Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Luke 16:19-31)
He said, “Then I beg you father, to send him to my father’s house – for I have five brothers – so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’
Kä cuɛ wee i̱, 'Mi ca jɛn inɔ, ɣän la̱ŋä ji̱, gua̱di̱n, ɛn ɣöö bi jɛ jäkä dhɔr gua̱a̱r, (kɛ ɣöö ta̱a̱kɛ dämaari da̱ŋ dhieec) kɛ ɣöö derɛ kɛ wä luek a /cikɛ dee lɛ ben guäth bo̱lä maac ɛ bɛc bɛc ɛmɛ.' Cu A-bɛ-ram ɛ loc i̱, 'Tekɛ kɛ ŋuɔ̱t Muthɛ kɛn ruaacni göökni. Akɛ liɛŋkɛ kɛ.' Kä cuɛ wee i̱, 'Ëëy, A-bɛ-ram gua̱di̱n, mi wä ram mi ci rɔ jiɛc li̱th wä kä kɛ, bikɛ rɔ ri̱t kä dueerkiɛn.' Kä cu A-bɛ-ram ɛ jiök i̱, 'Mi /cikɛ ŋuɔ̱t Muthɛ kɛnɛ ruaccni göökni bi liŋ, /cakɛ dee jakä ŋa̱th ɛ raan a cäŋɛ mi ci raan rɔ jiɛc li̱th.'
Prayer: Lord God, our heavenly Father, enlighten our darkness with the light of your Holy Spirit, so that I may preach well and we all may hear well, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
St John says in his first letter chapter 3:
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
By this we know love, that he [Jesus Christ] laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
In our reading today, Jesus tells the story of two men. We have a one man who is ridiculously rich, and one man who is ridiculously poor. One man was clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted sumptuously every day. One man, whose name was Lazarus, was covered with sores, with boils of pus, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. And even the dogs came and licked his sores.
So we have a ridiculously rich person and a ridiculously poor person.
Which one are you?
In our gospel reading today, Jesus describes things with extremes. There is a man with everything he needs, and there is another man who simply has nothing except the pains and desires of his heart.
Which one are you? The rich man or the poor man?
You might say, well I’m not that poor, and I’m not that rich. You might think that you would like to sit on the fence comfortably and watch this story happen from a distance. But you can’t.
The rich man dies and is buried and goes to hell.
The poor man is carried up by angels to the bosom of Abraham. (In our bibles it often says, “Abraham’s side”, but in the Greek it says, “his bosom” – Abraham welcomes Lazarus with a warm, loving embrace, and keeps him close to his heart.)
No one in this story is sitting on a fence. One man is in heaven and the other man is in hell. And there is great chasm fixed between the two of them. The fence that we’d all like to sit on has just fallen hundreds of metres below us as this great chasm opens up. And so we are left with two extremes: eternal joy or eternal torment.
Many people scoff at this sort of talk today. Many people don’t believe, for example, that there is a hell. If you also believe that there’s no hell, then your argument is not with me, but it’s with Jesus.
But back to our question though:
Which of these two characters are you? The rich man or the poor man?
And, you’re right: you’re not as poor as Lazarus. I’ve never met a person in my life who is as poor as Lazarus. And Jesus tells you about this man Lazarus in such an extreme way, to make sure that only thing you can say is, “I’m not as poor as him.”
But if you say this, then the alternative is scary. Because you do have nice things in life, you do eat well, you do dress well, you have many gifts given to you from God. But then the problem for you is: the rich man went to hell.
We have to be aware of the fact that money is one of the greatest idols we have in life. Everything good will be sacrificed for money. Everything holy will be sacrificed for money. Family will be sacrificed for money, happiness will be sacrificed for money, God will be sacrificed for money. And all we need is a little bit of a taste on the mouth, all we need is a little drop of water on the tip of our tongue – all we need is just a drop of money, and once we’ve got some, all we want is more of it. And so we all turn up to worship the calf made from gold, and we sacrifice everything: we bring our lives and sacrifice them to the golden calf, we ruin our relationships, we ruin our husbands and wives, we ruin our children and future children – all these things that we do because we think we don’t have enough money!
Pastors are the same. There are two types of pastor: there are those who had no money before they became a pastor, and there are those who gave up a high-paid job to become a pastor. When the first type of pastor is ordained they don’t know what to do with all the money they have now, and carry on as if they had a swimming pool full of money that they’re just waiting to dive into. But the second group of pastors complain about their pay-cut.
And don’t think that pastors are the only ones who do this? Ask yourself, have you ever complained about having too much money?!!
And here’s the catch: The poor man Lazarus was laid at the rich man’s gate.
Someone put Lazarus there at the rich man’s gate. – Maybe it was God.
You see, with money comes responsibility. The rich man was not a king. It wasn’t for him to dress like a king. And we live in a society where people think they can do whatever they like if only they had enough money. This happens at every level of our society. All people want is more money for themselves, with no responsibility.
What does God want you to do with your money? Who has God placed at your gate? Who are you ignoring?
And maybe you think: but I can’t be too generous, because I’ve got to think of myself. I can’t just give my money away.
