The Dollar Sign and the Equal Sign a sermon by Dan Griswold Trinity Reformed Church September 25, 2016 Luke 16:19 31 The passage I just read is a tough one for a lot of people. It is tough for those who have money, the materially comfortable and financially secure. Which is to say that it is tough for some of us. For some of us, even if we re not very rich, are materially comfortable and financially secure. Compared to many others, compared to people nearby, compared surely to people in other lands where the economies are terrible and the land is overwhelmed with famine and the politics are wholly corrupt, a good number of us we know this are pretty well off. So this passage is a tough one for many. Because it may sound as if it is saying that the rich will go to hell and the poor will go to heaven. It may sound like a message of the evil of wealth and the virtue of poverty. This passage is surely challenging. But its challenge is not in a simplistic, rich people bad / poor people good message. Its challenge is deeper than that more subtle, more extensive, a challenge that is deeply bound up with and inseparable from the good news of Jesus and who he is. It s a challenge for all of us, rich and poor, comfortable and not. Because it s a message for all of us no matter how many dollar signs we have to our name. Yet it wasn t really all people that Jesus was addressing in this parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Sure, others were listening in. But Jesus had in mind especially somebody, or can I say certain somebodies. If we look at what has come just before in the Gospel of Luke, we find that Jesus is answering a particular group of people. He is answering the Pharisees, the guardians of social order, the keepers of the law, the honored and respected and (let s be clear) rich members of that religious society. Jesus is answering them, the Pharisees. And he is answering them because they have scoffed at his mesage. They ve laughed at his message. They find it nonsense. Practically. Theologically. Yes, theologically. You see, there was a theology at work here: a theology of wealth, an understanding of God s intention for money, an idea about the divine meaning of wealth. 1
This theology of the Pharisees was basically what I call a theology of the dollar sign and the equal sign. Yes. The dollar sign and the equal sign. That was the theology the Pharisees affirmed not the only one, sure, but a theology they held with vigor and enthusiasm. The theology of dollar sign and equal sign equated wealth and blessing. It affirmed that material wealth was a sign of God s blessing and favor, a sign that one was living in a way God commanded and of which God approved. The wealthy were good. Their wealth showed it. The wealthy were blessed. Their wealth proved it. This was the equation that the Pharisees had made, placing an equal sign between their dollar sign and themselves, their comfortable and financially secure selves. And they could extend that equation, using it negatively. If the sign of God s blessing was wealth, then the sign of God s curse must be poverty. If the wealthy were good, then the not-wealthy must be not-good. They must be getting what they deserved. And if they were going to stop getting what they deserved, then they should get a job. That was what the Pharisees believed about money. And they believed they had good reason for believing it. They found it confirmed in scripture. They could point to Psalm 1: Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper (Psalm 1:1 3). They could point to Deuteronomy chapter 28: If you will only obey the Lord your God, by diligently observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth; all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the Lord your God: Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your livestock, both the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you; they shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns, and in all that you undertake; he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you (Deuteronomy 28:1 8). So the Pharisees found confirmation for their theology in scripture. In the books of Moses, in the Psalms. Yet they could build up this theology of dollar sign and equal sign only by ignoring a bunch of other scripture, not only in Deuteronomy but also in Genesis, in Exodus, and especially in the prophets, who spoke clearly about the obligation to help the poor and spoke decisively of God s love for the poor. 2
