September 29, 2019
Luke 16:19-31
‘How Hard It Is to Hear the Message’
The Rev. Martha M. Shiverick
You know the joke…A hurricane has come and the waters are rising. The waters rise to the first floor of the house and a home owner prays to God to be saved from the flood. The police come by and offer to take the person to the safety of higher ground, but they refuse saying that God will protect them.
The waters get to the second floor of the house and the home owner prays to God to be saved from the flood. The Red Cross arrives by boat and offers to take the person to safety but they refuse saying that God will protect them.
The waters get higher and the home owner has to climb onto to the roof. They pray to God to be saved from the flood. A rescue marine helicopter flies overhead and sends down a basket for the person to climb into to be saved. The homeowner declines saying that God will protect them.
The person dies. They get to heaven and ask why God did not save them from the rising waters. I prayed, the person complains! And God answers, ‘I did answer, I sent the police, the Red Cross, and even the Marines.’
Sometimes it is hard to hear God’s message… not because of God, but because of our own baggage.
I thought about the joke as I read this morning’s scripture passage from Luke 16:19-31.
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham.[a] The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.[b] 24 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.’ 25 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. 26 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.’ 27 He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ 29 Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ 30 He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 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.’” (The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.)
This morning’s parable is painful to hear. It is painful to hear as we know, when we are honest with ourselves that we are the rich man. We are the person that is not named… We are the unnamed rich person who walks by the suffering each day and tries not to get our purple linen robe soiled by their dust…BUT the poor man Lazarus is named and we know a lot about him. He is destitute, he has sores; he is so bad off that he cannot even keep the dogs from licking him as he lay at all of our doorsteps.
Jesus makes us see Lazarus. Unlike the homeless person on the street corner that we advert our eyes from so that we do not make eye contact while we sit in our cars at a traffic light, Jesus forces to look in the face of what we don’t want to see. It is easier to hear about the statistics of the growing poverty, than have to see it personally. I know that… I painted the picture of the homeless man Samuel because I needed to. When you paint someone or something, you form a personal relationship with your subject. You know their lines, the shape of their face, and I wanted to force myself to see the humanity in this man living on the street, wrestling with mental illness which prevents him from even going to a shelter but sleeping on cardboard with his life possessions next to him in a grocery cart. And I brought the painting of Samuel here and put the painting in the Food Pantry, because I wanted a face to be on the hungry people our ministry serves.
And Lazarus only asks for crumbs. Lazarus only asked and would be satisfied with what fell from the rich person’s table. But those who dine sumptuously every day, who feed only at the top of the food pyramid who are dressed in designer clothing and furs, believe they are entitled to the luxuries they have… they have inherited their resources… they have earned them by going to great schools and making great connections and being given great high earning jobs… and because they feel deserving, they live with no concern for those who are suffering. And if we stop and think about it, we too are surrounded by people all day long, without thinking of their humanity. Imagine the amount of people we drive by in our hurry to get to the next place without even seeing the ‘have-nots’ in our society.
And it should not take a miracle to have us repent… What we need to do is right in front of us, and we should take heed and advantage of it.
Jesus paints that picture, knowing that each of us is the rich man, and forces us to consider the poor and the impact our social policies have on others… not just on us.
And there is a frustration in Jesus’ parable when after the rich person ends up in hell because of their inability to tend to or even see the needs of another. The rich person asks to have their family warned about the outcome of their only thinking of themselves. And Jesus says… you have heard the teachings of Moses, you know the words of the prophets, so even someone rising from the dead would not change them… and the parable ends with a feeling of doom. It ends… let’s just say badly for the rich man…
But, let’s not take the parable literally… That is not what Jesus used this method of teaching to do. Let’s instead look at it as an allegory to our world and see what it can teach us.
I believe there is a great allegory in this parable that absolutely speaks to our times. We already know we are the rich man. We are to feel our connection to this person who hoards the good gifts God has given at the expense of others. And we feel the urgency this parable teaches us to change our ways
Oh, it makes us uncomfortable, but we have to acknowledge that we are the rich man who squanders the gifts that God has given us. And after this past week, with all the news coming out on from the UN summit on climate change, we must own that we live in a manner which is killing our planet. We cannot ignore the cries of nature as yet another animal goes on the endangered species list due to global warming and more of our polar ice melts. And the question is, ‘will we be like the rich man and not learn from Moses and the prophets?’ Will we ignore the cries of the rhinos, the sea as its ice melts and its levels rise, the leopards, our dying coral reefs, the decline in the number of bees and birds, the growing plastic trash issue, the depletion of our natural gas, and the cries of the youth last Friday afternoon from around the earth? We, like the rich man, don’t want to see what is in front of our eyes, but we must. We must hear the message and act.
We have Moses and the prophets, we have a savior that rose from the grave, and we have the voices of scientists and our young people crying out to save our planet before it is too late. We no longer can hold off taking action. We all must make our environment our priority. I am so grateful that the mission committee has made climate change and environmental issues a priority for our mission this year! God is calling us to save God’s creation. Here we are Lord, Send us! Amen.
