September 29, 2022

For weeks at this point we have been hearing Jesus tell one parable after another about being generous and building relationships. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m starting to wonder why Jesus had to keep telling stories about this. Didn’t the disciples get it? Hadn’t the Scribes and Pharisees heard it just as often as the Tax Collectors and Sinners? Why does Jesus seem to keep rehashing what we are supposed to use our wealth and abundance for?

And then I look again at last Sunday’s gospel reading and listen to Jesus tell the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) and it hits me. 
He didn’t get it.

The rich man. He didn’t listen or hear and he certainly didn’t understand. 
He did not hear and understand the consistent message of Moses and the prophets that trampling on the poor in order to turn a profit, hoarding up wealth for self-interest, that failing to recognize the dignity of every human being as a bearer of God’s image and failing to act in such a way that promotes abundant life for all, failing to follow God’s way and live God’s love leads to ruin.

The rich man didn’t get it. And he pleads with Abraham to help his five living brothers to hear and understand that they may be spared the suffering he now experiences. 

The irony is that this is just one more way the rich man shows that he still doesn’t get it. The rich man still fails to understand and hear and learn the lesson. You see, his first instinct when he sees Lazarus with Abraham is to once again ignore Lazarus who sat day by day suffering outside his home. The rich man addresses Abraham and asks Abraham to send Lazarus to help ease the rich man’s suffering. The rich man still sees Lazarus as worthy only of being the rich man’s servant. When Abraham explains the rich man’s situation, the rich man again wants Lazarus to run an errand in service of the rich man and his family.

The rich man in death as in life fails to see Lazarus as a bearer of God’s own image, a sibling who is worthy of love, more than a servant to be ordered around and to meet the needs of the rich man and his family.

So I return to my questions. Why does Jesus keep telling these stories and teaching this same lesson? Because they didn’t get it. They didn’t hear in a way that led to a softening of the heart and to just action for the sake of neighbor. They still weren’t being generous and building relationships with the people on the margins, cast out, stepped on, overlooked.

And then I have to ask another question. 
Do I get it? Have I heard? Have I listened to Moses and the prophets and to Jesus who crossed even from death to life?  Will I be generous and build relationships?

May the grace of God that brought again our Lord, Jesus, from the dead soften my heart, give me ears to hear, make me generous, show me how to build relationships, and remind me of the love that surrounds and sustains me each day.

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Drew