Caitlin Trussell with Augustana Lutheran Church on September 25, 2016
[sermon begins after the Bible reading]
Luke 16:19-31 There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24 He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ 25 But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ 27 He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ 29 Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ 30 He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
[sermon begins]
The first thing to note about this parable is that it validates dogs’ reputations for giving unconditional love. That dogs show up in a parable should come as no surprise to Coloradans. There are so many dogs that each household could have two if they were spread out evenly.[1] The dogs in the parable nurse Lazarus’ wounds and likely keep him company. If anyone is looking for a theology of dogs – there you go. Jesus gives them airtime…and in the gravitas of a parable, no less.
The second thing to note about this parable and parables in general is that they are generally considered exhortative, not predictive. Many a Bible reader has attempted to predict and describe the afterlife based on this parable and other choice verses. More than one Bible scholar would invite us to resist this impulse to predict and describe.[2] Rather, we can hear this as an exhortation by Jesus which means there’s dire urgency that requires action now, here, in the present.
For the entire gospel of Luke, Jesus increases the intensity around caring for those who are suffering. Time and again Jesus is either easing someone’s suffering himself or talking to his disciples about it. Jesus also ratchets up his challenge about money, about how money can create distance between the moneyed people and the people who don’t have any money. The parable today is a case in point.
The only thing the rich man and Lazarus have in common is proximity to the gate. The rich man is walking inside it and Lazarus is lying outside it. The gate binds them together and yet they are worlds apart. The contrast between the two men is stark. The rich man is covered with purple and linen. Lazarus is covered with sores. The rich man feasts sumptuously while Lazarus longs to satisfy his hunger with food that falls from the rich man’s table. Jesus problem with the rich man doesn’t seem to be his wealth. It seems to be with the rich man’s indifference as evidenced by Lazarus’s continued suffering at the gate.
If Facebook emoticons are any indication, people are moved by stories of people spontaneously helping people. Starbucks just set up a media company led by a former Washington Post senior editor. This company will focus on “stories featuring Americans who have inspired and shown extraordinary measures of compassion and citizenship in their own lives.”[3] Humans seem to be hard-wired to respond with deep emotion particularly when someone risks something to help another person. On the flip-side, there’s deep offense when someone doesn’t. Jesus’ audience of disciples and Pharisees likely share these very human reactions.
Last week, Pastor Ann and I spent some time worshiping and swapping stories with clergy colleagues. Augustana is one of 166 congregations in the Rocky Mountain Synod of ELCA Lutheran Christians. The Synod is made up of El Paso Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. The bishop convenes us for Theological Conference every fall. This year we had the privilege of hearing from Andy Root, Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary.[4] Dr. Root is convinced that the church is called to engage deeply with people’s stories. Not to offer solutions to someone’s deep pain but to be present in the face of that pain.
At the same time, Dr. Root was telling story after story of his own and other people’s as examples of being present when someone is feeling deep pain. There was one story that came alive quietly for part of the room. Dr. Root was going into detail about a wife and mother of two babies who had to identify the body of her husband at the morgue. Some of us were sitting around a colleague whose husband died suddenly several years ago. She too had to identify her husband in a morgue. She sat quietly with her hand over her eyes as she listened to the story with the rest of us. The colleague next to her put a hand on her back and continued to sit with her.
Similarly, there are some stories that hit deeply this past week. It’s one thing to talk about someone dying in the abstract and it’s quite another to witness someone’s death – either in person or recorded. As a country, we’re trying to talking about these deaths as a racial abstraction when for many people these deaths are real blood on the ground. After reading and watching and reading more, I’m not sure what we’re going to do as a people. What I am sure about is that indifference to the pain of our black brothers and sisters as well as the fear of police officers is not an option for the church.
