Truth or Consequence
Micah 6:6-8
Luke 16:19-31
Not many make the cover of Time magazine, and only a few ever see the initials C.E.O. engraved above their names. A handful may make it to the White House, but most of us live common ordinary everyday lives. Our jobs are defined by routine.
For the most part, we don’t believe we’re anything special, so we sometimes assume what we do and how we live, in the greater scheme of things, are pretty insignificant. It doesn’t really matter. Today’s scripture demonstrates that what we do does matter to God. In fact, it has a consequence that can be eternal.
Lord, we live in fearful times where events beyond our control influence our calendars and balance sheets. In uncertain days fear often forms our future and we retrench and pull back. You have said, “Perfect love casts out all fear.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--> Surround us with your perfect love that our fears may not control us, but that we might overcome them; through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
The story reads like the beginning of Dickens’ Christmas Carol when Jacob Marley came back from the grave, as a ghost wrapped in chains forged by his life of greed, to warn his business partner, Ebenezer Scrooge that he better change his wicked ways before it is too late. Dickens creates the ghosts of Christmas’, past, present, and future to lead Scrooge to repentance. It works, of course, and Scrooge hardened heart is softened and he redeems his profligate life by rescuing Tiny Tim and paying for his operation. It has a happy ending, which is why it is revisited every Christmas season.
But, what ever happened to Jacob Marley? The last we see of him, he flies out of Scrooge’s window to forever wander the nether world as a spirit bound by chains forged from his own sin. For him it was too late. He lived and died grasping for more so ended up with nothing but regret for a life misspent. That is where this story echoes Jesus’ parable.
“"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[2]<!--[endif]--> How he got that way Jesus did not say, but there’s no indication it was through ill-gotten gain. Jesus does not tell us he was a crook or a drug lord. He may have just been frugal and hardworking and lucky so wealth followed. What matters in this story is not how he got rich, but rather what he does with what he has.
One of the things he clearly does not do is care for, or even pay the slightest attention to a beggar named Lazarus who was plopped unceremoniously outside of his security gate. Lazarus is his polar opposite. He is “homeless, poor, hungry, and covered with sores”. It got so bad even the dogs “would come and lick from his sores.”
Now, Lazarus was not holding a sign, “Down with the Rich” or pleading for socialist reform. All he wanted was table scraps, but there is no indication he got any from the rich man. He does not respond to this need in any obvious way. So, we don’t know if he thought Lazarus to be lazy. We don’t know if he thought Lazarus should just pull himself up by his bootstraps. We don’t know if he thought Lazarus was just getting what he deserved. The text doesn’t say.
Because of the absence of any reaction, I’m inclined to think that Lazarus did not even rise to the level of meriting his pity or disdain. I don’t think he even saw him. Lazarus didn’t register on his radar screen. He was not a person whom you like or dislike. Lazarus was to him more an object than a person with hopes and dreams, thoughts and feelings. He was like a mud puddle that you step over without thinking.
The reason I say that is because of the scene that followed. The rich man died. Lazarus died. Lazarus went to heaven. The rich man did not, and this he did not foresee. His financial plan went well into his retirement years, but not beyond. He had prepared for the golden years, but not for those that are eternal. He never considered that the investment of his time, talent, or treasure in this life might have everlasting returns. He didn’t think his attitudes and actions in this life would matter in the next, would make a difference. His vision began and ended with his birth and death.
But, now he is in the beyond and he doesn’t like it. There are no horns or pitchforks in this picture, no cartoon characters. Hell is described in Jesus’ parable as a torment, and although there is mention of flames and a parched tongue, the real agony seems to lie in his awareness that he no longer occupies the top rung of the ladder, but has now fallen to the bottom.
Hell is hell because of great chasm that blocks him from being where he wants to be. His frustration is that he is no longer in control. He has no choice. While he was alive there was hope, a chance for repentance and so redemption. He could choose to live differently. But, now he’s stuck. In this endgame there is only a void – an emptiness created because God is absent from this condition.
He immediately appeals to a higher court for relief, but finds this judgment final. So, he lowers his sights and demands Lazarus be sent to bring him at the very least a cup of cold water.
Note, even after God’s judgment, which was pretty clear about who was deserving of heaven and hell, the rich man still tries to command. He treats Lazarus as a servant who exists only to perform a function. Even now, he still doesn’t get it. He is still oblivious as to why he is where he is and Lazarus is where Lazarus is.
His narrow vision broadens out a bit, but only a bit. When he understands that there is a chasm between heaven and hell, and that he is stuck where he is; he demands that Lazarus go back and warn his brothers, who are still alive, but only his brothers. Evidently, as far as he is concerned the rest of the world can to hell, but he does have a soft spot for his family. He’d like them to escape his fate.
When the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers; Abraham shrugs his shoulders and throws up his hands and says, “It won’t do any good.”
He knows this because Moses and the prophets have been singing this same song from day one. He knows this because Isaiah prophesied that a suffering servant would bear our grief and carry our sorrows that he would be wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, and still people didn’t see.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[3]<!--[endif]--> He knew this because Job had seen vision and said, “I know that my redeemer lives, and I shall see God”, and still people did not believe.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[4]<!--[endif]--> Abraham knew that some people will have “eyes to see and ears to hear and some will not.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[5]<!--[endif]--> Some lift their eyes to the horizon and others just stare at their feet. Some harden their hearts and like it that way, but some don’t. They do want to change, but can’t.
