A Story that is For Us, Not Against Us

September 30, 2007

            All week long I have been wondering to myself what I was thinking when I decided to use this morning’s reading from Luke’s Gospel as the text for my message.  In more than thirty years of ministry I have successfully avoided preaching on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus!  First of all, it’s hardly believable.  Sure, the parables of Jesus are designed to undercut our conventional wisdom but this one goes too far.  A rich man goes to hell while the poor sick man he has ignored goes to heaven and then the rich man keeps badgering the poor man while flames are scorching the bottom of his feet – no way – not going to happen!  Which leads to the second reason I have avoided this parable – most of us believe, in our heart of hearts, that we live in a “you-get-what-you-deserve” world.  There is a reason the richer get richer and the poor get poorer.  Obviously the rich man must have been doing everything right in God’s eyes and poor Lazarus must have been blowing it big time!  And finally, if this parable is believable then this must be a story that is against us because, when we are honest with ourselves, we recognize that we have a lot more in common with the rich man than we do with Lazarus.

            But my job is to proclaim the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Is it possible that this is a story that is for us, not against us?   We have to admit that sometimes it is hard to read the Gospels and come to any other conclusion except that those of us with wealth are in big trouble.  We try, but it is especially hard to read the Gospel of Luke and feel okay about our pension plans, savings accounts, and comfortable lifestyles.  Luke starts out proclaiming the coming of a very different Messiah.  We hear Mary announce that “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.”   Read a few pages further and we find Jesus warning those with wealth “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.  Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.”  And read just a few more pages and we come face-to-face with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.  How is this possibly good news?  How can it be a story that is for us and not against us?

            Michael Turner, a United Methodist pastor brings the parable to life for those of us living in the United States in 2007, telling it in a new way… “There was a rich man.  He ate steak and lobster every day, wore nice suits, Tommy Hilfiger pajamas, and silk GAP boxers.  He and his wife both drove Lexus SUVs, and lived in a large house with a couple of plasma  high-definition TVs with all the channels you can think of.  He had three sets of dishes: everyday, fine china, and even a set of Christmas dishes. (Doesn’t sound rich to you?  Well, he may not be, but he’s rich to 90 percent of the world.” )

You see why I have stayed away from this parable all these years.  It is way too easy to offend people who I don’t mean to offend.  Whenever a preacher starts talking about anything that, in any way, shape, or form, has to do with our wealth, it’s considered meddling!  But let’s not tune out yet.  Remember, I believe that this is a story that is for us, not against us.

The modern day version of the parable continues: “At the end of his driveway, there was this vagrant named Lazarus.  His name means “God has helped,” but you can’t tell it by looking at him.  He is emaciated.  Dirty, tattered clothes.  Dark skin covered in open sores.  Smells to high heavens. He sits at the end of the rich man’s driveway hoping that one day the rich man will take pity on him and bring him some table scraps, leftovers he’ll never eat anyway – only store in the refrigerator for a couple of days to throw away later.” 

Now, I’ve got to interrupt the story at this point and say that I can’t believe the rich man would have allowed this to happen without calling Cahoots to come and move Lazarus off his property but the we have to remember that the parables of Jesus go against what we might expect in order to make a point.

Okay, back to the modern-day version: “The amount [the rich man] spends on one month’s cell phone bill could buy Lazarus plenty of medicine for his oozing sores.  With just the money he pays for the extra channels on his cable, the rich man could easily provide fresh, hot meals every day for Lazarus.  At the very least, he could wheel his garbage can to the road for pickup a little early and let Lazarus rummage through it.  But he doesn’t.  Instead he refuses to even acknowledge Lazarus’ presence…

So far, the story is nothing spectacular.  It is as one would expect.  The rich man enjoying his riches.  The poor man tormented by his hunger, his sores, his plight… Even Lazarus’ death is no surprise.  We don’t know if it was hunger or infection or some other ailment that finished him off, but it’s no surprise…

But then the story gets more interesting.  We expect Lazarus to die any time, but not the rich man.  He’s got great insurance, the best medical care money can buy, and a pricey membership at the gym.  Yet he dies just like Lazarus.  For the first time they are equals… only they don’t remain equals.  In a strange twist of fate, it turns out… in the afterlife Lazarus gets carted off to live in comfort while the rich man is tormented in a flaming abyss.”

