September 26 Sermon (Proper 21)

"Do a little bit of good wherever you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world." ~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu

I love that quote because it reminds me that we all have apart to play. We each have a little bit of good to do in this world and together those little bits add up to help change the world. But we live in a society that struggles with our individuality and the common good. We have a hard time seeing the need next door, in the next city or around the world, even as we are more and more connected in this media driven age.

Yesterday, we had a world awareness dinner with our youth group and the youth were divided into the first world, the second world and the third world. You can just imagine the meal. The first world sat at a nice table with candles and tablecloth, nice cutlery and good china and a comfortable chair. The Second World had its own table – no candlesticks or tablecloth, plastic cutlery and paper plates and cups. They had some food but not everything of the first world. The Third World has its own table. It is practically bare. There is only one plate but each person has a small cup and plastic fork. There are no chairs. They had rice and water.

The one who lived in the first world was invited to eat as much as they wanted, others were not given any more food. As one youth said afterwards, it reminded them to be thankful for what they had and not take it for granted. With statistics like these…

1 in 6 people in this world do not have enough food live a healthy life
1 in 8 do not have access to clean water

It reminds us, just as our youth learned yesterday, that if we look around at this world, we are all in fact rich. To see what this means on a global scale, you can go to http://www.globalrichlist.com/ and plug in your income and see where it falls on a global scale. How rich are you the site asks?

I did just that, and I’m in the top 1.72% richest people in the world! The site goes on to say that we all have a choice to make with our money… $8 could buy you 15 organic apples OR 25 fruit trees for farmers in Honduras to grow and sell fruit at their local market. $30 could buy the last season of ER on a DVD Boxset OR a First Aid kit for a village in Haiti. It would seem we all have choices in how we use our riches, even if we don’t feel particularly rich.

But if we look, we will see someone sitting by our gates, waiting for our compassion, our love, our hope. In the parable, the rich man ignores Lazarus who is at his gate, and only after their fortunes are reversed at their deaths, does the rich man see Lazarus. But he wants Lazarus to serve him some water and later to seek out his brothers. He still does not see him as anything more than a servant…

But it is Abraham, the patriarch of the faith that says to him that his brothers should listen to Moses and the prophets, for if they won’t listen to them, they will never listen to someone risen from the dead. Which reminds us that whether we are the rich man or his brothers and sisters, we have Moses & the prophets and Jesus who was raised from the dead, reminding us of our calling to care for one another. The rich man was blinded because of all his wealth, he did not or would not see the poor man Lazarus who was at his gate. St. Paul warns us about such riches in our lives.

"We brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains."

Can we be content with what we have? Can we share with others? The pursuit of wealth and riches can lead us to wander away from the truth. And “the truth of this parable” as a fellow Episcopal priest put it,

“is that the rich man needs Lazarus as much as Lazarus needs the rich man. The independence that riches seem to bring is only an illusion. The rich man thinks he can afford not to see Lazarus lying outside his gate. The rich man lives under the illusion that we are islands, contrary to John Donne’s wisdom, entire of ourselves. The rich man lives with the illusion that we are intrinsically separate beings, our own possessions, and that to be responsible only for ourselves is enough.” (the Rev. Dr. Amy Richter)

But we know that our lives and dependent upon one another and on God. As St. Paul says,

“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.”

Life is lived with our hope set on our God who has so richly loved us. Things will happen in our lives, and the riches we have one day, may be gone the next, but God will not be gone the next and our eyes need to be open to seeing our God at work in the world about us, & at work in our own lives, to use what we have for the sake of the world. We must not be blinded by our own stuff, too worried about what we might lose, for it is then we will sacrifice others, God, even ourselves before we lose those things in our lives.

As Jesus said, "you cannot serve God and wealth;" and the life of the rich man is the perfect example to us. We are blessed in so many ways, but our truest blessings are from our interactions with one another. We must look and see the Lazarus at our gate, for by doing the little bit of good to them, we can change our lives and our world. For as St. Paul puts it,

“We are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for ourselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that we may take hold of the life that really is life.”

Amen.

Sermon: September 30

After I dropped the kids off at school, I was jumping through my list of radio stations when I caught a song*…

Hey girl, you know you drive me crazy
[One look puts the rhythm in my hand]
Still I'll never understand why you hang around
I see what's going down

I thought, oh just another alternative rock band singing about love, but wait, the lines of the chorus got my attention…

Do you feel like a man
When you push her around?
Do you feel better now as she falls to the ground?
Well, I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end
As your lies crumble down, a new life she has found

The song is about abuse, domestic violence, and we know from statistics that one in four women will experience such abuse in their lifetime. It is a frightening statistic, that no woman or man should ever experience. That this rock band brings it up in a song and then focuses on the new life that the victim has found is impressive. But what really struck me was its moral understanding of the consequences of our actions…

A pebble in the water makes a ripple effect
Every action in this world will bear a consequence
If you wade around forever you will surely drown
I see what's going down

They got it right. It is our actions (or lack of action) that will bear a consequence, but they also point out that it might not happen in this lifetime as a line from the chorus rightly points out…

Well, I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end
As your lies crumble down, a new life she has found

About 2,000 years ago, a rabbi was making a similar point by telling a parable…

There was a rich man who sumptuously lived, dressed richly, eating the best foods. He must be blessed. There was a poor man too. His name was Lazarus. Dogs lick his sores and he longs to be satisfied with the food scraps from the rich man’s table. He must be cursed, lying at the rich man’s gate.

But their fortunes are reversed at their deaths. The poor man is carried by angels to be with Abraham, the rich man is in Hades. The rich man begs Abraham to send someone to his brothers to save them from such a fate, to which Abraham says they should listen to Moses and the prophets, for if they won’t listen to them, they will never listen to someone risen from the dead.

The implication is that those who do not listen, accept, take on what Moses & the prophets say, who have told the people to take care of the least among them, will never understand Jesus & his ministry, even when he rises from the dead. The rich man was in a way blinded because of all his stuff, he did not or would not see the poor man Lazarus who was at his gate. It sounds as if his brothers are the same way. It would have been hard to miss Lazarus, although easy to ignore him.

As St. Paul says, “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.”

Life is lived with our hope set on our God who has so richly loved us. Things will happen in our lives, and the riches we have one day, may be gone the next, but God will not be gone the next. Our God is with us every step of the way, whether its welcoming a new child into a family, or battling cancer, celebrating a raise or getting out of an abusive relationship.

Our eyes need to be open to seeing our God at work in the world about us, & at work in our lives. But often are eyes are blinded because we can’t look past the stuff we have, too worried about what we might lose, we often sacrifice people, God, even ourselves before we lose our things, but it is then that we have truly lost what is worth so much.

As Jesus said, "you cannot serve God and wealth;" and the life of the rich man is the perfect example. who failed to understand the consequence of his inaction toward Lazarus, living his luxurious life and only in the end trying to save his brothers after his death. We are blessed in so many ways, but our truest blessings are from our interactions with one another. And those of us who have riches in this life, are not to put our trust in them, but to be generous in our giving of them & putting our trust in our loving God.

There are lots of ways for us to be generous in this world, to be rich in good works, or in the words of John Wesley of the 17th Century:

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as you ever can.

To the Lazarus at our gate, to the victim of abuse, our actions are to help them find that new life, by doing all the good we can…

Or as St. Paul puts it, “We are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for ourselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that we may take hold of the life that really is life.” Amen.

*The song is called Face Down, by the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. Video can be found here http://www.kc101.com/iplaylist/artist/777494/ and lyrics here http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/the_red_jumpsuit_apparatus/face_down.html