With these large scale human issues, helplessness can immobilize people from responding. Jesus’ brings it down to two people – the rich man and Lazarus. The chasm that separates them is paper thin in life and cavernous in death. Let’s look at how this parable ends. Father Abraham says to the rich man, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”[5] Luke’s audience for this parable would be in on the joke as they listened to this end of the parable because they know the end of the story.[6]
At the end of the gospel of Luke, Jesus is executed on a cross, dies and is buried.[7] Three days later, at early dawn on the first day of the week, the women arrive at Jesus’ tomb to find it empty – no body to identify.[8] At first, their grief and terror know no bounds. Then they are reminded of Jesus’ words to them while he was with them – “Remember how he told you that the son of man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.” Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women go tell the apostles only to be told that it is an “idle tale.”[9]
When Jesus finally appears more widely to his disciples, he has this to say…
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
Can you hear the bookend with the parable there? Father Abraham invokes Moses and the prophets in the parable. Jesus, after his resurrection, invokes their fulfillment and says that forgiveness is for all the nations. In the simplest of terms, Jesus on the cross hangs over and against the parable… There…Is…No…Chasm.
My friends, we have a God who goes to hell and back in the death and resurrection of Jesus. We are reminded by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesian church that:
“God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.[10]
A God who goes to hell and back for you…and for the nations; with you and with the nations. Jesus death on the cross is where the story of our deepest pain is held and met by God. Not only our pain but the pain of the world because darkness is not dark to God. [11] Darkness is where light is born.[12] As Church we are alive in Christ as we hear and proclaim this good news. This is our call to action through easy indifference, by our baptisms through the cross of Christ. Thanks be to God.
[1] Dogs Vs. Cat Map of the United States. November 2, 2015. Brilliant Maps: Making Sense of the World, One Map at a Time. Link: http://brilliantmaps.com/dog-vs-cat/
[2] Rolf Jacobson, Karoline Lewis, and Matthew Skinner. Working Preacher podcast on Luke 16:19-31 for Sunday, September 25, 2016. http://www.workingpreacher.org/brainwave.aspx?podcast_id=795
[3] Aamer Madhani, “Starbucks CEO Dipping Toe Into Media Content” USA Today, September 7, 2016. http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/09/07/starbucks-ceo-dipping-toe-into-media-content/89922526/
[4] Andrew Root, Biography and Work, Luther Seminary. https://www.luthersem.edu/faculty/fac_home.aspx?contact_id=aroot
[5] Luke 16:31
[6] A word of thanks to Dr. Matt Skinner and Karoline Lewis, Luther Seminary, who makes the connection between the parable and the end of Luke on the Working Preaching podcast for September 25, 2016.
[7] Luke 23:1-56
[8] Luke 24:1-12
[9] Luke 24:11
[10] Ephesians 2:4
[11] Psalm 139:12
[12] Genesis 1:1-5
Hymn sung together following the sermon:
ELW 655 Son of God, Eternal Savior
Son of God, eternal Savior,
Source of life and truth and grace,
Son of Man, whose birth among us
hallows all our human race,
you, our Head, who, throned in glory,
for your own will ever plead,
fill us with your love and pity,
heal our wrong and help our need.
As you, Lord, have lived for others
so may we for others live;
freely have your gifts been granted,
freely may your servants give.
Yours the gold and yours the silver,
yours the wealth of land and sea,
we but stewards of your bounty,
held in solemn trust will be.
Come, O Christ, and reign among us,
King of Love and Prince of Peace,
hush the storm of strife and passion,
bid its cruel discords cease;
by your patient years of toiling,
by your silent hours of pain,
quench our fevered thirst of pleasure,
shame our selfish greed of gain.
Son of God, eternal Savior,
Source of life and truth and grace,
Son of Man, whose birth among us
hallows all our human race,
by your praying, by your willing
that your people should be one,
grant, O grant our hope’s fruition:
here on earth your will be done.
Words: Somerset Corry Lowry (1855-1932), 1893
MIDI: Everton (Henry Thomas Smart (1813-1879)
