WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:05.160 Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to Christ. There's 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:08.859 a poem from, apparently from Byzantine times, 00:00:08.980 --> 00:00:14.759 which I ran across. It's very short. It's like 00:00:14.759 --> 00:00:18.640 one of those short Japanese poems. It says this, 00:00:18.780 --> 00:00:24.460 eat, drink, be merry for tomorrow you may die, 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:30.230 but you never do. What it means is you never 00:00:30.230 --> 00:00:34.289 die tomorrow. The day of your death is always 00:00:34.289 --> 00:00:39.270 the day, this day, the day you are in. So there's 00:00:39.270 --> 00:00:42.570 no tomorrow for the one who has died today. The 00:00:42.570 --> 00:00:48.630 poem points out a fallacy in our thinking, which 00:00:48.630 --> 00:00:53.810 leads us to believe that we kind of just keep 00:00:53.810 --> 00:01:00.109 going in the way we are in this life. I tell 00:01:00.109 --> 00:01:04.950 you, I've done, I can't count the number of funerals 00:01:04.950 --> 00:01:07.810 that I've served as a priest for 25 years and 00:01:07.810 --> 00:01:10.329 before that as a deacon and a choir director. 00:01:12.010 --> 00:01:16.890 One would think that I take that extremely personal, 00:01:16.930 --> 00:01:22.930 like this is going to happen to me, not some 00:01:22.930 --> 00:01:25.450 kind of theoretical idea, which I have, of course. 00:01:26.670 --> 00:01:31.329 But the deep, profound realization that the way 00:01:31.329 --> 00:01:35.650 I live right now, that's going to end. And it 00:01:35.650 --> 00:01:38.890 really matters what I do right now. Every moment 00:01:38.890 --> 00:01:41.769 is charged with either grace or selfishness. 00:01:42.170 --> 00:01:47.530 But no, honestly, I can't say that it's hit me 00:01:47.530 --> 00:01:51.170 that hard in my heart, in my soul, so that it's 00:01:51.170 --> 00:01:56.780 changed me. Well, this brings us to the... parable 00:01:56.780 --> 00:02:03.640 today living with the perspective of eternity 00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:07.120 of the life of the age to come or not living 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:10.460 with that perspective but with another perspective 00:02:10.460 --> 00:02:12.960 it's an interesting connection to me that the 00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:15.439 parable we heard last week do you remember it 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:19.180 the sower goes out to sow his seed and it fell 00:02:19.180 --> 00:02:21.199 on this kind of ground that kind of ground and 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:24.599 each that's really the heart the hard heart like 00:02:24.599 --> 00:02:31.060 the pathway the stony heart, the heart with thorns 00:02:31.060 --> 00:02:35.580 growing around it, choked by the cares, pleasures, 00:02:35.900 --> 00:02:42.219 business, trouble of this life. This parable 00:02:42.219 --> 00:02:45.719 is sort of an explanation of that third type 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:50.479 of heart, the one choked by the cares and the 00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:56.460 pleasures. Let me be clear also. God gives us 00:02:56.460 --> 00:02:59.979 pleasures in this life. I'm not telling you to 00:02:59.979 --> 00:03:02.759 make yourself miserable. We give thanks to God 00:03:02.759 --> 00:03:05.139 for the blessings he has given us. But when we 00:03:05.139 --> 00:03:10.020 pursue pleasure, that becomes an idol. That becomes 00:03:10.020 --> 00:03:13.419 idolatry. That's something different. We give 00:03:13.419 --> 00:03:16.819 thanks to God, we lift that up to him, and we 00:03:16.819 --> 00:03:20.560 glorify him for what he gives us. Wine makes 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:23.960 glad the heart of man, we say in the psalm. just 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:27.740 from that point of view. The parable of the rich 00:03:27.740 --> 00:03:31.479 man and Lazarus, which is in Luke chapter 16, 00:03:31.719 --> 00:03:37.699 examines what happens to the person that lives 00:03:37.699 --> 00:03:43.960 without the perspective of eternity. And Jesus 00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:48.360 is speaking to the Pharisees, a particular group 00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:52.370 of people, then and there. St. Luke records, 00:03:52.729 --> 00:03:56.430 he says, that these people were lovers of money. 