Loving Unchosen Neighbors
The Rev. Robert P. Travis
Eighteenth Sunday after the Pentecost – 8:00 & 10:30
RCL Proper 21 Year C 9/26/2010
1.Text: Jeremiah 32:1-3a,6-15, Psalm 91:1-6,14-16, 1 Timothy 6:6-19, Luke 16:19-31
I was going through my old sermons
and I discovered that the very first
sermon I wrote in Seminary,
was on this same Gospel pericope
we heard today.
I read through that sermon and found some good parts
for today.
But a great deal of the text was disappointing
to me, because it showed me
how immature I was then,
and especially that I had a sort of chip
on my shoulder about wealthy people.
I was fresh out of my experience as a youth minister
at an Episcopal Church on the Northshore of Long Island,
commonly called the Gold Coast of Long Island.
Some of the wealthiest people in the world
live in that town.
You couldn't buy a house, not even a shack,
for less than $600,000.
Parents would commonly buy $80,000 Lexuses
for their children when they turned 16.
And yet, at the Episcopal Church where I worshipped
and served, my $3,500 pledge was one of the largest
pledges in the parish.
So I was angry at the injustice that wealth causes,
as I wrote that sermon with them in mind,
and concerned for their spiritual well being,
as well as for my own.
(selections from text of old Sermon in quotes)
“Actually there's a lot of hope
in this story.
There may not be hope for the rich man in the story,
but there's a lot of hope for the rest of us.
I believe that is why Jesus told it.
You see, this was a really familiar
story back then,
the kind of story where everyone
in the crowd would be mumbling to themselves,
“Oh I've heard this one before,
this is the one about
the rich man and Lazarus.”
But Jesus, as he often does,
puts an interesting twist in the story...
talk about the Name of Lazarus, meaning God has Blessed
“After the rich man begs him to send Lazarus
to his family to warn them,
Abraham says, “they have Moses and the Prophets;
let them listen to them.”
Now where have we heard this before?
Lots of times in the Bible we hear someone
say the phrase, “Moses and the Prophets.”
Or sometimes, “The Law and the Prophets,”
since the tradition held that the Torah,
the books of the Law were written by Moses.
As I see it, Abraham is saying to the rich man
and through Jesus, to us:
“they should look at the Law and the Prophets!
In there God tells you everything
you need to live a good life
and come to be with me after you die.”
Also those scriptures talk about blessing . . .
and tradition held that the wealthy were blessed
and the poor cursed.
Talk about the idea of blessings vs. abomination.
You see, the Rich man knew the Biblical story.
He knew that in the Torah, God commands us
“Love your neighbor as yourself!”
From just what we know about this man in the story
we can see that he wasn't doing this.
Who was his neighbor in the story?
The story said Lazarus “was laid” at the rich man's gate.
Now I don't know about you,
but if someone makes their home right next to mine,
no matter how they do it,
I would say that is about as literal a definition of neighbor
as you can get.
What did the rich man do for Lazarus, who was his neighbor?
NOTHING!
Lazarus, longed to eat what fell from the rich man's table.
The rich man wasn't even giving him the scraps!
Maybe he didn't feel like Lazarus was his neighbor
because he just showed up uninvited
and the rich man had no choice in the matter.
Maybe he didn't have his own house
in the nice section of town.
Maybe he thought Lazarus was an “illegal”
if he did not enjoy the citizenship that the rich man did.
But the fact of the matter is,
Lazarus became the rich man's neighbor.
Sound familiar?
Do you have any neighbors right here in town like Lazarus?
In Europe this week the news was about the Roma -
unwanted neighbors for many countries in Europe. . .
The other verse I want to talk about is the phrase
“they will not listen even if someone is raised from the dead.”
In someways this can sound quite cynical,
because Abraham, and through the story, Jesus,
is clearly saying that those who aren't following
the great gifts of Torah and Prophecy
that God gave his people will not be convinced
even if someone rises from the dead.
But let's look behind the cynicism at the interesting twist
that I mentioned earlier.
Jesus was referring to his own eventual resurrection!
Jesus did rise from the dead!
That's what our whole faith is based upon,
and it is a message of great hope.
While the story says, they won't even listen IF
someone comes back from the dead to warn them,
Jesus is saying He IS going to come back from the dead!
And you and I know it happened...
God is not saying that wealth is a terrible thing,
or evil in and of itself.
Every gift comes from God, and is intended for good.
Maybe it's prophetic that people who didn't listen before
won't listen now,
but WE WILL!
God has given us great wealth,
but he gave it to us so that we would use it
for the building up of the Kingdom!
