Sunday October 15th 2007

"THE TIME IS NOW" Sermon preached by Judy Chapman Scarboro United Church

September 30, 2007

Scripture: Psalm 91: 1-6; 14-16; 1 Timothy 6: 6-19; Luke 16: 19-31

The story of the rich man and Lazarus is recorded in scripture only in the gospel according to Luke. Scholars know, however, that it was part of the folklore of first century Judaism because the story appears in others sources from that same timeframe. Perhaps Jesus took a story that was commonly told and gave it a new twist. And I will tell you what the twist was shortly.

But I want to say first, that the story of Lazarus is hard for most of us to hear, because most of us in this part of the world would be relating to the rich man rather than to the poor fellow who was covered with sores and begging at the rich man's door. We hear this parable and know that it is an indictment on the blindness that riches can cause. We know in our hearts that we, too, have been often blind to the plight of those who suffer. We know that the parable declares our guilt before God.

Yet, interestingly enough, it isn't guilt that the rich man expresses. Nowhere in the story does he express his sorrow for having been blind to Lazarus's plight. What he expresses instead is his own pain. When he sees Abraham with Lazarus at his side, he asks Abraham to take pity on him and send Lazarus to dip his finger in some water and cool his tongue because he is in great pain in the fire. You will notice that his attitude toward Lazarus has not changed. He never addresses Lazarus directly, but rather speaks to Abraham, the big name, the famous one, asking him to send Lazarus. He still sees Lazarus as a servant - someone who is there to comfort him, someone who is not quite worthy to be spoken to as an equal.

Abraham responds to the rich man's request for comfort by saying that he has had his opportunity to enjoy all the good things in life, and now it is Lazarus' turn to enjoy the good things. And besides, he says, there is a deep pit - a great chasm - between the two of you that cannot be bridged. Apparently, it's too late to bridge the gap when you're dead!

Too late! Too late! Too late!

Okay, okay, maybe it is too late for me, the rich man says, but I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father's house, because I have five brothers and I want them to be warned.

Now, here is the twist. In the folk tale Abraham does send Lazarus to warn the others. But the way Jesus or his disciples tell the story, Abraham says, "What for? They already know what God requires. They have the law and the prophets. They can't plead ignorance of God's will any more than you can."

"But wait a minute," pleads the rich man, "if someone were to come back from the dead and go to them, surely then they would turn from their sins."

"No," says Abraham, "even then they would find a reason to disbelieve."

This may reflect the experience of the early church community who found many people resistant to the notion of a risen Christ.

I will also remind you here that this is a parable, a story meant to convey a lesson, and therefore it is not to be taken literally. And yet there is truth in it. I don't want to explain it away, because it paints a powerful image for us - a vivid picture of reversal of fortune that is sobering in its completeness. I will say this, though. This parable tells us less about the afterlife than it tells us about life in this world.

There is a huge chasm between the rich and the poor in this life - and it is widening, we are told. We have knowledge of how to live so that the chasm will not exist; yet we lack the will to act upon it. We still see riches as our ticket to the good life. And there is no question that riches can buy us some pretty wonderful things. Money allows us to do many things that are both pleasant and good for us. For example, vacations and travel can enhance our mental health and our knowledge of the world. Good food improves our health and allows us to enjoy life more fully. Advanced education improves our minds, our communities, and our ability to contribute in many ways to our society. Money allows us to do these things. Money is good; it gives us power to make changes.

It isn't money that gives us trouble; it is either the lack of money or the love of money that gives us trouble.

On the most basic level money gives us power to survive. Warm clothes and a roof over our heads in the wintertime, keep us comfortable and rested so we can carry on with our lives despite the cold weather. However, those who lack money, who sleep on our streets in the wintertime, suffer immeasurably. Those who sleep in shelters are spared the cold nights, but the days can be long and cold for them, too. And just being in a crowded shelter at night exposes them to other kinds of risk and hardship. A lack of money can mean big trouble.

Yet according to the author of the letter to Timothy, it is more likely to be the love of money that gets us into trouble. In fact, he describes the love of money as the source of all kinds of evil. He says, "Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull them down to ruin and destruction . . . some have been so eager to have [riches] that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows."

How many of us have been so busy making money that we have neglected our faith? Perhaps there are some here this morning who can say that they have never neglected their faith - and my hat is off to them.

But is there anyone here who has never known the temptation to be rich? Our culture bombards us with messages that assure us that whatever problem we have, there is a solution that money can buy. You know the ad, "Some things are priceless, but for everything else, there is MasterCard."

The problem with riches is that it affects our eyesight. Money should come with a warning label: "Too much of this product can lead to blindness." Because it seems that the more money we accumulate, the less we can bear to even look upon the poor of the earth. We fail to see in the poor our common humanity. They become invisible to us.

