Me vs. We

September 28, 2025 sermon at Ascension Lutheran Church, Montreal, QC by Rev. Charles St-Onge. Text: Luke 16:19-31.

Transcript

Last Sunday Jesus told a parable about an unjust steward. He urged us to use what we have, especially the Good News about our reconciliation with God in Jesus, to make friends of everyone around us. Now he tells a parable about the eternal consequences of keeping ourselves apart from those around us, of thinking that all we have is just for us and not for sharing. 

He tells a story of two people, a “rich man” and another named Lazarus. Later Roman Christians were so embarrassed by the rich man not having a name that they gave him one. They called him Dives, from the Latin word for wealthy. How rich was this rich man? Jesus says that that had purple clothes and fine linen. Linen, in this case, meant undergarments. Even his underwear was expensive! So he had a lot of money, more than he really needed. 

When Deb and I were traveling this summer I needed to buy some undergarments. We tried an outlet mall, where they were selling men’s undergarments for almost $160 dollars. Each pair. I couldn’t believe it! We kept looking until we found something more affordable. 

The other man in the parable has a name. Lazarus was the Greek version of the Hebrew name Eleazar, which means “God has helped.” It’s a good thing that God helped him, because the rich man certainly did not. The Lord had to send dogs to lick his wounds and give him relief, because the rich man in his house wouldn’t. 

The contrast between the rich man and Lazarus in their earthly lives was stark. So too in the parable was the contrast between their lives after death. Jesus says that the poor man died, and he was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. Where once he laid alone outside the rich man’s house, now he has a community, a family. There are angels. There is Abraham. He is no longer laying on the sidewalk by himself.

The rich man, Jesus says, died and was buried. Maybe someone attended his funeral, but now he is utterly alone. He is by himself, in Hades the abode of the dead, suffering. Their roles have been reversed. Lazarus is being looked after, while the rich man finds himself suffering and alone. What will happen next? 

The rich man of course is used to having his every wish fulfilled, his every command obeyed. He begins giving orders. “Send Lazarus to give me water,” he tells Abraham the great father of faith in the Lord. He who would not help Lazarus in life wants him to come down to hell and serve him in death. 

It is often hard for military leaders to serve civilian organizations, especially non-profits. They are used to giving orders and having them carried out. But volunteers don’t like being ordered around. They just quit. The rich man is sort of like that. He doesn’t realize that he has done this to himself. 

Abraham answers him as the father of the faith, calling him a “child,” a person without authority who is now dependent on others for everything. Abraham explains that the Lord gave the rich man luxury in life, and he used it all for himself. Lazarus wanted only to be included, and now he is. Fair is fair, right?

“Besides this,” Abraham tells the rich man, “between us and you a great chasm has been fixed.” The chasm isn’t really to keep the rich man out. It’s actually, I think, for the sake of Lazarus! In life, Lazarus would have laid mere footsteps away from the rich man’s front door. He could have helped Lazarus any time but he didn’t. With the tables turned, Lazarus might well be willing to bring water to the rich man! But he can’t, because he’s too far away. 

The rich man comes up with Plan B. I beg you to send him, father Abraham, to my family to warn them. Lazarus, who had to lay outside the rich man’s door day in and day out, is supposed to leave his place of rest to go back into the evil world to save the ones who never lifted a finger to heal him. 

How many, exactly, does the rich man want Lazarus to visit? He says he has five brothers. The rich man would make a family of six. If only they would have included Lazarus, there would have been not six of them but seven – the number of divine perfection. 

This is the whole point of this parable. The rich man could have used his wealth to expand his family and bring Lazarus into community. Instead he was selfish and greedy and didn’t realize that his money was a gift from the Lord. 

Former conservative talk radio host Charlie Sykes has a favourite expression: “If only they had been warned.” Because people usually have been warned! The rich man’s brothers have been warned by the prophets not to abuse the Lord’s gifts. 

Amos 8:4–6 (ESV)

4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end, 5 saying, “When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances, 6 that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat?”

Amos 6:4–6 (ESV)

4 “Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, 5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music, 6 who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!

But the rich man’s complaint is also our own world’s complaint. The Word of the Lord is not enough! But if someone were to come back from the dead, then certainly people would listen! Of course we live in such a world, where our crucified Lord did return to life from the grace. The Father raised his messiah and sent his apostles out to proclaim the Good News. The question is, are we listening? 

1 Timothy 6:6–10 (ESV)

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

We just held our annual mission partners forum here at Ascension. We reminded everyone that Ascension is here to be the Good News place. And what is the Good News? It is that God has reconciled us to himself in Christ, not counting our sins against us. He has forgiven us and empowers us to forgive each other. He feeds and cares for us and empowers us to feed and care for each other. We don’t have to wait for some afterlife to expand our fellowship from six to seven. The Lord is doing it right now. We are all urged to use the Good News of reconciliation, of hope, of peace, of forgiveness in Jesus Christ through his cross to take what was severed and make it whole. 

Conclusion

Louise Rose sang and presented at our 1990 Youth event in Vancouver.  She had us singing together, and changed some of the lyrics of one song from “I” to “we.”  Why? Singing “we” is easier than singing “I.” 

Our Lord is triune – the Father who begets the Son through whom he sends the Spirit. God is a we. We have been created in God’s image, male and female, yet are still one human race. We, like our one God, are a we in two genders. 

Sin turns us in on ourselves so that even God’s gifts are used for our own selves. But God doesn’t give ME gifts. He gives them to US. So that I might become a WE in Jesus. The Father gives up the Son to us, who gives us his life for us, who breathes the Spirit into us. He does this so that the church might become an US, and not a ME. So that we might become the body of Christ, a community, bound together in Christ’s forgiveness and mercy. Not six unlistening and ignorant brothers, but seven, including Lazarus. Amen.