His Kingdom...not ours.
Every time we use our wealth to act with love
towards our neighbors,
to nourish the Body of Christ,
even those who just showed up,
whom we did not choose,
we acknowledge that we have listened,
and we still are listening to Jesus.
Jesus gives us everything we need to know
in his life and teachings,
and not because we deserve it.
NO, and we don't deserve these riches either,
but God loves us so much that he let his only son die,
in part so that we could have someone
who had been to the dead and back
tell us from experience what waits for us after death,
and how to join Him in heaven. . .
What an amazing gift that he tells us what we need to know!
That's what the rich man hoped for.
There are unwanted neighbors in Knoxville,
I have read recently that people,
some of whom claim to be Christian,
are fighting against having housing for the poor
built or allocated in their neighborhoods,
saying it will affect their property values.
The people we choose in our lives are one thing,
but Jesus is asking us to love the neighbors
whom we did not choose.
So what do we have to do?
For those of us who are wealthy,
Jesus tells us it's going to be hard, really hard,
for us to keep from being weighed down by our wealth.
It's hard because you can't love someone you don't pay
attention to, and so to love God and love our neighbor
we have to pay attention to them.
We can't try to keep them out of our neighborhoods
so we can pretend they aren't there.
But with our wealth we have so many things
to distract us from God and our neighbors.
Because money is so distracting.
I don't need to tell you how much more complicated
life gets when you have money.
Frankly we become so distracted with our wealth
that we miss the opportunities which abound
for us to use it for God!
So take a look at the great chance you've been given!
There are neighbors who get dropped at the very gate
of our precious community. . .
Think about the homeless on our doorstep,
and the formerly homeless
in Knoxville's permanent supportive housing.
Do you know them?
We have opportunities to get to know them here.
Family Promise, Circles of Support...
You know that Jesus Christ came back from the dead
to show you the way to God.
You know that God gave you wealth in this world.
What are you going to do with that knowledge?
If we love Jesus we will keep his commandments,
we will love these neighbors,
regardless of how they got there.
Don't let your money distract you from your neighbor!”
And seek contentment rather than wealth
as we heard in Timothy
and use your wealth to nourish the Body of Christ,
in this community of faith.
That is one way to grasp eternal live now,
you don't have to wait to get to heaven.
Eighteenth Sunday after the Pentecost – 8:00 & 10:30
RCL Proper 21 Year C 9/26/2010
1.Text: Jeremiah 32:1-3a,6-15, Psalm 91:1-6,14-16, 1 Timothy 6:6-19, Luke 16:19-31
I was going through my old sermons
and I discovered that the very first
sermon I wrote in Seminary,
was on this same Gospel pericope
we heard today.
I read through that sermon and found some good parts
for today.
But a great deal of the text was disappointing
to me, because it showed me
how immature I was then,
and especially that I had a sort of chip
on my shoulder about wealthy people.
I was fresh out of my experience as a youth minister
at an Episcopal Church on the Northshore of Long Island,
commonly called the Gold Coast of Long Island.
Some of the wealthiest people in the world
live in that town.
You couldn't buy a house, not even a shack,
for less than $600,000.
Parents would commonly buy $80,000 Lexuses
for their children when they turned 16.
And yet, at the Episcopal Church where I worshipped
and served, my $3,500 pledge was one of the largest
pledges in the parish.
So I was angry at the injustice that wealth causes,
as I wrote that sermon with them in mind,
and concerned for their spiritual well being,
as well as for my own.
(selections from text of old Sermon in quotes)
“Actually there's a lot of hope
in this story.
There may not be hope for the rich man in the story,
but there's a lot of hope for the rest of us.
I believe that is why Jesus told it.
You see, this was a really familiar
story back then,
the kind of story where everyone
in the crowd would be mumbling to themselves,
“Oh I've heard this one before,
this is the one about
the rich man and Lazarus.”
But Jesus, as he often does,
puts an interesting twist in the story...
talk about the Name of Lazarus, meaning God has Blessed
“After the rich man begs him to send Lazarus
to his family to warn them,
Abraham says, “they have Moses and the Prophets;
let them listen to them.”
Now where have we heard this before?
Lots of times in the Bible we hear someone
say the phrase, “Moses and the Prophets.”
Or sometimes, “The Law and the Prophets,”
since the tradition held that the Torah,
the books of the Law were written by Moses.
As I see it, Abraham is saying to the rich man
and through Jesus, to us:
“they should look at the Law and the Prophets!
