Sermon preached at St. Alban's, Spirit Lake, on September 30, 2007
(Proper 21, Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, BCP Lectionary)
by the Rev. Carl D. Mann

Texts:   Amos 6:1-7
Psalm 146 or 146:4-9
1 Timothy 6:11-19
Luke 16:19-31

Now I’m sure that you’re all ready to hear about heaven and hell after that Gospel reading and I would love to discuss heaven and hell with you in depth but unfortunately that’s not the point of the Gospel story. It’s just part of the vehicle in which the point is being delivered.

With that said, don’t discount this part of the story. It reveals a lot of what was thought in 1^st century Israel and its influence on our thoughts. In Old Testament days, when one died, one’s soul went to Sheol, the abode of the dead. It was pretty much a nothing place where nothing happened; everyone was just there waiting for the Day of the Lord.

During inter-testament times, the concept of resurrection was being revealed, and with it came a division of places where one waited for the Day of the Lord; a nice place for good people and a not so nice place for bad people. The nice place was referred to as Abraham’s Bosom, Paradise, or even a lower realm of heaven. The not so nice place was called Gehenna or Hades. Unfortunately, the word Hades was translated into the word Hell. Hell became renowned for its increasing warmer climates because it was associated with a valley to the southwest of Jerusalem in which human sacrifice had taken place in earlier days and had since become the town dump. Remember when we were younger and the local dump always had little smoldering fires of burning trash sending up plumes of smoke and stench, that kind of sweet and sour smell of aging garbage. Well that’s partly where the idea of hellfire came from.

Another unfortunate thought in this day was that rich people were rich because they were good or righteous and poor people were poor because they were sinful and bad. Thus it was expected that the rich would certainly end up in heaven sitting on Abraham’s lap while the poor would be relegated to the flaming piles of trash in Gehenna.

And that’s where we pick up today’s story in the Gospel. Now, let me be clear on something. Jesus is not picking on the rich in this story because they are rich. Primarily he is trying to dispel the notion that the rich have bought and paid for their ticket to heaven and that the poor don’t have a chance in hell to go anywhere but hell! He is taking the common thought of the day and turning it inside out! Where one waits for the Day of the Lord is based on how one lives their life not on their social status.

Let’s look at the two main characters. There was a certain rich man. Tradition gives him the name of Dives which means rich in Latin but in this story he is unnamed. Dives wasn’t just rich, he was extravagantly rich. He dressed in purple and wore fine linens and feasted sumptuously every single day. Purple dye was very rare in those days so only the very wealthy could afford clothes made from purple cloth. Fine linens were only imported from Egypt and again were so costly that only a few could afford them, let alone wear them every day. The word feasted in Greek indicated that he ate gourmet food for every meal of every day. This guy wasn’t just rich he was indolently, luxuriously rich never working a day in his life.

In contrast, we have Lazarus whose name means God helps or God heals. He is in need of God’s healing because he is covered with open, oozing sores, which for some reason attracts dogs that are constantly licking him probably trying to tenderize him in anticipation of his death so that they can have a hearty meal. Lazarus is lying by the gate outside of Dives house, so hungry that he would eagerly eat the table scraps from Dives’ table. In those days, there were no eating utensils or napkins. In a house as wealthy as Dives, one wiped their hands on pieces of bread and then threw them on the floor where the dogs would eat them. Lazarus was willing to eat dog food if it were available.

Both men died and lo and behold, Dives found himself in torment and Lazarus was sitting Abraham’s lap and there was a great divide between them.

Now again, let me make this clear. Dives was not in Hades because he was rich but because he failed to use what he had in order to help others, which was what the Law of Moses commanded. Actually it was worse than that. He was in Hades because he failed to recognize that Lazarus even existed. Every time he left his house or returned he passed Lazarus by as if he didn’t exist. How could he not have seen a bleeding heap of a man with dogs all over him right beside his front door? How could he have not been moved in his heart with compassion as to even have the leftovers from his daily feast brought to him instead of being fed to the dogs of the neighborhood? The first time he ever notices Lazarus is when he sees him in paradise with Abraham. But he is so insensitive that he compounds his situation by asking Abraham to send Lazarus to him with a drop of cool water on his finger. Even in burning agony he can’t seem to be able to do anything for himself. He wants Lazarus to be his servant!

And Abraham tells him this is impossible because the there is a great chasm which is fixed and neither side may cross to the other. Just as there had been a great divide between the two men on earth that Dives refused to cross, now there was a separation that prohibited his doing so even if he had attempted to do it himself.

Then Dives appears to soften a bit and wants Abraham to send Lazarus to his five brothers on earth to warn them of his calamity which undoubtedly will be shared by them if they don’t change their ways. But even in this moment of concern, the worry is not for others but for his brothers who are an extension of himself. And he still insists that Lazarus, his newly recruited servant, to be the one to deliver the message. He can’t even see himself doing something as menial as communicating with his own kin.

And Abraham says that his brothers should listen to the Law and the Prophets just like everybody else and as he should have. Again Dives pleads that they probably will only get the message if someone from the dead gives it to them, and by now one has to imagine that Dives is thinking that maybe he should be the one to go after all because it will get him out of this stinking burning cesspool.

And then Jesus states the clincher, which is addressed to all of Israel: If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets then chances are good that they won’t be convinced even if someone rises from the dead thus prophesying his own Resurrection.

Remember last week when we discussed that true wealth is not just money but everything that God has given to us? And that as Christians, we are to use every ounce of energy, every shred of intelligence, and every thing that we possess to ensure our status in the coming kingdom of God? That is the same message which is being conveyed in this passage. We are instructed to help our neighbor in need from our abundance; our true wealth. We don’t have to look very far to find an opportunity to accomplish this task. Just look out our front door and observe, and we will be sure to find just such an opportunity.

Overlooking an opportunity to help our neighbor is the equivalent of purposely doing harm to our neighbor. This is what we mean when we say in the confession that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. By ignoring an opportunity to help our neighbor is a sin of omission, regardless of our financial or social status.

So let us commend ourselves to heed the final words of the epistle today where Paul instructs Timothy to command those with true wealth 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. 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 life that really is life, which is life eternal with our Lord in Heaven.

Gloria Patri