“THERE’S ENOUGH EVIDENCE HERE!”
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Luke 16:19-31
Do you remember the
scene from the musical “Fiddler on the Roof” where Tevyeh, the poor
Jewish farmer, is pulling his wagon because his old horse has lost a
shoe? He stops and leans on the tongue of the wagon and says, “Today, I
am a horse. Dear God. Did you have to make my poor old horse lose
his shoe just before the Sabbath? That wasn’t nice. It’s enough for you
to pick on me, Tevyeh; bless me with five daughters and a life of
poverty. What have you got against my horse? Sometimes I
think when things are too quiet up there, you say to yourself, ‘Let’s
see what kind of mischief I can play on my friend Tevyeh.’ I’m
not complaining. After all, with your help, I’m starving to
death. You made many, many poor people. I recognize of course
that there’s no shame in being poor, but it’s no great honour
either. So what would been so terrible if I had a small fortune?”
That could well
have been said by Lazarus: poor, sick Lazarus, lying at the gate of the
very wealthy Dives, (his very name means rich). Lazarus, willing
to eat whatever fell from the table and was put out for garbage pickup.
It’s a very carefully crafted story that predates the world of
Christianity. The Egyptians had a similar story that Luke may
have picked up and used in his writing. Even the name Lazarus is
carefully chosen: Lazarus means, “God helps.”
In his book, “Out
of My Life And Thought,” Albert Schweitzer says this story started the
revolution in his life that led to his leaving his life as a
theologian, medical Doctor and musician to go to Africa and found the
mission hospital in Lambarene. Schweitzer concluded that Africa
was a beggar lying at Europe’s doorstep. I wonder, when we in
North America read this story, who is the Lazarus that arises in our
minds? Chris and my Doctor in Milwaukee WI was Alex Tucker, a
native of Sierra Leone. Alex told us of unimaginable atrocities
that were being inflicted upon the citizens of Sierra Leone by the
rebels. Then just last Wednesday, at the White Rock Rotary Club
where I am a member, the speaker was a woman who works as a volunteer
on the mercy ship "Anastasis." That ship had been in the harbour
of Freetown and will be returning there this next month. She told
us of the staggering number of amputees caused by rebel activity. When
they catch a person, male or female, they cut off their feet with a
machete, so that they will be unable to escape. Those who live and come
to the free medical clinic need operations on their feet, because the
mangling from the machete cuts makes them unsuitable for the wearing of
a prosthesis. If the persons
caught are of voting age, their hands are cut off so they cannot vote
against the rebels, thus aiding them in their quest to overtake the
government. Yet, like the rich man who doesn’t see the beggar outside
of his gate, we do not see or even hear about these tragedies. The truth is that in
every culture and in every age, there have been people who have been
exploited. One of the ways in which they have been able to cope is to
have faith in a hereafter, where their tragic situation in this life
will be bettered. A religion's eschatology says volumes about who
its constituents are. The slaves in the south were sustained by their
spirituals. Burdened by oppressive masters and harsh conditions,
they sang “Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Coming for to Carry me home.”
Our scripture
passage is constructed like a three-act play. Act One is a tableau that
tells a story and makes a point. The rich man is adorned
elaborately, and dines with the best that can be purchased.
Lazarus is so hungry he eats the bread that falls from the table, and
he is so weak he cannot drive off the scavenger dogs that showed more
compassion than the rich man. The point is
made. Wealth is not necessarily evil, but it is filled with
temptations, which are very hard to resist. On the other hand,
poverty is not a virtue, but it has fewer temptations. The rich man may
well have been a generous benefactor to many causes in his community;
we don’t know. He is not criticized in this passage for being
stingy; he is criticized because he doesn’t even see Lazarus at his
gate. It is like supporting the needy at First United on Hastings
Street, which is laudable, but failing to see the equally desperate
needs right here in Squamish.
Act Two in our
apocryphal drama has heaven and hell assembled on one small stage. Both
characters from Act One have died, but their situation has reversed
itself from Act One. And in this act, the actors speak. The rich
man, in his torment looks up and sees Lazarus in the bosom of
Abraham. "Father Abraham," he cries, "Send Lazarus to dip his
finger in water and cool the end of my tongue." Though he is in
torment, he still sees Lazarus as one who can be ordered about- send
Lazarus.
