26th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Proper 21
Luke 16:19-31
Lately, JESUS in the Gospel of Luke
Has a lot to say about riches
…and wealth
…and the meaning of money
Last month
It was the story of the rich fool
Building all those barns
To store his bumper crop
a cartoonish-like character
Talking only to himself
Never grateful
Never concerned about others
Just pacing back and pondering what to do with all his fortune
…And…as luck would have it…the next day he died.
That is one way to get rid of the problem of what to do with an overwhelming bumper crop!
And last week
Was the tricky story about the dishonest Steward
With that famous last line
“You cannot serve both God and Money”
And then today we have the familiar story of
The Rich man and Lazarus…not to mention Amos, Psalm 146, and Timothy
Jesus in the Gospel of Luke has a lot to say about riches, wealth and money.
In my 4 ½ year career as a wandering preacher
I remember only once telling a full-fledged joke in a homily
It was here
3 years ago
When we last heard this parable
The joke was one of those cheesy
St Peter at the Pearly Gates jokes.
I did it to illustrate how today’s gospel passage is a type of story
A motif that was popular in Jesus’ time
And it still lives on in all those St Peter and the Pearly Gates jokes
The point being
That today’s parable is not a story told to give us a picture of the architecture of heaven and hell
It is a reversal story…a crystal clear warning story
A story about not procrastinating
If we wanted a bottom line/bumper sticker version
it might read
“Live your BEST life NOW!”
(...but I want a little more;)
First a retelling…always dangerous…but fun anyway:
SO there was a multigazillionaire
Who dressed in $1000 jeans, $500 white t-shirts and Italian leather loafers
Which he wore without socks
and one day
he thought he would take a walk in the beautiful park across from his estate.
1) Though he had had a large breakfast
He wondered to himself
“I just might feel like eating something while I am out
“I just might feel like eating something while I am out
…best to be prepared”
And he asked his cook to make him a picnic lunch…just in case
2) Then he wondered “If I do get hungry, I’m not sure what exactly I will get hungry for”
…so…again BEST to be prepared…
so he asked his cook to make 5 different sandwiches
so he asked his cook to make 5 different sandwiches
…meatball, Italian sub, BLT, tunafish, and a Rueben…best to have all the bases covered…just in case
3) He also wasn’t sure…IF he did get hungry…just exactly HOW hungry he would get…
…so BEST to be prepared
He asked the cook to and make each one a foot long…just in case
He asked the cook to and make each one a foot long…just in case
Prepared for any eventuality, he strolled down his tree lined driveway and approached his gate.
As he unlocked the gate to his property, there was Sam…of course.
…yep, Sam…always present…day after day…year after year… Sam.
Multigazillionaire knew his name
because he was a constant presence at the gate.
Multigazillionaire knew his name
because he was a constant presence at the gate.
Covered with sores and beyond half-starved Sam longed for a bite of the left-over crust of just one of those ‘just in case’ sandwiches.
Locking the gate behind him
He gave his ritual line to Sam “Have a good one!”
Mutigazillionaire left for his stroll with his ‘just in case’ picnic basket
When he returned
An hour later, carrying his still full ‘Just in case” picnic basket
The multigazillionaire was having trouble with the lock on the gate
So he bent down and asked Sam to hold his picnic basket with the five foot-longs getting soggy inside
Having jiggled the lock open, he reached down to grab his ‘just in case’ basket…And he thanked Sam for being so helpful.
He ‘saw’ Sam…Physically…their worlds actually touched.
he even knew his name.
But what he saw was a thing…a fixture
…a kind of entry table that proved helpful now and again.
He did Not see a fellow human being.
So far…we have a very vivid colorful parable.
Not at all mysterious to understand really.
In fact, it is OBSCENELY clear.
In most stories of this type
---think: Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol---
The one in need of new insight or conversion
Is given a glimpse into the future
and then begs for a second chance…usually yielding a nice happy ending
…like for Scrooge
That does not happen here
For one thing…Scrooge wasn’t dead yet. And our Rich man was.
