Sermon by The Rev Chris Yaw, 6/25/2022, Luke 16:19-31
When I ran Track in high school the team frequently had a few hours between the end of school and our track meets.
So on one occasion I invited the team over to my house.
And like most high school athletes, after school meant one thing: hunger!
So I pulled out the bread, cold cuts, and toppings and laid them on the kitchen counter so we could make some sandwiches.
included in the sandwich buffet was a box of Kraft American Cheese Slices - perhaps you’ve seen them before - it’s a pasteurized cheese-ish product wrapped individually in plastic.
As we began making our sandwiches one of our tribe, a sprinter, was finishing up his Dagwood Bumstead - sized creation, and had put several pieces of cheese on his sandwich without removing the plastic wrappers.
And as he was picking it up - about to take a huge bite out of it - an observant high jumper was able to intervene before the sprinter bit into his sandwich.
’The cheese is wrapped in plastic!’ - the high jumper exclaimed.
‘Oh….’ said the embarrassed sprinter — as he took the sandwich apart and was taught how to separate the cheese from its wrapper.
Now, this story notwithstanding, this sprinter was no dummy - in fact he went on to win all sorts of awards - athletic and academic - which helped out his football career - his first love - as the next year he was recruited by one of the most academically rigorous schools in the country - the University of Michigan.
And years later we would kid him about that incident, ’The guy who gets in to UofM leaves the plastic on his cheese…’ ha ha...
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This story of a clueless and immature teen comes to mind as we hear this familiar tale of Lazarus and the Rich Man - and the Rich Man displaying an immaturity of his own.
When we look closely at this story, we see the Rich Man exhibiting a hard-to-understand unawareness of his surroundings.
You’d think that someone who was Rich was somewhat smart, aware, and mature - his keen perception being rewarded by his prosperity.
We may not think that the Rich Man, finally being awakened in Hades, would make such immature comments as:
You mean there are poor people out there?
You mean there's something called karma - what I do, actually comes back to me?
You mean life is about paying attention - noticing - being mature?
Friends, as we may have figured out by now, a looming goal in this wondrous human adventure is maturity. It’s a place we’re intended to go - though not necessarily where we have to go.
Stanford education professor Bill Damon describes ‘maturity’ as that moment when we’re able, ’to make a firm commitment to an adult social role’ - this being a wide range of things that have one thing in common: life is no longer about us.
So an adult social role may be joining the military or committing to some other vocation. It may be becoming a parent or giving our 'all' to ordained ministry. Inherent in these adult social roles is that we have responsibilities and obligations beyond ourselves.
Maturity comes when we know ourselves and have a sense of who we are, where we are, and the responsibilities these entail.
It’s been said that famous psychologist Call Jung made a compelling contribution to the world with his idea of ‘individuation’ - that is, the lifelong project of becoming more nearly the whole person we’re meant to be - what the gods intended, not the parents or the tribe or especially, the easily intimidated or the inflated ego. While revering the mystery of others, our individuation summons each of us to stand in the presence of our own mystery and become more fully responsible for who we are in this journey we call life.’ (James Hollis ‘Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life’)
Friends, the title and topic of our sermon is an invitation for us to grow up -
Or at least, grow up more -
Grow into a people consumed, not with our own journey, but conscious and conscientious, of the journeys of others-
Grow into a people who exemplify increasingly think beyond our own well-being -
Grow into a people who understand, more and more, the true nature of love - which is giving and being mindful of the plights of others.
We are all very familiar with the great depth and breadth of charity and selflessness which inhabits the soul of everyone within the sound of my voice:
you are icons of giving, heralds of Christ’s kindness, and exemplary in your generosity.
But none of us have yet reached perfection —
We are all ’still on the road’ -
And the questions we face are:
What does maturity look like for us?
How is Christ urging us to go deeper into Him - deeper into our faith - deeper into our service of others?
How are we, more fully, being asked to emulate Jesus and his example of self-knowledge, self-understanding, and selflessness?
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"Let them eat cake" is the traditional translation of the French phrase "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche.”
Wikipedia says it had been spoken in the 17th or 18th century by "a great princess” attributed, of course, to Marie Antoinette, though experts today doubt that -
And the occasion of its utterance came upon her being told that the peasants had no bread.
The French phrase mentions brioche, a bread enriched with butter and eggs, considered a luxury food.
The quote is taken to reflect either the princess's frivolous disregard for the starving peasants or her poor understanding of their plight.
It is this attitude we see, first, in the Rich Man in our story.
We may find it really hard to understand how he could possibly be so clueless about poor Lazarus, whose location and condition are detailed in our story.