Abraham says to the rich man "You had all of the advantages in your
life and you squandered them all on sumptuous living and an endless
line of possessions. The time of penitence is past, the gulf cannot be
bridged, and there can be no more joy."
Quickly, we are
ushered to Act Three. It begins with Dives saying to Abraham "I
have five brothers who are still alive. Send someone to warn them. They
will repent if someone from the dead goes and tells them what it is
like."
Abraham denies the request, saying "They already know the way of true
life. Moses and the prophets have made the way clear." In our
day, we would say Jesus has shown the way and the saints have
demonstrated the validity of the way of Jesus; that is evidence enough.
Rightly
understood, the Christian religion is a call to respond to the love of
God as revealed in Jesus. It is a response because Christian ethics
can, as Martin Luther stated, be another attempt to get God on or side,
when all along God is on our side. Christian love and response are also
greater than humanitarian love, helpful as that might be. William
Willimon, one of my mentors, formerly of Duke university and now a
Bishop in the United Methodist Church puts it this way in his great
book, “The Gospel for The person who has Everything.”
“The Christian
does not love his or her neighbour because the neighbour is a nice
person or because the
neighbour deserves love or because the neighbour
returns love; the Christian loves in response to the love with which
God has loved him or her. The Christian loves first because of what he
or she believes about God, not because of what she or he loves about
humanity. That is why Christian love is more persistent and more
radical than mere humanitarian love. Christian love is more than a
feeling. We know how notoriously fickle feelings are. Nowhere in the
Bible is love described as a feeling. Love, in the Biblical sense is an
activity, a decision, a response, something you decide to de because of
what you know about God.”
(Willimon, The Gospel For The Person Who Has
Everything, Judson Press. Page 70)
As the rich man
in our story found out, decisions can come too late. The truth is that
we cannot expect people to become Christians by beating them on the
head with how bad they are, or bringing them to their knees and
stripping them of human dignity, and then insisting that they act like
mature, responsible human beings. That type of evangelizing creates
dependent believers. You cannot tell a
person about what he or she ought to be without first discussing what a
person is. My preaching teacher in my Doctoral program at
McCormick Seminary in Chicago put it this way: "People are tired of
being should upon."
"Send my brothers
someone from the dead to warn them" asked the rich man. "There’s
already enough evidence," said Abraham. "If they haven’t repented by
now, they won’t because of an appearance." That’s how the
Christian way is. I am tired of self- righteous preachers telling
folks how wrong they are, how miserable they are, and how they need to
accept the Jesus that they speak of and be saved. I am sick of
religious leaders talking of the love of Jesus Christ while they
campaign against people who are different than they are; remember, the
Ku Klux Klan calls themselves a Christian organization. I was
horrified when a few years ago, a minister from Emporia Kansas set up a
microphone and signs across the street from a funeral home, to taunt
the family and friends of a young gay man who was being remembered
after he had been beaten to death by two male gay-bashers who left him
hanging on a barbed wire fence. No wonder some people have little to do
with the Christian faith.
But I love the
evidence that I see right here in this Church. I see it in the
caring that occurs when one is sick or bereaved. I see it in the
ladies who come and package the food that we distribute during the
week. I see it in the lives of those who package food stuff for the
food bank that meets in our Trinity Hall, and in the people who appear
to run the Soup Kitchen every Tuesday and Thursday. I see it in the
teachers who are dedicated in teaching neighbourhood children who have
no religious memory, and no training in how to conduct themselves while
in Church. I see it and hear of it in the unsung, quiet and
unannounced contacts that are made week by week with those who are in
need or unable to be active. I see evidence
in those who mow the grass here at the Church, or make repairs, or come
here to sing or play or clean. There is plenty of evidence here
for people to determine that a life of faith and service is a life of
meaning and purpose. Having someone appear from the dead will not be
more convincing. Our lives, our daily lives are our witness.
So we seek to
serve this area. We seek to respond to need. It is not
judgmental. Jesus never judged people before he aided them. We
serve because of what we know about God as revealed to us through
Jesus. We serve because we know people right here in this congregation
whose lives have been radically turned around because of faith in them
by others, which is often a precursor to their accepting the love of
God.
Don’t look for more evidence! Stop waiting for some miracle to
truly convince you. Look around and see: the fields are ready for
harvest!
Once upon a time,
there was a rich person who lived in a lovely house in Garibaldi
Highlands. He lived well, he ate well and- well, you go home and finish
the story!