Luke 16:19-31
“Whose Voice?”
September 25, 2022
She was with me the entire 8 wonderful days of last week’s trip to France.
Given that my trip coincided with all the respect-paying and pageantry happening across the English Channel and the fact that she spoke with a British woman’s accent, I named her Elizabeth.
Elizabeth was a life saver – most of the time.
You see, I only discovered after I arrived in Marseilles that in spite of being assured by my carrier that my phone was set up to work in Europe, it did not.
I became totally dependent on Elizabeth, the GPS system in my rental car, to make my way through the beautiful, roundabout-laden, and often nerve-wracking roads and streets of Provence.
I had no choice but to heed her directions and most of the time they were spot on – until they weren’t.
Elizabeth was terrific at letting me know when I was too close to the walls of 14th century buildings as I was driving down cobblestone streets that more often resembled alleys.
Her advice, however, was not mistake-free, and still I had no choice but to listen to her.
One vivid instance of her steering me wrong was in Avignon when my sister and brother-in-law were in the car with me and we were trying to make our way to the Palace of the Popes.
On this road with plenty of people walking, Elizabeth told me to take a left and I ended up going the wrong way on a one-way road with dozens of people pointing and shouting at me.
A police officer stopped me and had me back up until I could turn around and go in the correct direction – and there were at least a dozen other times that it instructed me on turns that weren’t possible and yet, I’m so grateful I listened to her, sometimes unsure of where she was sending me and why.
Listening, really listening, means you act on what you hear.
In this parable of Jesus’, we have the rich man who never noticed the poor starving Lazarus just outside his gate, probably passing him every day without a thought.
Lazarus wanted only the crumbs that the rich man would throw away.
The only ones who paid him any attention are the wound-licking dogs.
These two, in life, are literally worlds apart.
And, so too, are they in death.
Still exuding that entitled vibe, even in death, the rich man pleads with Abraham and talks about Lazarus in the third person,
as if he is not important enough to address in person in spite of wanting something from him.
Jesus shares this parable after a discussion with the Pharisees about the love of money.
We are hearing contrasts between the two worlds – the one we know here on earth and the one after this life.
The other two contrasts depicted are those between the haves and the have-nots.
Jesus criticizes the Rich Man for not sharing what he had while also making a point of showing just how entitled he feels.
Jesus is shining a spotlight on his attitude and he is making sure everyone who is listening knows that we are to always offer care to our neighbors and also value them and respect them as our equals.
This is a message we still need to listen to and act on.
So often our cultural approach to the poor and sick is one of pity and seeing them as less than human.
Jesus wants all of those with resources to recognize that placing your value in amassing more money and stuff is not where our value lies.
Here in Luke’s Gospel, there is a continuing respect and embrace for Judaism.
It is not something to get past.
If we really listen to Jesus, what we are hearing is the wisdom and tradition that has been passed down by our Jewish ancestors like Moses and the prophets.
We have been handed the lessons that include acting justly and loving tenderly and walking humbly with God.
Jesus puts Abraham in the role of teacher and judge to determine who is faithful.
The Rich Man lacked compassion and generosity in his lifetime.
Lazarus stands in for all those for whom life was a struggle and a hardship.
Jesus wants them to know they have been seen and heard – he has heard their cries of desperation.
We’ve always heard a lot of talk about hell and yet we should remember that Jesus only mentions hell twice. Once in the great judgment found in Matthew’s 25th chapter and the other here in this parable of the rich man and Lazarus (which before I forget, Lazarus is the only person with a name in any of Jesus’ parables and this is also a different Lazarus than the one Jesus raises from the dead)
If we pay attention to these two times when Jesus raises hell, or rather the issue of hell, it is to say that you end up in hell when you ignore the poor.
No mention of other sins or beliefs – only how you treat poor people.
God is poor and if we love God, we must love the poor.
If money and possessions are your measure of success you will eliminate the need for God’s grace.
If God is present in every person, then in separating ourselves from the poor and needy, we distance ourselves from God.
As one writer put it, “Heaven is where everybody is.
Hell is where only some people are. You choose.” (Steve Garnaas-Holmes, unfoldinglight.net, 9/23/22)
To live a life of honor and respect for all people and directing our resources into making sure that the poor among us are ensured a life of dignity and value is to create heaven on earth.
The voices we are intended to listen to, the ones who instruct us on how to love neighbor as self, continue to speak to us.
Sometimes we might feel that they are taking us in the wrong direction but, ultimately, they are the voices that are helping us get where we are going, in spite of wrong turns.
We can only get there via the path of love.