The readings for Pentecost 16C in the Revised Common Lectionary are:
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15 or Amos 6:1a, 4-7
Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16 or Psalm 146
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Luke 16:19-31
Here’s a playlist to keep the Pentecost 16C groove in your week. Happy Listening!
What follows is a written version of the sermon given at Evergreen Lutheran Church in Evergreen Colorado for the 16th week after Pentecost. Click here to view a recording of this sermon.
Let’s start the day with a very simple but powerful chorus from Aretha Franklin
Oh, freedom, freedom, oh freedom, yeah freedom…
I’ve been experiencing a bit of righteous agitation this week as I’ve been reading and re-reading this weeks lessons. If these readings are bringing you to righteous agitation as well, hopefully we can say to one another at the end of this sermon that we are in good company. It seems right to begin this sermon with some wisdom from our elders, and one of the songs I found a lot of wisdom in this week is Aretha Franklin’s Think so “Let’s go back, let’s go back, Let’s go way on, way back when…” and look at the common audience which Jesus has been addressing throughout these last couple weeks of readings from the Gospel of Luke.
Two weeks ago Pastor Vera picked out a word in Luke’s retelling of the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. That word, pronounced “dia-gon-guzō” was the pharisees response of murmuring, muttering, or grumbling at Jesus’ storytelling. And in last weeks perspectives sermons, Mark Bly made reference to the fact that these same grumbling pharisees were the audience for the parable of the unrighteous manager who acts with wisdom. Here Jesus essentially challenges the elites of his day to utilize the unjust system in which they willingly participate to bring about justice for their siblings in need. In this context consider the wisdom of Aretha Franklin:
You better think, Think about what you’re trying to do to me. Yeah, think, Let your mind go, let yourself be free…
And it seems that in this weeks lesson this same grumbling audience is standing ‘round Jesus, and they’re just not getting it. So Jesus, with a story that typifies tough love or what Bonhoeffer called “costly grace”, brings this parable of Lazarus the Beggar. In this story I find it’s of vital importance for our understanding to note that Jesus names both Lazarus and Abraham, which is a way of showing their ultimate prominence and power, yet the rich man is not named, and it seems this is done with intention so that the audience, both in that day and today, might see in themselves (and ourselves) the rich man.
You better think (think), Think about what you’re trying to do to me…
There’s another ancient audience hearing this text beyond the pharisees. The early hearers and readers of Luke are also receiving these stories in their context. They, the early Church, who are first possessed by and first purveyors of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles are the new bearers of riches to whom Luke is writing. And we, in the North American church, are in this sense no different (though we are exponentially far better off than the early Church when comparing our place within culture). If we are to understand this parable in our context we must learn to see ourselves as the rich man, deeply blessed with riches both physical and spiritual. And like the rich man in Jesus story, we in the white church are blind to seeing Lazarus as our kin.
Yeah, think (think, think), Let your mind go, let yourself be free…
OK, let’s talk about the messed up family dynamics present in this story, and from here on out, I’m going to refer to the rich man as a collective “we” and “us”. While we are blind to our sibling Lazarus we are still able to see Abraham as our Father. And Abraham as the parental figure in this modern framing can be none other than the one God, who rightly recognizes both us and them as kin. Even the great chasm that is fixed between us has not hindered God’s ability to acknowledge us as heirs; all parties in this story are children of God, yet only one character remains blind to this truth.
Consider this verse from Think: People walking around everyday, Playing games, taking scores. Trying to make other people lose their minds, Ah, be careful you don’t lose yours…
In this parable even the agony of being separated from God and our siblings has not brought a wisdom to us as it did to the unrighteous manager in last weeks parable. In this parable we who have the riches of the Spirit have already made our choice, and in doing so we show that same Holy Spirit the door.
We surely have lost our minds, yet we attempt to bargain with God through a false sense of entitlement in which we attempt to employ Lazarus as a servant who might bring us some ill-gotten gains of cool water. Finally sensing our complete isolation we make one last attempt at claiming righteousness for ourselves by asking that God at least warn those siblings whom we choose to acknowledge as we continue to ignore the siblings standing closest to God, at the border and within our own view.
Now with a bit of contextual editing consider these lines from the song: There ain’t nothing [we] could ask, [God] could answer [us] but [God] won’t, [God] was gonna change, but [God’s] not, If [we] keep doing things [God] don’t…
Are you feeling hopelessly condemned? I know that I am. I know that standing in the place of the rich man in this parable who has not rightly acknowledged the source of our riches means we are the condemned. But wait, this is not the end of our song…
Oh, freedom (freedom), freedom (freedom), Oh, freedom, yeah, freedom…
The rich gift of the Spirit is here in our midst! And this Holy Spirit has brought us together this day to say that Jesus is Lord, Risen King, Immanuel, God with us. God is still standing in judgement, but God is judging Christ’s righteousness as our own and calling us by name, we are no longer a nameless rich man who cannot acknowledge the giver of all good gifts nor acknowledge our siblings who lie broken by unjust systems in our midst, but we are the ones who knowing the poverty of our spirits utilize every good gift that God has given to extend this song.
Oh, freedom (freedom), freedom (freedom), Oh, freedom, yeah, freedom…
And only by the power of the Spirit of Christ in our midst can we acknowledge that same Spirit in one another: “You need me, And I need you, Without each other there ain’t nothing people can do, oh…”
So now, people of God who are one and all beggars, who are about to gather around a table of rich food, welcomed not because we are deserving a feast but because God is good, all the time and all the time, God is good. How will we respond to this perpetual goodness? How might we through and with the Spirit of Christ extend this feast so that more of our siblings in Christ will not be left at the gates hungry, longing for shelter, dreaming of sanctuary.
In the original recording of Think, the chorus of voices backing Aretha ends her song with these telling words: Think about, forgiveness, dream about forgiveness…
It’s almost too lofty a dream that one day we might experience a full family reunion of complete forgiveness. But to me, that is where the Spirit of Christ in our midst is leading. This is where the rubber of our theology meets the road of our lives. This is where the open table that we are about to participate in extends beyond these walls and beyond all borders.
Think about it. There are hungry siblings standing at our gates this night who need shelter. And they have a Spirit to share with us. The name of that Spirit is Christ. If we continue to ignore the Lazarus Christ who stands and knocks will we ever experience the forgiveness dreamt of in this song? It is rarely our riches which condemn, but it is our inability to let go of these riches which often shows a dishonesty toward God and ourselves, and blinds us to our siblings.
The unjust systems of our day have broken our siblings in much the same way as unjust systems which were present in the time of Jesus and the early Church. Yet “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39). Therefore let us go out and live according to the Spirit of Christ, acknowledging our siblings as kin, and giving back what God has gifted us, to all who lie upon the threshold, to all who stand at the gates seeking sanctuary. And may we one day learn to sing a song of freedom together. Amen.
Here’s a playlist to keep the Pentecost 16C groove in your week. Happy Listening!
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