EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST -- 30 September 2007

ST PAUL LUTHERAN CHURCH, ABQ NM -- the Rev. P. L. Holman

Amos 6:1a, 4-7; Psalm 146; 1 Timothy 6:6-19; Luke 16:19-31

"It's not About the Money, part 2"

Do you have a gate in front of your house? We do. One of the first things we noticed when my husband and I began looking for a home in ABQ was the gates -- nearly every single family home and many of the multi-family complexes we saw had a fence or wall of some sort, and a gate. I wondered if there was some historical or practical reason for the gates and walls, but didn't bother to research it before designing our house. I liked the way it looked. So we had the contractor span the distance between our garage and our neighbor's wall with an adobe style wall and metal gate.

I like our gate. But today I wonder in light of the Gospel message: what would I do if Lazarus lay at my gate?

Right now I am tempted to say he isn't there and move on to something else. But that would just confirm that fact that I, like the rest of you, have a very highly developed capacity for denial. We like to think that the hunger of our neighbors is not our problem, that genocide in Rwanda and Uganda are not our problems, that the conflicts in the Middle East are caused by civil strife or uncivil behavior -- not our business -- while it seems the civil conflicts we’ve tried to micromanage in other places in the world for some reason are our business. Lazarus IS at our gate, and Jesus calls us to open up to him NOW.

One of the problems with talking about money in the church is that we tend to take a very dualistic approach to matters that challenge us. Either you tithe or you're not faithful. Either you're living simply or your ecological footprint is too big. What's wrong with keeping a nice home, a car for each driver? Is it really a sin to enjoy a hot shower once in a while?

Amos had a problem with those who were at ease in Zion. The problem was not with their either/or thinking -- the problem was that their ease, their comfort, robbed them of empathy. The problem was their relationship with the poor and with the world around them. Eugene Peterson translates this passage from Amos in a way that brings it right home to us. Listen:

            Woe to you who think you live on easy street in Zion, who think Mount Samaria is the good life. Woe to those who live in luxury and expect everyone else to serve them! Woe to those who live only for today, indifferent to the fate of others! Woe to the playboys, the playgirls, who think life is a party held just for them! Woe to those addicted to feeling good -- life without pain! those obsessed with looking good -- life without wrinkles! They could not care less about their country going to ruin.

            But here's what's really coming: a forced march into exile. They'll leave the country whining, a rag-tag bunch of good-for-nothings.

                                                                    [Amos 1a, 4-7, THE MESSAGE, pages 1652-1653]

Both Amos and Jesus are sounding the same alarm: God sees right through appearances, shams. There is nothing inherently wrong with comfort and security until they become the center of our existence, and no amount of praise or flattery will hide the truth from God. Once pursuit of our own personal ease whether in economic, political, or social terms, takes God's place at the center of our lives, we've closed our eyes and ears to Lazarus and secured our place on the flame-broiled side of the eternal chasm. It is a fine line we walk in this earthly life, like the fine line between disciplinarian and abuser, between social drinker and alcoholic, between user and addict -- there's a fine line between well-to-do and wealth-is-God. If our hearts are closed to hearing the cries for justice, mercy, water, bread, then the words of the Resurrected One won't keep us from falling over that line – the words of Christ won't convince us to change, they’ll just convict us.

But we're not dead yet. There is still time to choose life, to take hold of the life that really is life. Faith is for the living, HERE and NOW. We have time, we have skills, we have money, we have the relationships needed to build bridges in this life, to reframe the size of those chasms between rich and poor and thereby weave a glimpse of God's reign even here, even now.

Stewardship is about using faithfully all the resources we have been given. One word we can use for it is "sharing." Stewardship is about sharing. As one theologian put it, human beings need to share; it is our JOY to share; we can't be whole without sharing. [Shannon Jung, "Sharing as a Central Practice in the Economy of God" as quoted in JLE, January 2007]

As we gather to share this holy meal we are reminded that God has given us to one another for a time. We look around and see folks new to the circle, gaps where others have died or left the communion by some other route, and we are humbled that indeed we are given to each other only for a time. As we eat together, worship together, we are nurtured into ever widening circles of openness to the needs around us. As we respond to those needs -- feeding the hungry, responding to transitional housing needs, supporting medical missionaries or our mission partner in El Paso -- Christ is made known.

Christ is also made known as we share the truth in love. One preacher tells the story of how his friend, an African American pastor serving a large congregation in New Jersey, shares the resources of that congregation in a very tangible way. It seems every year about election time political candidates contact the pastor asking her if they could visit the church, speak to members, and say a prayer with the folks. They devised a creative way to welcome the visitors. "Here is what they do," he said. "They introduce the candidate seeking office to the whole congregation. Then they invite about six members of the church to stand with the politician. And then the preacher says [to the politician], 'Mrs. Jones is a senior citizen on a fixed income. Your voting will affect her life. Mr. Ellison is a truck driver, with no health insurance. Your voting will affect his life. Mrs. James worked at the plant that has now closed. Your voting will affect her ability to provide for her family.' And this went on. Then they would pray for the candidate." [Rev. Dr. Kenneth Carter, UMC, as quoted on DAY1 for 9/30/07]

Sharing is at the heart of who God is. From the time God welcomed wandering Arameans to the days of Jesus who excluded no one from those he called to follow the Way, God has modeled sharing as the way of faithfulness and Life. Our hospitality of sharing recognizes the dignity of the other; it welcomes and makes room for others. As faithful stewards of the time, money and relationship resources God has given us we model an openness that says, "Here we are, Lord. We’re ready to share. We're ready for your surprises."

Lazarus IS at my gate, and yours. He is there not to make us feel guilty -- he is there as a sign of HOPE. God has put Lazarus before us to open us up to God's possibilities: to challenge us to lives of holy discontent, to live the question of faithful and creative use of what God has entrusted to us. It's not about the money -- it's about being OPEN to HOPE.

Amen.