Grace and Peace to you from God our Creator, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, Amen.
Take a drive through Saint Cloud on any given day, on any major street, and you'll see him. His name might not be Lazarus, but you'll see him. Standing there, with a sign that says “homeless, need help.” Or, “homeless vet, anything helps”. Or whatever the sign says. I saw one once that said, “yes, I will be buying booze with this money”.
So we drive by. Maybe we stop, maybe we give them something. Maybe we have nothing to give. Maybe we're a paycheck away from being on the street right next to them. Whatever our lot in life, those of us in this room, in this sanctuary, are not Lazarus.
Jesus tells this parable about a rich man and another man named Lazarus. Notice which one gets the name. In the bible, people of importance get names. We know many of the important names, but even some of the named people, I couldn’t tell you who they were. Can any of you think of the name of Noah’s wife? Noah’s sons had names. But what was his wife’s name? Joan. Joan of Ark.
Seriously, people of importance got names, and those of less importance, weren’t named. Jesus tells a parable of a rich man who thought he was important – he wore fine clothing and ate plenty of food every day. He was a man of power, yet, Jesus fails to name him. This rich man walks by Lazarus, a poor man covered in dog-slobbered sores… Well, Lazarus died, and went to hang out with Abraham. The rich man died soon thereafter, and he was not afforded the same privilege. The rich man was punished after he died, and asked for Lazarus to spare him from his torment. Abraham tells the rich man that of all the wonderful things the rich man had in life, he didn’t spare any of it for Lazarus, so why should Lazarus spare anything for the rich man? The rich man realizes his fate, and asks to warn his brothers that are still alive. Abraham tells the rich man that they’ve already been warned. Moses and the prophets of old have already told his brothers what to do. That was up to the brothers to figure out how to fix their fate.
Now, this is just a parable, and it follows after last week's parable of the dishonest employee… But Jesus is making a point. Both with last week's parable and this one. Too much of anything, be it money, food, buildings, boats, barns, tractors or trucks… excess in life, takes away from someone in need.
There it is. There’s the gospel. How’s it sitting with you? If it doesn’t make you uncomfortable, you weren’t listening. This parable is among a handful of others like it – that point out not only are rich men in trouble, but so are any folks in power. Jesus isn’t singling out rich folks, but all who hold power and wield it against those of lesser power. Jesus is pointing to the injustices of the world, and asking you – What are you doing about it?
For some people, things are looking better these days. Minnesota, in recent news, has become the second least impoverished state in the nation. Which means that Minnesota has the second smallest percentage of people living in poverty, second only to New Hampshire. Minnesota isn’t necessarily one of the small states, in terms of population or land mass. We’re a pretty average state when it comes to those numbers. But we’re nearly the best at keeping our citizens out of poverty. With nine percent of our state’s population living at or below the Federal Poverty Line, it’s still roughly half a million people. But, we’re doing a lot better than other states for sure.
Erik tells me that you house homeless folks here at Svea, which is great. There are lots of ways churches like Svea can help out, and housing the homeless is one of the ways. But it’s not a fix-all. Giving money or food to the folks on the street, is not a fix-all. Making sandwiches, prepping meals, giving to Toys for Tots, giving to other charities – it’s all great work, and millions of people benefit from the work these charities do. But it’s not a long-term solution.
The rich man ate of his food, lived in his fine house, and ignored Lazarus at his gate.
Have any of you been to the State Capitol building? It’s all great and grand and quite the sight to look at. If you drive around the building though, to the neighborhoods nearby; the grandness of the building is overshadowed by the dozens of people carrying their life’s possessions in shopping carts. Ever since I studied a church right down the block from there for a class project – I can’t get that image out of my head. The symbol of governing in this state, and the neighborhoods around the capitol building are swimming in poverty.
Life gives us glaring examples of injustices like this all the time. How many homeless people do the lawmakers pass by before they reach the legislative chambers and continue to ignore Lazarus? How many young black men need to die, on camera no less, before justice is brought to their community? How many Syrian refugees need to wash up on shore? How many Somali folks need to be needlessly investigated? The list of injustices grows and grows…
We’re humble folks in the middle of an averagely-sized and populated state. We’ve got our own lives to take care of, children to raise, grandchildren to adore…
We are the brothers that need the warning. We are the bystanders, the folks living our lives in the middle of Minnesota with hopes of a better tomorrow.
There will always be turmoil in this world. Lazarus will still be sitting at our gate, and we will still be the brothers reading the prophets of old. So what then, can we do?
Continue doing the little things. Continue standing up for those who need support, those who need a shoulder, those who need a hand. Speak up for those in trouble. Advocate. Be a voice of support. The world is too big to conquer on our own, and the world’s problems are able to be fought with those with larger offices and bigger paychecks than any of us. But we can do the little things.
We can do the little things, because we believe in a God that does the big things. We believe in a God that created everything out of nothing, and continues to create every day. We believe in God’s son, that saw the troubles of his world and fought against the powers that were. Jesus the Christ fed, healed, walked with and talked with those in need. He preached, taught and sat with those who needed to hear. He got on his knees and served his friends. He saved the world through his actions, saved us all from ourselves by being the advocate, the Savior of the world. Jesus the Christ saves us all from ourselves by the unwinnable, unshakeable Grace, Love and Mercy of God.
Jesus the Christ saves you, me, and saves us all. The turmoil of this world is too much to bear somedays, that all we want to do is listen to the wind blow through the long and flowing fields, and enjoy the sunset.
I spent this last year on my internship in Amor, Minnesota. Amor is about half the size of Svea, with only 5 houses… and a church and cemetery. But they do have a bar. In the center of Ottertail County, it’s halfway between somewhere and everywhere else. Like Svea, it’s a Swedish town with a Swedish church, named after a town in Sweden. Farm fields surround the church on 3 sides, and beyond them are the thousands of lakes in Ottertail County. My office was tiny, but it had a window that looked out onto the rolling potato fields, and I’d sometimes just sit and look out that window, and thank God for the beauty that surrounded me.
And this was one heck of a year to be an intern, with all that went on in the world. I kept saying to myself, and in my sermons – that God’s got this. If anybody’s got this, it’s God.
There were certainly beautiful sights to be seen – sunsets on the lake, geese flopping all over the frozen lakes, sunrises over frost-covered tree lines… But one of the more beautiful sights to be seen, was the work being done by the Richville Methodist Church, just a few miles up the road from Amor. The Church has a clothing mission, where anybody may drop off clothes to be given away, and likewise, if anybody desires clothes, they may take however much they want. Beyond clothes, they expanded two years ago to include a section for houseware items as well. A small church, again, in the middle of nowhere – was doing amazing work for the impoverished people of Ottertail County, and beyond.
In the face of adversity, in the eyes of Lazarus, in the voice crying out in the wilderness – There is a God who loves us all, who saves us from ourselves and is there in our deepest darkness and despair. God is there to bridge the gap between the rich and poor, so that Lazarus no longer needs to be at our gate and on the street.
God bridges that gap – because God is Lazarus. If we looked into the face of Lazarus – into the face of the people on the street – into the face of our black neighbors – into the face of our Somali neighbors – we would be looking into the face of God. We are all God’s children. Rich and poor alike. Black and White alike. Christian and Muslim alike. We are all God’s children. Together.
Amen.
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