| Full Text Sermon | Notes on the Text | Alternate Sermon Ideas | | Prayers & Readings | Children's Message | September Series During the month of September, we are looking at the theme: "Dimensions of Discipleship". The gospel texts from Luke, along with reflections from the other lectionary texts will help us to explore the four themes: COMMITMENT, REPENTANCE, VALUES AND ABUNDANCE. Sunday September 27, 1998 ~ Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost ~ Luke 16:19-31 ABUNDANCE Focus Text: "Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us." [16:26]
Margaret Young's quote may apply particularly well to a new breed of young physicians who are alarmed that their salaries are beginning to slump from the national average of $250,000.00 per year. Sixty one of those physicians are enrolled in an MBA program at the University of California, hoping that a business degree will perk up their careers. During one weekend conference with a reporter from the Wall Street Journal, a group of these physicians, all in their 30's and 40's -- from every conceivable specialty, said they had barely slept all week. They have full time practices and fly out to the west coast for their weekend classes. The two year program will cost about $59,000.00. "With the health care system in turmoil," one pulmonologist said, "This is knowledge I really need for my career." One of the professors in the MBA program says this is the new reality of "market-driven" health care. [WSJ 5/13/98] You and I might consider an annual income of $250,000.00 abundance in economic terms... even if it were to "plummet" to a mere $150,000.00. People living their lives backwards! Yet, these physicians are paupers compared to Forbes Magazine's list of the 200 richest billionaires in the world. Kerry A. Dolan in the July issue wrote, "A cliché perhaps, but it's true: The rich just keep getting richer. And there are more of them. That's why we decided again to limit our list of billionaires to the richest 200 who are still earning it—or are working with what they've inherited. The poorest is worth $1.5 billion." There are now over three million millionaires in America. All working hard to make the billionaire list. What is abundance? What is enough? Can you even comprehend the fact that Bill Gates (William Henry Gates) could make millionaires out of 50,000 people and still have billions left for himself? (An article in Newsweek magazine early this year quoted Gates as saying that church attendance was not an efficient or productive use of time.) People living their lives backwards! Kathy Dolan's quote of the old cliché is actually half a quote. "The rich just keep getting richer -- and the poor just keep getting poorer." And then there is the ever present poor man at the gate. The beggar is the original "invisible man". Unseen and unnamed by the rich man and his entourage, the beggar Lazarus is, however, known by God. The rich man on the other hand, known and courted by the world, is unknown to God. People living their lives backwards. The Pharisees lived their lives backwards too. Jesus' parable about the rich man and Lazarus sends an arrow to the heart of the Pharisees' backwards view. The context of the parable is important. Jesus has just said to a crowd, "You can not serve God and money." Then Luke fill us in on what was going on with some of Jesus' more critical listeners, "The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. So he said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God." (Luke 16:13-15) We could very well entitle the parable Jesus told: "The Great Reversal of Fortunes - Abundance Redefined" If this were television, the story of the rich man and Lazarus is a wonderful, heartwarming story with a good, old fashioned happy ending for Lazarus. The one who was rejected, despised and left for the dogs to lick is finally comforted and finds a home -- a place to be. BUT... at the very same time; the story of the rich man and Lazarus is a horrifying, heartbreaking story with one of those heartbreaking endings that makes you wish you hadn't watched in the first place. It's all a matter of perspective. Are you seeing the story from the point of the rich man or that of Lazarus? If you are Lazarus -- this is great! If you are the Rich man -- this is horrendous! What does it mean to be rich and what does it mean to be poor? What is abundance and who has it? These are incredibly important questions. The consequences of our answers have profound implications. It is so important for those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ to get a solid grip on what this story says. It will help to look at; 1) The Story, 2) The Lessons, 3) The True Meaning of Abundance. 1) The Story As Jesus tells it, the story is about two men who live in different worlds. The worlds intersect at a rich man's gate where a sick beggar is laid. But that's the extent of the meeting of their worlds. One world is the world of fine food and drink where every day was a banquet and the master of the mansion dressed only in clothing with premium labels. The poor man's world is one of sickness and hunger. With the former there is an abundance of material things. With the latter there is an abundance of misery and want. Amazingly, both men die at about the same time. (One might speculate as to whether the one died because of what he did not have to eat, while the other died from what he did eat!) Immediately upon their deaths, there is an astounding reversal of fortunes. Both men still have an abundance. The poor man now has an abundance of comfort while the rich man now has an abundance of sorrow. A horrendous truth comes through when the poor soul who was formerly rich wants comfort. When he discovers that none is available, he thinks about someone else for the first time. "Can't someone warn my brothers? Abraham's response is striking -- maybe even breathtaking!
