat that day.  Each night he nodded and said that he had.

              The second part of this parable puts us in the afterlife.  The descriptions of the two characters are again very telling.  In what is a complete reversal of fortunes, we see that it isn’t the rich man, but rather, poor Lazarus who is lifted up to be by the side of Father Abraham, receiving the comfort he never experienced in his life on earth.  As for the rich man, he was in torment in Hades, wishing that he could have his tongue cooled by a drop of water from the tip of Lazarus’ finger.  His eternal destiny would now be spent in Hades.  When he realized that he would never be able to cross the great chasm, he pleads with Father Abraham to send someone to warn his five brothers about the great torment that awaited people like himself.  But Abraham said, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.”

              Unlike my experiences on earth, it is difficult to imagine what the afterlife is like.  Because this is a parable, I don’t think we should take this picture-language as a literal description of heaven and hell, but rather be drawn into the truth that our eternal destiny is impacted by our present reality.  Our attitudes and actions on this earth do matter as they reveal the true content of one’s heart, the condition of one’s soul.  The rich man’s eternal destiny was determined by his relationship, or lack of relationship, to God and God’s Word, a Word which tells him of his responsibility to others and warns him about the dangers of living for oneself in selfish luxury.  The rich man was so self-absorbed in his wealth and life-style that he failed to see that at his very gate was another world, the world of poor Lazarus.  The rich man’s problem was not so much that he was rich, although there are plenty of warnings in scripture to catch our attention, but rather in how his wealth affected him, in how he shut his eyes to the needs of others, how it caused him to ignore the poverty outside his door.  His sin was not that he was rich, but that he neglected his responsibility to show compassion and care for others.  It also reveals his poor relationship with God who calls him to account for his actions.

              For most of us, probably identify with the rich man.  We do live in the richest country in the world.  Even though we may not consider ourselves to be rich, not like the 243 billionaires that now live in the United States, or find ourselves to be part of the 1% of people in the US that control over 20% of the wealth in our country, the highest it’s been since the 1920, we are rich.  They say in Tanzania the average yearly wage is less than $300.  Compared to most of the world, we are very rich.  No, where I really find myself in this story is with the five brothers who are left behind and who have the Word of God to instruct and guide them, a word like our first lesson.  Through the Prophet Amos, God warns against those who lie on beds of ivory, who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, who drink wine from bowls, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.  They are the first to go into exile.  Psalm 146 also points out God’s concern for those who are oppressed and hungry, the stranger, the orphan, the widow.  It is the Lord who lifts up those who are bowed down.  In the beginning of the Gospel of Luke, the mother Mary sings a song of praise for what God has done in using her to be the mother of God’s Son, “He has brought the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.”  Our second lesson is a word we can not ignore as Paul writes to 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, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.”

              No, as one of the brothers, one can not ignore the clear testimony of scripture when it comes to matters of the heart, our discipleship, and who or what we will follow and trust.  To our benefit the testimony of scripture is fulfilled and given new meaning in Jesus Christ who held nothing back but died on the cross and was raised form the dead.  It is Jesus, who through his love and grace, mercy and forgiveness, transforms us and our lives, enabling us to put our trust where it belongs, in God who provides us with every good gift.  As the resurrected and living One, Jesus calls us to a new life of love, care, and compassion.  Jesus enables us to see the world with new eyes so that we may respond and meet the needs of those around us.  Through Jesus, we are given the hope and promise that our eternal destiny is with him forever.

              Because our eternal destiny is found in Jesus, and in him alone, we can do what the scriptures command, “to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share.”  That really is God’s answer to the problem greed - generous giving.  It is a huge part of what Paul calls the “life that is really life.”  Amen.