First Congregational UCC of Rock Springs, WY 9/26/2010

Just a short comment about the last three sermons or so. Although I follow the Common Lectionary, it seems that the Holy Spirit is very supportive by seeing that the lectionary selections are corresponding with the needed challenge for this congregation to move beyond the comfort of being only a Sunday focused Church and look at becoming a congregation that is more pro-active in Social Justice Issues. It is very difficult in my observations for a person to grow Spiritually and not be aware and concerned with social justice. As a whole this congregation has no real focused programming in this area and with the help of the Scriptures, I have been able to continue to present the understanding that "faith" goes hand in hand with "justice", that this is a major part of what Jesus was challenging the religious structure of his day. This weeks scripture is particularly difficult to hear as a consumer driven society to realize just how much cost there is to so many around the world in order that we can enjoy the standards of daily living.

Making Visible the Invisible
By Rev. Steven R. Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 9/26/2010
Based on Luke 16:19-31


I am a great fan of motion pictures, early Television programs, and of early radio programs. As radio gave way to Television, many of the early 1950 T.V. programs were continuations of radio hits, such as The Jack Benny Show, or Amos and Andy. One of my favorite T.V. couples is George Burns and Gracie Allen. For those of you who might not be familiar with Burns and Allen, both were comedians with George being the person who would set up the joke or the story line while Gracie was the person who would deliver the lines that would receive the laughs. She was portrayed as a scattered brained housewife and would generally be the person who was always able to resolve whatever the crisis of the day was, in her own unique and very quirky logic!
In one episode, Gracie was working hard at becoming a member of a precigous book club. She enlists George’s help to stage their living room so that it would look as scholarly as possible. She had George place small statuaries on the coffee table that were of Shakespeare, David, and Venus De Milo. While placing a few classical books here and there, George asked her where she wanted the book, Tales of Two Cities placed? She thought for a few seconds then decided that it shouldn’t go out on any of the end tables. When George asked “why”, Gracie responded with, “I haven’t read the book yet and one of the cities might be in Florida.” This in her mind was not a good thing.
Today’s Gospel reading is very much like the title of the book “Tales of Two Cities”. It is a parable of two men and of two realities; this physical world and the afterlife. It is a story of a rich man and of a poor beggar, a story of two social classes, and a world of comfort verses a world of afflictions. It is also a story of reversals. The poor man is given a named, Lazarus, and the rich man is not named. In the story, we read where the rich man is dressed in purple while the beggar is dressed in sores, the rich man has ample food, living in abundance and in luxury, while Lazarus is praying for just the crumbs from the rich man’s table, and lives out on the street. Then when Lazarus dies, it is Lazarus who is in the bosom of Abraham, the Patriarchal Father, and it is the rich man who is now living in Hades. Both far removed from their former physical life’s circumstances.
This parable is filled with such subtle messages that most modern ears will miss if not familiar with early Jewish understanding. This story to the original audience was a story so abrasive, I am surprised that Jesus wasn’t taken out and strung up at that very telling. Every reference to the rich man was a reference to “being acceptable”, that of “being a righteous man before God”, while the poor beggar Lazarus would be perceived as one filled with “sin” and his living in poverty and plagued with sores was the punishment for his sinful ways. Yet, after death it was Lazarus who was in the arms of Abraham, which translates into being in the arms of God (Abraham being the founding father of the Hebrew faith, the highest example of righteous living) while it was just the opposite for the rich man who finds himself in eternal damned nation. All of this was a frontal assault on the perception of one’s trust in wealth as an assurance of your righteousness or right living and your salvation.
Jesus’ telling of this story comes directly after telling the parable of the “Shrewd Manager”, where he warns the children of the light (those who follow after Jesus) to be street-wise and as cleaver as the shrewd manager but only for good. In verse 14, we read: 14The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15Jesus said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.
G. Penny Nixon, Senior Minister of Congregational UCC Church of San Mateo, CA, sums up this parable told by Jesus in this way: What we know from the parable is that because of his lack of action and compassion, the rich man cannot cross over to the place of faith, nor does he have a place by Abraham’s side. The great teacher (Jesus) puts Abraham, the parent of faith, in the role of judge. Abraham sits with Lazarus, indicating a startling truth about who is faithful and who is not. To an impoverished group of people, this parable would offer great comfort that God sees their suffering and is on their side. To most of us, however, steeped in a consumer society and often on the wrong side of the chasm, this parable is one of the hardest to hear…if we really hear. Feasting on the Word, Yr C, pg 121
