Preacher: Jenn Hosler

Scripture: Luke 16:19-31; 1 Timothy 6:6-19

The past few weeks, we spent a lot of money, and it feels strange. We bought new mattresses, replacing our 18-year-old mattress queen mattress and our unknown aged second-hand twin mattress with versions that would be kinder to our bodies and kind to our earth. We also purchased a new stove, replacing one that was only four years old, upgrading from a gas stove to an electric induction stove. We’ve wanted to get rid of this connection to fossil fuels in our home for a while, but we hadn’t acted because we had a newish gas stove and insufficient electrical outlets to upgrade to induction. It finally felt urgent now because some in our family now have health issues that may be worsened by exposure to natural gas pollution. 

We tried to be as sustainable as possible, donating our mattresses via Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid, choosing organic and natural products as their replacement, and by selling our old gas stove online for a small amount so that it would be repurposed. Normally, we only replace things that are broken and unusable, so this felt odd, though I was relieved that these items were not wasted and could be used by others. 

One factor behind these purchases is the oddity of our present tax situation. We are finally paid as pastors, quarter time each, which we are grateful for. However, if we’re not careful, this can cost us a significant amount of money due to some weird clergy tax laws. 

We have relatively affordable housing, since we bought a very cheap house 13 years ago, but with clergy housing tax forms, it means that we must spend more money on our housing repairs and furnishings in order to not be penalized by some strange tax rules. We were living simply and filling out clergy forms with our actual costs plus a small budget for repairs and almost nothing for furnishings, since we try to live simply. 

Yet we were advised to change our practice, we were advised to spend money to fix our 100-year-old house, to actually replace our very old furnishings, because that would reduce the potential for tax penalties. It is strange to think about needing to spend more so we don’t get penalized for living simply. Thankfully, we don’t have to spend it on frivolous purchases but we can actually fix our house.

Culturally, it is uncommon to talk about our finances and how we spend our money. Money and spending money can be awkward conversation topics, but the bible talks a lot about money. 

The scriptures we have this morning come from the Revised Common Lectionary, which is a 3-year cycle of scripture readings each week, used by many different Protestant denominations. The year of readings starts in Advent and goes until the Sunday before the next Advent starts again. Each week includes an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, a gospel reading, and a New Testament letter. We are in Year C, which focuses on the gospel of Luke. 

One of the things I find so striking about Luke’s gospel is that it is filled with proclamations and parables about God’s economy.  One commentary says this, 

“At the heart of the gospel is the great reversal in which the rich and powerful, who in this life perceive no need for divine grace, are cut off from the people of God, while the poor, the lowly, and the outcasts are given a proper place in the community of faith. In any an all communities, the promise is that God reverses the social and economic scale in surprising ways” (Cousar et al., 1994, p. 533).

At the heart of the gospel is the “great reversal,” what Donald Kraybill calls “the upside-down Kingdom.” In this Kingdom of God, the first will be last and the last will be first, the rich will be cast down and the poor will be lifted up. I’ll give a few examples from Luke’s gospel.

In Luke 1, we see Mary’s Magnificat, where she sings a song of God’s salvation, prophesying about the good news of God’s messiah growing in her belly. She praises the God of Abraham, who scatters the proud, brings down the powerful, lifts up the lowly, fills the hungry with good things, and sends the rich away empty. 

In Luke 4, when Jesus comes out of the wilderness temptation and heads to the synagogue, he reads from the Isaiah scroll and proclaims good news to the poor, release for the prisoner, and freedom for the oppressed. Jesus later preaches a big sermon (Luke 6) on a Plain, where he says, “Blessed are the poor, the hungry, the weeping,” and “woe to you who are rich, who are fed, who are laughing.” Jesus teaches about loving enemies and radical generosity and mercy. 

Later, Jesus feeds hungry crowds. He reminds those who seek to follow him that the “Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Jesus tells a parable about a farmer with a bumper crop, who makes plans to tear down his barns and build new ones so he can hoard, I mean store, all his crops. But – surprise! He was going to die. The farmer made plans about his wealth but couldn’t control what happened. 

Jesus tells lessons about ravens and flowers, reminders that God cares for all creation and wants to satisfy our basic needs. When this is bookended by commentary on wealth and generosity, it is obvious that one of the ways God provides for our needs is through our own radical generosity. Later, Jesus urges his followers to count the cost of discipleship and even be willing to give up possessions (Ch 14). 

Finally, we see the passage Julia preached last week, where Jesus tells his followers to be like a shrewd manager, using wealth in a wily manner, not to enrich ourselves but as a tool for the sake of God’s Kingdom. Why does Luke’s gospel talk so much about money? Well, it seems to be a feature, not a bug. 

This brings us to today’s passage, the rich man and Lazarus. Jesus has just finished saying, “You cannot serve God and wealth” (Lk 16:13). Apparently, the pharisees sneer at this, so Jesus tells a story. 

