September 29, 2019

16th Sunday After Pentecost
Amos 6:1a, 4-7
Psalm 146
1 Timothey 6:6-19
Luke 16:19-31

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the one who calls us to eternal life. Amen
 
Over and over
 our lessons for today
 emphasize the message
 that we are to place our hope in Go
 and anything else,
 particularly wealth,
will let us down.
 
This message is present in Jesus’ story
 about the rich man and Lazarus,
often Jesus’ stories are confusing
but this one is pretty clear.
 
There are two characters,
the rich man who has everything in life
and a poor man named Lazarus
 who in life longed for even a crumb from the rich man’s table.
 
Both men die,
 Lazarus is taken by angels to Abraham
while the rich man is tormented in hades
 and as he’s being tormented
 he looks up and sees Abraham,
 his ancestor, the original ancestor
 
and he calls to him
“Father Abraham have mercy”
he longs for even a drip of water to cool his tongue,
“send Lazarus” he says.
 
And Abraham replies,
 “that’s not going to happen,
what you did in life determined your location for eternity
 and there’s no going back.”
  
So the rich man says
 “well at least can you send a message
 to my brothers who are still living before it’s too late”
 
 and Abraham replies
  “they have Moses and the prophets for that”,
 but the rich man insists that they will really change their ways
 if they see someone from the dead
 
and here’s the punch line,
 Abraham, in the voice of Jesus who is telling the story,
 says  “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”
 
I sense a little Jesus snark here,
 Jesus, who knows that he will rise from the dead,
also knows that not everyone will believe him,
 especially those who are comfortable in this life 
 
“Alas for those who are at ease in Zion,
 and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria”
 the prophet Amos cries out in our first lesson
 
those that lounge around eating and drinking,
 singing idle songs, anointing themselves with oil,
 but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph,
 they will be the first ones taken into exile
 when the Assyrians come conquering.
 
 And while it seems at first
 that Amos is railing against the riches,
the real reason the people he’s addressing
will be taken into exile first
is because they are neglecting the troubles of the nation,
 
 these are presumably the leaders
 and instead of taking care of all the people
 they focus on their own comforts
 and as long as they are comfortable,
 nothing else matters
to the point where it will become their ruin.
 
“Put not your trust in rulers”
the psalmist proclaims
“in mortals in whom there is no help.
When they breathe their last, they return to earth,
 and in that day their thoughts perish.” 
and here we start getting to the crux of the matter,
 human rulers and rules will pass away,
 
but then the psalmist sings “Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help,
  whose hope is in the Lord their God
 
and goes on to explain all the reasons to trust God:
God created the heavens and the earth
God keeps promises forever
God gives justice, food, freedom, healing to those who need it
God cares for the stranger and the abandoned
God is forever
 
God is the one in whom we should place our hope,
and when we do,
the concerns of God become our concerns,
justice, food, freedom, healing,
 care for the stranger and the abandoned,
and that means that we will probably not be comfortable all the time,
 
and this is the exact opposite message
 than the one that we receive from the world around us
 that more is better,
we’re to look out just for ourselves
 because comfort even at the expense of others is the goal,
 
 and here we get caught in the in between nature of the kingdom of God,
the one that has already begun
 but it not yet completed,
 
we see the need for justice around us
 and we live within the systems of the world
that are designed to maintain injustice
 
 We are caught in the middle,
So what are we to do?
 
 Paul in his first letter to Timothy suggests this:
“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.”
 
Paul has already acknowledged
 that the love of money leads people astray,
 it does so by promising security,
 a promise it cannot keep
 
but there is another promise out there
 the promise of God of eternal life,
 a promise which Christ has already kept
 and calls us to accept,
it is ours
place your trust there Paul says,
and if you do happen to have resources,
 share them,
use the resources as tools to take hold of the life that really is life.
 
And what is the life that really is life?
 I think Dan Erlander paints the picture,
well draws it actually,
 at the end of his book “A Place For You: My Communion Book”
 it’s the book I use to teach the first communion class,
 it traces all the ways Jesus welcomed people,
 culminating with the Lord’s Supper,
and the affect that the gift of the Lord’s supper had on the early church community
 and he ends speaking directly to us:
 
With Jesus and your church family you will dream of a day when Jesus will gather all living beings together, creatures that fly in the air, swim in the water, walk on the earth, and crawl underground. This joyful gathering will include people of every kind, both happy people and crabby people (who will no longer be crabby). All will be safe; all will have food; all will have a home; all will worship God; and all will know that God loves everybody”
 
That friends, is the life that really is life,
the community of creation coming together in the love of God.
 
That is what we seek when we come to church
 and participate in community,
 that is what Jesus sends us out to work toward
with whatever resources we have,
 whether it is wealth by the standards of the world
or simply ourselves.
 
God has blessed us,
 we celebrate that today,
 we give praise and thanksgiving for this community coming together, 
 for the resources to care for our common ministry,
 
 and now God sends us out,
to use our resources,
to work for justice, feed the hungry,
 free the captive, heal the sick,
care for the stranger and the abandoned,
to gather all in community joined together in the love of God,
 
God sends us out to seek the life that really is life. Amen