LK 16: 19-31 

Laterally Luke… Pentecost + 19…Revised 2019

By the end of Jesus’ yarn, ‘Dives’ still sees ‘Lazarus’ at the bottom of the pile - still fit only for looking after him! One of many lessons from our story is that interest in others needs to triumph over self-interest. 

That Jesus may be taking an old folk-tale, maybe from outside Judaism, & making it His own, might encourage us to look beyond earthly boundaries set by religion to our God who knows no bounds.  Whoever, whatever, we are on earth matters to God in Heaven, & on earth.  Doing nothing in this life to lift any ‘Lazarus’ we come across from their woes separates us not only from that person, but from their caring God, & ours, in this life & the next.

God’s concern, like Jesus’, is for all of us. ‘Lazarus’ is as high on God’s list as Dives or anyone else. God’s time is always today in our time. Eternal life is always now or never. Not recognizing God in any ‘Lazarus’ now will mean not recognizing God in any next world. Jesus teaches us we have a responsibility; not to ‘play’ Abraham to the Dives of this world, but become ‘little Christs’ to them & Lazarus here & now. 

Is any ‘Hell’ really an invention of our loving God revealed in Jesus, or of humans for each other? Is any such ‘great gulf’ between people other than one we’ve dug? 

Had Abraham allowed Lazarus to return to earth to warn Dives’ five brothers (& any sisters, too) isn’t it likely they’d go on treating him with the same contempt as their brother had done? What would this fellow know about anything?!‘What are we here after?’, &‘What will get us there, after?’ are inextricably linked.

Abraham (v. 29) referring to ‘Moses & the Prophets’, raises the question of our call to also discerning genuine prophets among us today, & heeding them, too. May ignoring today’s true prophets deepen any existing chasms between us & God?

Are we convinced by Jesus returning from the dead (v.31) any more than Dives’ family would have been by Lazarus returning?  Rather than simply looking at them & seeing ourselves in a mirror, let’s express our faith in God through Jesus & His Spirit in loving & serving others from the bottom up. 

Brian

Afterthought: Richard Rohr¹  SSF, says, ‘It’s heaven all the way to heaven & it’s hell all the way to hell. Heaven is primarily now, but…..it’s life forever. Hell is primarily now but….it’s death forever!’

¹Good News According to Luke, Crossroad, NY, 1997, p.168

LK 16: 1-13 

Laterally Luke..Pentecost+15…Revised 2019

Which way of preaching Jesus’ yarn best furthers our understanding of, commitment to, the coming of God’s Rule on earth as it is in heaven?’ There are many suggestions as to how best understand what many think of as a problematic yarn; but let’s keep it simple, as Jesus always intends His teachings to be.

Does the heart of what Jesus is teaching us today come in v.10? “Someone who can be trusted in very small matters can also be trusted in large matters, & someone who can’t be trusted in small matters can’t be trusted in important matters either”?

Don’t get bogged down in how the offender ‘cooks the books’. That has nothing at all to do with the point Jesus is making, which I take to be that we need to be as honest as He Himself is. As YHWH God is. Jesus wants us to examine our behaviour, not the chap in the yarn’s. By extension, He’s inviting us to examine our Christian Communities’ behaviour. Are we - His Body on earth - as scrupulously honest in our everyday dealings with others as He expects us to be? 

Jesus doesn’t ever seem to be too perturbed about money or possessions except that we use them in trustworthy ways appropriate to behaviour YHWH God expects of us. Taking a cut from what’s not ours - in any sense - is a no-no under all circumstances. If we cheat anyone in any way it’s not only that person, but YHWH God, too, & ourselves in the process, we’re robbing.

Are we absolutely trustworthy in our marriage, family, & all our other relationships? In all our business dealings? How far could we keep expanding this list?

If people can’t trust us, why should they trust the God we preach & worship? At the moment, increasing accusations  & revelations of abuse are rapidly adding to the dis-distrust the community at large has come to have of us & our churches! 

Churches of all stripes are beginning to pay the price for abusing children & others. Holy hands are being thrown up in horror at what compensation is beginning to cost. Property is being sold, or ear-marked for selling, & that cost will flow on to parish budgets. Virtually every denomination has been, or will be, affected.

Brian

Afterthought: Our use of the word ‘denominations’ for the divisions in our churches, & the fact that’s our term, too, for divisions of cash, connects us directly to today’s yarn. No amount of financial compensation, though can make up for the way victims have been treated, damaged, & discarded. Does the fellow in Jesus’ yarn not come out looking better than those who have victimised others in our churches? Are you & I showing ourselves clearly enough to be the ‘children of light’?

