Sermon preached by The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
The 18th Sunday after Pentecost
There’s a song, published in 1921, that has a line that goes like this: “There’s nothing surer, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. In the meantime, in between time, ain’t we got fun?”
The first part of the parable in today’s Gospel appears to bear out this philosophy. A poor man, with sores all over his body that the dogs come and lick, lies at a rich man’s gate. He is so hungry that he would gladly eat the crumbs from the rich man’s table. In those days people didn’t use knives, forks, or spoons to eat with. Instead, they ate with their hands, then cleansed their hands with hunks of bread, which they would then throw on the floor. Lazarus would gladly have eaten that bread. The rich man—Jesus doesn’t give him a name, as if to say that all we needed to know about him is that he was rich—wearing designer clothes and having everything money could buy, feasted sumptuously every day. As with Edward Arlington Robinson’s “Richard Cory,” this is a person whom we should think has “everything to make us wish we were in his place.”
But then the parable leaves this life and takes up in the after-life. And it takes a direction that would not have been expected by Jesus’ hearers, for they had the idea that if a person is rich and healthy in this life, he must be favored by God; and if a person is poor and diseased in this life, then he must be a sinner. Indeed, that idea isn’t uncommon in our own day. T.V. preachers give the idea that worldly success is the result of faith. Thus, a lack of success would be an indication of a weak faith, or none at all.
But Jesus doesn’t state what his hearers expect. It is the poor man, Lazarus, whose name means God Heals, who goes to heaven when he dies and the rich man ends up in Hades in such utter torment that he would even have felt relief if Lazarus would dip the end of his finger in some water and put it on his tongue. In this parable Jesus appears to be saying the poor get rich and the rich get poor.
But is that really what he is saying? Did the rich man go to Hades because he was rich? No. He ended up in Hades because he was so absorbed in his own luxury that he did not even notice the poor man at his gate. Even in Hades he expresses no remorse for his treatment of Lazarus. The parable tells us that the one who has is responsible for sharing with the one who has not. It is an extension of the commandment to love our neighbor as our self. The fact that we have possessions will not determine whether or not we can have eternal life, but what we do with our possessions certainly can.
Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, once asked an audience of seminarians whether it’s possible to own a home that’s sinfully large. The crowd answered with a vociferous “Yes.” “When?” Fuller inquired. There was a long silence, until at last some honest soul was heard to mutter, “When it is bigger than mine.” Jesus is not saying in this parable that money and the things it can buy is evil, but what we have we are responsible for sharing with those who have not. It’s as simple as that, and how we respond to those in need has eternal significance.
As in all of Jesus’ teachings, this parable not only has implications for us as individuals, but also it has implications for us as a community of faith. Our parish must do what it can to respond to those in need around us. I’d like to reflect with you for just a moment on the Church of the Redeemer and how this parish responds to those in need around us. I want to begin by saying that a few years ago a pastor of a fairly large church in town, of a different denomination, made a point of telling me that he admired Redeemer because of all of the things we do in and for this community. He said that he wished that his own people would have a greater vision for helping those in need. I took that as a great compliment and I responded that indeed I was very proud of Redeemer’s long history of placing mission and outreach as a top priority in our common life.
First of all, for years the vestry has had a commitment to giving 20 per cent for mission and outreach. That includes the ten per cent we give to the diocese as our assessment. You can do a great deal with ten per cent of a budget of more than one and a half million dollars. We give heavily to local outreach, not only with our dollars, but also with hands-on involvement with ministries like Caritas House, which helps people with basic necessities like food and utilities. We started Resurrection House, a day care facility for the homeless, a couple of decades ago, and we continue to support it through our annual giving and through members of the parish who give of their time and talent to help the homeless. We also help many of our Hispanic families with food each year. We have missionary work in the Dominican Republic, China, and in a couple of places in Africa. We support two seminaries and Agape Flights, just to name some of the outreach and mission projects in which we are involved. This also does not even take into account the many mission and outreach projects in which our Women’s Outreach Ministry is involved, especially through the work of the Episcopal Thrift House. And finally, every year thousands of dollars are given to the Rector’s Discretionary Fund which I administer, and through which I help any parishioner who comes to me in need, as well as helping others beyond the parish.
These are our corporate ways of helping those in need on our doorstep, and we are able to do that because I know you wouldn’t have it any other way. We are almost to stewardship time, when you will receive a letter asking for your pledge for 2011. Remember that the money you give to this parish is spent not just for the essential ministries that go on here day after day, but also for the many ways we respond to the needy. I wish to say thank you for responding so generously and faithfully so that we can indeed do the ministry that God calls us to do. We can always do more and should strive to do more, but this parish is a beacon to those in need, and I do thank you. The cynicism in that old song, “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” is transformed by the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ into “Those who have share with those who have not, and the hungry are fed, the thirsty given drink, the naked clothed, and the sick and those prison visited.”