A Christmas Carol for Lent

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Eleanore O’Connor’
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Luke 16:19-31 Lindsey Braun Des Moines, IA March 26, 2017 A Christmas Carol for Lent A Christmas Carol for Lent that s what I m calling this morning s sermon.

1 Luke 16:19-31 Lindsey Braun Des Moines, IA March 26, 2017 A Christmas Carol for Lent A Christmas Carol for Lent that s what I m calling this morning s sermon. Reading the parable about the rich man and Lazarus made me wonder how familiar Charles Dickens was with this scripture as he crafted his tale where Jacob Marley warns Scrooge of the dangers of his humbuggery and utter disregard for the poor from beyond the grave and sends three spirits to help him change his ways. But before we go too far, I want to take a minute to talk about hell, because in this parable Jesus does. I don t actually think that s the point of the parable (we ll get to that soon) but hell is the setting for much of the parable (the rich man in Hades, thirsting for a drink). No matter how you read it though, any mention of hell is an easy place to get hung up, a trap to fall into, and a way to miss what I think this story is really about. So a couple of things: First, let me say that I know hell is real because I know people who ve been there. I know people who have spent a significant time in a living hell (like Lazarus, the poor man in this parable, who in his earthly life dreams of a real meal while languishing outside the rich man s gates, his body covered in sores that attract the mangy mutts on the street who come and use him as a human salt lick). I don t know anyone with a story quite like Lazarus, but I know plenty of people who have been to hell and back. Second, I don t know whether Jesus believed in hell as an eternal destination, but I ll tell you why I don t (and why I think this parable bears this out). This season we re in, this Lenten season where Jesus is pointing his face toward Jerusalem, is the season where Jesus prepares for the passion (his own suffering on the cross) out of compassion for the people (standing in solidarity with all those who suffer). Jesus compassion an echo and embodiment of God s defining trait means that no one, no one is left to eternal, solitary suffering.

2 I don t believe in hell as an eternal destination because I know our God to be a God of compassion. But I do believe in hell as an effective literary device. Anyone who s spent any time at all in a living hell wants to know how to steer clear of that in the future. So to hear about a rich man going to hell while a poor man was taken unto the bosom of Abraham to experience heavenly bliss would have completely thwarted the expectations of Jesus first century listeners. There was a kind of early prosperity gospel understanding of life and blessing operating in Jesus day. If you were prosperous as the rich man was, if you could dress in purple linen and secure your house with gates and feast sumptuously every single day, people just assumed that that meant you had received God s favor. You were [hashtag] blessed. On the other hand, if you were poor and hungry and covered in sores that made you ritually unclean and cast you outside the web of community, it must mean you had done something terribly wrong. If the rich were blessed, the poor must be cursed. With better stewardship of their resources or a better work ethic or a little more bootstrapping, basically with just a little more righteousness, the poor could be blessed, too. But in this parable, Jesus turns this understanding of blessing and curse on its head, showing his disciples, the Pharisees, and us how God s compassion really works. He hails back to the beatitudes, blessed are the poor, reminding us that if the gospel is not good news for the poor, it s not good news. No one helped Lazarus in his life on earth, but after a lifetime of human neglect, God helps him. In fact, his name means God helps. At his death, Lazarus is taken up to the bosom of Abraham. People would have been surprised to hear about a sick beggar going to heaven. Surprised to hear about God s compassion working like that. In this parable, Jesus avoids the common pitfall of blaming the victim. Instead, he acknowledges the great chasm we set up between ourselves and those experiencing poverty, as if to keep from catching it. Now, there s a temptation here to get drawn into the dichotomy of the where will I end up question? Am I good enough to end up with Lazarus? Am I bad or oblivious enough to end up with the rich man? But I think this parable is subtler than that and invites us into some more open-ended holy imagining. It s not asking us to contemplate our eternal destination so much as it s asking us to re-examine our relationship to wealth, to God and to our neighbors. And Jesus always calls for that not to be so much transactional (if I do x, then I get y) but relational (what has God blessed me with that can help me bless the world? How can I share what I have and grow in relationship and love?). This passage is part of a larger chapter that lifts up the impossibility of serving both God and wealth. It begins with Jesus addressing the disciples, but then the Pharisees start listening in, and they are described as lovers of money. Serving wealth because they lack real confidence and trust in God. They don t really believe that God can deliver in a time of need, so they store up their security elsewhere, and in doing so, they actually build walls that separate them from God and they neglect those in need all around