I discovered my own blindness when I went walking in downtown Calgary with a person who had first-hand experience of homelessness. He noticed people who barely registered in my peripheral vision - and he acknowledged them - greeted them - as if they were fellow travellers, sharing the same journey, looking for the same ports of refuge along the way. It was a humbling experience for me to have my eyes opened in that way. I suddenly saw people who had been pretty much invisible to me - much as Lazarus seemed to be invisible to the rich man in the parable.

Yet, I want to say that this parable, and this sermon, is not about guilt. It is about spiritual principles and the regret that we may experience if we don't grasp them fully in our lifetime. What the parable says, and what I want to say clearly, is that we don't want to miss the opportunity to do what is right and good in this life. Because now is our chance. It is too late when we die - too late to change what our lives have been about. The rich man was about distancing himself from the poor. And surprise, surprise, in the afterlife there was that huge gap that he himself had created by his own actions - a gap that could no longer be crossed - because it's too late when we die. Now is the time to act.

We don't want to be saying at the eleventh hour, "If only I had known, if only I had taken this stuff seriously. If only someone had come back from the other side to tell me to do things differently while I still had the chance." Well, we are telling you now. Now is your chance. The time is now.

Years ago I copied out a saying that inspired me - a saying that pretty much sums up this parable. It goes like this:

"Without distinction, without calculation, without procrastination, love. . . I will pass through this [life] but once. Any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."

That seems to be what Jesus' parable was saying. Pay attention now to those people in your life who need your kindness. Do it now, so that later you will not regret those missed opportunities.

There is another principle at work in this parable, too.

The blessings of life flow to us, and are meant to flow through us for our own good and for the good of others around us. The rich man in Jesus' parable didn't keep those blessings flowing through him. Lazarus was brought to his door each day, hoping to eat the bits of food that fell from his table - the leftovers, the crumbs, whatever little bits might come his way. Not much flowed from that rich man's table - only a few little crumbs.

Life in general suggests that flowing is preferable to stagnation. Pools of water that have no outlet become stagnant and scummy. Within our own bodies, we want the blood and fluids, air and energy, to travel freely, without obstruction. We try to avoid foods that cause a build-up of the plaque that clogs our arteries. We eat moderately to avoid an accumulation of stored energy. And we exercise to increase the efficiency or our cardiovascular and lymphatic systems, as well as our muscles, making sure that blood, oxygen, body fluids, and energy all flow freely within our bodies.

In the natural world we are increasingly aware of the cycling and recycling that goes on. The leaves of autumn will gradually flow into the soil of next year's springtime. And in our cities we are learning that we have to find ways of recycling the vast amounts of garbage that our society is prone to throw away, or face the unhealthy accumulation of waste material that threatens to choke our land and water and atmosphere. (By the way, if that topic captures your imagination, be sure to read Charles MacGregor's article in the Uniter about garbage.)

In general, all the indicators point to the principle that excessive accumulation is not a good thing.

We don't have to be extremely rich in the financial sense to be subject to this principle that Jesus was applying in his story of Lazarus. There are many ways in which each of us is blessed. Many blessings have come to us; they are meant to benefit us - and others - but we have to release them for that to happen. Jesus never faulted the rich man for being rich. That wasn't the point at all. The man's tragedy was that all his blessings got clogged. They never moved beyond his household. Perhaps he was generous to his family; we are not told that one way or the other. But we are told that he didn't reach out even to the poor man at his door.

Blessings that came to the rich man never became blessings through him. There was no flow through. To put it in biblical terms, he wasn't practicing good stewardship. What was only loaned to him, he thought he owned. He became a stagnant pool instead of a flowing river of God's blessing.

The Letter to Timothy also says that the rich are not to be proud, nor are they to put their hope in uncertain things like riches. Rather we are to put our hope in God, who generously gives us everything for our enjoyment. The writer says, "Command [the rich] to do good, to be rich in good works, and to be generous and ready to share with others."

I have to say that I was very aware yesterday of how rich this church is in good works and generosity. Not only was there a big oatcake bee happening in the kitchen, there were people painting next door at the manse, a few of our folk were over at McDougall United at the Presbytery Learning Day, others were gathering materials to work on Morris' basement in preparation for the Simon Family who will be arriving soon, and Melinda had a big stack of Uniters ready for distribution this morning. Others were making preparations behind the scenes yesterday and this morning so that things might run smoothly and hospitably for all of us today.

We are rich, indeed, in good works and generosity!

I said earlier that this parable and this sermon is not about guilt but about spiritual principles and the regret we may experience if we don't grasp them fully in our lifetime. So what are those spiritual principles? There are three that I can identify:

1) Our present actions are creating our future reality.

2) NOW is the time to act! Regret is about missed opportunities.

3) God's blessings are meant to flow through us to those in need.

And so I say to you, continue to practice good works and generosity because the task is always the same: reach out to those beyond your immediate circle - expand your heart, share your blessings, and you will be richly blessed in ways that have nothing at all to do with money.

May it be so for all of us! Amen.