Pentecost 17                                 Luke 16:19-31                                      9/26/04

                                                            "IF"

What a small word, "IF" is. Yet, what power of expression it has. When you see "if" you can expect to either hear words of despair or words of hope.

"If he just hadn’t driven through that stop sign..."

"If she had just finished high school..."

"If only I had taken that job instead of this one..."

"If only I had paid attention, cared about, helped that poor beggar, Lazarus..."

The rich man in our parable was probably thinking that by the time he finished his conversation with Father Abraham. Of course in the part of the conversation Jesus gives us, he was still pretty arrogant, thinking that Lazarus should serve him. First the rich man wants Father Abraham to tell Lazarus to bring water to him in Hades. Then, he wants Lazarus to be sent as a special messenger to his brothers to warn them of what happens when you wind up on the wrong side of "IF".

Now, we can’t know for certain that Lazarus’ "if’s" weren’t ones of despair. Surely at times he must have cried out, "If only the rich man would give me some of the bread that falls from the table." Even if there isn’t despair in that wish, there is certainly desperation.

In wealthy homes, since there were no forks, bread was used scoop up food and then to wipe the plate of grease. Often then this bread was thrown on the floor for the dogs to eat. To want bread that has fallen to the floor indicates hunger beyond reason since the bread would be dirty and full of unpleasant things from the floor.

But, there’s the possibility of hope there too. Lazarus was also saying with his "IF" that with this tiny bit of contaminated food he could make it through another day. And what if, having noticed him enough to give him discarded bread, the rich man really saw someone who needed ministry, needed love and care? That would have changed the whole story, wouldn’t it?

Let’s not forget though that this parable follows immediately after the one about the dishonest manager. Jesus was telling that one to his disciples with the pharisees listening in, and they were the real target for his parables. So the story of Lazarus and the rich man was aimed at these religious lay leaders. It was a story about how they were living at the time, but also a warning about the consequences in the future if they (the Pharisees) didn’t listen and get the message of Jesus.

Just notice that last line, "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. This is not just about Lazarus rising from the dead; it is about Jesus rising. It isn’t just about the rich man’s brothers not getting the message; it is about the religious people not getting the message of salvation in Christ.

As parables often do, this story has layers of meaning. At one level it is about how we use our wealth and how we treat the poor. On a deeper level though, the parable is about how we receive the riches of our salvation and what we do with that wealth. It is truly a story of, "IF we believe that Jesus died for us, then we will..." Thus, the parable is a story of hope, because we are still alive and can live out our salvation. We can still make IF a positive expression of our faith.

Just as the brothers had had Moses and the prophets, and the pharisees had Jesus, we have all of Scripture telling us that our "IF’s" are to be words of hope, not words of despair.

IF we really hear the Gospel message, we will have hope for our future. God never promised that His church would have an easy time of it. Neither Christians nor their church were meant to just sit back and enjoy their own existence. Struggle builds strength, and strength is needed to carry out the mission of Jesus Christ and resist the temptations of the devil.

For reasons I can’t begin to explain, the church (and by that I mean the whole Christian church in the free world and our individual churches) - the church got what amounted to a free ride for several centuries. Religion was not only something one was free to engage in, it was almost mandatory to show you were an upright citizen. This largely led us (the people of the church) to believe that church was about being taken care of - by God through His professional servants.

All too often we have fallen prey to the devil, because we have forgotten that the Church is about witnessing to the Good News and ministering to the Lazarus’s outside our doors, and because we have forgotten that we are the Church - we are the rich man. When that kind of forgetting takes place, we can find ourselves in a kind of Hades. But, here is the Good News: Because we are alive we can still accept the Good News of forgiveness for ourselves and respond to it by getting back to be the Church God means us to be.

IF we place our trust in God and look to him for guidance, we will not only survive; we will flourish.

But, here is a caveat, a little obligation laid on us - not as necessary for us to be saved, but as our response to salvation. If we want to survive we must do it His way. We can’t be like the rich man who was still trying to give orders to others even after he was stone cold dead. We (that’s each and every one of us) must be in ministry and mission, and we must learn to do it for the love of God and love of our fellow humans. Yes, they (our friends, family and associates) have Robert Shueller and Pat Robertson. They even have Lutheran Vespers. But, they need to hear of God’s love for them personally, from us.

Furthermore, we need to do that proclaiming for their sakes, not for ours. It’s very tempting in a time of financial stress for a church to think of evangelism as a means to save itself. Some may even fall prey to this temptation and say things like, "We have to get more people coming to church so we can meet the budget." Get this straight, God will NOT bless the church that does outreach for the sake of gain. (And furthermore, people are smart enough to know you are just using them, not caring for them) God does bless the church though that keeps its focus on what others need and the church’s call to minister to those needs. And in the doing of this, the church becomes attractive and people join to be a part of it. But we have to keep our priorities straight. IF we want to be God’s church we have to carry out God’s mission.

IF we take that Gospel message seriously, we will let it spur us to witness to and care for those who are not members of the family. There are beggars all around us asking for even a sop of bread. They may be dressed in rags, or workman’s clothes or business suits, but if they don’t know the love of Christ they are beggars with hearts reaching out, straining to be touch by God’s love. These beggars are at our places of employment, in our communities, at the fire house, the garden club, the rundown house down the road and the brand new mansion next door. These beggars are all around us and it is up to us to identify and reach out to them.

We also need to reach out to our brothers (and sisters). They may be part of the family already and may have even grown up hearing the story, but somehow they wandered away. We who are alive must keep at them. We must keep trying to find new ways to help them hear that which they think (only think) they know. We must battle past the excuses and resistances and help them see the beggar in them. If "IF" is to be a word of hope we must make it so with those who don’t think they need to hear, those who think their current life is just fine.

And if "IF" is to be a word of hope for us, we must cling to that hope. God never promised His people or His church an easy way, but He did promise to be with us to the end of time. And to me that, means that we will be around for Him to be with. So let us believe, and hope and work for the "IF" that said, "If I live, you shall live also. Amen.