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“Neither Life Nor Death”
Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15; Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16; Psalm 146;
1 Timothy 6:6-19; Luke 16:19-31;
Rev. Sandy Nuernberg
Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church, Cambridge, WI
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time -
Evangelism Sunday
September 30, 2007
Please pray with me,
Lord, it seems that your Word to us describes those who are the weakest, the
poorest and the lame so many times; bring your Holy Spirit upon us to make
our faith more about justices than injustices, and that the tables may be
turned toward your Kingdom come on this earth as it is in heaven. AMEN.
Sometimes, in reading our texts in the order that we do, there comes
comfortable meaning. Case in point today, although it may not seem so at first.
Mare Stewart has read from what we remember last week as the Pastoral Letters
(1, 2 Timothy and Titus) to
Timothy, his name meaning ‘to honor God’ and his congregation. I find it ironic,
that’s another reason I stick close to our lectionary readings weekly, that in
celebrating evangelism in our denomination today, Timothy had the gift of being
an evangelist (2 Tim. 4:5), in speaking
freely the truth of the gospel in churches in Ephesus and Crete. The good part
is first; Timothy, pastor friend to the apostle Paul, promoting contentment in
food and clothing, then eschewing false teachings of godliness by celebrating
honest faith, good works, being ready to share, enjoying the ‘life that really
is life.’
In contrast comes the not so good;
we find a heaven/hell parable in Luke’s gospel of Jesus expounding to the
Pharisees, those money lovers, of the consequences of wealth. Appropriately or
amazingly, depending on how you look at this text, the good part is first isn’t
it? The rich man, unnamed, but vividly described in color and in dress, and then
poor Lazarus, his name meaning ‘one who is helped by God’ with sores and
identified as the lowliest of the poor. They meet with death in a surprise
‘landing’ it would seem. We, today, might conclude, ‘enough, already.’ It’s not
yet stewardship time in the church, what’s with all these reminders of
possessions? But I find these texts inviting us to relate to our riches, and
becoming confident in our faith that, like Paul, ‘ in all these things, we are
more than conquerors’ and ‘neither death nor life’ can separate us from God’s
love in Christ Jesus our Lord. There are a few differences, we find; in God’s
domain (v.26, fixed), vs. our world
(floundering)!!
For us, perhaps it is the right
timing to hear of this kind of wealth and possessions. In very good ways our
stewardship committee Chr., Diane Wendland and her committee are working hard on
a campaign for us this year; and it’s personal, it’s for each one of us to
ponder. I pondered these texts along with the theme of evangelism this week as
Diane and I talked of strategy; we are both new in promoting stewardship in our
church, and we can ask questions, we think. I believe we are going to like
participating together in all of what is planned too! We asked at our meetings
together, ‘but how can we have our members understand that in recognizing our
many gifts and blessings we have been given, we will be led by the Spirit and
the grace of God in pledging our treasures to the church?’ We concluded, ‘It is
in our faith that we will know in our hearts to pledge when the time comes.’
It seems to me, similarly, the
texts remind us not so much of our having possessions, our material belongings,
but the love of them and how we manage them. Scripture warns us, “we
brought nothing into this world, so that we can take nothing out of it
( v. 7),” and that this can get out of
hand for us, ‘ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil...in their
eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced
themselves with many pains’ (v.10). We
remember that in early Christianity, congregations were in a turmoil with what
constituted being people of faith; what did taking hold of the life that really
was life all about? In other words, what was this life of following Jesus Christ
all about?
Well, Timothy’s evangelism tells
us of false teachings, heresies, untruths involved temptations, being trapped in
senseless, harmful desires, plunging them into ruin and destruction. Can’t we
envision this: (hypocrisy!!), ‘I’ll tell you this because I want this.’ No! No!
They were to ‘fight the good fight of the faith
(v.12).’ He charges them to ‘keep the commandment’ until the coming of
Christ; here’s what’s important, ‘which he will bring about at the right time.’
Aha, it is God who is, like the words of the song: immortal, invisible,
Almighty, and powerful; it’s not us! It’s God, who will in God’s time ‘richly
provide us with everything for our enjoyment,’ storing up the treasures of a
good foundation for the future of a life that really is life. As Timothy and we
are told, yes, it’s having faith and a good conscience
(v.1:18-19) in the fight.
We’ve all heard it, the familiar
saying that the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. These
days, it’s almost a rule of thumb. We have signs all around us; those flooded
had little or no insurance as close to us as Bagley. The food banks were filled
with want by families this summer in the area, usually not the case as we store
our banks in summer for the cold winter months ahead. The homeless shelters are
burgeoning on the square in Madison as we walk by in the day or night. The
strike just ended in Janesville, but families ‘prepared’ the media told us for
hardships ahead. Those in hospital ER’s are plentiful and those needing
assistance to pay for services are aplenty; a prominent issue in next year’s
elections in our nation. You see, these are examples of Lazarus; our parable is
so familiar, isn’t it? It is we who are rich! It is those deprived who need our
material possessions as we are the suppliers to the poor with our support and
encouragement in our including them, opening our eyes in recognizing them, and
expressing our love towards them. And we know it’s when others won’t and don’t.
The challenge, perhaps the bold
truth is that if we don’t value justice for all, there won’t be an opportunity
to recover. In the three parts of Jesus’ story, luxury, loss, and life’s
consequences in death, even if we conclude that there’s eventual punishment for
us as the non-feeling rich, which, by the way, I don’t believe is the importance
of the story, there are lessons to learn from this heaven-hell story. The
importance for us is in trying to bridge the abyss, the gap or chasm between
Hades (hell) and the angels and Abraham (heaven), the rich and the poor; in our
faith, trust, and creativeness. We must allow the spirit within us to act within
the bounds of our being. We need not act from fear of eternal misery, but out of
our love for those less fortunate than we are in our earthly lives.
Our good news of the gospel for
us is of God’s grace and love in us, Jesus’ teachings of Moses ( the law) and
the prophets to us of His own life, death, and resurrection, and the work of the
Holy Spirit from us into others in our world as well. In a sense, as Christians
we know this is true evangelism; sharing the salvation of Christ as we are
witnessing to the truth of the Gospel. In death the rich man, in desperation,
and seemingly in no repentance, tries to warn his five brothers from his own
fate in talking to Abraham. We already know the consequences in God’s timing,
after our life on earth. As Abraham’s children we need worry of our earthly
turning (repenting) to God’s good works, our repenting and then celebrating
honest faith–a life that is really a life where not one thing but God’s purposes
in God’s plan for creation prospers. For in all these things, we are conquerors
through our God who loves us; neither life nor death, nor angels, ...nor
anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love
of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thanks be to
God. AMEN.
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