“Gifts & Graces, Riches &
Resources: Licking Lazarus and the Income Gap!”
There are lots of
things we would rather the preacher did not say. There are lots of things
the preacher would rather the Bible did not say! Neither the Bible nor the
preacher exists to make us feel good. They exist to get “God” done, God’s
“kingdom” done, --on earth as in heaven! And the hardest stuff of all about
that for us in this culture, especially, to hear and to preach and to hear
again, -- for I do not preach with you anything the Bible has not already
preached with me – the hardest to hear is all about money and economic
justice!
The Bible says the Holy
Spirit is just as much if not more about the just distribution of material
riches and resources as the Holy Spirit is about the joyful discernment of
spiritual gifts and graces. The material and the spiritual, the body and
the soul, the flesh and the spirit all go together. That’s why we get
pictures on Pentecost Day, one of the pivotal days in the history of this
world, not only of forgiveness of sins, disciples “coming to Christ,” as we
say, by the thousands. We also get pictures of forgiveness of debts,
disciples coming to one another with proceeds of all they own, so that none
among them is living in unmet need.
Jim Wallis is fond of
saying, if we were to take scissors and cut out of our Bibles all the
references to such issues as sexual practice, which get us all so excited
and tempt us to be so uptight toward each other, we would hardly know they
were missing because such references are so few. In fact, if we were to
prepare a booklet of what Jesus has to say about homosexuality, all the
pages would be blank! But if we were to cut out of our Bibles all the
references to such issues as money, wealth and economic justice, our Bibles
would, literally, fall apart!
Listen up now to Herb
Miller, expert on congregational giving and practice of biblical-spiritual
stewardship: “The word believe appears in the Bible 273 times,
pray appears 371 times, and love appears 714 times. Give
appears 2,172 times!” Who we are as so-called biblical people and
followers of Jesus is nearly seven times clearer by how we give than by how
we pray! Or even what we say we believe. Herb Miller goes on, “Everywhere
in scripture we hear the warning: Money has power. Wealth is addictive. Be
careful. Stay on your guard. It can replace God as your god. Sixteen of
Jesus’ thirty-eight parables talk about the use of money. One-sixth of the
verses in Synoptic Gospels [Matthew, Mark & Luke] deal with money. Jesus
talked about money more than he talked about sin or love. Jesus spoke five
times as often about money and earthly possessions as about prayer.” What
is this Jesus, -- some kind of hippie, pinko, anti-Christ?
Would we know from
listening to either presidential candidate that the most pressing moral and
spiritual issue in the world today is the infinitely growing gap between the
very few wealthy persons and nations and the overwhelming majority who are
poor, even destitute and hopeless? Children and peoples of God who never
even really get a chance at life? Does either party tell us that the
so-called “war on terror” is about global justice? The just distribution of
goods and services provided equally by one Creator God for all of God’s
children?
We are supposed to do
our theology, says Karl Barth, with the Bible in one hand, the daily
newspaper in the other. Friday’s paper carried within pages of each other
two stories: One is entitled “Haitians fight for food, water,” because in
their desperation for firewood they have so deforested their land that
hurricanes whip them at will. Haiti is like a Lazarus to our rich man. We
can walk by Haiti everyday and not even know she, or any of her people, are
even there! She is just one more “failed nation-state” in a world of fewer
and fewer “winners.”
The other story is
entitled “U.S. has more billionaires than ever,” -- 313 billionaires, and
counting, the largest number ever and up 20 percent from just a year ago!
How would we know there’s a global war going on? By the profits of whole
industries that see violence and fear as “growth opportunities?” Just
asking. And one more question before we really turn to these texts! Is
anything sadder and scarier than reading a headline that “Soccer moms become
security moms?” I am only going to say this once because I cannot stand to
hear it, either: When we put desire for security ahead of desires for
liberation and justice, we openly risk repressive response. We risk
repressive regime.
So what is the “good
news,” the gospel, this morning? Precisely, as always, that biblical people
and Christians are called to find our good news right in the midst, at the
heart, of the bad news. Otherwise it is not “news” at all! Sisters and
brothers, Jesus lived in the same kind of culture that we do! People around
him saw wealth and the apparent security it affords as signs of God’s favor,
God’s blessing, upon the wealthy. They believed the poor somehow had earned
and deserved what they got. The rich man could party each day in good
conscience!
