9/30

Luke 16:19-31

How important is it that we pay attention to the poor?

 

When you are really sick you usually spend most of the time in bed, and your options are pretty limited. There is not much to do. The first one or two days you spend sleeping most of the time. But then you start to feel a little better. The problem is that you still feel bad enough to not go to work, but you don’t feel bad enough to sleep 24 hours a day. Reading a book is usually not an option because you will get a bad headache. Playing computer games is also not an option because you are usually too dizzy to do that when you’re sick.

What I do in this case: Watching TV. And usually I end up watching really silly stuff.

The last time, I was sick I ended up in front of the TV set, watching a reality TV show called “My Big Fat Fabulous Wedding”. I was fascinated by how much money people can spend for a wedding. Of course this is THE big day in a couple’s life and yes: it’s supposed to be special. But this was just crazy. There was this couple that wanted to invite 600 guests ( and the groom kept inviting more and more and more …), the bride spent 10,000 $ for a wedding gown, 50,000$ for hand-blown glass butterflies, they had a 7-foot cake of about 1,000$ and the flower decoration was over 500,000 bucks. In the end they had spent over a million dollar for the wedding. And this wedding wasn’t even the most expensive one. There was another couple that paid about 2 million dollars! Can you believe it?

And the couples – actually it was the brides – kept saying: I want the most spectacular wedding this town has ever seen! Or: I want the biggest wedding cake ever! I want these dancers to perform at our wedding! I want the flower bouquets bigger!. I want a cigar bar!  I want the best of the best! They wanted everything bigger, better, more beautiful, more exciting than all the others had it! They WANTED! They wanted it for THEMSELVES.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that these were bad people. They were just very rich people. Very rich people who were only concerned about their own pleasure. They were very rich people who provided a great party for themselves and for other rich people.

 

The rich man in the story Jesus told was also not necessarily a bad man. That’s the problem with this parable. The story doesn’t even tell us that he was mean to Lazarus (who by the way is not the Lazarus who was resurrected by Jesus – that’s another one. Lazarus was a common name in Jesus’ time.). He was probably a good and faithful Jew who - according to Jewish law - gave a certain amount of money to the poor. The problem with this parable is that the guy who went straight to hell was just rich.

If you take this parable literally you automatically come to the conclusion that rich people go to hell and poor people go to heaven.

So, does Jesus tell us every rich person will go to hell and that we must be poor in order to make it to heaven? No, of course not. There is the problem that rich people aren’t necessarily bad people and even if they were: there is this little thing with God’s grace and forgiveness. So this can’t be the message in this parable.

Does Jesus want to teach us something? – Yes, certainly! And he is very serious about it. It is so important for him that people really get his message that he uses such a scary picture.

The rich man might not have been a bad person in general but nevertheless he was a sinner. He did something wrong. He did wrong by not even noticing poor Lazarus in front of his gates. You can’t even say that he ignored Lazarus. Because if you are able to ignore somebody you know that this person is there. To ignore somebody you must be aware of this person’s presence. You must be aware that this person exists. I doubt that the rich men even knew that this poor and sick man was lying in front of the gates of his property.

The rich couples from the TV show probably donate a lot of money as well. But have they ever met a homeless person? Have they ever made personal contact? Have they ever talked to a poor person? Have they ever hugged somebody who has AIDS? I must confess that I don’t know. The TV show didn’t tell. I really want to believe that they do these things. But to be honest: I doubt it.

Donating money to organizations that help the poor is nice, talking about how important social justice is, is nice as well. But it doesn’t really change things. It isn’t honest. In reality these people are glad that they don’t have anything to do with it.

The rich man in Jesus’ parable most certainly donated something to the poor and was off the hook. He didn’t have to deal with poverty any more. Poverty didn’t exist in his world. Personal contact to a sick and homeless beggar? No way!

There is a nice term we have for this kind of behavior: Hypocrisy!

A couple spending 2 million dollars for a wedding and not even thinking of having the whole thing for half the price and giving the rest to the poor – even if they regularly donate money to hospitals, churches, orphanages etc. – are hypocrites.

Someone who sits down with a person who lost their job and talks to them and listens to their problems is not a hypocrite. Of course: if you have the money, help whenever you can! But this is not enough. We are meant to help because we value the other person. We are meant to help because we see them in the same way God sees them: as precious, beautiful, lovable people.

I am sure if the people in this TV show had that kind of understanding, that kind of attitude, they would never have thought about wasting all that money. They would have given it to the poor. I mean, a wedding day can also be special and wonderful with spending a lot less money. Is it not the love of two unique and precious people what makes a wedding so special? One bride even went so far to say that this wedding isn’t  for her and the groom, but for her. She really told her fiancé that he is the VIP guest, but that the wedding is for her alone! If I were the groom: I would have refused to marry that woman!

 

Paying attention to each other, that is what Jesus wants us to do. Paying attention to the people in need. And being honest in paying attention not being superficial.

And paying attention is not meant to be a one way direction. Paying attention is a mutual thing. Poor Lazarus is also supposed to pay attention, to see the rich people as the same precious children of God as they are. And poor Lazarus has something to give himself. Poor people have something to give as well. No material things of course. But they might have a lot of love to share, understanding, knowledge, wisdom, friendship. And these are a great gifts.

A beautiful example what it can look like when people are paying attention I found in a TV show as well. It was a little overdone, but it still is a great example:

The TV show I am talking about in this case is “Extreme makeover: Home edition”.

The episode I watched was about a single mom who had adopted four children. Two of them had AIDS. The were living in an old rundown house which was very small and falling apart. The mother had to sleep in the basement because there was not enough room in the house for her to have her own bedroom. This family was struggling financially and in addition to this they were facing a lot of prejudice.

The makeover team provided a vacation for the whole family, tore the old house down and replaced it by a beautiful new, and bigger house including a swimming pool in the backyard to provide an appropriate and healthy environment to live in.

 

The team also rebuilt a recreation center at a camp for families who were affected by AIDS. The family and the camp- each got a brand new car as well. Scholarships were provided for the four children and the mother so that all of them can go to college. I thought: Man, where does all the money come from to make this possible? In this TV show there was a lot of wealth visible, too. But all this wealth wasn’t wasted. The money wasn’t used to satisfy the people’s “I want, I want, I want!” It was used to do something good. There was no “I want”, there was only “What can I do for others?”

But the rich people in this case weren’t the only ones who had something to give. At a campfire some children shared their stories an they touched the others. Children who had been on vacation at the camp in the past and who had died from AIDS already had left letters. These letters showed the others what is really precious in life. They shared so many beautiful things, they had hugs to give, they had a lot of love to give. Being poor doesn’t mean that you have nothing to give. There are other, probably more valuable things to share. There poor and the rich are connected to each other. WE are connected to each other. And work for justice is meant to happen among ALL of God’s children. This connection is meant to happen because we value each other. We are meant to see other people like God sees them: as lovable, precious human beings! That is the attention Jesus wants us to pay.

Pay attention to each other -  in thought, word, and deed!

Amen