I would like to ask you, if you are able, to turn your Bible to the book of Luke, chapter 16 verses 19-31. You may want to take a moment now to read through the story before continuing reading this sermon. If you do not have a Bible readily available, don’t worry. I will explain the story as we go.

The chapter and verses we have come to tell us the story of a certain rich man, and of Lazarus, a very poor man. The first thing that jumps out at me is that in this story the poor man is named, but the other is simply labeled. Almost as if to say Lazarus is more important, or more acknowledged than the rich man.

No we hear our Lord quite often speak of the rich and the poor. If we look ahead to chapter 18 verse 25, we learn that it is harder for a rich man to gain entry to the Kingdom of God, than it is to get a camel through the eye of a needle. As we examine this story of the rich man and Lazarus, we should first define rich and poor. For many of us we neither have great wealth (rich), nor do we go to bed hungry at night (poor), and by those definitions it would be difficult to relate to the two main characters in this story. In Biblical times what we know as the middle class did not really exist, you were either a land owner, or a servant of a land owner…no middle ground. Now servants in that time were defined pretty much as anyone you paid money for a service. It was not as one may think always an issue of slavery, but of servitude. Jesus as a carpenter, would have been a servant to one who required his service…we all now know of course his servitude was to all mankind, and of course his divine service was not that of one who builds with wood, but one that builds with faith.

Faith also I believe is how we are to define rich or poor. Jesus at other times in the gospel teaches us to lay up riches for ourselves in Heaven , for where your treasure is, your faith is. This is why it would be difficult for a rich man to enter Heaven. He knows that as long as his money holds out he will eat, his faith is in his money. The poor man knows every bite he eats is a gift from God, his faith is in God. We know when we die we take nothing of this earth with us, so if we are to lay up riches in Heaven, they are not riches of gold, but of faith.

As we apply this to our story, the rich man’s money allows him to eat sumptuously every day, while Lazarus desires to be fed from the crumbs that fall from the table. Lazarus knows it is by God alone that he will eat. And Lazarus’ body is covered in sores, and the dogs come and lick his sores, and he knows it is by the grace of God, that at least the dog shows concern for him. Lazarus was laid at the rich man’s gate, which leads us to believe he was not able to walk or tend to his own needs, and the only beings that would try to help his sores were the dogs, he knew he lived only my the grace of God, and he laid his faith in Him.

As we continue in the story, both the rich man and Lazarus die. Lazarus is raised into Abraham’s bosom, and the rich man finds himself in the fiery depths of Hades. This is where we learn that who you are as you live in this life so you will be when you die. We know this because when the rich man looks up and sees Lazarus with Abraham, he asks, that he send Lazarus down to help quench his thirst. Abraham is clear to say that none can pass from Heaven to Hell, and none may pass from Hell to Heaven. The destiny you have prepared yourself for in life is the destiny you will live when you die.

So the rich man begs Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers, who still live on earth. So that they will see him risen from the dead and believe in God and turn their faith to Him. But Abraham responds by saying, no, they have the same teachers to learn from as this man did. If they do not believe those teachers, neither will they believe one who is risen from the dead.

In closing I implore you, my friends. Do not hold your faith in anything that is strictly of this world. Hold your faith in God above, knowing always that all you have is a gift from Him. Do not wait for a sign to begin believing. God has given you the sign when he gave His Son to die so that we may be saved. Often times I have heard it said by people… “If my job paid more, I would work harder”. But that’s not how it works, is it? We are paid, or provided for, based on how we act…we will not gain more without doing more. I leave you with this…live now, as if your eternal life depended on it, because it does.

May our words be true, may our actions be purposeful, may our hearts be pure. So that we too may walk in the way of whose name we pray, Jesus Christ. Amen.

THE PUNISHMENT OF THE MAN
WHO NEVER NOTICED

Lk.16:19-31

There was a rich man who dressed habitually in purple and fine linen, and who feasted in luxury every day. A poor man, called Lazarus, was laid at his gate. He was full of ulcerated sores, and he desired to satisfy his hunger from the things which fell from the rich man's table; more, the dogs used to come and lick his sores. The poor man died, and he was carried by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man died and was buried. And in hell, being in torture, he lifted up his eyes, and from far away he saw Abraham, and Lazarus in his bosom. He called out, "Father Abraham, have pity on me, and send Lazarus to me that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish in this fire." Abraham said, "Child, remember that you received in full your good things in your life-time, just as Lazarus received evil things.


