Message for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C (9/25/2022)
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Luke 16:19-31
“[God] has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; [God] has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”[1]
That’s the prophetic song Mary sings when she shares the news of Jesus’ conception with Elizabeth in the first chapter of Luke, and that’s the refrain that rings in our ears as we watch Jesus’ life and ministry unfold. So, maybe we shouldn’t be taken aback by the starkness of his parable in our Gospel from Luke today. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised at the divine reversal: “[The rich man] 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.’ 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.’”
“[God] has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; [God] has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”
Incidentally, I don’t take this parable literally, as if it were some kind of blueprint for the afterlife. That would be a strange kind of grace. But, neither do I let Jesus’ colorful storytelling take the edge off his teaching; to be clear, the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is a burning indictment of inequality and neglect in this life. And, although it’s good news for the poor – precisely the good news Jesus intends to deliver[2] – it’s not-so-good news for those of us who are more like the rich man than we are like Lazarus. I may not be draped in luxury, but make no mistake, since I have more than I need, this parable implicates me.
When we hear this story, we’re likely to focus our attention primarily on Lazarus’ poverty and isolation, and for good reason. But this time through, consider also the rich man’s poverty and isolation. It’s not only his condition in the afterlife that we ought to grieve, but also the condition of his life lived behind a closed gate.
The barrier between rich and poor is this parable’s fundamental tragedy. In the afterlife, a “great chasm” is fixed between Hades and the bosom of Abraham “so that those who might want to pass” from one place to the other “cannot do so.” But, that chasm is simply a narrative extension of the gap that exists between the rich man and Lazarus in life. Languishing just outside the rich man’s home, Lazarus might as well be as far removed as Martha’s Vineyard is from Texas.
For obvious reasons, that’s bad for Lazarus. He stands in for the multitudes in every time and place who are deprived of their share of the world’s abundance, all those who go without needed medical care, for instance, or who wonder where they’ll get their next meal.
But, the social distance between rich and poor is also bad for the rich man. Counting on his surplus, and separating himself from someone who might otherwise share it, he cuts himself off from the fullness of life that is found only in relationship, both with God, the source of all good things, and with others. By locking himself inside his gate with his riches, he becomes a sort of prisoner.
As do we when we take steps, either individually or collectively, to distance ourselves from unwanted others. From segregation to white flight, from gated communities to private associations, from subtle neglect to overt exclusion, we have a propensity to avoid people whose presence somehow threatens our sense of security or comfort. If they’re out of sight, then they’re out of mind.
But, those unwanted others are never out of God’s sight, never out of sight in Holy Scripture. Our Second Reading from First Timothy, for instance, has a word for those who, like the rich man in Jesus’ parable, might be tempted to turn their backs on the world: “As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.”
So that they may take hold of the life that really is life. That promise is at the heart of the matter. Discipleship is a call to material sharing, yes, but also to more than just material sharing. It’s a call to relationship, to communion, and thus to truly abundant life. Recall that the disciples on their way to Emmaus perceive the living Christ through his act of accompaniment and their offer of hospitality. Their hearts are burning as he walks beside them and opens the scriptures to them; then they invite him to dinner, and he becomes known to them in the breaking of the bread. “Perhaps if the rich man had tended Lazarus’s needs and invited him to share a meal,” one interpreter reflects, “he too would have understood the Scriptures and recognized in [Lazarus] the Lord who had always been a stranger to him.”[3]
Friends, there doesn’t need to be a chasm between rich and poor, insider and outsider. To quote Dr. Bernice King, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “we all have the responsibility [and I would add the privilege] to lift as we climb. We are all interrelated as much as we may act otherwise. Do well by others and you will in turn do well to yourself.”[4] Despite our impulse to go it alone, in other words, God richly provides all that we need to go together.[5] Like the rich man’s brothers, we have Moses and the prophets. And what’s more, we have Jesus, who overcomes death to give us the hope of life that really is life. We have God’s good gifts in abundance. And finally, inevitably, we have each other.
[1] Luke 1:52-53.
[2] Luke 4:18.
[3] R. Alan Culpepper, The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX, 320.
[4] Facebook post, July 7th, 2022.
[5] See Kendra A. Mohn, www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-26-3/commentary-on-luke-1619-31-8.
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