Sermon for 9-26

Sermon

Text: Luke 16:19-31

I figure since it is getting close to the time that stores begin to bring out their Christmas decorations that I am able to use a Christmas movie as an example.

My favorite Christmas movie is “The Muppet’s Christmas Carol.” I often find myself watching it at least a couple of times during the whole Christmas season. Most of you all know the Christmas Carol story pretty well, but to go over it quick. The Muppet’s story starts by telling of Scrooge and his previous partner’s. Scrooge’s partners, the Marley’s were dead. Scrooge however was still operating their business very ruthlessly. He kept all costs down, even denying the workers in his office heating coal. Two gentlemen come to his office looking for donations, to which Scrooge shouts at them and throws them out of the office. His nephew Fred stops by inviting him to a Christmas Party, to which he reply’s that he will be working on Christmas.

That evening after returning home and seeing the face of his dead partner in the doorknob of his house, he is visited by the two dead brother’s. They warn him that all the cruel things that they did in their lives has lead to strong iron shackles binding them in the afterlife. (In the Muppet’s version this is all told in a fun, jingle song.) Scrooge laments and pleads with them to tell him what to do in order to avoid their fate. The two brothers only tell Scrooge that he will be visited by three spirits. And they then wail them selves away.

At this fearful news, Scrooge goes to bed. He is quickly awoken by a light in his bedroom. He finds himself face to face with the Ghost of Christmas Past, a child-like spectre who takes Scrooge on a journey back through time to his youth. He recalls his early school days, during which he focused on his studies; meeting of a young woman named Belle (Meredith Braun), with whom he would later fall in love; and the end of their relationship, despite Scrooge's protests that he would marry her as soon as he feels he has enough money to provide for them, which Belle knows, given Scrooge's obsession with money, he will most likely never have. Scrooge is then returned to his bedroom, and with no wait is greeted by another spirit.

The Ghost of Christmas Present is a large, festive spirit with a booming voice who lives only for the here and now. He gives Scrooge a glimpse into the holiday celebration of others, including Bob Cratchit and his family including his crippled, ill son Tiny Tim. The Spirit also shows Scrooge his own family, who aren't above cracking jokes at Scrooge's expense.

Finally, Scrooge meets the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, a silent entity, who reveals the chilling revelation that young Tiny Tim will not survive the coming year, thanks in no small part to the impoverished existence of the Cratchit family. Furthermore, it is revealed that when Scrooge's own time has passed, others will certainly delight in his absence from the world, with local businessmen attending his funeral only for the free food and that the Laundress, undertaker and maid steal the very clothes he has slept in. Upon seeing his headstone in the cemetery, it is the final epiphany that convinces Scrooge to change his ways, and makes him vow to celebrate with his fellow man. He returns to his bedroom on Christmas Day, and Scrooge goes about the town spreading good deeds and charity. He helps the two gentlemen who ask a donation earlier in the movie giving them a large donation. Scrooge also plans a feast for Bob Cratchit and his kin, and learns to adopt the spirit of Christmas throughout the year.

In a way this story is exactly like our story, but in other ways it is very, very different. They both center around a central character, in the Christmas Carol it is Scrooge, but who is the central character in our parable? We would think that it is the rich man. In the first two verses however, we see a very different situation. The rich man is described in detail, but none of it is about who he is, but about what he has. He has rich, purple robes, the color of kings and royalty, and he feasted everyday.

We then meet a poor man, covered in sores, and hungry. But the most shocking thing is that he is given a name. This is the only time in all of Jesus’ parables that a character is given a name. This poor, ill, hungry man is given that which the rich man is not, identity. He does not speak at all during the parable, is simply a silent observer, but all action and plot surround him.

In the parable the two men quickly die and find themselves in a version of the afterlife, Lazarus with Abraham and the rich man in Hades, the Greek place of the dead. The rich man, seeing Lazarus and Abraham, yells across the chasm that separates the three of them. He yells to Abraham, not Lazarus, to have Abraham send Lazarus with a drop of water on his finger to briefly give him respite from his torment. Abraham tells him that the chasm that has been formed prevents this from happening. The rich man then pleads with Abraham to send Lazarus to the rich man’s brothers to warn them to not follow the same mistake that the rich man made. Abraham replies that they should obey the prophets and if they can’t do that a man risen from the dead will not help them. And so ends our tale.

This last Wednesday in the high school Wednesday Evening class, RE:form, we did some investigating of the Loaves and Fishes story in John. In the same way, let’s investigate this tale before us now a little deeper. Why has the rich man found himself in Hades, tormented? Is it simply because he is rich? If that is true, I fear for all of us, since we most certainly could be lumped in with him when we are compared with the rest of the world. But I don’t think it is simply the fact that he is rich. It is how he finds himself acting and where he thinks he fits because of his wealth. Not once during the whole parable does he address Lazarus directly. There is always a barrier between the two of them, his gate in this world, and the Chasm in the next. However, he does address Abraham like a peer, but assumes that because of his wealth he is greater and above Lazarus. Martin Luther believed that this is his sin.

For this rich man is not punished because he indulged in sumptuous fare and fine clothes; since many saints, kings and queens in ancient times wore costly apparel, as Solomon, Esther, David, Daniel and others; but because his heart was attached to them. sought them, trusted in and chose them, and because he found in them all his joy, delight and pleasure; and made them in fact his idols.

He has put his money and wealth as first, seeing it as what identifies and matters about people. That is why we see him described only by what he has and how he lives. Whereas Lazarus is seen as what truly matters, his true identity, given to him through God. What matters is not our wealth, but how we see ourselves and how we see those around us. Jesus is talking to the Pharisee’s in this text. Whom he describes as lovers of money and who think of themselves as the top dogs. Jesus is telling them, and us, that what truly matters is God, the God who created us in God’s image, as Children of God. All, no matter who we are, no matter what we do, no matter how we live are Children of God.

Jesus is warning us to avoid putting barriers between each other, here through means of wealth. Too often we think of only ourselves and do not remember those who are poor, overlooking them, walking past them. If we do put barriers up are we then doomed like the rich man? I don’t know, I trust in God’s mercy and grace, and believe that it is God who judges, not us. We also need to consider that we have Christ who put himself in our place, which he most certainly refers to at the end of our story. But what we do know is that we can impact the here and now, and one way to do that is to remember that most of the time, we are the rich forgetting the poor.

But I also think we can not only put ourselves as the rich man in this story. In parables we often do not fit any one character. Just as often as we are the rich man overlooking the poor, we are Lazarus being pushed to the side by others in this world. But, even then we do not really fit into Lazarus’ description. We are certainly not Abraham.

There is a group of characters that are often overlooked. The 5 brothers, the ones leading the same life as the rich man, forgetting the poor just as he did, yet still in the world. But we have one advantage over them, we have heard this story, we know the truth of Christ’s love for the world, and for us. We are not really the brothers; we are not really Lazarus; we are not really the rich man.

We are Scrooge.

We are sinners given the chance to repent, knowing that we have been forgiven. But, most importantly, we are Children of God, we are never separated from the God who loves us, no matter what divisions others may put up, or divisions we may create for ourselves. Christ reaches across these divisions not with a finger dipped in plain water, but full of the water of life, his own blood, his own body. Given for all. In that we eat a feast unimaginably greater than the feast of the rich man.

It is most certainly true. Amen.