It is hard because the experiences of your life have shaped and formed that view. You used to be more generous, more compassionate, but too many times you’ve discovered that someone who looked like Lazarus was just running a con. You tried to help, but later found out the hard luck story was a lie and so you felt used and betrayed. Next time, you tell yourself you’ll be more careful. If you’re burned again, then the temptation is strong to just give up. Better to be safe than sorry. You just can’t tell yourself you haven’t seen what you’ve clearly seen.
I saw an example I was traveling with a group from the church I served at that time. We were in Rome right outside the Coliseum and came across a bent-over woman covered from head to toe with a ratty black shawl, leaning feebly on a cane, and holding out a beggar’s cup. She looked like a character from a Dickens novel. I thought her pitiful appearance was too perfect, but some of were reaching for some money when one of the women in our group noticed the beggar was carrying a brand new Gucci handbag that would have cost several hundred dollars. So, we put our money back and our guard up. Those who are really destitute don’t pay two hundred dollars for a purse.
Looking at life through rose-colored glasses may be foolish, but shutting yourself off like Ebenezer Scrooge can also have dire consequence. So, what can you do? What if you want to change, but can’t. What softens hardened hearts? Where does repentance come from?
It comes from the recognition that sometimes you are more like Lazarus than the rich man. We are all subject to life’s hard knocks no matter how big our investment portfolio is. Even though most of our lives most of the time more resemble the rich man than Lazarus, there are moments when we feel just as downtrodden as that beggar, times when we also have no control over our fate.
All it takes is a doctor’s dire diagnosis, or a pink slip included with your check, or a note on the mantle telling you your marriage is over. All it takes in an unexplainable depression or a bottle you just can’t seem to put down. Then you understand that you are not the “captain of your ship and the master of your fate.” Then you better empathize with those who are clawing for some scraps to sustain their lives. Then you understand some do not have the ability to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and not everyone is running a con.
Repentance comes from the recognition that you are not doing as well as you thought you were. You are not as righteous or right, not as caring or compassionate, not as close to God. This revelation, more often than not, follows some kind of personal challenge calls unto question the beliefs you once valued.
Comedian Richard Pryor got that wake-up call when he was critically burned in an accident in 1980. Appearing later on the "Johnny Carson Show," he said that when you are really hurting, money isn't important. He said, “When I was running down the street and my clothes were on fire, all that I could think to do was to call on God. I didn't call out for the Bank of America once."<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[6]<!--[endif]-->
When Jesus said, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”, even Peter who was never the sharpest knife in the drawer observed, “Who then can be saved?”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[7]<!--[endif]-->
He knew that everyone’s bottom line has meaning only in relationship to others. There will always be people who have more than you do and there will always be people who have less. Trying to figure out how much you can own and still get into heaven and how much you have to give away will befuddle even the best accountant.
Clearly, it’s not the numbers that matter, but the attitude. It is not the size of the portfolio that has value; it is the size of the heart. It is not even the magnitude of a gift given to God that is important; it is the significance of the sacrifice.<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[8]<!--[endif]-->
I believe judgment fell upon rich man not because of his wealth, but because he did not lift his eyes above his own concerns. I believe judgment fell upon him because he was blind to the opportunity for service that lay right outside his gate. I believe judgment fell upon this rich man because he was unwilling to invest in a future unclouded by fear.
That’s the key. It is fear that drives us inward and clenches our fists and builds up walls. But, the Bible says, “Perfect loves casts out all fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[9]<!--[endif]-->
Jesus Christ demonstrated that love and compassion through his life and death for anyone and everyone who has ever faced the same doubt that racked his soul at Gethsemane, or the sheer physical pain he suffered under the Good Friday lash, or the isolation he experienced on the cross when he cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[10]<!--[endif]-->
His perfect love casts out all fear. It is our love for God more than our fear of hell that will bring us into the presence of his glory – and that’s what heaven is all about.
What you do in this life does matter. It makes a difference. God remembers even small acts of kindness. As long as there is life there is hope that hard hearts can be softened and the chains of greed and self-interest are broken. So, pay attention to your checkbook and calendar and ask yourself, “Is there anything here for God?” “Is there anything here for others?” If not, ask yourself, “Why not?
Let us pray:
Long ago, the prophet asked, “What does the Lord require?” Your answer was clear; “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[11]<!--[endif]--> Grant us the vision and the will and the ability to live like that. Help us see justice, kindness and humility in our attitudes and actions so that “whatever we do in word or deed, we do in the name of Jesus Christ.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[12]<!--[endif]--> Amen.
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->
<!--[endif]-->
<!--[endif]-->
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[1]<!--[endif]--> 1 John 4:18
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[6]<!--[endif]-->Graystone, Peter: Ready Salted (Scripture Union, 1998), p. 114
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[7]<!--[endif]--> Matthew 19:24
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[9]<!--[endif]--> 1 John 4:18-19
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[10]<!--[endif]--> Mark 14:34,66 Mark 15:33
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[12]<!--[endif]--> Colossians 3:17
No comments:
Post a Comment