S E R M O N CNR1068
PENTECOST 19c [26] Epping 29 Sep 2013, 9.30am
Ps 91:1-6,14-16; Jer 32:1-3a,6-15; Luke 16:19-31; 1 Tim
6:6-19
(Exd 1:8-21)
“THE UNNAMED”
Luke 16:19-31
1 THE RICH GET RICHER AND THE POOR GET
POORER
1.1 “Ain’t we
got fun”
Have you ever had one of
those irritating songs
become stuck forever in
your memory?
Mine was old even before I
was born.
As a child I heard it frequently
sung on the morning radio programs
with what I thought was bad grammar and
irreverent glee.
It was “Ain’t we got fun” – American, of course
with a glib refrain
“The rich
get richer and the poor get poorer”
I thought as a child that
it was irreverent to sing so gleefully about poor people as if they are going
to be with us like that forever
and that there was nothing
anyone could do about it.
1.2 “The poor you will have with you always” (Mk 14:7a; Jn
12:8a)
Mind you, that throwaway
aside from Jesus
“The poor
you will have with you always”
was something that I also wanted
to prove wrong.
The sad reality dogs us
that at any time and in any place
this merciless chasm
between rich and poor remains an indelible scar
to blight the beauty of
the earth.
This chasm mentioned in
Luke 16:26 in our gospel reading
is as frightening to us as
it was to the rich man.
2 THE GREAT CHASM (Lk 16:26)
2.1 The bottle of milk left in the sun
Yes, we know all too well
that the setting of the story of the rich man
and Lazarus sadly can
apply anytime anywhere.
I frequently ask where is
the country
where there are the least
poor in the world
and am met with silence.
This chasm between rich
and poor goes right around the world.
Like a bottle of milk left
out on the front doorstep in the sun
the rich float to the top
leaving the poor behind
and like the milk it
eventually all goes sour.
2.2 Our named and the un-named
So, what is going to be any
different about this story about rich and poor?
We know about the VIPs in
this country.
If I mention Rupert and
Gina, and perhaps even Clive, you know who I mean
even without mentioning
their surnames.
If I cite Julia, Kevin,
and Tony, the same applies.
But who has noticed the long-bearded
man
who has lived for years on
the footpath
opposite our Pitt Street church
or even knows his name?
The names of the people at
the top of the tree are well known to us
even if we may never have
met them
but we have encountered
those over whom we stumble on the footpaths
and in the doorways of the
inner streets of Sydney
without knowing who they
are.
Though it happened years
ago, I cannot get out of my mind
the sight of a bare foot
covered with sores sticking out from a dark coat
in a doorway along Martin
Place as I hurried to a gathering.
2.3 Eleazar and the Purple (Gen 15:2)
The story in Luke is
different.
As Jesus tells it we know
the name of the poor man covered with sores.
He is called Lazarus, a
Greek translation of the Hebrew Eliezar,
the name of Abraham’s steward
(Gen 15:2),
and a name to be worn with
pride.
But what is the name of
the man clothed with purple?
Purple cloth was almost
priceless,
worn mainly by Roman
Emperors and kings.
This would be equivalent
today to having your own private jet.
But what is his name?
Tradition frustrated with
not knowing has called him Dives.
But Jesus deliberately
gives him no name.
3 NAMED AND UN-NAMED
3.1 The Hebrew midwives (Ex 1:15-21)
This has happened before.
At the Common Dreams
conference down in Canberra recently,
I heard again that
delicious story from Exodus ch 1.
The most powerful man then
in the known world was the Egyptian king
and he was having trouble
with these multiplying Hebrew asylum seekers.
He ordered the Hebrew
midwives to murder the infants
should they turn out to be
boys.
3.2 Shiphrah and Puah (Ex 1:15)
The midwives smiled with
gritted teeth and managed to let the little boys live.
The names of the midwives
in this story were Shiphrah and Puah.
We don’t know the name of
the king.
He is not even given the title
of Pharaoh.
As you well know by now, a
person’s name gives that person respect.
Not to acknowledge that
person’s name is not to give that person respect.
In the Exodus story, the
humble Hebrew midwives are named
so we who are well down
the line in history
know them by name and respect
them.
We don’t know the name of
the king of Egypt and we don’t really care.
3.3 God knows the names
So, it is with the rich
man and Lazarus.
This poor man covered with
sores is still known to us
while the self-important
rich man remains for us an unimportant nobody.
In both these stories, we
hear how God knows the name
of the despised and
rejected ones
and through the Scriptures
we who read them are invited to know them
as part of our journey.
The high and mighty whose
names may be written in newspapers and history books are likely to have their
come-uppance.
3.4 The un-named asylum seekers
But known to God and
remembered by him are those who are neither noticed nor remembered by name.
What is happening today
are asylum seekers who are not mentioned by name in our news or by our
successive political leaders.
The powerful seek for us
not to know the names
of those who still
struggle to reach us in their leaky boats nor their plight
while these leaders
themselves take centre stage for our attention.
We now know who gets God’s
attention, respect, and affection
and who are left out.
He has crossed the chasm
as expressed in Jesus Christ
and invites us to make
that crossing with him.
AMEN!