There was a rich man, clothed in purple and fine linen (very expensive clothes), who feasted and ate lavishly every day. Meat, fine oils and nuts, fruits and vegetables, wines, everything you can think of from that era. 

Just outside of this rich man’s house, at the gate to his first century mansion, is a poor man named Lazarus. Now Lazarus is not just poor. He’s not just unhoused and begging for money, but he’s also covered in sores. Jesus is a bit gruesome here, saying even the dogs would come and lick his sores. Only the dogs were caring for Lazarus: no people were doing so. With these sores, Lazarus would have been ritually unclean and anyone touching him would also be unclean. Lazarus longed for even just a few scraps of food from the rich man’s table but all he had was gnawing hunger. 

Both Lazarus and the rich man die. Here is the reversal. Despite the cultural paradigm that wealth must = God’s blessing, the rich man goes to Hades, a place of eternal torment. Lazarus is carried away by angels to be with Abraham, the patriarch, in the place of blessing. The rich man is in agony, looks up, and sees Lazarus with Abraham. 

The rich man calls out, “Father Abraham, send Lazarus to me to cool off my tongue with water!” Abraham replies, “Child, remember that you received good things during your lifetime and Lazarus received terrible things. Lazarus is now comforted and you are in pain. Besides, there’s actually a great chasm – no one can cross from here to there.” The rich man doesn’t give up and says, “At least send Lazarus to tell my father and brothers about this judgment.” Abraham replies, “Well, they have Moses and the prophets – that should be enough.” Again, the rich man responds, “but if you send someone back from the dead, they will listen!” Abraham finally has the last word: “If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t believe a resurrected person.”

The great reversal: the rich man is judged, while the poor man is given mercy and comfort. Lazarus is given a name here (his name means God is my help, from Eliezer) but the rich man isn’t. Fun fact – Lazarus is the only person given a name in any of Jesus’ parables. 

It is poignant that the rich man only sees Lazarus as a person to serve him. There is no repentance, no saying, “That’s the person I used to pass every day. I can’t believe I didn’t care for him, forgive me!” That’s not what happens. The rich man – who actually knows Lazarus’s name – just wants to use Lazarus for his own comfort. In fact, he even wants to take Lazarus away from eternal blessing to serve him in Hades or to save his family on earth. There is no repentance, no concern, just self-interest. Whew. This guy. This rich guy. 

It is notable that the rich man wants to warn his family – but not to transform their hearts with empathy or concern for people like Lazarus, not to change their ways and give their wealth away. He just wants to save them from torment. Even when faced with eternal punishment, the rich man still doesn’t get it. The parable ends there. Abraham doesn’t fall for the rich man’s guile. 

Unlike other times, Jesus doesn’t interpret this parable for his followers. It just sits there. Luke knows that the insightful reader of the gospel is taking note, seeing the big picture I spoke about, from the Magnificat to the synagogue to the Sermon on the Plain to Jesus’ parables and teachings about wealth. God’s economy is not one of opulence and lavishness while others starve and languish; God’s economy is one of sharing, of meeting needs, of giving away possessions. 

The gospel writer Luke also wrote the book of Acts. The early church really understood this radical economy and began sharing with one another, meeting each other’s needs (Acts 2:42-47). They practiced mutual aid. Whenever someone had a need, someone sold some of their belongings to meet that need in the community. 

The apostle Paul also taught about how Jesus followers should understand wealth, which is the feature of our other passage in 1 Timothy 6:6-19. Paul says, “Following God and being content with what you have – that is what brings you ‘profit.’ You can’t take it with you when you die – so be happy with having enough food to eat and clothes on your back. Some people try to get rich and fall into temptation: the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some have wandered away from the faith and have impaled themselves with a lot of pain because they made money their goal” (paraphrase and CEB). Paul is writing to Timothy, an early church leader. Paul continues in verse 17 and urges Timothy, “Tell people who are rich at this time not to become egotistical and not to place their hope on their finances, which are uncertain. Instead, they need to hope in God, who richly provides everything for our enjoyment. Tell them to do good, to be rich in the good things they do, to be generous, and to share with others. When they do these things, they will save a treasure for themselves that is a good foundation for the future. That way, they can take hold of what is truly life.”

I want to close with some questions to ponder, with time to share as people feel led. We are followers of Jesus in the moral cesspool that is late-stage capitalism. 

That being the case, how do we cultivate the radical economy of God’s Kingdom, the economy we see in Luke and in Acts and we see Paul urge Timothy to teach? 

What strikes you about these passages we have read today?  

What are the hard questions we should be asking ourselves and each other about money?

How do we think about contentment and simple living alongside the line where Paul says that God richly provides everything for our enjoyment? 

My goal as a church leader: to cultivate a church community where we can talk about money and financial decisions in small groups, where we practice generosity and giving radically, where we practice simple living and figure out what that looks like when you’re not Old Order Amish, and where we participate and build mutual aid groups.