Pentecost Proper 21, Year C
The Rev. Nigel Taber-Hamilton, Rector
Amos 6: 1a, 4-7; Psalm 146; 1 Timothy 6: 6-19; Luke 16: 19-31
Who here hasn't seen the movie "Psycho?!" I thought I'd ask it that way because I suspect (rightly) that most of us have seen that movie - it's an icon in the history of movies. While you might not have seen the movie everyone knows about the famous - or infamous - "shower scene"!
But do you remember the other details? I mean, beyond the famous "behind the shower curtain scene?!" at the Bates motel? Can anyone tell me why the woman has checked into the motel, what she did that led her to leave her office and head out on the highway?
She stole. She committed what today we might call "white collar crime".
Now I know that "Psycho" is often thought of as a horror movie, but many horror movies are rigidly moral. In the teen slasher variety its only the kids that have broken some moral code that end up as "grist for the mill", so to speak.
A woman who has stolen a lot of money from her employer gets her comeuppance at the hands of a knife wielding cross-dresser in the shower at the Bates Motel.
"Psycho" is, in part, a modern morality tale where the person who transgresses is meted out a terminal justice. It's become what the anthropologists call a "folk tale".
Now no one here, I hope, would believe that the fate of all white collar criminals should always be a terminal shower! Yet the story does have a rather 'cutting' moral component, doesn't it?!
In a sense, "Psycho" is a modern morality story told through metaphor - not everything should be understood literally.
Think of a parable in the same way - as a story that communicates through metaphor.
And think of today's parable - The Rich Man and Lazarus - in the same way. Just as the "shower scene" sticks with us, so does the fate of the Rich Man. For me, one of the first things that strikes me about the parable - well, one of the things that doesn't get any verbal press, anyway - is the gulf!
The Gulf between the Rich Man and Lazarus strikes a disturbing - frightening even - cord. It seems to say that you could be damned for all time and even God can't cross the divide.
Well, it seems to say that if you take it literally! I wonder - does anyone here think that we should take this parable literally?
Parables are metaphors, the details aren't meant to be taken literally! They were also stories that would have been familiar to Jesus' listeners in one way or another - they wouldn't have been new. The interpretation was the thing! Here's an example of another ancient story that makes a similar point.
It's a story about a highly respected wise man who was invited to a banquet. He was not a wealthy man, and, as is often the case with the brilliant, he was a little distracted! So on this day he showed up in shabby clothes.
The host was greeting guests at the door when the wise man arrived, and, taking him to one side, observed that he had standards to keep up and couldn't let the wise man enter in such a state. He suggested the wise man go and dress properly and then he would be welcome.
So the wise man went away and borrowed the absolute best clothes he could find and returned to the party and, indeed, was warmly welcomed, and publically honored by the host.
BUT(!) as the evening proceeded, someone noticed the wise man sitting in the corner spooning food down the sleeve of his garment. Had he gone crazy? The host was summoned and he demanded to know why the man was putting all his food, spoon by spoon, into the sleeve of his fine garment!
And the wise man answered, "Well you made it clear that I wasn't invited here - you really only invited my clothes, and when they came you honored them, so I'm giving them the food you reserve for your guests!'
The absurdity of the response helps us understand the essential point that Luke's been hammering away about for the last few weeks - including this parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus: people are more important than things; relationships are more important than the packaging they come in. It's not the externals that matter.
The Rich Man doesn't even see Lazarus - it's as if he's invisible. A chasm exists between them. And when the table is turned - only when the table is turned - and the Rich Man is in torment, only then is he able to recognize that chasm. Even then, recognizing the distance, he's not able to bridge it - he thinks only of his brothers. There's still no compassion, only self-interest, even if, this time, its family self-interest.
The essential message of the chasm, the gulf, is this: the Rich Man could bridge it but couldn't bring himself to do so. He still - even in death - didn't 'get' it, still wants to treat Lazarus as an inferior, still wanted to trade on his ancestral spiritual family privilege by addressing Abraham as "Father".
Ultimately this is another story about stewardship - the failure of the Rich Man to be a proper steward of another fellow human being; the arrogance of thinking that he could still trade on his earthly status and possessions; the destructive consequences of that behavior.
Earthly power and authority are ultimately worthless in comparison with the eternal value of human relationships witnessed in love.
It's not about what we have, but who we are. It's not about what we own by how we love. It's not about what we control but how we treat each other as equals.
One day, Jesus says, we will all have to face the truth about ourselves. Better, he suggests, that it is sooner rather than later! Better that we do not arrive at the end of our time here and, looking back, say: "Oops!" Amen.
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