"The Unnamed"

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!