LK 15: 1-10

Laterally Luke…Pentecost + 17…Revised 2019

Jesus is still on His way to Jerusalem, seemingly unable to get out of His habit of keeping bad company! Tax collectors, &, ‘sinners’, for goodness sake! It’s great news though, that there’s room for you, me, all of us, in His company. Maybe not as ‘tax collectors’, but ‘sinners’ sounds all-embracing enough, doesn’t it?

 MT, himself a former tax collector, in his account of this incident [18:14] adds a heartfelt, personal, additional note sounded by Jesus: ‘It’s not God’s intention that even one of these little ones should be lost!’ Lost-ness’, found-ness, & rejoicing all share centre-stage here. Even if the ‘religious right’ still look down their noses from the wings at interlopers like you and me! 

Like God, as God, Jesus has a preference for the little people of this world. He’s  comfortable in His own skin as one of them. He knows how important one sheep, one coin, or whatever they may represent today, are to little people. Yes, God is taking sides here. May we be as concerned for those who need us by becoming God’s loving carers for them. Becoming God’s way of seeking & finding them, in very down to earth ways!

There’s still more good news; perhaps harder to take on board, even, than what’s gone before. Those who turn up their noses at today’s equivalents of ‘tax-collectors & sinners’, not to mention Jesus Himself, are worth going out of our way to find too. Those who don’t give a thought to the possibility they themselves are among the lost, they are worth finding too. In spinning His lost sheep & lost coin yarns, Jesus is re- assuring any of us who think we’re not worth finding, that we are. He’s also urging any of us who believe ‘there’s nothing lost about me!’ not to be so sure of that! Jesus invites us all to rejoice that God thinks we’re all worth searching for and finding. 

There’s a sense of lostness abroad in the world today. People are responding to this in more & more desperate, violent, or otherwise disturbing ways, losing themselves in the process. Thus the violence keep on spreading, widening, tightening its grip. 

Three simple trains of thought we might preach from today’s short passage: 1)‘Sheep’ & ‘coin’ are both worth looking for. 2) Searching, Finding, & Being Found are life-changing experiences. 3) Celebrate by rejoicing with God’s Holy Angels at every newly-found life.

Brian 

Afterthought: Maybe the ‘Intention’ of today’s Eucharist could be as a Celebration of Searching, Finding, & Rejoicing? The story of the Lost Son doesn’t crop up this year, but why not include him / us too?

LK 14: 25-35 

Laterally Luke…Pentecost + 13…Revised 2019

Jesus’ followers are to be a new kind of family going beyond our traditional ideas of family. When He speaks of ‘hating’ family (in His native Aramaic) English can’t cope with it. Leon Morris suggests: ‘the love the disciple has for Jesus must be so great the best of earthly loves is hatred by comparison’.¹  Understanding what Jesus says in this way may help us develop our passage.

It’s all about us ‘counting the cost’. No-one knows the cost of loving as Jesus does. He uses carrying His cross / our cross, building towers, going to war, ‘saying good-bye’²  to everything that belongs to us, &, then, salt, to illustrate this love we’re to have for YHWH God & each other. Will we try to preach the whole passage, or choose from the above, or other options?

Jesus warns us the cost of warring within our families, other relationships, or on the wider scale will be a cross costing us peace with each other & peace with God! Look at a family portrait; do we see anyone we’re ‘waging war’ on - or vice versa? When we look at our congregation do we see  a ‘Simon of Cyrene’ or two who stand out as helping the rest of us bear our varying crosses? Can we encourage cross-bearers, & others, too, to take up their crosses & help others of us take up ours? 

Warfare is more sophisticated today than depending on building towers - to be prepared to attack from, or take refuge in. Personal lives, too are likely to be more sophisticated. Jesus’ imagery, though, still holds good. We still need to be prepared for what might face us on all fronts. In our churches, &, on the wider scene all round us. Are there, though, defensive 'towers' of various kinds we don't ever need to build, let alone cost, before we go to war against anyone, in any sense? For instance, are we prone to start projects, building, or otherwise, without counting the cost to God, our-selves, or others?

The books of LEV & NUM prescribe salt - an expensive item then - as a sacramental sign of covenant between God & us. Temple Sacrifices were to be offered with salt. Dare we think of the very salt on our tables as a ‘Sacrament’? A daily outward & visible sign of the inward & spiritual grace we experience when we keep covenant with God as God covenants with us? We are to be as genuine as God is, or we’re being worthless. Though this sounds harsh, it is Jesus saying so. We need to take it on board & tease out what it may mean in our case - for our church & the wider community.

Brian

Afterthought: One I’ve made before, but regarding carrying the cross, Kosuke Koyama makes the point that a cross has no handle. Carrying such an awkward thing can’t ever be convenient or comfortable, & is always a one-way trip! (No Handle on the Cross, SCM, 1976)

¹ Luke, IVP, London, 1974, p.236   ²  Complete Gospels ad loc.