Service for September 28 Sixteenth Sunday of Pentecost

Sermon for  September  28, 2025                             Sixteenth Sunday of Pentecost

Talk of money is everywhere these days. The gap between rich and poor gets wider; the number of billionaires increases while the number of people who are homeless jumps and money to feed and shelter those people plummets. There is another looming deadline for congress to pass a budget or the government will shut down causing a ripple of hardship for the whole country. Poverty appears to be worsening and with government funding disappearing it’s probably going to get worse before it gets better. So many people are struggling with higher grocery prices, higher housing costs and utilities while incomes drop.

Sometimes, we in the church are reluctant to talk about money. I’ve even known people who left the church entirely because they felt as if they were asked for money too often. The thing is, money and faith are connected. God, who loves us beyond all measure, who cares not only about our eternal life but this life too, has something to say about money and our relationship with it as people who follow in the way of Jesus.

When you talk to people about how money and faith are related, some common themes come to the fore: many people talk about having feelings of guilt when they read parables like the one we heard today. The guilt takes several forms: Guilt at not doing more for people in need; guilt at not giving more money to the church and other agencies who serve the poor. No matter how much people give they describe feeling as if they can never give enough. Some people described how those feelings of guilt can turn into anger: anger at feeling as if their financial security requires an apology. 

Those are all valid feelings, of course, and ones I bet many of us share when we’re being honest. That tendency to move from guilt to anger happens in lots of situations when we’re talking about complicated things that hit close to home.  I’m right there with you in these feelings. I share your discomfort at what Jesus is saying.

It’s helpful to remember two things when we’re feeling that messy mish mash of anger and guilt: Jesus’ point is not to criticize the rich for being rich, in this parable or in any of his teaching. We know that wealthy women supported Jesus. We know that wealthy people supported the church in Paul’s time and in the middle ages and still do so today.  Jesus’ point is not to bash the rich. 

The second thing is, wealth is not inherently evil, but it's definitely dangerous. Jesus says, “No one can serve God and wealth.” Jesus says, “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” And “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’  And on and on and on. Jesus tells story after story about people who are offered relationship with Jesus but for some reason, usually having to do with their wealth, they cannot accept that gift, even when it is Jesus, himself offering it.  They are clinging so tightly to: whatever it may be for them: security, life as they know it; their understanding of how things should be; whatever it is.

It's good for us to remember that while Jesus offers comfort to those in pain or grief or illness, for the most part, that comfort that Jesus offers does not come from relying on ourselves, on our own efforts, our own smarts, our own hard work, or luck or our family or _____ (whatever);  fill in the blank as you see fit.  The comfort Jesus offers is in the form of relationship; relationship with him, with God’s people, with our neighbors walking this path of life with us.

Jesus keeps challenging us just as he did those first century disciples because he loves us too much to let us fool ourselves.  Jesus loves us too much to let us settle for a life half-lived with “wealth” at its center, where God belongs. Jesus loves us and so he asks us time and time again to look at our relationship with money. Because Jesus loves us, we put up with that uncomfortable anger/guilt mish mash, knowing that it’s there to teach us something; to teach us that ultimately, we can only rely on God’s free gift of grace; God’s total and complete love of us that frees us from having to find validation or acceptance or self-worth in anything outside of our identity as  God’s beloved children.

And here’s the other side of this danger that relying on wealth holds. God loves you too much to let you fool yourself into thinking anything can be relied upon but God. But God also loves Lazarus and all the Lazarus’s of the world too much to let us fool ourselves into thinking we’re alone in this life; as if our choices have no consequences!

Remember that this is a parable and parables give us a glimpse into the kingdom of God. Parables show how God’s logic works, which is always surprising because we expect God’s logic to be our logic and it’s NOT. So, we might understand Jesus’ parables better if we remember that this parable is NOT trying to explain how to get to heaven. It’s explaining how our lives should be lived here and now. It invites us to look at the people around us -- right here, right now -- from God’s perspective.

God’s unrelenting care and compassion for you is also God’s unrelenting care and compassion for the person sitting next to you this morning. AND it’s also God’s unrelenting care and compassion for the poor and the vulnerable; those down at the Salvation Army; those who slept under in a car last night; those who will hold their child as it dies for lack of food today; those caught in the middle of powerful nations fighting over land or honor. God’s care and compassion, are for everyone, especially for the powerless, the weak, those we’d rather overlook.

This parable is our message from beyond death given to us by the only one that death could not hold. This is a reminder that all of Scripture shows us God’s demand that the poor be cared for; that care for the poor is intertwined with our relationship with God. It sends us the message that St. Theresa of Avila was telling us when she wrote:

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

Ours are the hands, ours are the feet,
Ours are the eyes. We are his body.

Ultimately this parable is not only about money. It is about the cost of letting anything get in the way of us knowing God’s love. It is about what can get in the way of all of the Lazarus’ of the world knowing God’s love. None of us knows God’s love apart from how it is experienced in the world. We learn God’s love by how we experience love, grace, forgiveness from PEOPLE in the world.

This parable is not told so that we worry about details about how much to give and how much to keep. It is told so that no one, not Lazarus, not you or me or ANYONE will be unable to know God’s love because they are too hungry or thirsty or sick to think about God.  This parable is told so that no one thinks God is dead or at least uncaring because God’s people overlook their suffering. 

None of us wants to be guilty of contributing to making a hell on earth for anyone. Jesus tells this stark parable so that we will open our eyes to see those we would rather not see, to see the ways in which we are trusting our wealth instead of God; to see how placing our trust in that wealth hurts not only ourselves but contributes to a hell that prevents others from knowing God’s love.

Franciscan Blessing

May God bless you with discomfort; discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. Amen.

May God bless you with anger; anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. Amen.

May God bless you with tears; tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy. Amen.

May God bless you with foolishness; enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done. Amen.

And the blessing of God, who creates, redeems and sanctifies, be upon you and all you love and pray for this day, and forever more. Amen.