Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to Christ. There's
a poem from, apparently from Byzantine times,
which I ran across. It's very short. It's like
one of those short Japanese poems. It says this,
eat, drink, be merry for tomorrow you may die,
but you never do. What it means is you never
die tomorrow. The day of your death is always
the day, this day, the day you are in. So there's
no tomorrow for the one who has died today. The
poem points out a fallacy in our thinking, which
leads us to believe that we kind of just keep
going in the way we are in this life. I tell
you, I've done, I can't count the number of funerals
that I've served as a priest for 25 years and
before that as a deacon and a choir director.
One would think that I take that extremely personal,
like this is going to happen to me, not some
kind of theoretical idea, which I have, of course.
But the deep, profound realization that the way
I live right now, that's going to end. And it
really matters what I do right now. Every moment
is charged with either grace or selfishness.
But no, honestly, I can't say that it's hit me
that hard in my heart, in my soul, so that it's
changed me. Well, this brings us to the... parable
today living with the perspective of eternity
of the life of the age to come or not living
with that perspective but with another perspective
it's an interesting connection to me that the
parable we heard last week do you remember it
the sower goes out to sow his seed and it fell
on this kind of ground that kind of ground and
each that's really the heart the hard heart like
the pathway the stony heart, the heart with thorns
growing around it, choked by the cares, pleasures,
business, trouble of this life. This parable
is sort of an explanation of that third type
of heart, the one choked by the cares and the
pleasures. Let me be clear also. God gives us
pleasures in this life. I'm not telling you to
make yourself miserable. We give thanks to God
for the blessings he has given us. But when we
pursue pleasure, that becomes an idol. That becomes
idolatry. That's something different. We give
thanks to God, we lift that up to him, and we
glorify him for what he gives us. Wine makes
glad the heart of man, we say in the psalm. just
from that point of view. The parable of the rich
man and Lazarus, which is in Luke chapter 16,
examines what happens to the person that lives
without the perspective of eternity. And Jesus
is speaking to the Pharisees, a particular group
of people, then and there. St. Luke records,
he says, that these people were lovers of money.
They constantly sought to impress one another.
They had special robes on. I mean, this is a
parable for clergy, if there ever was one. They
sought worldly honor. The rich man had his purple
and fine linen. You know, purple in the ancient
world. It came from some mollusk or an insect.
People didn't wear purple robes unless they were
extremely rich and wanted to show off. He had
everything. Food, which he pursued. He ate lavishly
every day, it says. Every day. He's got everything.
Except the name. Do you notice? No name. Then
Christ tells us about a man who has nothing,
not even his health. He has a name, Lazarus.
God helps. The rich man dies, it says, he's buried.
He's in Hades, he's in torment. The Bible is
reminding us this parable, the Lord himself.
I hope when you hear these parables, you realize
it's Christ speaking to you. It's not the deacon.
It's Christ. He's telling us that death has a
spiritual cause. But since the Lord's cross and
the resurrection, keep this in mind, extremely
important. Nothing can separate us from the love
of God. Height, or low, or sickness. nor death.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Except, well, this parable tells us about a great
gulf that was fixed between this man and Lazarus,
this man and God, in terms of Abraham. That's
what it means, God. Abraham's the one who gave
himself, who came out of, or who left everything.
Put his trust fully in God. Had nothing when
he left. And there's this great gulf fixed. And
there's Lazarus who also died. And was in the
bosom of God, Abraham. The rich man now in a
rather poor state discovers that no one can cross
from where he is in Hades to where Lazarus, where
God is. And no one from there can cross to him.
A great chasm, an impassable gulf. Why is it
impassable? Is it God's just saying, I'm sorry,
I can't help you now. I wish I could. No. This
man with no name was spiritually dead while he
was alive. And what killed him was his love of
money. Jesus says, right there in Luke, he's
speaking to those who love money. He could not
see Lazarus in this life, and he didn't care
to see Lazarus in this life, having put all his
effort, all his attention, his whole heart, that
is the center of our being, where our soul is,
put his whole heart on the thought of dressing,
eating, honor. No thought of the life to come.
This great chasm was not located in some physical
place, but in the man's heart, which was captivated
by this world's promises. So, nothing can separate
us from the love of God, but our own lack of
love of God and our own lack of love of our neighbor.
That will separate us from the love of God. So,
we're Christians. We have a different orientation.
Out of our heart proceeds our life, our words,
our actions, everything. This parable is teaching
us, well, so many things. Use of money, use of
food, love of our neighbor, love of God, care
of our time on this earth before death, something
about the life of the age to come. But let's
narrow it down. He was separated because he had
no love. He had spiritual death already. A heart
filled with love. We'll see Lazarus at the gate.
We see many homeless people. Of course. You drive
here to church, you see them. But do we see one
of them as a person or just like there's a homeless
person? We have to start seeing the person. How
to change our orientation so that we don't stay
stuck. Jesus claims in this parable that even
if someone rises from the dead, they won't believe.
Meaning, you might see miracles. How many miracles
have you seen? Did you change because of that
miracle? Maybe for a time. I was talking to another
priest, and we recounted that years and years
ago, both of us had the incredible blessing to
witness a miracle from an unction service. A
person, in the case of my friend, A woman was
healed from stage four cancer completely from
the unction. A year later, she left the church,
pursued other things. You might experience a
miracle. The church has given here to us in this
place. Everything we need for the healing of
our hearts and for salvation, every single thing
we've received in baptism in potential, we have
to live out in actuality. That grace of God given
to us to make a burning ember in our heart into
a flame of love for our neighbor and God. We
don't need a new priest. I mean, you will someday.
That's for sure. You don't need a new church,
a new choir, a new deacon, new parishioners.
Everything's here for you. We all have to...
You know, we're on the brink of World War III,
probably. So, brothers and sisters, let us not
have war in our heart, but let it be filled with
love of God and our neighbor. but that takes
work. We have to cast out of ourselves love of
everything that stands between us and God. The
rich man, the truly rich person, can do without
all that stuff and be fine. The poor person,
the truly poor person, well, let's be like Lazarus'
brothers and sisters, knowing that we all we
want from God. are just some morsels. That's
enough for us if the Lord gives it to us. And
we will be changed, and we will be then like
our father Abraham, a man, a woman, a person
of faith. To our Lord be glory now and ever,
ages of ages. Amen.