Maybe the rich man in our story today also thought the same thing.
Maybe you think: I have to save up, I want to be comfortable when I’m old, I want to leave my children something.
Maybe the rich man in our story today also thought the same thing.
Maybe you think: It would be wrong to give my money to someone if I didn’t know what they were going to do with it. It would be irresponsible of me to waste my money on the poor.
Maybe the rich man in our story today also thought the same thing.
Be careful what you say, and be careful what you think! Don’t escape this story or you might end up saying to Abraham: Send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue.
This passage will either make you repent, or it will infuriate you. If it makes you angry, then beware, because you don’t want to be angry for eternity.
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
At the end of our reading today, we hear the rich man crying out in desperation, ‘I beg you, father [Abraham] to send [Lazarus] to my father’s house—for I have five brothers – so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, [ -- listen to this desperate man -- ], but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’
The rich man says: But if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.
Jesus is risen from the dead. And he’s here. And he’s speaking to you his word – he’s crying out to you in desperation from the other side of the grave, saying, “Listen to me!” Listen to Moses and the Prophets! I’ve put someone at your gates, and all he wants is a bit of food off your table!
And maybe the rich man in our story heard his local Rabbi say the same thing to him! Maybe the Rabbi said to him, “Listen, my son, I hear that there’s a poor man at your gate! Why don’t you go and give him a loaf of bread?!”
He takes no notice, and then the only thing that is said to him is, “Too late. You had your chance. Muffed it!”.
Jesus is risen from the dead, and people don’t seem to repent even though they know this. That’s because they don’t hear the word of God. They don’t listen to Moses and the Prophets. Our flesh hates listening to Moses and the Prophets, because it hates anything that would come back from the dead and tell us what to do. It stinks of death for us. It looks too much like a man with boils with the pus being licked away by dogs.
So: repent. Someone has come back from the dead to tell you to repent and believe the gospel. But Jesus hasn’t come back from the dead, stinking from being in the tomb, with grave clothes still on him: he comes back from the dead bringing the aroma of life, bringing the keys of death in his hand. Jesus comes back from the dead, promising life, forgiveness and blessing and power and strength to everyone who believes in him. He comes back from the dead to draw you to himself. He comes back from the dead, and says, “Trust in me, and where I am you will be also.” Psalm 95: If today you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. St Paul says: Now is the day of salvation, now is the acceptable time.
The trap for us will be to want to escape the shame, the contempt, and the cross. Maybe Lazarus was once a rich man too but used his money for the good of others almost a bit too much. That’s what Jesus did: He came down from heaven where he had glory and might and riches and honour, and he came to be just like you and me, and almost loved us a bit too much, so that eventually people hated him so much, that they put nails through his hands and feet and stuck him on a cross. But he did it because he loved us. Jesus left us an example that we should follow in his footsteps. We love because he first loved us. Don’t be afraid of shame, don’t be afraid of being poor, don’t be afraid of being despised, don’t be afraid of being laughed at even by your friends, don’t be afraid of being spat upon, and licked by dogs if it means holding fast to the powerful, life-giving gospel that will carry you on angels wings to the bosom of Abraham.
The reason why the world hates you, is because if first hated Jesus.
Jesus says: “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.”
And so little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
The rich man wanted Lazarus to go and do something for his brothers. The man who never loved in deed and truth wanted Lazarus to love in deed and in truth. The rich man wanted Lazarus to act. But Abraham wants the five brothers to listen – because when the five brothers hear the word of God, God acts.
The church is not a place that is full of talk. It is a place that is full of deed and truth. God doesn’t just speak things to you that hit your head and bounce off. He speaks to you living actions, living truths.
We hear the Word of God when we listen to the bible and the sermon. But then God acts, God actually applies the forgiveness of sins to us in the absolution, which we receive each Sunday. God acts, he does something when he looks at Christ and declares us forgiven because of him. We don’t just learn about heaven here in the church, but the door of heaven is locked and unlocked for us.
God speaks his promises to us, but then also applies his promises to us individually by baptising us. He does something! We hear the sermon, we hear the words and the talk, but then God loves us in deed and in truth, when he feeds us body and soul with the body and blood of his Son, Jesus Christ.
God doesn’t just talk about carrying us on the wings of angels to the bosom of Abraham, but he actually does it – he actually carries us on angels’ wings, as he feeds us in his sanctuary, not with a few crumbs that fall off his table, but with the true body and blood of Christ, the bread of life, that will keep us in body and soul until life everlasting. And where Jesus Christ is, there is joy! Joy in life, joy in sorrow, joy in generosity, joy in everything!
And those angels who carry us and bear us up in their hands cry out from one end of the earth to the other: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest!
Amen.
Lord God, heavenly Father, if we want riches, you are the richest of all, and you pour out the abundance of your grace upon us. Give us courage to love not only in word and talk but also in deed and truth. As your Son gives us his body and blood, teach us and lead us to give our bodies and blood for those around us in love, both in deed and in truth. Fill us with your Holy Spirit, forgive us our sins, and carry us on angels’ wings to the bosom of Abraham to feast with you forever at your heavenly banquet, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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