The time for repentance and change and new awareness is now…
While on the green side of the grass…as my Dad says
The parable makes clear that the way the world works
Is not how God works
Our petty social categories don’t translate
Money is not a sign of God’s favor
Nor is Poverty a sign of God’s displeasure
I think
It is the ending of the parable that gets interesting
Still blind to Lazarus
The rich man wants to send word to his brothers
Notice how gentle and patient and kind Abraham is…calling him ‘child’ and asking him to remember
But he squarely dismisses his ask:
But he squarely dismisses his ask:
“Look, caring for the poor is nothing NEW
You’ve heard the law and prophets…
every. single. day. of. your life.
every. single. day. of. your life.
You’ve had more than enough time”
The tricky part about this parable is remembering who the audience is
We are in the travel narrative
And as we’ve been moving along in Luke’s Gospel
…On the way to Jerusalem
Things are heating up
The soundtrack is getting more ominous…the bass is getting more and more pronounced
Jesus goes back and forth
speaking to the crowds,
and then to the disciples,
and then to the disciples,
and then to the Pharisees.
Different audiences, need to hear different things.
Different audiences, need to hear different things.
This parable is directed at the Pharisees---
A few verses prior to today’s text it says:
“The Pharisees were money lovers.
They heard these things (Jesus’ teaching about money and wealth) and mocked him.
And then he (Jesus) directed this parable to them
The parable is directed at a particularly obtuse fraternity of Pharisees
AND the disciples and the crowds---just like us today---
We are in the position of overhearing(like when my sister would get in trouble…I would listen just outside the door wanting to overhear everything…hopefully learning something)
Today...as I overhear the Rich man’s pleading:
“…but…but…how about if someone goes to them from the dead!”
I ask myself
Do I listen?
… to the voice of the prophets?
Do I believe that someone did come?
And has been raised from the dead?
Jesus came
He died…as a Lazarus figure…abandoned, alone, on a cross
But that wasn’t the end
His presence was made known to those who loved him
He rose from the dead and was alive in the midst of those gathered in his name
So REAL was his presence
That, around that presence,
a community grew and grew and keeps growing still
And all of us here…we are inheritors of that community
We aren’t Lazarus
We aren’t the multigazillionaire
we aren’t the stubborn unbelieving brothers
we aren’t the stubborn unbelieving brothers
We are Over-Hearers
We have tasted that same presence
We have tasted that same presence
We have taken the name Christian
Each time we come here and pray our prayers
And recite our creeds
and say AMEN
We recommit ourselves to Christ
to a life of Christian discipleship
This side of death
The Chasms are many
Divides…too deep
Too many locked gates
Walls…too high
But ours is a mission of
Bridging Chasms
I’ve been taught that homilies are supposed to both comfort and challenge
Today it seems that the challenge is clear enough
Comfort isn’t quite the right word
…but I want to name the grace in these pews
Here, in these pews
is grace at work bridging chasms.
That ramp outside…that welcomes Scotty and Gwen and anyone who comes to this place unable to walk up those steps.
I don’t know the story of how it came to be
But that ramp and the commitment and effort and money…that brought it to be
…bridges a Chasm
And the work of the food pantry volunteers
and those donating to the effort
and those donating to the effort
That work is a participation in Bridging a Chasm
The work of marching in solidarity with the marginalized
Participates in bridging a chasm
I got an email a couple days ago from a friend who teaches at St Meinrad.
The St Meinrad faculty comes to New Harmony for a retreat every year
And every year those ‘Catholics’ come through those always open doors
To pray evening prayer in these pews.
Those always open doors
Bridge a Chasm
And individually, as teachers, and artists, and merchants and business people of all kinds…retired or still at it
Can you imagine all the ways that the lives in these pews are bridging chasms?
Seeing the unseeable
Caring for those left out or left behind
Feeding the hungry
Clothing the naked
setting the oppressed free
these are not only moments when the kingdom of God is made visible
they are moments of bringing life from death
moments of Bridging Chasms
My friends
We belong to the risen one
And Bridging Chasms is just what we do!
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