I wonder if you get the gravity of that statement? There is no sense of glee on the part of those who inhabit Abraham's side of the chasm -- if anything there is a sense of pity. It is simply a spiritual reality that this chasm can not be crossed. And get this... the chasm was there all along! It didn't show up at death. The chasm separated the rich man and Lazarus in life and it now persists into death where there are no longer choices to be made. The rich man might have said, "Who is that poor soul at the gate? Bring him in, clean him up and give him something to eat." He could have crossed the chasm in life. But that takes us to: 2) The Lessons of the Story The chasm which "has been fixed" persists in all of life and beyond life. The difference is that we can make choices about that chasm in this life. The follower -- or disciple -- of Jesus Christ makes a choice to care for others. We are enjoined to see Christ in the poor and dispossessed.
There is another spiritual lesson in this story which you can see if you simply look at people you know. Another dimension of the "great chasm" of Luke 19:26 is the remarkable persistence of the mind that is closed to spiritual things. Not even a spectacular thing like the return of someone from the dead would convince the rich man's brothers, Abraham explains in the parable. The chasm is difficult to cross in this life. It is impossible to cross in the next! 3) The Meaning of Abundance What is it that makes for abundance? The answers to this question will fall on either side of another chasm. One answer is: "Abundance is to have what will satisfy me." That's the view of the world and the view of the rich man in Jesus' story. Another answer is: "Abundance is to be satisfied with what I have." That is the view of the follower of Jesus Christ who values the "seeking of the kingdom" above seeking of material things. Sometimes it takes a very hard lesson to make a decision to cross the "great chasm." Some years ago, a very wealthy and powerful man in a church I served discovered the meaning of abundance in a powerful way. Until he suffered a severe encounter with Chrones disease, his wish was any number of people's command. He had much and like the man in Jesus' story, he "feasted sumptuously every day." I did not see him in worship very often, but his contributions were important to the church budget. (If he had been a "tither" he could have doubled the church's annual budget!) Then Chrones hit him. Hard! I visited him in the hospital and watched this rather stocky, imposing man waste away before my eyes. During one visit, he said to me, "You know John, I'm no different that the panhandlers out on the sidewalks of this hospital. (He had noticed those poor folks in Chicago's Loop!) The only difference is that they can't afford to eat and I can't eat because I can't digest anything." Then he really got my attention. He asked me if I knew where to put $10,000.00 to good use in a "soup kitchen". (He was a bit older.) I told him I could certainly help him with that and asked, "Are you trying to bargain with God -- just a bit maybe?" He answered without hesitating, "Probably." He did, however, seem to take great pleasure in hearing about a few food pantries that were able to reach out to hundreds of people because of his gift. He still couldn't eat, but he enjoyed hearing about some other who could eat because of his gift. In terms of bargaining with God, he suffered a stroke shortly after he gave the gift to the pantries. Yet, he became a very generous supporter of outreach to the poor. I like to believe he crossed the chasm! What is abundance for you and me as followers of Christ? It is Paul saying to the Corinthian Church:
It is the injunction to Timothy:
It is the reality behind Revelation 3:17:
[Apply It] 1. The latter part of Margaret Young's quote from the beginning of this message might be reworded to describe the way a disciple of Jesus Christ views the issue of abundance. "You must first be who you really are as a follower of Christ, then do what you need to do and God will lead you into what you really want." 2. Does this message challenge you to re-examine your view of abundance? Is there a chasm between your view of material things and the view of the world around you? (Do these questions make you want to say, "Mind your own business!) 