But, like Marie Antoinette, apparently the Rich Man was.
He had somehow allowed a preoccupation with his own well-being to take over.
Perhaps he had gotten so concerned with himself, that there was no room to think of others.
His ‘fine purple and fine linen’ his ’sumptuous feasting,’ we can fairly assume, took a toll on his inability to understand that others were suffering.
In our Epistle reading today, St. Paul warned us: that, ‘those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction…’ And that, 'some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.’
So you and I fairly ask:
In what ways are our comforts, our entertainments, our middle-class riches, getting in the way of our perceptions of those who have less?
In what ways are we stepping over the ‘Lazaruses’ outside our front doors?
How is God inviting us to ‘grow up’ regarding the plight of those less fortunate in the world.
We can never forget that the duty of those who have ‘much’ is to tend to those who have ‘less.’
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Of all the towns grieving Queen Elizabeth II’s death - few are doing so like Aberfan, Wales.
Nearly 60 years ago, an avalanche of coal debris and water cascaded down a huge hillside and killed 144 villagers - most of them children - becoming one of the worst civilian disasters in contemporary British history.
Aberfan, a village of 3.500 people, was devastated, and became a focal point for the Queen, who would visit this town 4 times in the ensuing years - touching the hearts and lives of many people ln that village. “She looked over us, she protected us, she had sympathy, she had empathy.’ said Gaynor Madgwick, a village resident, 'The Queen has never let us down.’
6 decades later, as the Queen was being laid to rest, few Brits were so sad or more proud, than members of this village - and despite rising costs of living, frustration with the government in London, and calls for independence - the mood in this quiet, sleepy village, was one of somber appreciation: as the Queen had not forgotten them, they had not forgotten the Queen.
Here’s where we find a second lesson in our Gospel - this idea that what we do in life comes back to us:
"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.”
This is not to say that this is what happens in heaven - a detailed description of heaven is not the theme of this story - but it does remind us of the reality of reaping what we sow - that there is an Aberfan kind of accounting going on - so much so that different religions have different names for it, karma being the most common.
This reminds us of the importance of living not just for today but keeping an eye on where we're going - understanding that everything is connected, we do not live in a bubble, and the seeds we sow today, of kindness or harm, will be harvested tomorrow.
So, how aware are we of how the ways we live today, will affect the lives we live tomorrow?
We think about climate change, population growth, and the national debt...
But being mature means thinking not just about those right in front of us, but those who will follow us.
How is the Lord inviting us to be more conscious of not just the first quarter, but the game, the season, and the career?
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Some of you may remember the story about the accident that happened at my house 9 years ago, that took the life of a man.
Kenny had just retired from his years at the post office, and was drawing his pension, and was building up his landscaping business when he came to my house with his partner to rake leaves.
After loaning Kenny a rake, which I had in my garage, I told him to put it back when he was done.
A few hours later I was startled by screams from my wife, who had discovered that Kenny had somehow gotten caught in the garage doors and been crushed to death. - Crushed to death in garage doors I had installed on the cheap that did not have the safety features they should have had - but that's another story.
The point of reminding you about this is that Kenny's death served as a hinge moment in my life. Never before had I been struck with such a stark example of the fragility of life, the precarious nature of our existence, and how limited is the time we have to reflect the Light of Christ into our world.
This is the third lesson we learn from the Rich Man. Did you notice, at the end of the story, he began to think about others? 'Father, I beg you to send Lazarus to my father's house -- for I have five brothers -- that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.'
It is here that the Rich Man finally gets it, he encounters maturity, that what he's done on Earth has consequences, and that his proper posture all along should have been to help others. He, too, is getting a lesson on the fragility of life and how little time we have to gladden the hearts of those with whom we share the journey.
Friends, let us not neglect the gift that is in us!
Now is the time to strike out on a new and renewed walk with Jesus.
Can we remember those early days when we were called by Jesus, when we felt God's presence, God's guidance, God's love in our hearts? And knew that there was work for us to do?
There is so much in this world that needs fixing! There is gun violence! There is grave economic inequality! There is devastating racial Injustice. We have division in our country that is threatening our very democracy.
The world is looking for a way, and Jesus is the way. It begins with loving one another, treating others as we would like to be treated, and being kind to our enemies even if and when they don't deserve it.
For just as we have caused the problem, we can solve it. It starts with each one of us doing our little parts in our little corners of the vineyard.
Let us awaken as the Rich Man did?
Let us be aware of the poor around us.
Let us behave knowing that what goes around, comes around.
And let us seek to grow, to mature, in our faith, knowing that our life, and perhaps the lives of others, depends on it.
Amen