Pentecost 19 – 25 September
2016 – Year C
Grace
to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Holy Gospel reading is
written in the 16th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke:
Verses 19 – 31
To put this reading in
context, Jesus had been travelling with His Disciples and a large crowd was following
and he had been healing and doing some intensive teaching; mainly using
parables, then he went on to tell them about The
Rich Man and Lazarus:
19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who
feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus,
covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich
man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to
Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham
far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me,
and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for
I am in anguish in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received
your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is
comforted here, and you are in anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed,
in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none
may cross from there to us.’ 27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to
my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them,
lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear
them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the
dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the
Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the
dead.’ ”
Grace
to you and peace from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
As
you probably know, the Bible readings for the church worship services run in a
three yearly cycle – Years A (Matthew), Year B (Mark), and Year C (Luke) and
John’s Gospel is used from time to time throughout the three years.
This
year is Year C and so since Advent 1 in 2015 we have been listening to Luke’s
account of the life and ministry of Jesus and all the associated events.
Now
Luke was a bit different to the other Gospel writers – He was a Greek and
therefore a Gentile (non Jew), and he was also a Physician, a man of science.
So what we get from Luke is a scientific factual account that is in no way
influenced by Jewish cultural preconceptions. Luke also wrote the Book of Acts,
in fact he often travelled with Paul, which was good for Paul because he was
fairly forthright in his manner which caused him to be beaten, stoned and
nearly drowned; It was good to have a Doctor around in those times! Research
has told us that Luke’s written accounts have proved to be historically
accurate.
I
personally really like reading Luke because he focuses on Jesus’ most effective
teaching method, the Parables – did you know that there are 26 parables of
Jesus in Luke’s Gospel? The best way to describe a parable is “an
earthly story with a heavenly meaning”. Jesus used parables to
demonstrate how a Christian should live, and how best to deal with the daily
challenges of life. Things like humility, love, forgiveness, faith, equality
etc. are clearly demonstrated in parables such as the ‘The Prodigal Son’, ‘The
Good Samaritan”, ‘The Unjust Manager’ etc. Jesus used them because they were
stories that people could relate to; that they could understand.
The
problem of course is that we as humans are not very good listeners. We hear
these parables and they make perfect sense to us, and we resolve to “take the
message on board” in our daily life, but when the time comes, somehow we just
don’t want to let go; we want to have faith! ….. but we get angry … or we just
want to fix the problem now …. Or we can’t muster up the faith to place it in
Jesus hands completely! We pray, we do pray … but sadly we often pray that God
will make it happen just the way we want it to happen.
As
regular church attenders we hear these messages often; for some of us we have
been hearing them for many years. I often think that Jesus must be thinking
what I hear parents echo to their children every day “How many times do I have
to tell you!!” – or even more threatening “If you don’t do as your told, you
are going to be punished!!”
Would
Jesus say that to us? Would Jesus put a message like that out into this world He
conjointly created and loves unconditionally?
The
story that Jesus relates in our Gospel message for today is not a parable!
There is no “there was once a man” scenario – nothing hypothetical – No; The
Rich man is the Rich man; Lazarus is Lazarus and Abraham is Abraham. Jesus
story is simple really – Lazarus went to Heaven and the Rich man went to hell.
The hell Jesus tells us about is so bad that something as simple as a drop of cool
water is beyond reach. In fact Abraham tells us that the chasm between Heaven
and hell is forever impassable. Where we end up in eternity is where we stay.
“Hang
on” we say – look at this rich man! He was probably a typical fat cat that is
greedy and robs from the poor. I mean after all he lived in luxury and he did
not care for anyone or anything – look what he did to poor old Lazarus – I mean
I know it’s wrong to say, but sometimes those type of people deserve what is
coming to them! Isn’t that right?
There
is another side to all this. If we lived in the times of Lazarus and the Rich
man in a Jewish society, we would be saying “The rich man is obviously blessed
by God, look how He has rewarded him with such wealth” and “Look at that dog
Lazarus, he lives in squalor; he or his family have sinned against God and he
is getting his just reward”. In fact when Lazarus died they probably threw his
body on the local dump, whilst the rich man’s funeral would have been a lavish three-day
affair that people talked about for years to come.
The
world’s popular opinion at any one time tends to influence the way we think;
the Pharisees had their world view as we do today and it’s human nature to make
worldly judgements accordingly. Jesus tells this story that we may think about
life beyond this world into eternity.
The
facts are that the Bible tells us nothing at all about the life and times of
the rich man or Lazarus. All we know was that one was rich and the other poor;
one lived in a mansion and the other sat and begged at the gate of that
mansion. No one really knows why Lazarus went to Heaven and the Rich man went
to hell.
What
we do know, and very few preachers of the Gospel want to announce for fear of
upsetting someone, is that it is well within the power and authority of our
Great Triune God to condemn souls to the depths of hell. That is borne out in
Jesus’ message to us today and also in numerous passages of Holy Scripture as
written in the Bible.
When
I was Executive Officer of Finke River Mission in Central Australia, I would
volunteer to accompany the Alice Springs Pastor to do Religious Education at a
local Primary School. The Primary senior classes did a one-day block twice per
year; so it was a great change for me. At one of these sessions, Peter my associate
stood in front of approximately 80 grade seven students and held out a 50 cent
coin in his hand and said “anyone who wants this can come and get it”. No one
moved, there was dead silence – Peter said “last offer – does anyone want it?”
– finally one young fella called out “What’s the catch?” – no one took the
money. We spent the next two hours talking about God’s offer of free grace, and
used the offer of the money as an example of stepping up and making a choice.
When we finished that session Peter asked if there were any questions – same
little bloke called out “Do that thing with the money again!!”
Have
no doubts, it’s true, the existence of Satan and Hell is real, as Christians we
should acknowledge that; if it wasn’t then we all believe in vain and 1
Corinthians 15:19 “we are of all people most to be pitied.”
I guess you could
rightly say that if Hell is real and the rich man was banished to hell into
eternity without any real explanation, we may well be treading a fine line
between Heaven and Hell as well!
It truly is God’s
business alone to determine who goes where into eternity; He knows all the fine
print that is far beyond our human understanding, and as a student of the Holy
Scriptures I can’t deny that.
Having said that, the
real privilege of the pulpit is to fulfill my commitment to preach the good
news of the Holy Gospel in all it’s purity and grace; and that is that Jesus
Christ is God and he took the form of true man to live on this earth that He,
though totally without sin, may take our sin upon Himself and suffer death in
our place, that we may be declared eternally forgiven. On the third day after
His death He rose from the grave and won for us victory over death and the
devil into eternity and from there He ascended into Heaven with the promise; Matthew
28:20 “I am with you always, to the
end of the age.”
Further still, in
order to save us from our own sinful natures Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit,
which we receive through Holy Baptism, to bless us, purify us, and make us one
with God daily.
This is the free
gift, with no strings attached, that our Great Triune God holds out to us today
and every day – this is ours to take and to nurture with the Sacrament of the
Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist and with His Word as written in the
Holy Bible. Our salvation is a gift from God alone, there is nothing we can do
to earn it!
Do we, unworthy as we
are, choose to gratefully and humbly accept this gift? Do we choose life,
peace, love and fulfillment? It is true, in regard to our future into eternity
we do have a choice, but in the light of what Jesus has conveyed to us in the
reading today how could we not come before Jesus in repentance and choose life?
Jesus calls to us to
him in many ways; I take great comfort in the words written in Matthew
11:28 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you
rest.” Amen
The grace and love of
our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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