Now he is comforted, and you are in anguish; and, besides all this, between you and us a great gulf is fixed, so that those who wish to pass from here to you cannot do so, nor can any cross from there to us." He said, "Well then, I ask you, father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may warn them, so that they may not also come to this place of torture." Abraham said, "They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them." He said, "No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent." He said to them, "If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead." cf The resurrection of Christ

This is a parable constructed with such masterly skill that not one phrase is wasted. Let us look at the two characters in it.

(i) First, there is the rich man, usually called Dives, which is the Latin for rich. Every phrase adds something to the luxury in which he lived. He was clothed in purple and fine linen. That is the description of the robes of the High Priests, and such robes cost anything from L 30 to L 40, an immense sum in days when a working man's wage was about 4 p a day.( ONE L (THE ENGLISH POUND) A FEW YEARS AGO WAS WORTH TWO DOLLARS US THE P WAS ONE HUNDREDTH PART OF THE POUND) He feasted in luxury every day. The word used for feasting is the word that is used for a gourmet feeding on exotic and costly dishes. He did this every day. In so doing he definitely and positively broke the fourth commandment. That commandment not only forbids work on the Sabbath; it also says six days you shall labour (Exo.20:9).

In a country where the common people were fortunate if they ate meat once in the week and where they toiled for six days of the week, Dives is a figure of indolent self-indulgence. Lazarus was waiting for the crumbs that fell from Dives's table. In that time there were no knives, forks or napkins used at the dining table. Food was eaten with the hands and, in very wealthy houses, the hands were cleansed by wiping them on hunks of bread, which were then thrown away. That was what Lazarus was waiting for.

(ii) Second, there is Lazarus. Strangely enough Lazarus is the only character in any of the parables who is given a name. The name is the Latinised form of Eleazar and means God is my help. He was a beggar; he was covered with ulcerated sores, and so helpless that he could not even ward off the street dogs, which pestered him.

Such is the scene in this world; then abruptly it changes to the next and there Lazarus is in glory and Dives is in torment. What was the sin of Dives? He had not ordered Lazarus to be removed from his gate. He had made no objections to his receiving the bread that was flung away from his table. He did not kick him in the passing. He was not deliberately cruel to him. The sin of Dives was that he never noticed Lazarus, that he accepted him as part of the landscape and simply thought it perfectly natural and inevitable that Lazarus should lie in pain and hunger while he wallowed in luxury. As someone said, "It was not what Dives did that got him into jail; it was what he did not do that got him into hell."

The sin of Dives was that he could look on the world's suffering and need and feel no answering sword of grief and pity pierce his heart; he looked at a fellow-man, hungry and in pain, and did nothing about it. His was the punishment of the man who never noticed.

It seems hard that his request that his brothers should be warned was refused. But it is the plain fact that if men possess the truth of God's word, and if, wherever they look, there is sorrow to be comforted, need to be supplied pain to be relieved, and it moves them to no feeling and to no action, nothing will change them.

It is a terrible warning that the sin of Dives was not that he did wrong things, but that he did nothing.

KEEP UP THE STUDIES WILLIAM THEY ARE BEARING MUCH FRUIT!

Bishop Richard

This is a Native American rendition of the same tale:
There was a man of the tribe who had been a Sun-Dancer and then a medicine man. He had built quite a reputation with the people of his village and was held in high esteem. One day he decided his greatness should be seen by all the tribes so he elected to build his teepee high on the side of the mountain just beneath the face of the cliffs. Here all the world could see his glory and he could look down at them.

It was late in the season and Ant was looking industriously for food to take back to his community. As he moved up the side of the mountain he saw in the crevice of the cliff, a great p l u m p and juicy pumpkin seed. "Oh my", said Ant, "If only I can take this great seed back to my colony surely it will feed us through much of the winter." So Ant went about the task of pushing and pulling and prying at the seed but to no avail, for it was locked between the crevice. Just then he noticed a grain of sand below the seed wedging it in tightly. Ant thought to himself, "I am sure that if I can get this grain of sand from beneath the seed , the seed will fall free from the crevice." So Ant pushed and tugged until finally the grain of sand was loosened from beneath the seed. And sure enough, the seed fell away free. Ant hurried to the seed and was full of joy that he could take this reward home to feed his community.
Just then, there was a rumble and a groaning, and finally a huge thunder as the cliff face broke away from the mountain. The giant boulders tumbled down to the floor and directly on the rich man's teepee, crushing all that was in it and the man inside too. As the man lay dying beneath the rubble, he looked over and saw a tiny ant, working hard and carrying a p l u m p, juicy pumpkin seed across what used to be the floor of his home.
The moral? "The greatest shall be least, and the least shall be greatest."
God's Peace....To`na Wanagi