Mind the gap: Lazarus and the rich man

A sermon for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time from Fr Greg Davies

Remember the announcement as you are about to board a train – MIND THE GAP!! We still sometimes get a warning when alighting from the tram – CUSTOMERS BEWARE OF ONCOMING TRAFFIC! We get lots of warnings these days – and perhaps more recently and dramatically from the recent ‘climate risk assessment report’ presented to government a couple of weeks ago.

Like all warnings, our readings this morning remind us only too powerfully that if we fail to listen and heed them – especially when they are from God – then we do so at our peril. Warnings can make us very uncomfortable, because more than often they say that we have to change – and the warnings that come from our first two readings that focus on comfort and wealth do just that. From the prophet Amos, we are told that those who bask in their comfort and are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph [which means the moral decay and spiritual bankruptcy of the Northern Kingdom of Israel] – they will be the first to go into exile. And then in our reading from Timothy, the writer pulls no punches when he says: But 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. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil ….

Indeed, these first readings do give us a clear warning and challenge about our thinking and actions in regards to money and wealth. They certainly challenge us to constantly review our stewardship of all the resources that God has given us.  But then our gospel reading goes further and broader in its warning to those of us who are somewhat comfortable and secure. In essence, it is not a story or commentary on wealth, or the injustice about a society that allows such disparity of wealth and its subsequent suffering that happens to so many in this earthly life.  Rather, it is a harsh and powerful condemnation of ‘indifference’ – more precisely ‘intentional indifference’ – that is a deliberate shutting of the eyes, a turning away, stepping over the Lazaruses of our society: out of sight, out of mind and fooling ourselves that we don’t know or even worse still, we don’t want to know.  Deluding ourselves with reason or fear that we are not responsible, and what difference could we make anyway? This gospel says beware of such thinking! It is also worth noting that the story does not portray Lazarus as notably virtuous in any way. It is his poor and neglected condition that is the object of God’s action, concern and comment. Nor is the rich man wicked in other respects. It is simply that his luxury so absorbed him that he did not notice or did not want to notice – and in not noticing, he sealed his fate.

The parable is in the end about failure in conversion, which explains why it has a sequel prolonging the dialogue between the rich man and Abraham. Unable to do anything about his own fate, the rich man wants Abraham to send Lazarus on an errand to warn his five brothers before they too, end up in the same plight.  Abraham suggests that all they need to hear is already contained in the Scriptures; the Scriptures, after all, contain ample warnings about the need to care for the widow, the orphan, the needy and stranger at the door. But the rich man knows that this will not be enough to change his brothers. Sadly and knowingly, Abraham replies: If they do not listen to scripture, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. Now this comment more than likely refers to the raising of Lazarus by Jesus – however, for the Christian reader there is also an obvious allusion to the risen Lord, and therefore this is a challenge to the whole Christian community.

This gospel at first may seem to be some kind of threat – unless you do this then your fate is sealed – and there is certainly an element of that. However, I don’t believe that is the point or purpose of this gospel. For if that was our Lord’s modus operandi then we would have a God who simply pulls the strings and manipulates, but on the contrary we affirm a God who is faithful to the nature of his creation and creatures in their own integrity, individuality and free will to choose. God earnestly and passionately pursues us, to choose freely the kingdom and its values, and certainly warns us just like the prophets down through the ages against the consequences of other choices.

And so, this gospel functions as a warning not so much against wealth or riches per se, but about allowing ourselves and our lives to be absorbed or swallowed up by them – and in our very individualistic and self-orientated culture this is a warning we certainly need to hear and heed. Self-preoccupation leads to blindness and indifference to the plight of many in our community who are marginalized, desperate and absolutely powerless. Perhaps we are more fortunate than many here at St Peter’s, as we are confronted each morning here at the church with those in our midst who are homeless and on the margin.  St Peter’s through Anglicare and the St Peter’s Charitable Foundation have rightly responded to this need and have for years now not turned a blind eye through its breakfast program. This is nothing less than a response of hospitality – a theme that dominates the gospel of Luke where we are challenged to extend or become the instruments of God’s hospitality to all people, and especially those on the margins – those who are hidden from sight like Lazarus in our gospel reading.

For us as followers of Christ, the imperative is to not only hear, see and heed the message of the gospel in how we respond to the needs of the poor, impoverished and marginalised in our society; but equally for us to become messengers who are also prepared to warn, to make a noise and fight against apathy and indifference – to continue to warn and seek real and meaningful change that will go some way at least to address the needs of the most vulnerable and needy in our society.

As a church and as individuals, we are challenged not only to heed the warnings of Jesus as in this parable and those of the prophets, but in a sense to become prophets ourselves in warning those around us and our society at large. When it comes to the hospitality of God and the Kingdom, we cannot afford to be so-called ‘shrinking violets’, but rather bold and loud voices that are not afraid to shout out – MIND THE GAP!