20th Sunday after Pentecost - Fr. Lawrence Margitich

We bring whatever concerns and cares, whatever

sorrows or joys, whatever confusion and troubles,

we bring them with us as we gather. But what's

the providential word from God? St. John says

that he wrote all those words so that by hearing

them we will believe, and by believing we will

have life. So what's the providential word that

will give us life today, even accounting for

my halting and inarticulate expression? We bring

whatever concerns we have. But what specific

thing about this parable today, in this time,

in this place, are we being given by God? The

Lord is trying always, but especially at the

gospel, to get our attention. Like a young child

with his parent. Dad, Mom, look at this, look

at this, come here, come here, come here. Parents,

you know how sometimes we just say, oh, I'll

be there, son, daughter, in a moment. And then

we miss the moment. So God's tugging on our shirt.

He's tugging on your sweater. Pay attention.

Look. Listen. There's a story that you've probably

heard me tell before. It's a famous story about

C .S. Lewis. Maybe we could remember this story

when we go to the mall, we go downtown. and we

encounter someone asking for the morsels that

fall from our table, spare change as we might

call it. I remember the words of C .S. Lewis

when he was rebuked by a friend for giving spare

change to a beggar. The friend said to C .S.

Lewis, that bum is just going to use the money

you gave him to buy beer. And C .S. Lewis responded

by saying, well, that's what I was going to use

it for, too. This story is not just about charity.

It's a very deep parable, and it goes in every

which way direction. It's spinning towards us

all the time. It's a very difficult parable.

It's not what we maybe want to hear. A dysfunctional

family with five brothers and one that just died

and went to Hades. Wealth that isn't shared.

Poverty that isn't noticed. The voice of God.

Father Abraham, anyway. If anyone has the world's

goods, material blessings. You see, this isn't

about wealth. condemning wealth if anyone has

the world's goods and sees his brother or sister

in need yet closes his heart against him how

does god's love abide in him so this parable

is really about god's love and our gratitude

and our capacity to love with the love that god

has given us yes we give to the poor because

we're going to help them But that's because we

see the image of God. That's because we're grateful

for the riches, the riches that God has given

us. Purple and fine linen, nothing. Look at what

I have. Sumptuous feast. Brothers and sisters,

what will we partake of? So many riches are given

to us. But what were the concerns of this rich

man? And maybe, you know, when we look at this

parable, we try to see ourself in there. Not

the Lazarus character. I'm certainly not Father

Abraham. What does that leave? What were the

concerns of the rich man? They were the ordinary

concerns that people have all around. Do not

be anxious. about what you eat or what you drink

or what you wear. Don't be anxious about these

things. He thought of nothing of the next life

or the coming judgment. As far as he was concerned,

he had to answer to no one but himself, and he

was concerned about feasting sumptuously, it

says, every day. He was a man of routine. He

lived, as the text says, every day, dressed marvelously,

feasting sumptuously. And he tended not to notice

insignificant things, insignificant things around

him, such as a man starving at his doorstep.

Some years ago, I was coming and going in my

car, Todd Road Highway, passing Tower Mart or

Power Mart or whatever it was called at the time.

And I had to go in to get gas or, you know, potato

chips or whatever, you know, that I like. And

there was a man at what used to be a bus stop

there. And he was sitting on the bench, and it

was a bus stop cover, and he was slumped over.

And I went in, went out, I saw him. Drove out,

came back, saw him. Drove out again, saw him

again. He was still slumped there. The next day

I read in the paper that he had died that morning,

probably sometime after I was there. We tend

to not notice what is not significant to us.

I think the pain of the rich man in Hades was

that he could see Lazarus in Abraham's bosom

far off. And he realized, like I am realizing

now, what I could have done for this man. This

rich man now knows that things that appeared

to be small there in the next life became things

of significance. Little things such as crumbs

that fall from the table or a drop of water on

the tip of a finger. That man now saw as very

huge. He now sees that poor, weak, sick man is

really a person of consequence. We had the Divine

Liturgy yesterday, Memorial Divine Liturgy. Hundreds

of names were read commemorating them of the

departed. Hundreds. This man has no name. in

the story. What does that tell us? This sick

man, the poor man, was a man of consequence.

The man of power of this world. The man of sumptuous

living. That's not going to bring us anything,

brothers and sisters. And the deep and fiery

pain of understanding and that being revealed

to him in Hades. It's not something you and I

want to encounter. There's a chasm between Father

Abraham, he says, and this man. And it didn't

appear all of a sudden at death as some kind

of punishment. It's already described there at

the beginning of the parable, isn't it? The rich

man creating a chasm with his selfish way of

life and his ungodly use of wealth because there's

a godly use of wealth too. and he was blind to

poor Lazarus, he may have been on the other side

of the Grand Canyon. There's a great gulf fixed,

and this man can no longer do what he wants.

The whole of his life, and let us examine our

own, the whole of this man's life was moving

towards that chasm. He put it together. He made

his own prison. He's the creator of that Hades.

Father Patrick Reardon wrote this. He said, that

man spent a lifetime becoming accustomed to sin.

Not sins of commission. All of them were sins

of omission, what he had not done. When we come

to confession, most of us look at the sins that

we have committed. And this is good. But what

about the sins of omission? This man became habituated

to the absence of God, and he did not see, because

of that, the presence of the image of God in

poor Lazarus. And he lived each day as there

were no God, and that he had no moral responsibilities

in the world. Like me, just driving by, a man

slumped in a bus stop. It turns out that morality,

or the lack of it, is not the main message here.

Taking care of the poor, as essential as that

is, and as important as that was for the people

of the church, of the early church, and throughout

history. Think of St. Basil. I think of the orphanages,

the hospitals, the schools, the poorhouses, the

workhouses. all the way up to the time of St.

John of Kronstadt, all the way up until our present

day of the monastery of St. Elizabeth in Minsk.

We Orthodox in this country have been identified

by polls and surveys as the richest Christians

of any Christian in this country. Yet we don't

have one hospital. Orphanages are found in Guatemala,

not here. Maybe it's a little more complicated

now for us, considering social restrictions.

Schools, forget it. Catholic charities, taking

care of the poor. God will reward them. What

about us? So this parable isn't about just that.

It's something deeper. The parable is really

about me or you, an allegory of your soul, of

my soul, the soul starving and poor and wounded

like Lazarus, begging at the gate of life for

illumination from God, for God's mercy, for some

prayer, for some charity to give to others. for

some vigils, for some scripture, for contemplating

the resurrection. The feasting and purple and

fine linen of the parable refer to the way I

pamper my appetites while refusing to give any

notice to my soul. Sure, we come to church, but

this is just to feed us, to launch us out to

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and etc. so our soul

will shine. Let us not starve at the gate spiritually.

How do I digest this story? God did not speak

just a long time ago. He speaks now. What did

Abraham say to the man? Your brothers, they have

the law and the prophets. And even if someone

should rise from the dead, they will not believe.

We have... our Lord Jesus Christ risen from the

dead. We will partake of his risen body and blood.

We have the scriptures. Let us not find ourselves

on the other end of that chasm, either in this

life or in the life to come. How long will God

give us? As long as we have breath and we have

life, God has given us a chance to repent, to

pray more. to take care of our charitable concerns

and responsibilities, to gather more for worship,

to discover his word and his instruction and

his life -giving help in the scriptures. We have

the resurrection and the scriptures. What else

do we need? The Lord has blessed us richly. Let

us give thanks to him in honoring our Lord. now

and ever, to ages of ages. Amen.