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Green Blades Preaching Roundtable

16th Sunday after Pentecost

Year C
September 25, 2022
Melinda Quivik

Amos 8:4–7
Psalm 113
1 Timothy 2:1–7
Luke 16:1–13

Here are the admonitions which come at us like flashing neon lights from this day’s scripture readings:

The future begins now.

Do not desire to be comfortable.

 

The question they pose is whether it is possible to appreciate and care for the things of this world and Earth itself without falling into love of security which is often achieved by building up riches?

 

The Prophet Amos screams at us: “Alas for those who lounge on their couches, and eat lambs from the flocks. . . but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.” He calls us to turn our focus away from the riches we enjoy to those who do not have couches and lamb, wine and songs.

 

Likewise, the Gospel story is a stark reminder of the reality we live with. It is a painful story. Lazarus is lying at our doorsteps. Lazarus comes to our churches each week for help with food, gas, lodging, and probably an unspoken desire to be known and appreciated.

 

In one church I served, the office manager (the one person who could be relied upon to be at the church most often) saw Lazarus nearly every day either in person or on the phone asking for help with food, gasoline, housing. She would have to decide if the one in need had returned for more help sooner than the rule that we would give out vouchers to the same person or family only every 3 months. She and I often discussed whether Lazarus would get help.

 

As a nation, we decide this all the time. Is Lazarus deserving? How will the boundary be set around what we give to others? Do we have enough for ourselves to help others?

 

Lazarus’s identity today includes the cries of Earth:

  • the Boundary Waters threatened by mining

  • air made unbreathable in poor neighborhoods where poorly regulated manufacturing is located

  • Lake Mead and the Great Salt Lake drying up from too many demands on the water

  • precious aquifers in danger from oil pipelines that could (and usually do) leak

  • rivers poisoned by mine tailings

  • forests denuded for range land and crops

  • too many species on the verge of extinction

  • and more. . .

 

The cost of negligence has eternal consequences.

 

Like the rich man in Jesus’ parable:

 

  • We live with more comfortable clothing than we need –– the rich man wears purple, the color of privilege.

  • We have so much food, the total value of the diet industry in 2021 was $72.6 billion –– the rich man dines “sumptuously” with plenty of meats and fats and well-aged wines.

  • We enjoy relative safety with law enforcement, security systems, and secure-access apartment buildings in many cities –– the rich man lived behind a gate in a gated community.

 

Our country, in fact, is a national gated community. We protect our human selves by making sure we have enough while rivers, forests, air, and soil are despoiled for our benefit. The Gospel story holds a mirror up to us making plain the enormity of greed.

 

And yet, Jesus’ parable doesn’t depict the rich man as wicked. The rich man just doesn’t see Lazarus lying at his gate. The rich man lives in a bubble just as we do with regard to air, water, and soil. We don’t look toward the well-being of life’s gifts that have not yet been given a dollar value. We assume that we cannot afford to pay more for food in order for it to be grown in regenerative ways. The “zero-sum” economic mentality disallows creative and future-oriented thinking about how to live as whole and healthy communities.

 

Maybe the rich man (i.e., the First World) is simply unaware. Head in the sand. Busy with his own concerns. Like me... like most of us… everyday... thinking about what we have to do... not about who is at my gate.

 

Yet, the parable shows us the “rest of the story”––the results of how the two halves live.

 

Lazarus, the poor man, has a name; the rich man is nameless.

Lazarus is dressed in sores; the rich man is dressed in luxury.

Lazarus is starving to death; the rich man has lots of good food.

 

And the story reverses their plight:

Lazarus, the poor man, is taken to heaven by angels while the rich man is buried.

Lazarus, the poor man, looks down from above while the rich man begs from below.

 

Jesus’ parable gives comfort to those who are in need (the poor and Earth) and confronts those who have more than enough with the need to notice our neighbors, pay attention to where we live.

 

Some years ago I went to a religion conference at a college in Montana. It was an incredible line-up of speakers including Daniel Berrigan and the noted German theologian Dorothee Solle

whose theological focus was ethics. She was a little girl during the Nazi era.

 

When she grew old enough to know about the Holocaust, she took it upon herself to go around asking the adults:

  • Didn’t you know anything?

  • Didn’t you hear anything?

  • Why didn’t you do something?!

 

She was appalled that her own people had allowed a mad man to become the ruler of the nation

and then create the unthinkable: mass murder of millions of people.

 

Her plea to all of us was to do one thing. Do one thing. . . to notice Lazarus. . . to notice the effects of greed and power on the natural world in order to create a way of living that helps Lazarus, nature, and the rest of us.

 

When we who have enough do take notice of Lazarus lying outside our gate (paying attention to the harm we do to Earth) and stop to talk with him to find out what he needs (listen to the birds and insects and trees) so we can get him some food and clothing (make amends by no longer damaging the air, water, and soil, and cleaning up what we have spoiled), we offer friendship (and sustainability).

 

The Apostle Paul’s advice to the young pastor, Timothy, works for us, too: be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share. . . storing up. . . the treasure of a good foundation for the future, [so you may] take hold of the life that really is life. The future should shape today and tomorrow. How we conduct ourselves in this life regarding our possessions and relationships with the poor and the gifts of Earth has a bearing on how we conduct ourselves in our relationship with God.

 

________________________

 

Hymns to consider:

 

In ELW:

#879 For the Beauty of the Earth

#659 Will You Let Me Be Your Servant

#719 Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life

 

In the new hymnal supplement to ELW, All Creation Sings:

#1065 Can You Feel the Seasons Turning      

#1069 God Bestows on Every Sense

#1071 In Sacred Manner

Melinda Quivik
Melinda Quivik
Twin Cities, Minnesota

Melinda Quivik, an ELCA pastor (who served churches in Montana, Michigan, and Minnesota) and former professor of worship and preaching, is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly journal Liturgy, a writer, and a preaching mentor with Backstory Preaching at backstory-preaching.mn.com. Her most recent book, Worship at a Crossroads: Racism and Segregated Sundays, is a response to Lenny Duncan's Dear Church. She calls all churches to learn why worship ways differ in our various traditions as we seek to be more welcoming.

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