"The Blindness of Riches"
September 30,
2007 the 18th Sunday after Pentecost
Grace United
James R. Luck, Jr. D.
Min. c.
On the corner of 105 Street in
east side of Broadway, there is a Chinese Restaurant
that I would frequent when I was in seminary. As are
most stores and restaurants in NYC, this place was
fairly small, but two of the four walls were filled
with mirrors and the other two walls were actually
windows which looked out over Broadway. So diners had
the illusion of eating in a rather roomy restaurant
and they had plenty to look at as life flowed up and
down Broadway. On one particular afternoon when I was
eating, (if you got there before 4 p.m. you could get
lunch prices) a homeless man, who might have been in
his early 30's, was outside on the sidewalk. And he
kept pacing up and down the sidewalk, occasionally
stopping to peer inside the restaurant. Now you need
to realize that with space at a premium, tables and
chairs were placed right beside the windows, and so
literally less than an inch of glass separated the
diners inside from the obviously hungry man outside.
And do you know what amazed me? I don't think anyone
else in the restaurant noticed. It really was as if
they were blind to his very presence. Here was this
man with his face pressed right up to theirs, and they
didn't notice. And I can't help but wonder whether
that's what is happening in today's gospel parable.
In our story today we are told about a rich man, and
while he is not named in the text, tradition has
called him Dives, which is Latin for rich. And rich
he was, dressing in purples and fine linens and
feasting each and every day. Now in contrast to
Dives, there was a leper named Lazarus who is the only
person named in today's parable. And we are told that
Lazarus would lie at the rich man's gate. Well, if
Dives & Lazarus were separated in this world by a gate
or divide, I guess it only makes sense that they were
separated by a gate or divide in the next life.
The only difference, and it's a rather big one, is
that Dives is now the one suffering while Lazarus is
being comforted at Father Abraham's side.
So why is Dives in Hades? We're never told that he
ever persecuted Lazarus or that he ever withheld food
or that he passed legislation to get the beggars off
the street like Rudy Guiliani did in
moved away. So why was Dives sent to Hades? Was it
simply because he was rich? The bottom line is that
we don't know. But I do find it interesting that
Scripture gives us no indications whatsoever that
Dives ever saw much less acknowledged or helped
Lazarus. It is only after the two men have both died
that we are told that Dives can see Lazarus; only
after Dives begins suffering does he see. In John
Donahue's words, "one of the prime dangers of wealth
is that it causes blindness." Dives was apparently so
wealth on this earth, that he literally could not see
the beggar at his gate. And if he couldn't see him,
he couldn't empathize with him and if he couldn't
empathize with him, he couldn't act in such a way so
as to reduce his suffering.
While the shades were not drawn in that NYC
restaurant, I can't help but wonder whether the wealth
of the diners had drawn the shades to their hearts.
Perhaps I only saw him because I was a struggling
grad. student who frequently ate only one meal a day
and whose fiancée was picking up some of his bills. I
was in my 20's and he was in his 30's perhaps (because
you can age fast on the streets), but the real
difference between the two of us might have been
that my parent's economic status ensured me of getting
a very large bank loan. Today that loan is paid off,
although I left
today I owe another $15,000 for my doctoral degree.
But my salary, even as a minister and a community
college counselor, allowed me to pay off the first loan and will allow us
to pay off the second loan.
But now that I have a very comfortable salary,whom
have I failed to see? For that matter, how blind are
we in this room? How many people have we failed to
see in our wealth? Last year I mentioned to you the
website globalrichlist.com where you can input your
salary and see how your income compares to the rest of
the world. I inputed $50,000
which would be my salary
plus some extra since you provide me with a parsonage
to live in. With those numbers, I am the 59,029,289th richest
person in the world. On
one hand it may not sound that rich, but
it makes me richer than 99.02% of the world's
population.
So I've got a question. Is it just me or have we
been talking a lot about money lately? Fred Craddock,
one of the countries best known homiletics professors
who use to teach at
don't need courage to be a preacher. All you have to
do is crouch down behind the pulpit and say, I didn't
come up with this stuff. Please don't stone me for
this stuff. I'm only telling you what it says in the
good book. And so I would say to you today, if it
feels like we've been talking about money & economics
a lot, I didn't decide to do that; I'm just telling
you what's in the good book; and especially what's in
Luke. Jesus isn't fond of talking about sexuality,
although you would never know it by listening to
churches today.
What Jesus is fond of talking about is money and the
little guy, especially in Luke.
Once again I remind you; back at the beginning of
Luke's gospel, Mary sings a song about the mighty -
like Dives - being brought down, and the lowly - like
Lazarus - being lifted up.
In Luke's gospel, no kings or religious leaders
receive any birth announcements. Instead they were
delivered to lowly shepherds. And once the child of
best ignored by Jesus while the poor, the outcasts,
the lepers & the women are lifted up. And as an
adult, Jesus is busy initiating a kingdom where the
first would be last and the last would be first. And
one day we are told that Jesus will complete what he
started. But God wants us to voluntarily participate
in this great reversal NOW. God wants us here and now
to lift up the lowly, to befriend the lonely, to touch
the untouchable and to love the unlovable.
So going back to my question earlier, why is Dives in
hell? Was it simply because he was rich? Does anyone
have a chance if they're rich, or should we just give
up trying to force the camel to fit through the eye of
a needle? Interestingly, while Luke gives us Dives
and Lazarus, he also gives us Mary Magdalene, JoAnna
and Suzzana.
And not only are they not condemned in Luke 8, but we
are told that they provided for Jesus out of his
means. And when Luke ends this gospel, he will
continue the story in the Acts of the Apostles. And
there we will be told about Barnabus who was a
property owner, and in that day and age, property
ownership was an exclusive privilege of the upper
class. But in Act 4 we are told that Barnabus
sold a
piece of property and brought the money he made and
laid it at the feet of the apostles. Today we are
told of the purple goods that Dives wore, but the New
Testament also tells us about a purveyor of purple
goods named
but she used her means as a servant to the church and as one who opened her
home to others. For these women and for Barnabas,
their economic wealth never interfered with their
service to and for others.
They each recognized that while something may have
legally belonged to them at least according to the
definitions of the empire, in reality they knew that
everything we have is on lease from our maker. And
thus it doesn't belong to us and thus it is to be used
for the whole.
And folks, I am aware of the ways in which this
church has attempted to bridge the divide
between rich and poor. From serving at the Corner
Table, to volunteering at ECCCM to creating Luv-N-Care
daycare, we have a right to be proud. But we also
need to see that, frequently without consciousness you
and I participate in creating the divide and we do so
through our values & spending patterns. It is time we
recognized that more of us have more in common with
Dives than we do with Lazarus. And finally we need to
remember that scripture is clear; a day is coming when
God is going to make things right; a day is coming
when God is going to finish this great reversal he has
started. Are we going to help with the reversal, or
fight it? Are we going to see with our eyes what we
have, or always see what we lack? Are we going to see
God's children without, or are we going to focus on
our wants and desires? This increasing gap between
haves and have nots isn't right and whether its Amos
or Jeremiah or Isaiah or Luke, they all tell us that
sooner or later God's judgment will be heard. Will we
reach out to the strangers at our gate before the
judgment is heard? Maybe it's time we just decided to
look out at our gate, just maybe in a 2 block radius
in every direction from this church. What would we
see? Who would we see? What needs would we see? And
if we don't know, isn't it time we found out? Amen.