Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Amos 6:1a, 4-7
I Timothy 6:6-19
Luke 16:19-31
There are a whole bunch of sayings that we commonly use that sound like they come from the Bible, but they don’t.
Take, for example, “Everything happens for a reason.” Nope. It’s not there. The closest we get is Ecclesiastes 3:1 which declares, “For everything there is a season.” That’s not the same thing really. Ecclesiastes observes that there is no one-size-fits all approach to living life. Everything is situational. Everything ebbs and flows from bad to good and good to bad. It is not the same as “Everything happens for a reason,” which rationalizes why things happen the way that they do.
Then there is, “To thine own self be true.” That’s actually Shakespeare. From Hamlet. Not the Bible.
Or “Hate the sin, love the sinner.” Nope. Again, that isn’t in Scripture. And at least anecdotally, I have found that folks who have tried to hold that hate of sin and love of sinner in tension just end up hating both the supposed sin and the supposed sinner.
There are plenty of others. “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” “This too shall pass…” But the one most relevant to our conversation today is, “God helps those who help themselves.” It sounds like something we’d read in the book of Proverbs or perhaps it sounds like a bit of pithy advice from one of the letters of Paul. “God helps those who help themselves,” is a phrase that has been around for a very long time, but was actually made popular by Benjamin Franklin- not Paul or King Solomon. Again, it isn’t in the Bible, but to many, it sounds like it should be.
The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus actually has the opposite meaning of this phrase. The lesson is not “God helps those who help themselves.” but rather, “God helps those who cannot help themselves.” Or at least those who are denied help from their neighbors.
The rich man in Jesus’ story has no problem helping himself and he seems to be doing pretty well for himself (at least for the first half of the story). He feasts everyday, he lives in a nice, big house, and he wears the fanciest, most expensive clothing. If “God helps those who help themselves,” then the rich man’s life seems evidence enough that God has been helping him abundantly. God must have blessed this man with all that wealth if we believe that God is active in the lives of God’s people. Lazarus, however, is another story. He is poor, he is sick, he is pathetic. The stray dogs of the neighborhood are the only creatures that show any bit of kindness toward him. But looking at Ben Franklin’s wisdom, we might see Lazarus’ plight as his own darn fault. If Lazarus would just help himself, maybe God would help him. Get a job, show some initiative!
But the latter half of the story reveals that Benjamin Franklin was wrong. In the second half of the story, the rich man, who has helped himself abundantly, is cast into hades where he is suffering. Lazarus, whom no one helped and who could not help himself enough in life, is helped by God and rests at Abraham’s side in paradise. God helped the one who could not help themselves.
Jesus’ parable teaches the lesson that God helps those who cannot help themselves and Jesus teaches us this lesson with a deep sense of urgency. It is important to note that Jesus is laying out a parable and not a travel guide. This is not a literal description of Hell and a literal threat that if you don’t help enough people and be generous enough, God is going to send you to a fiery hell for all eternity.
The purpose of this parable is to give us a kick in the pants to feel that sense of urgency to use our gifts (even the “dishonest wealth” that Jesus talked about in the last parable) to build relationships, to love others, to forgive the crushing debts of our neighbors, and more broadly, as cliche as it sounds- to make the world a better place. You only have a limited time on earth to live into God’s way of living.
Another phrase that is not found in the Bible is “YOLO.” The trends move so fast, but just a few years ago, YOLO was a popular acronym that was all over the Internet, television, and social media. It stands for “You Only Live Once.” YOLO is the less-fancy of Carpe Diem, the Latin phrase that means “seize the day.” The idea is that our time on earth is limited, so we might as well make the best of it. We should be bold and not miss the opportunity to do the things we love. Should you try that new food on the menu? Of course, YOLO. Should you make a move and ask out that person you have a crush on. Why wait? YOLO. Should you muster up your courage and ask for that promotion at work? Why not? YOLO. Should you check off that item on your bucket list and go skydiving. Today’s the day. YOLO.
Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus has a sort of YOLO or Carpe Diem kind of message. Jesus, however, frames the YOLO/Carpe Diem sense of adventure and urgency in the context of the coming Kingdom of God. Instead of just skydiving, eating snails, or telling Jeff that you really love his new haircut, what if we acted like today might be our last day to share a meal with someone who is hungry, to donate our extra money to a worthy organization, or to stand on the side of justice for God’s people?
We are often unintentionally or willfully ignorant of the suffering in our world. When we take stock of the sheer number of folks who are hungry, homeless, who do not have clean drinking water like our siblings in Jackson, who are without power like our siblings in Puerto Rico, who are facing violence for standing up for justice like our siblings in Iran, who are fighting to keep their homes like our siblings in University City- we can feel overwhelmed and paralyzed. What can we do in the face of such great need? We can’t fix it all, so why try to fix any of it? But Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus reminds us that God helps those who seemingly cannot help themselves. We have been given this life to reach out and share the love of God with others to make the world a better place and we know that in the power of Christ’s resurrection, this work is never in vain. Whether or not we see the fruits of our labor in our lifetime, we have the gift of faith to trust that God’s justice will reign. The hungry are fed, the poor are lifted up, the oppressors are torn down, and life triumphs over death.
Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus gives us faith to be freed from fear and to turn our hearts toward our neighbor rather than curving in on ourselves. Christ shows us that this God-given gift of life we’ve been given is so precious that we must be resolved to spend as much of it as we can making the world a better place- or to put a biblical spin on it- to live as though the world truly is God’s and God’s will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God’s justice triumphs over all evil. God’s love triumphs over all hate. God’s life triumphs over death. So let us courageously live by faith in God’s promises.
Consecrated Chicken Soup 