3. Take some of the "abundance" in material things God has given to you and give a gift to some ministry that reaches out to some "beggar at the gate". Make it a gift you weren't planning to give. v.19 The rich man came to be called "Dives" (Latin for "rich") in subsequent Christian history. v.20 The translation "and at his gate lay a poor man" is passive and properly translated "a beggar was laid at his gate" in most translations. Indeed the root word "ballo" carries the more forceful "throw or cast" i.e. the man was "dumped" at the rich man's gate. The name "Lazarus" is the Greek for of the Hebrew "El-àzar" which means "God has helped" v.25 Abraham's reply to the rich man's agony is "teknon" = "son". The sense conveys the compassion of God even toward those who spurn the Lord's love. Yet, the chasm remains. v.26 There is an interesting pair of words used in verse 26 where Lazarus is "comforted" and the rich man is in "agony". "comforted" from "parakaleo" (The Comforter is the Parakletos") The word "agony" from "oudano" = "to grieve, sorrow, torment" This strengthens the idea of the reversal of fortunes. Wm Barclay comments, "It is a terrible warning to remember that the sin of "Dives" was, not that he did wrong things, but that he did nothing." v.31 Indeed even after the resurrection of Christ, "They worshiped him, but some doubted..." [Matt.28:17 Luxury in the Shadow of Disaster ~ Amos 6:1a, 4-7 You could use the Amos text as the focus of your sermon and the incorporate Luke 16:19-31 as an example of the kind of person Amos warns. Amos' oracles against the idle rich are not warnings against being wealthy, but warnings against wealth combined with arrogance, (false spiritual security) and luxurious living without spiritual sensitivity. The judgement pronounced in verse 7 is as the "great chasm" which is "fixed" in Luke 16:26. Those who are living an "eat, drink and be merry" life now without regard for the spiritual dimension of life or the spiritual condition of their families and communities will discover their true condition in due course. Luke 6:24-25 "But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. "Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep." No Two Ways About It! ~ I Timothy 6: 6-19 The letter to Timothy sets down two ways of living and like the texts from Luke and Amos, we can not live both. We are on one side of the "great chasm" or the other. 1. Verses 6-7 There is the way of "contentment" which focuses on being content with what God has given us and keeping our focus on the Source of every blessing rather than on the substance of blessing. 2. Verses 9-10 There is not a condemnation of money but of the "love" of money and "harmful desires" that are eager for wealth. The "harmful desires" of the NRSV is better translated "injurious lusts" (lusts = "epithumia" -- to set the heart upon) The real harm of this is that the heart is designed to be set on God. (i.e. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart...") When it is "set" on anything else, idolatry is the natural result. (See v. 17) 3. Verses 17-19 The real meaning of riches, treasures and life. Key: "...that they may take hold of the life that really is life." (v.19) A Responsive Call To Worship (Based on Psalm 146) L: You alone,
O Lord God, are worthy of praise. A Prayer of Dedication How can we give to you O Lord? We have received everything from your hand. We do not have life, liberty or happiness except you have given it to us. We do not have food, shelter or clothing unless you grant it to us. How can we give to you unless you first give to us? Merciful God, as we offer these gifts to you, we become more like you. O Lord, our Lord, shape our hearts by the good pleasure of your Holy Spirit, that through giving we might discover the joy of living. Amen. A Prayer of Confession We stand before you in need of grace, O merciful Lord. We are too easily attached to the things of this world and too easily detached from you. We long for goods ahead of goodness and for money ahead of of meaning. We beg your forgiveness for our wandering hearts and pray your guidance for our wavering spirits. O come and recreate our divided hearts today, that we might know the pure joy of loving you above all things. Amen. Would You Rather Have Love or Money? Objects: You need a pocket full of change. Pennies, nickels dimes and a few quarters. Lesson: How many of you boys and girls have pets? (Talk with them about their pets and then do something along the line of:) "Billy, how about if I give you all this money [a few pennies, a nickel and a dime] for you dog? Billy will say no, of course, so you up the ante until it becomes clear Billy won't take your money. "Well then Billy, how much would you want to give me your dog?" Repeat this with a couple more of the children regarding their cat or bird or whatever. Then make the point that love is more important than money. Now take all the change... say to one of the children then to a couple more... "Do you think your mom (or dad or grandmother etc.) would take all this money for you?" Love is much more important than money. Money can't replace the love you have for your pet and it can't replace the love your parents have for you. It's like that with God. God loves us more than anything and God wants us to give our love back. Jesus said the most important thing in all of life is to love God with all of your heart as much as you can possibly love. Isn't it great to have something that is way more important than money? |
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