Care for the poor is commanded in scripture. Humility and gratitude are commanded in scripture. Attention to the conditions of society that bless or kill is commanded in scripture. The Pharisees, on this score, were like the best of the prooftexters. Perhaps you ve met some prooftexters. I sure have. They take a single thread from scripture and out of it try to knit a whole sweater. Yet it s a rather thin sweater, with unfinished parts, and rather monochrome. And lying in the yarn drawer are skeins of yarn a plenty, all lovely, all needed. The theology of dollar sign and equal sign was a cover for that widespread tendency (we see it even today) to equate poverty with laziness, poor moral character, and bad choices. Why are the poor poor? Well, obviously, they got themselves there. Yet reality is much more complex than that theology allows. For some poor people are poor from little or no fault of their own. Opportunity, social structures, family systems, genetics, nutrition, prejudice all these play a role. The theology of dollar sign and equal sign likewise gives cover to that corresponding tendency (also widespread and current), a self-serving, self-justifying tendency, to equate wealth (as long as it s not too excessive) with industriousness and virtue. Why are the rich rich? Well, obviously, they got themselves there. Hard work and strong moral character. Bootstraps, y all. Bootstraps. Yet the reality is usually much more complex than that theology allows. For some people are rich because of nothing they themselves have done. Opportunity, social structures, family systems, genetics, nutrition, prejudice all these play a role. So, with this parable, Jesus is speaking against the Pharisees in particular. He s speaking against them for this theology of theirs, a theology of dollar sign and equal sign. And because he is talking to them, using this parable against them, we need to understand that the story begins with a character to whom they could relate: the rich man. He lived in comfort. He was wealthy. He had good things. He had good food. He was, they might say we might say! blessed. The Pharisees would have identified with the rich man. They would have heard the description of the rich man s wealth as signifying God s blessing on a good life uprightly lived. He was who they were, or wanted to be. And Lazarus, the poor man? Well, they would not have identified with him. They would have heard the description of Lazarus horrible plight as a sign of God s judgment on a life of moral depravity, God s displeasure shown in answer to a bad life lived in disobedience to God. That s how the Pharisees would have seen each of these characters. But Jesus turns things upside down. (Maybe you knew that he does that a lot.) It is poor Lazarus who, when he dies, goes to be comforted by Abraham. While it is the rich man who goes down to the shades of death and there is tormented. I can just about hear the Pharisees saying, Wait? What? Because this was the curve ball that made them duck. The plot twist that left them twisting. 3
What is Jesus telling the Pharisees? What is Jesus telling us? Jesus is not telling us that being rich is evil, while being poor is virtuous. He s not telling us that the rich, because they are rich, will go to hell, while the poor, because they are poor, will go to heaven. That simple equation of temporal wealth and eternal destiny is just as wrong as the Pharisees theology of wealth and virtue. It would be just another version of a theology of dollar sign and equal sign. The problem wasn t that the rich man was rich. No, the problem was that he was so rich and lived in such comfort while just outside his door a brother was suffering hunger and want. The problem was that he took his wealth as a sign of his own righteousness, rather than as a sign of God s unmerited mercy and inscrutable will. The problem was that he used his wealth solely for his own comfort, rather than using it righteously to help others in their suffering. The problem was that he paid no attention to the many scriptures that commanded care for and justice toward the poor of the land. The problem was that he knew Lazarus was outside his door. The problem was that he even knew his name, and yet he did not help him. Jesus was all about welcoming into his kingdom those who were not deemed worthy, those whose status as poor people made them suspect in the eyes of the Pharisees who saw wealth as a sign of virtue and poverty as a sign of vice. But Jesus turns things upside down, as he often does. He rejects the theology of dollar sign and equal sign. He does that by calling people to follow him, to be near to him, to identify with him, to learn from him, to serve him. And what people he calls! He calls and gathers to himself those who are not worthy, making them worthy. He calls and gathers to himself those who are poor, making them rich. He calls and gathers to himself the rich who have acknowledged their abject poverty. He calls and gathers to himself the poor who have found in him their abundant wealth. He calls upon all to abandon their trust in riches, and to reject the theology of dollar sign and equal sign. 4
My friends, do we hear it? Do we hear the call of Jesus? Do we hear his invitation? For he is calling us: and in following, to hear him, to love him, to submit to him, to follow him, to embrace those whom he embraces, to welcome those whom he welcomes, to feed those whom he feeds, to guide those whom he guides, to forgive those whom he forgives, to love those whom he loves. Jesus is calling us to give up our dollar-decorated equations and our financial-moral equal signs. He is calling us to trust in the sign that signifies the more costly and precious equation of his love for us, who have not earned it and do not deserve it: the sign of his cross. Can we do that? Will we do that? To Jesus Christ, who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood and made us to be a kingdom, priests of his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (from Revelation 1:5-6, NRSV) 5