Trinity 1 2015 - Sermon Notes
We are all pilgrims on a journey.
We are all prodigal sons and daughters.
We are all sinners saved by grace; God merciful grace
bestowed on each one of us.
John put it this way as read this morning, “In this is love,
not that we loved God but that He loved us.”
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear;
for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached
perfection in love.”
Let us sit in silence with these words for a few minutes.
Silence - (story from Guatemala)
Today the Gospel reading was from the famous story of the
rich man a Lazarus.
So, put yourself in the shoes of the disciples, you
have been travelling and learning from this great man. You have seen him do
many miracles, and speak with such wisdom that all you want to do is to hear
more…and the more you hear the more you are challenged and the more you are
challenged, the more you want because you know he is on to something; you know
it and get fleeting glimpses of this majesty and want to cling to it…even if
the glimpses are as tiny as a mustard seed.
I will keep this sermon short and focused on one
main point: spiritual blindness; specifically how material wealth, or a focus
on money can lead to spiritual blindness.
First, let’s meet the characters:
a. “A Certain Rich Man” – clothed as one would be
clothed who occupies a very high station in life. He is in the elite class. He
ate well…very well… “sumptuously” we are told… “every day.”
b. Lazarus – Firstly, I think it is very interested
that the rich man is not named in this parable yet the poor man is named,
almost as if to give a little more personal connection with the man. It is also
interesting to me that the name Lazarus means, “whom God helps.” Lazarus is not
just poor, he is totally destitute, full of sores, be licked by dogs, just
hoping for a few crumbs of bread from the rich man tables. (Nicaragua and
Bahrain)
c. Abraham – The father of Israel
In this parable Luke wastes no time in setting a
scene of the extremes of the social order – the elite and the destitute.
I also find it interesting…
The rich man does a lot of talking in this parable.
He is very argumentative, desperate and tormented. The imagery of torment,
argumentativeness and condescending…. But nameless.
Abraham is holding the destitute Lazarus “in his
bosom”. The great patriarch of Israel not just embracing the poor man but the
imagery of intimacy, concern, love, patience and mercy.
Lazarus’ voice is nowhere to be heard. He does not
utter a word. The disenfranchised, voiceless reality of the desperately poor.
Perhaps Lazarus does not have a voice in the whole
of the parable because this parable is not about him.
As I mentioned, I think I can argue that this
parable is about the blindness wealth can cause.
This blindness is explicitly exposed in the conversation
between Abraham and Lazarus wherein the rich man, accustomed to issuing orders,
requests Abraham to send Lazarus to the rich man’s brothers, as if Lazarus is
now Abraham’s servant or errand boy.
The rich man is still blind to the fact that
Lazarus is his fellow human being; his brother. After Abraham’s denial of this
request, the rich man starts pleading with Abraham in an attempt to save his
brothers, which merely serves to underscore his blindness, that the poor man is
also his brother in the eyes of God.
The rich man pleads when he should be finally realizing
the error of his past ways.
The rich man pleads when he should be finally
realizing the blindness his wealth and high station have caused him.
Money can cause spiritual blindness.
Money can cause one to care about me, me and me
rather than cause one to discern the two great commandements – Love you God
with all your heart and love your neighbour as yourself.
The rich man was blind.
Blind – He could not see that he needed to change
his ways. Here we enter the language of repentance. He didn’t get it first nor
last.
But let me be perfectly clear on something, it
would be a great injustice of this parable to reduce it to the sin of material
wealth and some idea of piety in poverty. There is no piety in the destitute poverty of
Lazarus…but there is dignity… God given, eternal dignity for the human being.
Lazarus had dignity because dignity is God-given;
not an ephemeral creation of humans.
We have such capacity for self-deception that we can become prideful even in the desire for a piety in poverty. There is no piety in destitute poverty; of starving, of watching the body develop sores and, O desperate of desperation, having the dogs lick the sores.
Desperate poverty lacks piety but it does not lack dignity. I want to add this again... there is dignity… God given, eternal dignity for the human being. Dignity is God-given; not an ephemeral creation of humans.
It is not the rich man’s wealth that has him
condemned but his self-indulgence. It is his blindness to others; his spiritual
blindness to blessings bestowed on him and his refusal to bless others. Be
merciful as I am merciful, Jesus said.
I think Jesus is trying to teach us that one of the
prime dangers of wealth is that it may cause blindness and result in a
lifestyle of self-indulgence.
For this reason, the figure of Abraham is the most important
character in this parable.
Abraham was a rich man, a famous rich man in
Scripture, but not a self-indulgent man.
Abraham is a historic example of faithfulness, even
when it comes to use of material wealth. Abraham not only refused to accept the
plunder of the king of Sodom
Jesus understands the material wants of the human
being and he was deeply concerned about the luring power of material wealth
because it can easily create spiritual blindness. He taught about the connection between
treasure and the heart (Matt 6:19-21; Luke 12:33-34), the servant-master
relationship (Matt 6:24; Luke 16:13) and the power of possessions (Matt
19:16-24), as merely a few examples. Jesus was a man who overturned tables in
the Temple
The rich man ignored the teachings of the law and
the prophets too late.
He pays attention to Lazarus too late. He only
acknowledges him when he sees him in the bosom of Abraham.
He sees the unbridgeable chasm too late.
This parable contrasts the examples of Abraham and
the Rich Man to make a point about compassion, mercy and just use of wealth as
required by the Torah and the prophets.
Let
us be merciful to others and we have been shown much mercy by our Heavenly
Father.
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