00:03:57.949 --> 00:04:01.330 They constantly sought to impress one another. 00:04:02.590 --> 00:04:06.530 They had special robes on. I mean, this is a 00:04:06.530 --> 00:04:12.129 parable for clergy, if there ever was one. They 00:04:12.129 --> 00:04:17.189 sought worldly honor. The rich man had his purple 00:04:17.189 --> 00:04:19.689 and fine linen. You know, purple in the ancient 00:04:19.689 --> 00:04:23.740 world. It came from some mollusk or an insect. 00:04:24.139 --> 00:04:28.120 People didn't wear purple robes unless they were 00:04:28.120 --> 00:04:31.740 extremely rich and wanted to show off. He had 00:04:31.740 --> 00:04:37.120 everything. Food, which he pursued. He ate lavishly 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:42.399 every day, it says. Every day. He's got everything. 00:04:43.899 --> 00:04:48.610 Except the name. Do you notice? No name. Then 00:04:48.610 --> 00:04:51.250 Christ tells us about a man who has nothing, 00:04:51.389 --> 00:04:57.730 not even his health. He has a name, Lazarus. 00:04:58.889 --> 00:05:03.649 God helps. The rich man dies, it says, he's buried. 00:05:03.810 --> 00:05:08.870 He's in Hades, he's in torment. The Bible is 00:05:08.870 --> 00:05:13.269 reminding us this parable, the Lord himself. 00:05:13.769 --> 00:05:17.040 I hope when you hear these parables, you realize 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:20.740 it's Christ speaking to you. It's not the deacon. 00:05:20.839 --> 00:05:26.300 It's Christ. He's telling us that death has a 00:05:26.300 --> 00:05:31.319 spiritual cause. But since the Lord's cross and 00:05:31.319 --> 00:05:34.980 the resurrection, keep this in mind, extremely 00:05:34.980 --> 00:05:40.319 important. Nothing can separate us from the love 00:05:40.319 --> 00:05:46.139 of God. Height, or low, or sickness. nor death. 00:05:46.500 --> 00:05:49.920 Nothing can separate us from the love of God. 00:05:51.480 --> 00:05:56.720 Except, well, this parable tells us about a great 00:05:56.720 --> 00:06:00.759 gulf that was fixed between this man and Lazarus, 00:06:00.759 --> 00:06:05.720 this man and God, in terms of Abraham. That's 00:06:05.720 --> 00:06:08.279 what it means, God. Abraham's the one who gave 00:06:08.279 --> 00:06:12.819 himself, who came out of, or who left everything. 00:06:13.740 --> 00:06:16.540 Put his trust fully in God. Had nothing when 00:06:16.540 --> 00:06:22.639 he left. And there's this great gulf fixed. And 00:06:22.639 --> 00:06:26.699 there's Lazarus who also died. And was in the 00:06:26.699 --> 00:06:31.740 bosom of God, Abraham. The rich man now in a 00:06:31.740 --> 00:06:34.920 rather poor state discovers that no one can cross 00:06:34.920 --> 00:06:38.879 from where he is in Hades to where Lazarus, where 00:06:38.879 --> 00:06:41.740 God is. And no one from there can cross to him. 00:06:42.569 --> 00:06:46.970 A great chasm, an impassable gulf. Why is it 00:06:46.970 --> 00:06:49.589 impassable? Is it God's just saying, I'm sorry, 00:06:49.709 --> 00:06:55.170 I can't help you now. I wish I could. No. This 00:06:55.170 --> 00:06:59.050 man with no name was spiritually dead while he 00:06:59.050 --> 00:07:04.310 was alive. And what killed him was his love of 00:07:04.310 --> 00:07:08.129 money. Jesus says, right there in Luke, he's 00:07:08.129 --> 00:07:12.899 speaking to those who love money. He could not 00:07:12.899 --> 00:07:17.040 see Lazarus in this life, and he didn't care 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:20.800 to see Lazarus in this life, having put all his 00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:25.480 effort, all his attention, his whole heart, that 00:07:25.480 --> 00:07:28.720 is the center of our being, where our soul is, 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:34.300 put his whole heart on the thought of dressing, 00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:41.660 eating, honor. No thought of the life to come. 00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:45.339 This great chasm was not located in some physical 00:07:45.339 --> 00:07:51.360 place, but in the man's heart, which was captivated 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:58.579 by this world's promises. So, nothing can separate 00:07:58.579 --> 00:08:00.740 us from the love of God, but our own lack of 00:08:00.740 --> 00:08:03.720 love of God and our own lack of love of our neighbor. 