Readings:
Sermon:
I do enjoy a good story. Pretty much any genre or type of fiction appeals to me whether in a book, a TV series, a play, a film or a musical…they all enable me to be transported for a while to a different world. And when a story does that from the first page or scene right through to the end then I know it’s been told by a good writer. Often in a good story there is an underlying message – some are more obvious than others…I’m particularly thinking of Aesop’s fables.
Jesus was a good storyteller.
His parables are stories that can be imagined easily with an underlying message that his listeners – his disciples, the crowds, pharisees and scribes – were challenged to work out for themselves. It was usually an uncomfortable message for at least some of them…and it can be the same for us some 2000 years later. What Jesus says can, in fact should, make us stop, reflect on our lives and make changes, even if just in a small way, so we can better reflect the love of God in the world.
Today’s parable from Luke’s Gospel is, at first, not clear – it’s not easy to see the underlying message…and especially for people of Jesus’ time. Then, wealth was understood to be a blessing, while the poor and ill were cursed for something they had done wrong…and yet the outcomes for the rich man and Lazarus were the opposite of this expectation.
By the way, this is not the same Lazarus who was the brother of Martha and Mary and whom Jesus raised from the dead. Lazarus was quite a common name.
Jesus parable gives no explanation of what exactly the rich man had done wrong…so what is the message? What is it that we need to change in our lives?
An answer might come in today’s reading from St Paul’s letter to Timothy. In it he says that there are temptations that come along with being rich. Temptations that can lead to a love of money itself rather than leading us to look for what can be done with it.
In his letter St Paul urges that people who are rich should not be self-important and reliant on money but, along with everyone else, should look to God for all that is needed for an enjoyable life.
Perhaps it is this that Jesus is hinting at in the parable.
The rich man has been so caught up in being rich that he has failed to see Lazarus. He failed to recognise how his wealth could easily lift Lazarus out of his poverty and pain.
And so when they die and judgment comes the rich man is the one in pain while Lazarus is comforted by angels and Abraham.
The rich man then pleads with Abraham to send Lazarus back to his brothers to warn them. Abraham’s response is that even if someone were to come back from the dead they would still not listen.
As Christians we believe that someone did indeed come back from the dead – Jesus himself! And yet many people in the world do not listen to his message.
That message, warned about in the parable but spelled out in St Paul’s letter to Timothy, is to be generous and ready to share riches.
The audience for Jesus parable would have found this message very challenging. Riches equalled blessing while poverty meant curses, so sharing with the poor would run the risk of becoming cursed or ritually unclean…yet this is what Jesus was expecting.
Jesus had a habit of turning expectation on its head…in God’s kingdom sharing riches is to be blessed. It is to live a faithful and fulfilled life. It is to love our neighbour.
Questions:
- What riches do you have that you could share? It isn’t just money, it could be skills or time.
- How could you listen more carefully to Jesus’ message?
- What changes can you make in your life, even small ones, to better reflect the love of God in the world?