Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost September 30, 2007
Scripture	Luke 16:19-31 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.’”
Devotional	This story is about reversal, unexpected reversal. Jesus tells this story to the Pharisees who were introduced in v. 14 as “lovers of money” and who had “ridiculed” Jesus following the parable of the dishonest manager. The Pharisees would believe that material prosperity was a sign of God’s blessing, just a poverty was a sign of God’s judgment. The story of the rich man and Lazarus gives us a picture of the two different characters. A rich man dressed in purple, the color of royalty, and he feasted everyday. We see a large sized man wearing a bright robe pushing himself away from the table as he finished stuffing himself with meat and all the trimmings. Outside his gate lay Lazarus hungry with sores covering his body. The total of Lazarus’ health care was stray neighborhood dogs that licked his sores. Both men die. Lazarus probably died from starvation. The rich man from a heart attack caused by high blood pressure and overweight. The chasm between them in death cannot be crossed just as it had been impossible in life. Walter Wink wrote an article “Unmasking the Powers” in 1978. After thirty years the article remains current. We already have "socialism for the rich, laissez faire for the poor." Since the rich always get the best, why not let the poor and the increasingly exploited middle class have a taste of socialism, too? When will we demand adequate health care for all our people, for example? Why not see to it that the super-rich pay taxes for a change? The church's involvement in this struggle is crucial. No one expects the corporations and the government to break up their long love affair just for a clean conscience. The massive lobbying powers of the multinationals alone can prevent most of the needed changes. And the churches are implicated in the system right up to their steeples, both as legitimators of the satanic values which make exploitation so easily tolerable to Christians, and as dependents on the financial overflow of its wealthier contributors. The church has seldom had a clearer mandate to act. If the churches are willing to suffer loss of status and members for the sake of obedience to the gospel, they can make the manifold wisdom of God known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places (Ephesians 3:10). Their simple message, "Christ is Lord," is the death knell of every subsystem's pretensions to absoluteness, and the glimmer of hope to those who are being exploited. Finally, it is time to overhaul our national theology of wealth: the blasphemy about God having blessed America. God has done nothing of the kind. This is the source of the heresy that we are rich because we are righteous and righteous because we are rich. God did not "give" this land to the white race. We took it from Indians who were wise enough to know that God had not given it to them either—it was God's. They were simply his guests—"stewards" as the Bible describes it. 1 Is this the modern day parable of the rich man and Lazarus? What does it say to us as individuals who are the church and the government? 1 Walter Wink. Unmasking the Powers. Sojourners Magazine, October 1978 ..