So imagine their shock,
the shock of all ages, when Jesus tells this story of the rich man and
Lazarus, -- the only story Jesus tells, by the way, that gives us a picture
of so-called “heaven” and “hell” – and the very poorest, dirtiest, most
helpless and hapless person we can imagine, -- who cannot even resist the
dogs who lick his running sores, -- is given not only a name – Lazarus is
the only person named in any of Jesus’ stories! – but is given eternal favor
as well! Is given the highest blessing, the ultimate comfort, of God, -- a
place in the “bosom of Abraham” -- forever! If that’s not “good news,”
especially for those who need it the most, what is? Or do the rest of us,
-- who are not Lazarus, even if we may not see ourselves as the rich man,
either, -- need the “good news” just as much?
Here, perhaps, is a
starting place, for us: In the words of Rowan Williams, Archbishop of
Canterbury, “We learn to let go of our anxiousness for material security as
we learn that we are the receivers of an immeasurable gift and that our
privilege and joy is to transmit that gift in every way possible to
others!” And what is that gift, essentially, but the gift of life itself?
For us it so happens to be life in a safe and prosperous place. But what
unites us, above all, with everyone else in this world is the preciousness
of life itself! That is where all the “good news” begins. Cecil Williams
loves to preach it as, “I’m alive!” That’s where it all starts! Can’t do
much else without that. We’re alive!
Our family always tries
to remember a second verse to “Happy Birthday” -- “Your life is God’s gift,
your life is God’s gift, your life is God’s gift, we thank God for you!”
And the essential economics of the Creator God who, freely and fairly, gives
us all life in the first place, is not a “growth” or “market” economy, which
is all we will ever hear politicians promising – that more and bigger and
faster are better! Rather, the economics of God is a “gift” economy! How
does Timothy advise us here? Set not our hopes on the uncertainty of
“market” riches! “But rather on God who richly provides everything for our
enjoyment!” Jesus says he comes that we may find, what? Life! And life
abundantly! Only that “us” is not just the “American” us. With God the only
“us” is the whole “human” us! No one earns or deserves the gifts of God’s
life and God’s love. Yet everyone everywhere is entitled to them. Just
because we’re alive!
The biggest
shortcomings and failures of our lives, as persons and as communities, as
churches and as nations, are shortcomings and failures of vision, of
imagination. We are going to discuss engaging together in a process of
“visioning” and long-range planning again at our open Church Council meeting
today – Come! Scriptures, at best, are meant to be invitation to vision, --
Remember Pentecost Day? Everyone – young, old, slave, free, male, female,
whatever! – sees visions and dreams dreams! Scriptures are pure inspiration
to imaginations. This story as the reversal of Lazarus and the rich man may
lead to a brand-new way of seeing, -- as the whole Bible does, -- seeing not
so much from the “top down” as from the “bottom up,” -- for as Jesus seems
fond of saying, the last shall be first, the first shall be last. The
mighty shall fall, the fallen shall rise. Think about it. Imagine it.
Envision it in our lives and our life together!
Timothy gives us such
obvious insight: “We brought nothing into this world, so that we can take
nothing out if it.” Think about it. Imagine our coming into the world –
got it? – and our going out. What do we bring, what do we take with us?
And, “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” Think about
that. Imagine that! Envision the applications and implications for our own
lives and for our life together. As always, take note that Timothy does not
condemn money per se. Money, as Bill Stringfellow says, can be
sacramental! As full of God as are the waters of baptism and the bread and
wine of communion! But only as money remains a vessel, a channel of God’s
gifts and graces, God’s riches and resources for all! Our Methodist founder
John Wesley encourages us, Earn all we can! Save all we can! Give all we
can! Money itself, Leonard Cohen might sing, is meant, like many things, to
be “just passing through” us, -- as we ourselves are meant to be “just
passing through” life the very best way we can.
Such change of
perspective may change our position in life. Position gives us
perspective. Where and with whom we are standing determine what we see! No
longer may we be content to withhold ourselves from those perhaps most
unlike us, those perhaps most in need of whatever we may have to offer. No
longer may we be, as the rich man is, blind to the very existence of
Lazarus, of Haiti, so that now, in eternal life, the rich man in agony must
gaze upon Lazarus in comfort, -- forever! Rather, we may see that each one
of us is a gift, -- the gift of all we are, the gift of all we have, the
gift of all we say and do – meant for “just passing through,” -- from one to
another, from some few to so many others, -- in all parts, all places, all
periods of life, -- at home, at work, at school, at play, -- where we
worship and where we vote! We may rather choose not so much to preserve and
protect ourselves, as if somehow God cannot quite be fully entrusted with
our lives. Rather, we may choose instead to suffer and to sacrifice
ourselves in ways, like the way of Jesus, that God can use freely and
fairly, -- to bring this old world itself to be the gift of creation
intended for all of God’s children! And let all the children of God say,
Amen!
Rev. John Auer
