Scripture/Sermon of the Day. September 25, 2022

Luke 16:19-31

The Rich Man and Lazarus

19-21 “There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man’s table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.
22-24 “Then he died, this poor man, and was taken up by the angels to the lap of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell and in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his lap. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, mercy! Have mercy! Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool my tongue. I’m in agony in this fire.’
25-26 “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that in your lifetime you got the good things and Lazarus the bad things. It’s not like that here. Here he’s consoled and you’re tormented. Besides, in all these matters there is a huge chasm set between us so that no one can go from us to you even if he wanted to, nor can anyone cross over from you to us.’
27-28 “The rich man said, ‘Then let me ask you, Father: Send him to the house of my father where I have five brothers, so he can tell them the score and warn them so they won’t end up here in this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham answered, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets to tell them the score. Let them listen to them.’
30 “‘I know, Father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but they’re not listening. If someone came back to them from the dead, they would change their ways.’
31 “Abraham replied, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they’re not going to be convinced by someone who rises from the dead.’”

Reflection/Sermon:

I.      There is a message in the Bible that’s repeated.  We hear it in the call of the prophet Isaiah.  God told Isaiah:
“Go and tell the people:
“‘Listen hard, but you aren’t going to get it; look hard, but you won’t catch on.’ Make these people blockheads, with fingers in their ears and blindfolds on their eyes, So they won’t see a thing, won’t hear a word, So they won’t have a clue about what’s going on.”

II.     The Gospel of John says:
        “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...All things were made through him.  In him was life, and the life was the light to live by.
        He was in the world — but the world didn’t notice him...
        He came to his own people, but they didn’t want him...

III.    In the Book of Exodus, the people of Israel had just seen Moses coming down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments and the people said “We will follow and worship God forever.”  A few days later they made an idol and worshipped that.
        When it comes to things spiritual, we have a forgetfulness, a blindness and deafness.  It’s in front of us and we don’t realize it.  “The kingdom of heaven is right here in your midst!” Jesus said.  The people answered:  “Where? We don’t see it.”

IV.     In our reading today, a poor man named Lazarus went to a rich man’s house and just wanted scraps of food that fell from the rich man’s table.  We don’t know if the rich man ever noticed him or gave him anything.  When they both died, everything was reversed and the rich man was in a place of torment.  He said, “Let me tell my five brothers so they will change their lives and not have to come here when they die.”  Father Abraham said, “They have Moses and the prophets to tell them.  Let them listen to them.”
“That won’t do any good,” said the rich man.  “They won’t change.  They don’t read the Bible — they’re not interested in it, but if I come from the dead — then they’ll repent!” Father Abraham said: “If they don’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they won’t listen even if someone rises from the dead.”

V.      There it is again.  In spiritual matters, we have a kind of blindness and deafness.  Or we’re just not interested.
        Jesus said, “I was hungry, I was in prison — I was a poor immigrant coming to your country for help, and you turned me away.”  People said, “We didn’t see you come here, we didn’t see you hungry, we didn’t see you in prison!”
        Jesus said — “The way you treat others in need is how you treat me.”

VI.     People say:  “We didn’t see.  We didn’t know it was you.”  But the important question from our reading today is:  Will we ever be able to see and hear and perceive the spiritual world?  Can we ever change?  Jesus would say, “It will take a miracle, but that’s what I do.  Let me into your heart, right now.”