Richie Rich and Lazy Lazarus - 9/25/22

Sermon 2022.09.25 “Richie Rich and Lazy Lazarus” (Luke 16:19-31), M. Newheart, FBCEG

In the children's sermon, I summarized the parable. Just in case you all were sleeping because it, after all, was the children's sermon, I will summarize it for you again.  

Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees, whom Luke says are lovers of money (16:14). Luke addresses his book to Theophilus, who is a lover of God (Luke 1:3). The Pharisees are money-lovers not God-lovers. Jesus then tells a parable about another money-lover, the rich man, whom I am going to call "Richie Rich." Richie Rich actually was a comic book character beginning in the '50s, who became the subject of two motion pictures in the '90s. I did not read that comic, nor did I see the movies, so I will not be drawing any parallels between the movies and the parable. Luke's Richie dressed himself in purple and fine linen. Purple was a very expensive cloth associated with royalty, so Richie dressed like a king. But he also ate like a king. Jesus says that he "feasted sumptuously every day" (16:19). This is certainly an image of abundance. If you're going to feast, then, you ought to feast "sumptuously every day." One might say that this is an image of excess not just abundance!

In contrast, at Richie’s gate there was a poor man named Lazarus. (Incidentally, there are two people named Lazarus in the Gospels. There is a fictional character here in Luke, who only appears here. There is also the brother of Mary and Martha in the Gospel of John. Our focus here is on the fictional character in the parable, who was in a bad way.) Luke’s Lazarus was covered with sores, and the dogs used to lick his sores, which is a natural thing for dogs to do. I remember that when I had a wound on my left shin, my younger daughter Miranda's dog Sybil used to lick it, which frankly didn't feel all that good, because the dog's tongue was rough. So I put a bandage over my wound.

Lazarus was not only covered with sores, but he was hungry, and he wanted to eat what fell from Richie's table, just like the younger son in the parable of the prodigal son, who was so hungry that he wanted to eat what the pigs are eating (15:16). Folks in Jesus' parables were in a bad way. But Lazarus dies and the angels took him to be at Abraham's--and Sarah's--side to eat with them at God's banquet. Richie dies too, and he goes to Hades, also called Sheol, where the dead reside. Why did Richie go to Hades, and Lazarus go to God's banquet? Jesus doesn't say.

Apparently Hades has a glass ceiling, because Richie looked up and saw Abraham and Sarah and Lazarus right there at their side. And Richie yelled, "Father Abraham, Mother Sarah, mercy please, mercy. Send my good buddy Lazarus--who was always at my gate--to dip his fingertip into water and cool my tongue because I'm burning up in these flames." Abraham and Sarah said, "Boy, think about how things were when you all were alive: you had purple and linen and daily sumptuous feasts. You had it gooooood, and Lazarus had it baaaaaaaaaaaaaad. But here in the afterlife, things are reversed: Laz's load is lightened, and you're agonizing. Sounds fair to me. But also, there is a great gulf fixed between you and us and nobody can cross it. Sorry, Charlie or Richie or whatever your name is."

Richie wouldn't give up. He said, "Then send Lazarus to my dad's house so that he can warn my five brothers, then they won't have to come to this place of torment." Abe and Sarah just rolled their eyes, shook their heads, and said, "They have Moses and the prophets; they just need to stop their daily sumptuous feasting and listen to them." Richie was resourceful. He said, "But if someone rises from the dead, my brothers will listen. And they will repent!" Sarah and Abe probably made themselves dizzy with all that eye-rolling and head-shaking. "If they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, then they won't be persuaded if someone rises from the dead." And that's the end of the parable. We assume that Laz continues to feast sumptuously everyday with Sarah and Abe, and Richie continues to be in torment. I wonder if there were some dead dogs there in Hades that would lick Richie so that it wouldn't be so bad for him. Probably not.

This parable raises lots and lots of questions, and I'm not going to deal with all of them. I want to bring us back to the three questions that we will be raising during the transition: Who are we? Who is our neighbor? What is God calling us to be? Particularly I would like to deal with the second question: Who is our neighbor? Richie did not consider Laz his neighbor. He obviously knew him, because Richie called Lazarus' name when he wanted someone to cool his tongue. But even though Laz was hungry and sore-covered, Richie didn't invite Laz to his daily sumptuous feast nor did Richie treat Laz's sores. He was only interested in what Laz could do for him. Richie thinks of Laz as his servant, his slave.

Richie was interested in what would happen to his brothers: he didn't want them to end up tormented, agonizing in Hades. Yet Richie did not know them well enough to realize that they would not even believe if someone rose from the dead. By the time that Luke was written, Jesus had risen from the dead, and most people did not believe in him or at least the message that he was risen.

But we do have the scriptures--not just Moses and the prophets, but also Jesus and the apostles, that is, we don' t just have the Old Testament, we also have the New Testament. And not only that, we have the witness of the risen Christ, present with us through the Spirit.

What then is the Spirit saying to this church in answer to the question, Who is our neighbor? In other words, who is the poor person at our gate? The latest government statistics say that the poverty rate in East Greenwich is less than 5%. Statewide the poverty rate is 13%, and in Providence, the poverty rate is 23%.

How is this church responding to poverty in the area? On the church's website you can see Cheerio Towers that the Sunday School team collected for local food pantries. In November last year the church collected socks and distributed ready-to-eat meals for the Church Beyond the Walls. As I said in my first sermon here, the Board of Outreach's annual report says that the church is a "very giving Church."

The transition is a time to assess, to reflect, to inquire of God the extent to which we are following God's will for 2022 here on this corner of Peirce and Montrose. We are Goldilocks checking the temperature of our commitment to the poor: Are we too hot, too cold, or just right? It is sometimes difficult to do a self-assessment of a church without feeling defensive or even guilty. Following Jesus is a lifelong process of self-reflection. It includes prayer, meditation, and seeking God's will in all that we do. Rather than guilt or defensiveness, the Christian walk is one of joy, of generosity, of sharing from the abundance that God has given us.

Who is our neighbor? To whom do we proclaim the good news? We're always asking questions, always inquiring where God is leading us. The church exists in many ways to give itself away. How? To whom? And why? We follow a Savior who took up the words of Isaiah and says that he is Spirit-anointed to proclaim good news to the poor (4:18). According to Facebook, this church is "a place where you can know, experience, and grow in the love of God in Jesus Christ." We know God’s love by following Jesus.

The story of Richie Rich and Lazy Lazarus calls us to ask ourselves: Who is our neighbor? And how are we helping meet that neighbor’s needs? We pray this parable. We ask God to show us Lazarus at our gate and how we might relate to them.

Many years ago when I was in college, I attended a Baptist conference attended by a thousand or so students. This conference deeply affected my spirituality and sense of vocation. I even remember the conference theme song: "Giving's not subtracting / it's adding, don't you see? / What you lose becomes another's gain. / Giving's not dividing. / It's multiplying life, / like the flowers after morning rain.”

And all God’s people said, “Amen.”