A sermon preached at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, San Antonio. The lectionary readings for the sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost are here.
All of our readings for today teach us that God is the God of All – of all people and of all that we think, say, and do. God is God of our whole life. The houses we buy and rent, the businesses we own and frequent, our families, our work, our hobbies, our friendships, all that we are. This is why we gather as we are today in worship and prayer and praise, because God is the God of all.
In our Gospel reading today Jesus tells a story in which it is the rich man who isn’t given the dignity of a name. As a literary device this can be for several reasons: in God’s Kingdom things aren’t as they are in worldly kingdoms and to encourage our imaginations to place ourselves within this story and discover who it is we place in the margins of society, who are the Lazaruses of our world? Just to be clear, however, this Lazarus is not the brother of Mary and Martha whom Jesus raised from the dead. This Lazarus is a literary figure who represents those who tend to be invisible in society: the poor, the service workers who many take for granted, the suffering side of our world that makes many uncomfortable to notice.
The rich man has realized that the monetary wealth that was so important to him doesn’t guarantee anyone anything and he wants those he loves to benefit from this gained wisdom. But Abraham tells him, “if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”
Moses and the prophets spoke of God’s promises and faithfulness since the very beginning as God chose to reveal the Godself to the world through a particular people group, not so this people group could be better than others but to show the world how to live in the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven, where all people matter and all are loved and valued. This isn’t anything new with Jesus. When the ancient Israelites demanded a king, God reminded them God was to be their king and no one else. But they demanded to look like the people around them instead of showing the world what it is to be people of God’s Kingdom.
The ways of God’s Kingdom are not the same as the ways of worldly kingdoms. And by worldly kingdoms, I don’t mean literal monarchies but the lives we construct for ourselves to satisfy our own desires for power and wealth. The power of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven is the power of Love. The wealth of God’s Kingdom is relational ways of being: righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness, as Paul describes in his letter to Timothy. Healthy relationships are the true building blocks of God’s Kingdom here and now, the Kingdom Jesus said over and over again is right at hand.
The message of this parable isn’t that wealth in and of itself is bad. The world needs money and commodities to operate. As with all things, it is what we do with them and how we let these things shape our lives that matters. What do we consider the most valuable part of our life? Do we see the world through scarcity or abundance?
The accumulation of wealth for one’s own personal benefit is the same distortion of God’s goodness as in the Garden of Eden. That story tells us that our earliest faith ancestors were content to be with God in their life, the life of tending to God’s creation, until the serpent distorted the abundance into scarcity. They had all that they needed in limitless supply from the many trees in the garden. The serpent deceived them into thinking God was holding out the best from them. And people have been falling for this lie since. It is a scarcity worldview that convinces us we need to fight or defend what is ours. Moving through this world with the abundance of God’s Kingdom enables us to see the image of God in all people and want for all what we want for ourselves.
Through his parables, Jesus shows us what it is to live our ordinary, everyday lives within God’s Kingdom where we are, just as the word of the Lord came to the prophet Jeremiah. Our lives are to be different from those who don’t walk with God so that with our lives we reveal God to them. The lens through which we see everything, the compass we let guide us, the wisdom we let shape who and Whose we are is God’s Love. When we choose to follow Jesus and live as God’s People we show the world the Way of God’s Love with all that we have and all that we do and all that we are.
We are to take hold of eternal life here and now, the life that really is life by stepping in behind Jesus and living to be more like him always. Our life is to be built up by the relationships we foster and grow. All that we have is to be used for the good of all.
Our life, grounded in the promises of God, is lived in the now and not yet. We live in the midst of the pain and joy, suffering and freedom, difficulties and delights of this world holding fast to the promise that some day, in God’s timing, all will be put to rights, that God’s Kingdom will come to earth in it’s fullness. For now, we live as if that has already come to be. We feed the hungry, welcome the outsiders to the banquet table, we love God and our neighbor with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
We show the world that God is our refuge and stronghold, our shield and buckler, bound to us in love. We live in godliness combined with contentment, knowing that we brought nothing into this world and take nothing from it and that all that we have and all that we are is a gift from the God of Love. Amen.
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