Lazarus and the Rich Man Fr. James Jorgenson

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.

Well, welcome to all of you on this beautiful,

sunny California morning. I hope you got here

without having gotten too wet, or having car

trouble, or whatever it might be. But God has

brought us together in the joy of this community

Eucharistic celebration. Today we have that parable

we hear it every year, the rich man and Lazarus.

Lazarus, the poor man and the rich man who didn't

care about him. It occasionally happens that,

and I invite you to do this, if you read over

the gospel before you come to church or the night

before, take a look at the verses right before.

or right after the gospel selection. Because

sometimes they have an interesting clue on how

we should understand this gospel passage. And

that's the case today. Because two verses before

this gospel begins in verse 16, we have verse

14, which tells us, Jesus addressed the Pharisees

who were fond of money. Okay, so this is addressed

to Pharisees. And I think Pharisees in the broadest

possible term to those who are complacent, proud

of themselves, look down upon others who are

callous and greedy. Faults that were typical

of... the collective word Pharisee, but all those

faults we share in one degree or another at one

time or another. So with this in mind, this gospel

is also very characteristic of St. Luke's style

and also his selection of the miracles and the

stories that he relates to us. Because St. Luke

is particularly attentive to how Jesus treats

the poor people. The collective term for poor

people in Hebrew is the anawim. And the anawim

are poor, underprivileged, sick, the little people.

The nobodies, so to speak. The nobodies in society.

These are the ones Jesus is concerned about.

The anawim, the poor, and then also women. Notice

he spoke recently about the story of the widow

of Nayan and her only son that she was going

to be out to bury her. Publican and the Pharisee

is another example of that. The publican, maybe

he wasn't poor in wealth, but he was poor in

spirit. The Pharisee looked down on him. Who

else? The widow, the woman who was bent over

and had scoliosis. The woman who had the flow

of blood and just went to touch the hem of his

garment. So these are illustrations about how

St. Luke is attentive to Jesus' concern for the

poor. Not necessarily poor in wealth or in spirit.

Sometimes those who are poor in wealth are rich

in spirit. But I think this is very well illustrated

to us. In one of the Antiphon Psalms that we

sing each and every Sunday. Let's take a look

at that. Put not, let's praise the Lord, oh my

soul. Put not your trust in princes. Now that

does not mean royalty necessarily. but it means

big shots, wealthy people. Politicians, put not

your trust in these kind of big shots, in other

words, in sons of men in whom there is no salvation.

Then happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob.

whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven

and earth, the sea and all that is in them, who

keeps faith forever. The Lord sets the prisoners

free. Aha. Don't think he's necessarily talking

about murderers who should be in jail, but I

would say people that are falsely and improperly

imprisoned. Or people that are imprisoned by

sin. Who sets the prisoners free. I lost my place.

Yes. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The

Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. The Lord

loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the

sojourners. That's an interesting word. Who does

the Lord watch over? The word itself means non

-residents or non -locals, visitors, tourists.

Sometimes some of the translations are proselytes.

meaning people who have come, who are residents

of Jerusalem, but come to worship in Jerusalem.

I sort of thought of that interesting way of

putting it when I was thinking about this last

night. Tourists. If you've ever gone on vacation,

you know there's a local price and a tourist's

price. People, it's human nature, and I doubt

if it was that different 2 ,000 years ago, the

residents, businessmen, would try and fleece

or shake down people with higher prices that

were visiting in Jerusalem. One last word on

this word, sojourners. It's amusing to me because

it has an acquired difference now. The Orthodox

Study Bible translates this as resident aliens.

Now that's acquired a whole different connotation

in the last 10 or 20 years. But it means non

-locals, in other words. So these are the ones

that the Lord watches over. He upholds the widow

and the fatherless, the orphan and the widow.

But the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

And oh, if it applies to someone, it applies

to the rich man in today's gospel. He did not

fare very well in the next world. Which brings

us then to an understanding of if the Lord is

interested in poor, unimportant people, so to

speak, Like the poor man in today's story who

is really down and out. No question about it.

The Lord is interested in these people. But then

it brings us to the question, which probably

pops to our mind immediately, I would say, when

we read this. What about riches? What do we do

with our money? In another context, it's go sell

what you have, give to the poor. and you will

have treasure in heaven and come follow me. And

the rich young man went away sad because he had

so many possessions. All of these incidents prompted

the emergence of a Christian theology of money,

if I may use that term. Clement of Alexandria,

who lived in the middle of the 3rd century, flourished

about the year 250. He's the one that presented

us with the first Christian economics. First

Christian economics. So here what Clement has

to say about wealth. Our Lord was not telling

Christians to get rid of their wealth. He was

telling them to banish from their souls the primacy

of riches. Riches should not be rejected if they

can be of use to our neighbors. They are goods

because with them we can do good. Riches can

be an instrument. In themselves, riches are blameless.

Riches presents an opportunity to do good. or

to do serious evil. Clement concludes in these

thoughts, it is up to our mind and judgment to

manage what is given to us, really lent to us

because we don't own it, but given to us for

our use. Those who prosper, Clement tells us,

those who prosper bear great responsibility.

to use their wealth and possessions for the kingdom

of God. This same attitude towards money, which

Clement did not just come up with this idea out

of the blue, but if you go back in the early

centuries, Christianity drew primarily from the

poor and the you know, outcasts of society, slaves,

people like that. And then gradually, as decades

rolled on, wealthier people started to enter

the Christian church. And so this presented a

new situation. for the church. And this is what

Clement of Alexandria, what sparked his presentation

of sort of a theology of money, a Christian use

of wealth. So that's why Clement says that. Now,

the final thought, which is very much in line

with Clement's analysis, is what Augustine has

to say as a commentary. Augustine's writing maybe

150 years later after Clement. Augustine says,

Christ did not object to the riches of the rich

man, but to his impiety, infidelity, pride, and

cruelty. The rich should not fear wealth, but

they should fear greed. They should not fear

riches, but vices, They should not fear goods,

but greed. Let them possess wealth like Abraham

did. And Abraham's mentioned in the gospel to

be in the bosom of Abraham. And remember, Abraham's

known for his faith, but he was also a very wealthy

man. Very wealthy man. possess wealth like Abraham

as a man of faith, and let them possess it with

faith. Let them have it and possess it, but not

be possessed by it. And that's a challenge for

all of us, not to be possessed by what we have.

Because regardless of how much income we have,

we can fret too much about all of that. and not

be concerned about more important things in life.

And I'd say as a footnote, this gospel also tells

us to be concerned for the poor and the needy,

to use some of our wealth, no matter how much

money we make, but to use some of our wealth,

some percentage, and give it... to appropriate

charities for those whom God has given less challenges

than the challenges he has given us as relatively

wealthy people. To be wealthy in spirit is more

important, but those of us who are wealthy or

poor in money, let us be wealthy in our spirit.

Amen.