3 them. As they listen to Jesus tell these stories about wealth, the grumbling they were doing as Jesus spoke of the lost sheep and coin and son turns to ridicule. Hearing this story of a disordered relationship to wealth on the heels of the chapter dedicated to the parables of the lost being found and celebrated, the things of real value, hits a little too close to home for them. Talking about money, talking about our stuff, can be hard. It can lead to the kind of pushback and cynicism of the Pharisees because it makes us uncomfortable. But we don t need to be told that wealth creates divisions between people. We experience those. Whether it s the wall of envy or resentment that goes up when we see or hear about someone who has much more than we do, or the wall of shame or disdain or selfprotection that goes up when we re in the presence of someone who has much less than we do, worried about what they might ask us for. The divides that wealth creates can seem intractable. But even though in the story Abraham says that the divide between the rich man and Lazarus can t be crossed, Jesus tells the story. Even though Abraham says, Remember in life, you received your good things and Lazarus received evil things; and this chasm is fixed and your brothers have Moses and the prophets and they should listen to them and if they don t, they wouldn t even be convinced by someone who rose from the dead. Even though those words come from the mouth of Abraham in the story, Jesus, the storyteller, puts them there. His voice raised from the dead to speak to the living, to those (like the brothers of the rich man, like the older brother in the prodigal son story last week, like Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol) he speaks to those of us who have the ability to influence the way the story turns out. To those of us who have agency. To those of us who have a decision to make, and maybe some repenting to do. The story isn t finished until we decide how we re going to hear it. And the mere telling of it by Jesus is an act of compassion, speaking the truth in love for those who still have a chance to hear and repent. It s as though he s taking down the wall, crossing the chasm, acting as a kind of Jacob Marley for all those who have ears to hear. People of God, I think this parable is inviting us not so much to identify with the rich man or Lazarus as with the five brothers of the rich man who still live. It s asking us to be the Ebenezer Scrooge of our own Lenten Christmas Carol. Still living, in need of repentance, needing to heed the word of Moses and the prophets and Jesus in order to reorient and transform our relationship to our stuff and to each other. And Jesus is exhorting his listeners, exhorting us to examine our relationship to wealth (and just how intractable it is) and our relationship to our neighbors. A few weeks ago, David and I were leading a confirmation theme night about the Christian practice of giving. Our focus was on time and talent, as well as treasure, but some of the best questions we got were about our relationship to our stuff. Why, they wondered, are people so selfish? Is it bad to like your stuff? And do you have to be giving things away constantly to be a good Christian? Good questions. It s not bad to like your stuff, to take pleasure in the good things of this world. But it is bad when we value our stuff above other people and above God. When those things

4 get out of whack, we re not living in love. And it s hard. Because so much of our culture teaches us to be selfish, to pursue the hot new thing, to reach out and get what I want when I want it, or to store it away in ever bigger barns or bank accounts to secure the future for my family while assuming that everyone else has access to the same resources. The way that Jesus asks us to relate to wealth to let go of it and trust in God is counter-cultural. In this parable, Jesus is calling us to repent where our relationship with our stuff and with our neighbors are out of alignment with God s call, God s compassion, God s charity, and God s love. Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Our Lenten theme: where there is charity and love, God is there. Jesus call to repentance is actually an invitation, because in turning toward greater charity, we are invited more deeply into God s presence and love. And when Jesus invites us to show charity and live in love, he s not just asking us to fling money at a problem to assuage our own guilt, but inviting us to develop real relationships across difference. The need is not just for charity, but for fundamental neighborliness. i I was challenged and convicted by a recent interview with Pope Francis ii in which he was questioned about almsgiving, especially to panhandlers. First, the interviewer wondered, should we do it? Should we give money to those who ask for it? And second, should we worry about how it is spent? Should we worry about it being wasted on alcohol or cigarettes or junk food or worse? The pope s answer chastened me because I ve often used the desire not to enable bad behavior as an excuse not to give when asked (and when I didn t feel like giving). But the pope turned the question back on the interviewer. If a glass of wine is the only happiness he has in life, that s O.K. Instead, ask yourself, what do you do on the sly? What happiness do you seek in secret? He wondered whether we might recognize our own blessing and share from our abundance, instead of pushing our responsibility to help onto someone else. Can we practice a compassion that is more than transactional? That is not just about getting what I ve paid for when it comes to small service to the poor, but about connecting with another human being and honoring their dignity and worth. Can we cultivate fundamental neighborliness, a deep knowledge of and concern for the wellbeing of our neighbors? Like Scrooge and Tiny Tim, can we cross the chasm that wealth creates and develop real relationship, recognizing it s not just about what we have to give, but what we have to gain? Like it was in the first century, the chasm between people created by wealth is great. But Jesus is telling the story out of compassion and love for us. Do you have ears to hear? Amen. i George A. Buttrick offers the idea of fundamental neighborliness as the step that goes beyond ameliorations (such as food and medicine) toward real relationship. Buttrick notes that true charity is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. R. Alan Culpepper, The Gospel of Luke, The New Interpreter s Bible vol. IX (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), p ii

5 Plymouth Congregational Church United Church of Christ 4126 Ingersoll Avenue Des Moines, Iowa Phone: (515) Fax: (515)

Luke 16:19-31 New International Version June 24, 2018

Luke 16:19-31 New International Version June 24, 2018 The International Bible Lesson (Uniform Sunday School Lessons Series) for Sunday, June 24, 2018, is from Luke 16:19-31. Questions for Discussion and