September 25, 2022 – Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 21)

In Luke, chapter 6, verse 24, we hear, “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” So goes the story of the rich man in today’s Gospel reading. He should have known better. He could have – and should have – done better. He received good things, but he built up treasures for himself instead of being rich towards God.

You’ll recall that last week’s Gospel reading ended with the zinger (Lk 16:13) “No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

But I don’t think this rich man thinks of himself as a slave does he. He was a man who lived on a property with a gate and guard dogs. He wore purple clothes and fine linen daily. He ate, drank, and was merry every day.

Even after he has died, he cannot shake his sense of self-importance. When he sees Lazarus at what was considered the best seat in the house of heaven,the rich man literally commands Abraham to put Lazarus to work for his benefit, and when that doesn’t work, he suggests Lazarus be sent to warn the dead rich man’s brothers.

Let’s stop here – to point out what I think is an important detail. This story is the only time that Jesus gives one of his characters a name: Lazarus. This makes the name significant. “Lazarus” literally means “God helps” or “the one whom God helps.” While the focus in the story, the one who has something to learn, is the rich man, as we’ve come to expect, Jesus doesn’t miss the opportunity to also speak a word of comfort to those who might be listening in the midst of suffering. By giving the poor man the name “God helps”, Jesus adds more hope to the image of him being comforted in heaven. While the story may be for the transformation of another, Jesus also communicates to those who are need, saying, “God sees you, too. God will help you too.”

Back to the story – not ONCE does the rich man own up to mistreating Lazarus. Not ONCE does the rich man repent. Not ONCE does the rich man even talk to Lazarus. And yet, somehow, he knows the name of this poor man Lazarus, indicating that he knew all along about him, when he laid at his gates, hungry and covered in sores.

Part of the reason why the rich man might know Lazarus might be because of the community’s effort to bring him to the gates daily. It isn’t as clear from our English translation, but the original Greek indicates a passivity in the action, that the people brought Lazarus to the gates (whether against his will or not is unclear), from which we can infer that the rich man was the one in their community who had resources to help Lazarus. 

Regardless, the rich man clearly knew of Lazarus and his plight. The rich man already knew what he needed to know to be better and do better in this life. He chose his god. When we choose who we will serve, we cannot love and serve another. And when we choose our god, an encounter with the true God may not be enough to convince us to repent or to change the way we see.

The rich man was not a man who woke up daily and wondered how to put his resources to use. He woke up every morning and decided that today was another opportunity to be noticed – to be and act rich and fabulous. Abraham, in fact, reminds him that he had received his “good things.” His riches weren’t, in fact, his own; he didn’t earn them, they weren’t his right. They were given to him.

Even from his place of torment, looking at the comfortable position of Lazarus, the rich man doesn’t seem to fully comprehend the great reversal that’s taken place. His riches haven’t saved him or protected him, and he still doesn’t understand the difference between his idol and Lazarus’ God. 

What’s more worrisome to me is that the rich man’s wealth is still so distorting his vision that he is unable to explicitly state what it is that his brothers need to be warned about. And let’s not even get involved in the fact that the rich man still cannot acknowledge his actions against Lazarus, still seeing Lazarus as a class of people who serve him, rather than the other way around.

That is how powerfully effective idols like money and wealth and greed and self-centeredness are at perverting our vision, contaminating our perception of right and wrong, of privilege and stewardship, of responsibility and expectation, and the way we see and treat others. This whole story is haunting, but I think that’s the point. All of the rich man’s acts and decisions were directly impacted and made from the perspective of who and what he loved and therefore worshiped. Jesus tells us this story to make a point about consistency – we can follow only one God. We can only give our heart to one true devotion. 

So my friends, as we go forth from church today about our life business, who or what is it that we are devoted to? Are we like the rich man, who found ways to be infatuated with money and didn’t care about his treatment of others? Or are we devoted to our cell phones and keeping up with others’ lives? Or are we devoted to God, trying our best each and every day to bring others to know our loving, life-giving, and liberating God?

Donald Hilton’s prayer in Blessed be the Table would have been a good one for the rich man. It’s definitely a good one for us:

If it should be, loving Father of all,
that, all unknown to us,
our eating causes others to starve,
our plenty springs from others’ poverty,
or our choice feeds off others’ denial,
then, Lord,
forgive us,
enlighten us,
and strengthen us to work for fairer trade
and just reward. Amen.