19 "There
was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted
sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate lay a poor man
named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who longed to
satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs
would come and lick his sores. 22 The poor man died and
was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and
was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was being tormented,
he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24 He
called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip
of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' 25 But
Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good
things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here,
and you are in agony. 26 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.' 27 He
said, 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house— 28 for
I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come
into this place of torment.' 29 Abraham replied, 'They
have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' 30 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 listen to
Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises
from the dead.'"
Holy Wisdom, Holy Word
Thanks
be to God
Prayer: Oh Lord, uphold
me, that I may uplift thee.
Sermon: God Sent a Prophet
As the rich man looks up
to see Abraham and Lazarus at the pearly gates of Heaven, he suddenly realizes
that he’s not getting in. All that stuff
about it being harder for a rich person to get into Heaven than a camel to go
through the eye of a needle…he sees now that it wasn’t a joke.
The rich man, who doesn’t
have a name, has lost his chance.
BUT!! The conversation that ensues between him and
Abraham is of particular significance because it highlights the way we all tend
to think.
You know the story about
the flood and the person who crawls out on the roof of their house to be
rescued? A person in a boat comes by and
says, “get in,” and the person on the roof says, “No thanks, God will save
me.” The boat leaves. Another boat comes floating along and the
person inside says, “The water is getting high, get in the boat.” The person on the roof says, “I’m good, God
will rescue me.” A helicopter flies
overhead and the pilot says, “Climb the ladder into the helicopter, I’ll save
you.” The person on the roof says, “Move
along, I’m waiting for God to save me.”
The person on the roof drowns, and gets to meet God, saying, “God, why
didn’t you save me??” God responds, “I
sent you two boats and a helicopter!
What more do you want??”
That person on the roof…is
the rich man. Either unable or unwilling
to recognize that God has spoken…and God wasn’t kidding. God sent rescue. God sent prophets, Moses and Abraham, Jeremiah
and Ezekiel. They weren’t enough for the
rich man in life, but in death he finally sees and says, basically, “oops, my
bad.”
Abraham isn’t having it,
though. Oops, my bad is not a valid
response to him ignoring the poor and oppressed all his life, even though the
prophets told him not to. They warned
him against apathy and self-gain, but he didn’t listen. So no, Abraham isn’t amused.
Then the rich man does
something really bold. He DEMANDS that
Abraham send Lazarus back from the dead to warn his brothers. First of all, I don’t think the rich man is
in a position to demand anything, but I get his desperation. He doesn’t want his brothers to suffer the
same fate as him.
Unfortunately, that’s not
really the most noble of goals. I’d be
willing to bet if he had said to Abraham, “Will you please send Lazarus back
from the dead to tell my brothers that they need to use their abundant means to
help people out? Because it’s the right
thing to do. Because God calls us to do
it.”
If he had said that, maybe
Abraham might have been a bit more willing to help him out. But instead, he demands that Lazarus, a man
he stepped over or walked past in life, he demands that he be USED once again
to save his family.
Nope, Abraham isn’t having
it. He says, “If they won’t listen to
the prophets sent by God, that’s just too bad for them.”
Friends, the prophets are
indeed sent in a context, to a certain people, for a particular time in
history. But their messages ring true
for generations, millennia to come. We still,
to this day, lean on the words of Moses and Abraham, Ezekiel and Jeremiah.
We still lean on the words of Nat Turner, of Frederick
Douglas, of Martin Luther King, Jr., and of Rosa Parks.
Yesterday, in Washington
D.C., a great celebration was held for the opening of a new Smithsonian
Museum. It’s the Museum African-American
History and Culture, which remembers the violent, oppressive history of the
United States, and celebrates the human will to overcome and thrive. As President George W. Bush put it, “A great
nation does not hide its history. It
faces it and corrects its flaws.”
It’s a noble
proposition. If only it were true.
Sure, the museum itself is
a testament to the virtue and determination of the black American. But I would argue that the number of times in
the last four months that I and my preacher friends have felt compelled to
preach on the way we treat our black citizens paints a different picture
altogether.
Throughout the summer, we
have been working from the Gospel of Luke.
Which is significant because the Gospel of Luke is widely known in
scholarly circles as the social gospel.
Jesus spends a great deal of time talking about how we are to treat the
poor, the widow, the orphan, the oppressed.
He rails against money, and insists that he did not come for our
comfort. They can be difficult words to
bring, especially when we are so comfortable, but Jesus didn’t shy away from
the tough conversations, and neither can we.
Jesus calls us to the
tough conversations. He calls us to keep
reminding the world of the words of the prophets.
Because we as a society aren’t
listening to them…
We celebrate Harriett
Tubman in museums. We venerate Nat
Turner and Frederick Douglas as heroes.
We have MLK Day and Black History Month to memorialize their
contribution and their sacrifice.
But we aren’t listening.
This museum looks amazing
and I really want to go. I need to
remember the history. I need to see that
my people have enslaved, tortured, and oppressed an entire continent of people
for centuries. I need to be convicted by
the brutality of Jim Crow. I need to
feel the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I need the prophets to speak to me.
I think we all need the
prophets to speak to us.
A friend of mine, this
week, took issue with me talking about the movement for black lives. He assured me that Michael Brown and Sandra
Bland and Trayvon Martin were no Dr. King or Rosa Parks. He said the movement isn’t valid because look
at who its leaders are.
But Michael Brown and Sandra
Bland and Trayvon Martin aren’t the leaders of the movement. They’re the martyrs in the ongoing struggle
for the same civil rights that Dr. King and Rosa Parks fought for in the 1950s
and 60s.
And if we can look back
and claim that what Dr. King and Rosa Parks did was a good thing, then we
should be able, now, to see that the current movement is a good thing. If we can look back and say we would have
been Freedom Riders or would have marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in
Selma or if we would have joined the Birmingham bus boycott, then we should be willing to join the protests across the country today.
We should be able to
acknowledge that this movement is about lifting people, beloved children of
God, out of oppression. And to deny that
they are oppressed is to deny the prophets.
The rich man, in his life,
denied the prophets. He gathered wealth
and held onto it, stepping over Lazarus whenever he encountered him. Even though the prophets warned him against
this kind of treatment of the poor, the rich man chose comfort in life. And Lazarus received comfort after death.
Do we choose comfort in
life? Or do we choose to sacrifice our
own riches, our own privilege, in order to lift the beloved children of God out
of oppression?
I often wonder what I can
do. What does it look like to sacrifice
my riches in pursuit of racial justice?
Today, what I have is my voice. You have a voice, too.
There are people who call
me un-American. They say I’m inciting
violence by supporting the movement. You
undoubtedly know these people, too.
But as people of God, as
followers of our savior Jesus Christ, we are compelled to rise above, and to
demand that, indeed, all of God’s beloved deserve to be treated as beloved by
us…because Jesus commanded us to love one another. He loved us, set the example for us, and set us
free to love one another as HE loved…as he loves… us.
 |
| Quote: Letter from a Birmingham City Jail |
God expects the same of us
in this era of civil rights.
Use your voice. Talk to your friends and family. Be loving, be gentle, be kind. Reread Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Read The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi
Coates. Listen to President Obama’s
speech at the museum opening yesterday.
And listen to the prophets
God has sent.
In the name of God the
Creator, God the Redeemer, and God the Sustainer…Amen.
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