The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost - September 28, 2025

Summary

Mother Suzanne preaches on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from Luke's gospel, emphasizing that Lazarus is the only character given a name in all of Jesus' parables, with his name meaning "God has helped you." She teaches that Jesus measures wealth not by what we have, but by how well we share what we've been given, calling disciples to live by God's economy of abundance and generosity rather than the world's economy of hoarding. The sermon connects this teaching to Grace Church's food pantry and upcoming pumpkin patch as examples of living into God's flowing economy of grace.

THE GOSPEL                                                                                                                                                           Luke 16:19-31

Jesus said, "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, `Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' But Abraham said, `Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' He said, `Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house-- for I have five brothers-- that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' Abraham replied, `They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' He said, `No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'" 

Artwork:  The Parable of Lazarus, etching is by Jan Luyken (1649-1712)

Transcript

Mother Suzanne:

As for those in the present age who are rich, command them not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. In the name of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen, please be seated. I am a firm believer that naming or being named has power. Power and blessing can be spoken into a life when having first given that life a name. It's interesting that the power of naming presents itself in today's gospel amongst other things, which we will get to.

But just for some Bible trivia, I thought I'd like to share this. In Luke's gospel, Jesus tells 40 parables. So 40 parables, which are short stories. And this one, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus is the only one found in the gospel of Luke. And it is the only parable of all the parables in which a character is given a name. Knowing this, one begins to wonder, why was this man this very, very poor man? The one given a name by Jesus. And in an interesting role reversal, it is the rich man who is not given a name. Instead, it is the poorest man, Lazarus, whose name is given. This Lazarus, not to be confused with Mary and Martha's brother, who in the gospel of John is raised to life, this Lazarus is known as the man who sits at the rich man's gate.

So poor and so sick that the dogs keep him company by licking his sores. It is clear from the parable that the rich man is not keeping this man company or offering any kind of assistance. Even though the gospel text says day and night he was outside the rich man's gate.

Sadly, it is only the dogs who are paying this man any attention at all. Not sure if you guys know, but in the ancient near east, the saliva dogs was said to have beneficial effects on wounds and open sores. So only the dogs, only the dogs were offering aid to Lazarus. When Jesus names this man Lazarus, it should be a foretelling of how this parable will go. It's not just any name thrown to the wind. Lazarus means God has helped you. A powerful indicator, a powerful foreshadowing of what's to come in this story. This man Lazarus is going to be the one who is helped by God. He has not been forgotten. He is the one that will be helped.

If this teaching of Jesus might seem a little bit odd, it kind of is. We've not experienced a conversation between two people who have died and are experiencing the ultimate role reversal. But remember, we're in the gospel of Luke and this is what he does. He turns everything upside down. And we also have to remember that this teaching is a parable. And Micah, one of our acolytes this morning, asked a great question in the sacrasty. Mother Suzanne, what is a parable? Great question, I said. Micah. Have a listen to the sermon. So a parable is a short story which hopefully will give us a glimpse, often a surprising glimpse into the radical nature of the kingdom of God. The purpose of a parable is not to give a complete theological teaching or to address ultimate questions once and for all. Parables are instead teachings for us to see pieces, just pieces of the kingdom logic from a God who more often than not surprises and shocks.

A God who turns things upside down and inside out. That is why most parables leave us scratching our heads. It's not how the world works, but it is also good to keep in mind that we are in the gospel of Luke and Luke forever has a favorable eye upon the poor and the downtrodden.

How do we know this? From the first start of the gospel, Jesus' first act of ministry in the gospel of Luke is when he stands up in the synagogue, takes out the scroll, it's turned to the book of Isaiah, and he announces what he's come to do. He says, "The spirit of the Lord is on me. " Why? Because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to set prisoners free, to give sight to the blind, and all those who are oppressed in any way can find freedom. So today's gospel, although it may sound like it has a lot to do with being wealthy and not being wealthy, this is certainly not a story to condemn those who have wealth. It's just not. But the role reversal here is this. For Jesus, wealth is measured by how well one uses whatever large or small you and I have.

That is how Jesus measures wealth. In no way is Jesus saying that being wealthy is bad because God is ultimately the perfect embodiment of rich. He is the creator and he is the sustainer of rich. Wealth and abundance is God's natural state of being. There is no lack with God. There is never just enough. There is always overflow and abundance. So to live as we were made to live, we gather, we build, we do all of these good things in order to do what? To share. To give it away, to bless others in our overflow, offering what we have as we have been offered by God.

And in so doing, we learn this skill of abundance so that we can see life in a deeper and more meaningful way. And for me, this is what it means to be a disciple. And what does it mean to be a disciple? It means that we live by a different economy. It's not the world's economy. It is the economy of God, which works so different. The economy of God teaches us that to be in the flow of God's gifting, we must not stagnate this flow by being stingy or anxious about our various currencies, which are time, talents, our money, our finances. We must have a part. We must give. Otherwise, it stagnates the flow of God.

As we participate in keeping the flow of God's goodness flowing to those around us, we are imaging and acting like the great giver himself. And if we choose to not partake and instead ignore and indulge only for our benefit, we clog the system up. It becomes stagnant. We stagnate the gift giving. We in essence, oh, we get in the way of God. We get in the way of God's will being done. And it just so happens that each of you here have said yes to a church where the economy of God is happening all the time. Lord, have mercy.

It's on full display each week at grace in our in- house food pantry. And anybody who stepped foot in there and anybody who works in there knows this number one rule that Mother Suzanne has. And it's that our pantry does not become a storehouse. In no way are we going to clog that gift up. No, sir. We are going to give it away. Why? Because we believe more will come. That is the economy of God. Our food pantry is not a storehouse for things long term. It is not a place where people come in and say, "Oh, doesn't that look pretty?" And it stays on a shelf for months. No, that's not how we work. If we have it, we're going to give it away. What comes in goes out just as quickly. Why? Well, for a number of reasons. Primarily because we are living into the economy of God.

And if that's a new vocabulary for you, I would love to sit down and talk to you about that.

It has changed my worldview and my trust in God because we have faith and believe that there will always be more and without fail, more always does come in. And guess what we do? We give it away. Why? Because we know more will come in. It becomes this ever flowing cycle of goodness and abundance that does not run out because nothing is being stagnated. So the alternative to that is we can choose to hunker down. We can hoard our currencies, but this is what the Bible says foments and grows alienation and death. However, living into the flow of God's gifting, y'all is so life giving as many of you know.

In other words, if everyone is giving, then everyone is taken care of. And the wonderful paradox of life is that it is truly gained and experienced more deeply by giving it away. So we too, this church has been given a name by God. It is grace. We are invited to take part in the most generous and abundant economy there is, and that is God's economy. Over the next month, we will learn more about the ways that grace will engage this economy by inviting our neighbors, our community onto our campus for our annual pumpkin patch. It is our gift to our community. People have been coming here for years, decades.

We will have our backyard filled with a sea of orange, and thanks be to God. We will have an opportunity to extend gracious hospitality to this community in a way that no other church does. This is one of our ways that we have chosen to live into the abundance of God, and there are countless ways. Remember, it's never about amounts. It's always about seeing a need and helping to meet that need. If you are to read the gospel of Luke from cover to cover, in his gospel, he urges. Let us not forget those who have need, who are forgotten and need what our church has been aptly named for the gift of grace. Grace church is a beacon. Our currency forever will be kindness and our economy is God's, not the worlds. And this may we find hope and great joy. Amen.