Does anyone here wonder how this could possibly be good news for us.  If a story about spending eternity in a flaming abyss isn’t against us, I don’t know what is!  But Jesus didn’t end the parable here, so we’ve got to keep going: “You would think that agonizing flames would be enough to humble [the rich man], at least a little.  But, with the same air of superiority he exhibited in his earthly life, he, who never lifted a finger to help Lazarus, called out to father Abraham, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me.  Send little Lazarus to dip his finger in water and cool my tongue.  It’s hot as Hades down here.’”

A little aside here might help us understand why Father Abraham shows up in the parable.  To a faithful Jew living in Jesus’ day “the bosom of Abraham” was the place of highest bliss.  To be in “the bosom of Abraham”  was to be in paradise.  To be in heaven was to be with Abraham.

So the rich man calls out to Father Abraham only to have him respond, “Sorry.  If you will remember, during your lifetime you lived in the lap of luxury and comfort while Lazarus lived in squalor and misery.  Now he is going to be comforted here with me and you are going to agonize there.  There’s no undoing it now!  But the rich man is not used to taking ‘no’ for an answer, but he can tell there will be no persuading Father Abraham.  Perhaps, though, he can have Lazarus run a different kind of errand. ‘Then, father, I beg you.  Send little Lazarus back to my five brothers to warn them so they don’t follow in my footsteps.’”

And if we’ve been day dreaming and wishing this story would end so we can go home, now’s the time to pay attention.  This just might be the only clue we have to understanding this parable.  Father Abraham responds to the rich man plea to warn his five brothers  saying, “They have the Scriptures, Moses, and the Prophets.  Let them listen to them.”  But the rich man says, “I know them too well.  They won’t.  But if somebody comes back from the dead, they’ll listen.”  And the parable comes to an end as Father Abraham has the last word, “If they won’t listen to the Scriptures, neither will they pay attention if somebody is raised from the dead.”*

Now I’m pretty sure that many of you are looking at your watches and saying to yourself that Debbie is usually done by now and this still doesn’t sound anything like good news for us.  Where can this possibly be going?  And I just want to remind you that when I started I told you I’ve avoided this passage for more than 30 years!  Maybe I should have skipped it again, but I am convinced that this can be a story that is for us, not against us. 

One thing that has always made sense to me is this – anytime we read a parable of Jesus, we should look for ourselves in the parable.  We should become one of the characters in the story. The prodigal son… the older brother… the one given ten talents… the one given only one… the lost sheep… the religious folks who crossed the road to avoid the man who was left for dead… the good Samaritan.  We must find ourselves in the story and then listen for the good news… for God’s word speaking to us.  This morning, I invite us all to be one of the five brothers.  Don’t put yourself in the place of the rich man.  Sure there are many times when our over-consumptive habits keep us from experiencing God’s grace but this parable doesn’t say anything about riches and heaven… about a camel and the eye of a needle.  And don’t put yourself in the place of Lazarus.  There are very few of us here this morning who have ever experienced the plight of Lazarus.  Don’t even put yourself in the place of Father Abraham.  We are in no position to decide who is in and who is out when it comes to living with God.  Instead, let us be the five brothers who still have a chance to live as God is calling us to live. 

This is Good News.  It’s not too late!  You see, we, too, have been given the scriptures.  We, too, know the story of Moses.  Many of us have even read the prophets.  But most importantly we have been given Jesus.  We are hearing this story as followers of the Risen Christ.   We know everything… we have everything… that is, everything we need to live faithfully in God’s world today.  All that remains to be seen is how we will choose to follow Jesus with our lives.  Like the five brothers, we still have a chance to live as God is calling us to live.  God revealed Godself in Jesus Christ and in our forbearers in faith.  God continues to reveal Godself in the lives and witness of people of faith the world round.  This is the good news.  This is why this story is for us and not against us.  Like the five brothers, it’s not too late for us.  We still have a chance to live as God is calling us to live. 

The truth is, at least some of the time, we are living as God is calling us to live.  We are making a commitment to live with compassion toward all of our neighbors.  We are seeking justice for all of God’s world.  Following Christ’s lead, we are learning that we do not have to be satisfied by our wealth, living as victims of our own way of life.  We are learning that we do not have to cut ourselves off from our neighbors, convincing ourselves that they are getting what they deserve as we defend our own good fortune as God’s blessing.  The reason this story is for us and not against us is because it’s not over yet.  In Jesus Christ, we have a thousand second chances.  The story is not over yet but the ending is up to us.  

*From “Tables Turned” – a sermon by Michael Turner in “Pulpit Resource”

**Many ideas for this message also came from Barbara Brown Taylor’s book Bread of Angels