In there God tells you everything
you need to live a good life
and come to be with me after you die.”
Also those scriptures talk about blessing . . .
and tradition held that the wealthy were blessed
and the poor cursed.
Talk about the idea of blessings vs. abomination.
You see, the Rich man knew the Biblical story.
He knew that in the Torah, God commands us
“Love your neighbor as yourself!”
From just what we know about this man in the story
we can see that he wasn't doing this.
Who was his neighbor in the story?
The story said Lazarus “was laid” at the rich man's gate.
Now I don't know about you,
but if someone makes their home right next to mine,
no matter how they do it,
I would say that is about as literal a definition of neighbor
as you can get.
What did the rich man do for Lazarus, who was his neighbor?
NOTHING!
Lazarus, longed to eat what fell from the rich man's table.
The rich man wasn't even giving him the scraps!
Maybe he didn't feel like Lazarus was his neighbor
because he just showed up uninvited
and the rich man had no choice in the matter.
Maybe he didn't have his own house
in the nice section of town.
Maybe he thought Lazarus was an “illegal”
if he did not enjoy the citizenship that the rich man did.
But the fact of the matter is,
Lazarus became the rich man's neighbor.
Sound familiar?
Do you have any neighbors right here in town like Lazarus?
In Europe this week the news was about the Roma -
unwanted neighbors for many countries in Europe. . .
The other verse I want to talk about is the phrase
“they will not listen even if someone is raised from the dead.”
In someways this can sound quite cynical,
because Abraham, and through the story, Jesus,
is clearly saying that those who aren't following
the great gifts of Torah and Prophecy
that God gave his people will not be convinced
even if someone rises from the dead.
But let's look behind the cynicism at the interesting twist
that I mentioned earlier.
Jesus was referring to his own eventual resurrection!
Jesus did rise from the dead!
That's what our whole faith is based upon,
and it is a message of great hope.
While the story says, they won't even listen IF
someone comes back from the dead to warn them,
Jesus is saying He IS going to come back from the dead!
And you and I know it happened...
God is not saying that wealth is a terrible thing,
or evil in and of itself.
Every gift comes from God, and is intended for good.
Maybe it's prophetic that people who didn't listen before
won't listen now,
but WE WILL!
God has given us great wealth,
but he gave it to us so that we would use it
for the building up of the Kingdom!
His Kingdom...not ours.
Every time we use our wealth to act with love
towards our neighbors,
to nourish the Body of Christ,
even those who just showed up,
whom we did not choose,
we acknowledge that we have listened,
and we still are listening to Jesus.
Jesus gives us everything we need to know
in his life and teachings,
and not because we deserve it.
NO, and we don't deserve these riches either,
but God loves us so much that he let his only son die,
in part so that we could have someone
who had been to the dead and back
tell us from experience what waits for us after death,
and how to join Him in heaven. . .
What an amazing gift that he tells us what we need to know!
That's what the rich man hoped for.
There are unwanted neighbors in Knoxville,
I have read recently that people,
some of whom claim to be Christian,
are fighting against having housing for the poor
built or allocated in their neighborhoods,
saying it will affect their property values.
The people we choose in our lives are one thing,
but Jesus is asking us to love the neighbors
whom we did not choose.
So what do we have to do?
For those of us who are wealthy,
Jesus tells us it's going to be hard, really hard,
for us to keep from being weighed down by our wealth.
It's hard because you can't love someone you don't pay
attention to, and so to love God and love our neighbor
we have to pay attention to them.
We can't try to keep them out of our neighborhoods
so we can pretend they aren't there.
But with our wealth we have so many things
to distract us from God and our neighbors.
Because money is so distracting.
I don't need to tell you how much more complicated
life gets when you have money.
Frankly we become so distracted with our wealth
that we miss the opportunities which abound
for us to use it for God!
So take a look at the great chance you've been given!
There are neighbors who get dropped at the very gate
of our precious community. . .
Think about the homeless on our doorstep,
and the formerly homeless
in Knoxville's permanent supportive housing.
Do you know them?
We have opportunities to get to know them here.
Family Promise, Circles of Support...
You know that Jesus Christ came back from the dead
to show you the way to God.
You know that God gave you wealth in this world.
What are you going to do with that knowledge?
If we love Jesus we will keep his commandments,
we will love these neighbors,
regardless of how they got there.
Don't let your money distract you from your neighbor!”
And seek contentment rather than wealth
as we heard in Timothy
and use your wealth to nourish the Body of Christ,
in this community of faith.
That is one way to grasp eternal live now,
you don't have to wait to get to heaven.
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