Vision of a Loving Community
Good Morning Friends,
Not too long ago I saw an article on the richest people in the world. They were billionaires. It was interesting but a little disturbing for that is way more money than anyone can use. Even in Biblical times, there were some very rich people. Abram, Isaac, Nahab, Soloman, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, King Xerxes, Job, and Zacchaeus are noteworthy wealthy people in the Bible. Then there is the story of the rich young ruler. How these people reacted to wealth makes for some interesting reading. Today we look at Luke 16 and some of parables about people who are rich and the importance of seeing and interacting with people who are poor as an essential part of building community. The Parable of the Dishonest Manager and the Rich Man and Lazarus come after the parables of the lost coin, sheep and son. And the writings placement just here in the Bible is not accident. It is after all, much more about Grace than money…more about community than bank accounts and farm economies. It is about gaining a Vision of a Loving Community.
Scripture: The Golden Rule:
“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.
Matthew 7:12 (NRSV)
Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
Luke 16:1-9 (NRSV)
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'”
Luke 16:19-31 (NRSV)
Message: Jesus hits us on the head with today’s scripture. Ok I do not believe that people go to hell because they are wealthy, but I do know it is difficult to serve both God and money. I am Presbyterian by practice and upbringing and come from one of the wealthiest churches in the country with a high level of people with graduate degrees in the pews. These stories about the rich hit home. The thing that most intrigues me though is the relationship here between money and community. Martin Luther King in 1965 at the Presbyterian retreat Center in North Carolina called Montreat addressed the subject of today’s text and preached about the story of The Rich Man and Lazarus intimating that ultimately, the parable is not about poverty, about our wealth, or about the proper allocation of resources. It is about grace in community. Here the master and the manager both become heroes. Both are exposed and God’s grace revealed in community. Speaking to this King said, “I submit this is the challenge facing the church, to be as concerned as our Christ about the least of these, our brothers and sisters. And we must do it because in the final analysis we are all to live together, rich and poor, lettered and unlettered, tutored and untutored. Somehow we are tied in a single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.” “And for some reason,” King says to us, “I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.” Friends, this is the way God made the world…we must all learn to live together with vision of community or perish.
Pray we realize that we must address our blindness if we are to realize a vision of community. Pray we not become a slave to money. Pray for those with big bank accounts that they might be reminded that there is greater strength in many joined together. Pray for people who are down to their last pocket of change. Pray we use our wealth to bridge the gulf that separates us one from another. Pray we handle wealth wisely. Pray we see each other as Christ sees us in a community of love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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