Rich Man and Lazarus 2023

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to Christ. There's

a poem from, apparently from Byzantine times,

which I ran across. It's very short. It's like

one of those short Japanese poems. It says this,

eat, drink, be merry for tomorrow you may die,

but you never do. What it means is you never

die tomorrow. The day of your death is always

the day, this day, the day you are in. So there's

no tomorrow for the one who has died today. The

poem points out a fallacy in our thinking, which

leads us to believe that we kind of just keep

going in the way we are in this life. I tell

you, I've done, I can't count the number of funerals

that I've served as a priest for 25 years and

before that as a deacon and a choir director.

One would think that I take that extremely personal,

like this is going to happen to me, not some

kind of theoretical idea, which I have, of course.

But the deep, profound realization that the way

I live right now, that's going to end. And it

really matters what I do right now. Every moment

is charged with either grace or selfishness.

But no, honestly, I can't say that it's hit me

that hard in my heart, in my soul, so that it's

changed me. Well, this brings us to the... parable

today living with the perspective of eternity

of the life of the age to come or not living

with that perspective but with another perspective

it's an interesting connection to me that the

parable we heard last week do you remember it

the sower goes out to sow his seed and it fell

on this kind of ground that kind of ground and

each that's really the heart the hard heart like

the pathway the stony heart, the heart with thorns

growing around it, choked by the cares, pleasures,

business, trouble of this life. This parable

is sort of an explanation of that third type

of heart, the one choked by the cares and the

pleasures. Let me be clear also. God gives us

pleasures in this life. I'm not telling you to

make yourself miserable. We give thanks to God

for the blessings he has given us. But when we

pursue pleasure, that becomes an idol. That becomes

idolatry. That's something different. We give

thanks to God, we lift that up to him, and we

glorify him for what he gives us. Wine makes

glad the heart of man, we say in the psalm. just

from that point of view. The parable of the rich

man and Lazarus, which is in Luke chapter 16,

Luke 16 · chapter mention

examines what happens to the person that lives

without the perspective of eternity. And Jesus

is speaking to the Pharisees, a particular group

of people, then and there. St. Luke records,

he says, that these people were lovers of money.

They constantly sought to impress one another.

They had special robes on. I mean, this is a

parable for clergy, if there ever was one. They

sought worldly honor. The rich man had his purple

and fine linen. You know, purple in the ancient

world. It came from some mollusk or an insect.

People didn't wear purple robes unless they were

extremely rich and wanted to show off. He had

everything. Food, which he pursued. He ate lavishly

every day, it says. Every day. He's got everything.

Except the name. Do you notice? No name. Then

Christ tells us about a man who has nothing,

not even his health. He has a name, Lazarus.

God helps. The rich man dies, it says, he's buried.

He's in Hades, he's in torment. The Bible is

reminding us this parable, the Lord himself.

I hope when you hear these parables, you realize

it's Christ speaking to you. It's not the deacon.

It's Christ. He's telling us that death has a

spiritual cause. But since the Lord's cross and

the resurrection, keep this in mind, extremely

important. Nothing can separate us from the love

of God. Height, or low, or sickness. nor death.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Except, well, this parable tells us about a great

gulf that was fixed between this man and Lazarus,

this man and God, in terms of Abraham. That's

what it means, God. Abraham's the one who gave

himself, who came out of, or who left everything.

Put his trust fully in God. Had nothing when

he left. And there's this great gulf fixed. And

there's Lazarus who also died. And was in the

bosom of God, Abraham. The rich man now in a

rather poor state discovers that no one can cross

from where he is in Hades to where Lazarus, where

God is. And no one from there can cross to him.

A great chasm, an impassable gulf. Why is it

impassable? Is it God's just saying, I'm sorry,

I can't help you now. I wish I could. No. This

man with no name was spiritually dead while he

was alive. And what killed him was his love of

money. Jesus says, right there in Luke, he's

speaking to those who love money. He could not

see Lazarus in this life, and he didn't care

to see Lazarus in this life, having put all his

effort, all his attention, his whole heart, that

is the center of our being, where our soul is,

put his whole heart on the thought of dressing,

eating, honor. No thought of the life to come.

This great chasm was not located in some physical

place, but in the man's heart, which was captivated

by this world's promises. So, nothing can separate

us from the love of God, but our own lack of

love of God and our own lack of love of our neighbor.

That will separate us from the love of God. So,

we're Christians. We have a different orientation.

Out of our heart proceeds our life, our words,

our actions, everything. This parable is teaching

us, well, so many things. Use of money, use of

food, love of our neighbor, love of God, care

of our time on this earth before death, something

about the life of the age to come. But let's

narrow it down. He was separated because he had

no love. He had spiritual death already. A heart

filled with love. We'll see Lazarus at the gate.

We see many homeless people. Of course. You drive

here to church, you see them. But do we see one

of them as a person or just like there's a homeless

person? We have to start seeing the person. How

to change our orientation so that we don't stay

stuck. Jesus claims in this parable that even

if someone rises from the dead, they won't believe.

Meaning, you might see miracles. How many miracles

have you seen? Did you change because of that

miracle? Maybe for a time. I was talking to another

priest, and we recounted that years and years

ago, both of us had the incredible blessing to

witness a miracle from an unction service. A

person, in the case of my friend, A woman was

healed from stage four cancer completely from

the unction. A year later, she left the church,

pursued other things. You might experience a

miracle. The church has given here to us in this

place. Everything we need for the healing of

our hearts and for salvation, every single thing

we've received in baptism in potential, we have

to live out in actuality. That grace of God given

to us to make a burning ember in our heart into

a flame of love for our neighbor and God. We

don't need a new priest. I mean, you will someday.

That's for sure. You don't need a new church,

a new choir, a new deacon, new parishioners.

Everything's here for you. We all have to...

You know, we're on the brink of World War III,

probably. So, brothers and sisters, let us not

have war in our heart, but let it be filled with

love of God and our neighbor. but that takes

work. We have to cast out of ourselves love of

everything that stands between us and God. The

rich man, the truly rich person, can do without

all that stuff and be fine. The poor person,

the truly poor person, well, let's be like Lazarus'

brothers and sisters, knowing that we all we

want from God. are just some morsels. That's

enough for us if the Lord gives it to us. And

we will be changed, and we will be then like

our father Abraham, a man, a woman, a person

of faith. To our Lord be glory now and ever,

ages of ages. Amen.