This parable doesn’t portray the rich man as being cruel or antagonistic toward Lazarus. For in truth, the rich man when he is looking through his window or even when he comes and goes from his home doesn’t even notice Lazarus sitting outside his door. You ask yourself, “How could anyone not notice someone who is dressed in filthy rages, covered in sores, and begging for food right outside of your own house?”
We don’t have many street corner beggars here in Rock Springs, but go to any major city and in the downtown area’s you can hardly walk on the sidewalks without tripping over people who are down and out. You hear them asking you for money and as long as you don’t look at them, you can walk by them, hearing their plea’s as nothing more than white background noise, thereby having very little intrusion on your consciousness; they truly are not there. But the minute you make eye to eye contact with one of these people, you at that point have recognized their plight and at that point must wrestle with your conscience about whether or not you will help them with a few coins. It is a making visible that which was invisible. This parable is attacking the rich, not because of their wealth, but because of their lack of responding to the needs of those who are suffering and live outside of the comfort of adequate resources.
This parable is depicted in the 1927 German expressionist silent film, Metropolis, and remade in animation in 2001, where we see the social crisis between workers and owners in capitalism. The story line is this futurist city where all of the capitalists live above ground in these marvelous skyscrapers and enjoy all the benefits of the “good life”, much like the rich man, at the expense of those laborers (the Lazarus’ of the world) who are doing back-breaking and life threatening work far beneath the earth’s surface, totally un-noticed by those who are benefiting from their harsh existence.
Today’s parable is a call for “Social Justice”! We as Christians cannot claim to have an active faith in the teachings of Christ, without being active in Social Justice Issues. This parable is calling us to task and letting us know that we as “good” people will ultimately be held accountable for the lack of response to those who are suffering from economic deprivation, of those who suffer from social alienation, and of our stewardship of our natural resources.
I use to rent out some of the bedrooms of my house when I was pastor at the Kittitas church to college students. One housemate in particular wasn’t the best English student and had transferred to Central Washington University from a very liberal college in Western Washington. He asked me and another housemate to read a paper that he had written because he wasn’t receiving the best grades from his earlier work.
This particular paper he was very proud of as it was showing the “evils” of the wealthiest of Americans (such as the Rockefellers, the Whitney’s for example) and how they have gained, as well as maintained their wealth at the expense of Third World Countries. Not that there wasn’t a good amount of truth in his report, but I asked him about his part as a “Wealthy American” who’s life style is supported by these same Third World Countries? He was totally unaware of what I was asking about, after all he didn’t come from one of these huge money families and he was a struggling college student. So we began a conversation about the amount of the world resources and how much we as Americans use compared to the rest of the world and that even our basic, what we would call, average economical existence is very much based on the cheap labor of Third World Countries. As American’s an average evening meal would be considered a banquet to most underdeveloped nations, our modest 3 bedroom, 2 plus bath homes are palaces to most of the world, and even the idea of taking a holiday is a non-reality to much of the world’s population. In essence, we are very unaware of the poverty of much of the world. It doesn’t make us bad people, but like the rich man, we do not see the true picture of our standard of living and at what cost to those who don’t have enough to survive on.
I wonder as a congregation, at what level of “awareness” and of action we see ourselves at? If we are students of Christ’s, as a teacher, what grade would He be giving us on our overal response to social justice issues? Would we be graded at the level of Lazarus or would Jesus grade us at the level of the “rich man”. We have very few programs that are geared to be pro-active to issues that are directly focused on social issues. I think Jesus would have us be more active in our working to understand the brokenness of our immigration laws. I think He would want us to be working at finding those who are disenfranchised in our community and working at bringing them into community. Jesus would call us to be working and learning how we could reduce our carbon footprint for the benefit of future generations.
This parable is a direct call for us to personally examine our heart and work at making the invisible (these social justice issues) into being visible within our hearts. It is a call for us to make that eye to eye contact with those in need and responding to that need. This parable powerfully calls into question how we handle not only our resources in dollars, but our time and attention and whether we “see” the poor at our doors. It calls us to realize, as one of the wealthiest nations in the world, who is suffering at the cost of what we enjoy on a daily basis. It is a parable calling us to make visible within our minds and hearts the invisible suffering of those outside of our doors, within the city of Rock Springs, of this country, and of the world at large. Amen