00:08:03.860 --> 00:08:07.519 That will separate us from the love of God. So, 00:08:07.620 --> 00:08:10.620 we're Christians. We have a different orientation. 00:08:12.420 --> 00:08:17.180 Out of our heart proceeds our life, our words, 00:08:17.220 --> 00:08:21.720 our actions, everything. This parable is teaching 00:08:21.720 --> 00:08:25.399 us, well, so many things. Use of money, use of 00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:31.980 food, love of our neighbor, love of God, care 00:08:31.980 --> 00:08:35.559 of our time on this earth before death, something 00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:38.210 about the life of the age to come. But let's 00:08:38.210 --> 00:08:42.909 narrow it down. He was separated because he had 00:08:42.909 --> 00:08:50.289 no love. He had spiritual death already. A heart 00:08:50.289 --> 00:08:52.450 filled with love. We'll see Lazarus at the gate. 00:08:53.669 --> 00:08:58.990 We see many homeless people. Of course. You drive 00:08:58.990 --> 00:09:02.710 here to church, you see them. But do we see one 00:09:02.710 --> 00:09:05.250 of them as a person or just like there's a homeless 00:09:05.250 --> 00:09:13.360 person? We have to start seeing the person. How 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:18.620 to change our orientation so that we don't stay 00:09:18.620 --> 00:09:26.379 stuck. Jesus claims in this parable that even 00:09:26.379 --> 00:09:29.240 if someone rises from the dead, they won't believe. 00:09:31.139 --> 00:09:35.700 Meaning, you might see miracles. How many miracles 00:09:35.700 --> 00:09:40.100 have you seen? Did you change because of that 00:09:40.100 --> 00:09:43.679 miracle? Maybe for a time. I was talking to another 00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:48.340 priest, and we recounted that years and years 00:09:48.340 --> 00:09:52.340 ago, both of us had the incredible blessing to 00:09:52.340 --> 00:09:59.240 witness a miracle from an unction service. A 00:09:59.240 --> 00:10:03.700 person, in the case of my friend, A woman was 00:10:03.700 --> 00:10:09.320 healed from stage four cancer completely from 00:10:09.320 --> 00:10:12.080 the unction. A year later, she left the church, 00:10:12.240 --> 00:10:16.200 pursued other things. You might experience a 00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:24.740 miracle. The church has given here to us in this 00:10:24.740 --> 00:10:28.389 place. Everything we need for the healing of 00:10:28.389 --> 00:10:31.230 our hearts and for salvation, every single thing 00:10:31.230 --> 00:10:34.610 we've received in baptism in potential, we have 00:10:34.610 --> 00:10:39.049 to live out in actuality. That grace of God given 00:10:39.049 --> 00:10:43.190 to us to make a burning ember in our heart into 00:10:43.190 --> 00:10:51.769 a flame of love for our neighbor and God. We 00:10:51.769 --> 00:10:54.370 don't need a new priest. I mean, you will someday. 00:10:54.889 --> 00:10:58.049 That's for sure. You don't need a new church, 00:10:58.129 --> 00:11:02.929 a new choir, a new deacon, new parishioners. 00:11:03.669 --> 00:11:10.210 Everything's here for you. We all have to... 00:11:10.210 --> 00:11:13.429 You know, we're on the brink of World War III, 00:11:13.509 --> 00:11:18.769 probably. So, brothers and sisters, let us not 00:11:18.769 --> 00:11:22.269 have war in our heart, but let it be filled with 00:11:22.269 --> 00:11:25.049 love of God and our neighbor. but that takes 00:11:25.049 --> 00:11:29.909 work. We have to cast out of ourselves love of 00:11:29.909 --> 00:11:33.769 everything that stands between us and God. The 00:11:33.769 --> 00:11:37.830 rich man, the truly rich person, can do without 00:11:37.830 --> 00:11:41.429 all that stuff and be fine. The poor person, 00:11:41.590 --> 00:11:46.269 the truly poor person, well, let's be like Lazarus' 00:11:46.269 --> 00:11:50.389 brothers and sisters, knowing that we all we 00:11:50.389 --> 00:11:55.289 want from God. are just some morsels. That's 00:11:55.289 --> 00:11:58.289 enough for us if the Lord gives it to us. And 00:11:58.289 --> 00:12:01.809 we will be changed, and we will be then like 00:12:01.809 --> 00:12:06.110 our father Abraham, a man, a woman, a person 00:12:06.110 --> 00:12:10.250 of faith. To our Lord be glory now and ever, 00:12:10.330 --> 00:12:12.309 ages of ages. Amen.