Where we place our Energy, Passion and Heart

Sept. 30, 2007
Proper 21, Yr C, rcl

At some point in all of our lives, we will have to face up to the truth about ourselves. We will have to be honest with ourselves about who we are and who we aren’t. We will have to look at our shortcomings and at our accomplishments. At some point, or more likely at many points along our long journey of life, we will have to look at ourselves, see who we are and see who we want to become.

In today’s parable, Jesus is giving us such a moment – a moment of honesty. In the ancient world, a favorite way of getting people to look at who they were and who they weren’t was to reflect with them what it would be like when they died. Would they go to hell? Would they go to heaven? How would their accomplishments and failures be judged?

Jesus is telling this parable to the Pharisees who loved their money. They believed that money or wealth was a sign of God’s favor toward you, it was a sign of God’s blessing and that if you were poor and without money, it was a sign of God’s displeasure with you. What Jesus is doing today in the Gospel is flipping that on its head and letting people know that money is not the ticket into heaven, and being poor is not the ticket into heaven either. This parable is really about values. Yes, you can be wealthy and enjoy God’s love, blessings and gifts – we can see that in the stories of Abraham and Sarah, David and Solomon. This is not a parable about money, but about who you love and where your energy, where your heart lies. It is about what role money plays in our lives. If you are constantly thinking about money – whether you are rich or poor, money is running your life, money is where your heart and your energy lie. The rich man in the parable is not an overtly evil man, but he is so preoccupied with money that he does not have the energy or the desire to care for others as he has cared for himself. It is only after the fact that he sees that he has been the servant of money and not the servant of God.

This parable is not about going to hell and what happens when you get there, but it is more about our lives, how we live them and where we place our energy, passion and heart. I was recently watching a show about what people who have won millions in the lottery do with their money. There were some who, of course, bought the extravagant houses, cars, and simply spent the rest of their life on vacation. Then there were those who chose a different route. One family put away enough money for what they would need in the future and then with the rest – which was about 4-5 million dollars – established a foundation and support network for kids who have cancer. It supports families during their crisis and helps with their financial needs along the way. Another young man who won, bought a modest house and then decided to go back to school to study and make himself a better person for the world. He used some of his money to help the people around him improve their lives, sharing his wealth. Today’s Gospel gives us a parable about sharing in God’s concern for the poor and reminding us that we need to see Lazarus in our midst.

It is not only about material wealth, but about all kinds of wealth – material, emotional, spiritual, intellectual. What do we do with what we have? Do we hoard it like the rich man? When we keep our material, emotional, spiritual and intellectual wealth to ourselves, it won’t do us or anyone else any good. However, if we share, give away, and spread our wealth, we are able to further the kingdom of God.

I am hoping this Fall that we, as a community, can truly focus on spreading God’s love, on sharing the material, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual wealth that we have. My hope is that we, as a community of committed individuals, can make our contribution to making the Millennium Development Goals a reality. The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. We are being called to make our contribution. How can we do that? I want to explore that as a community and figure out ways that we can work together to make these goals our goals.

On your way in, you got a pamphlet about the Millenium Development Goals. I’d like for you to keep that and bring it to dinner where we can talk more about ways that we can spread our wealth – whatever kind of wealth that is and make a difference in our world.

One way that we can begin to make a dent in our contribution to the world is to sign up for the CROP Walk that is only two weeks away. Giving a brief part of your day can change the life of those who are hungry and those who do not have enough food. We, as a community, raised almost $1000 last year and this year, I would like to try to double that. It’s easy. Go online, register, and then send emails to all of the people you know asking them to sponsor you for the walk. This not only raises money, but raises the awareness of those around us to the issues of world hunger and that there are very real, very immediate things that we can do to help. There is more info on the walk that you will get when you leave, so, please, do your part, come walk with us and raise money to help fight hunger.

What else can we do? That is up to us.

For the next few minutes, I’m going to ask you to take the piece of paper that was in your pew. Write down ways that you, that we, that your communities can share our material, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual wealth. When you are done, please come forward and place it in the basket and we will offer it up to God as our way of committing ourselves to not be like the rich man who hoarded what he has, but to be a person who shares our wealth, a person who has concern for all of God’s children and a person who realizes that it is up to us to change the world around us and raise people’s awareness of these issues. In the Gospel, the man asks if he can go back to warn his brothers – our calling, as the people of God, is to be a prophet and to spread the word now, to get involved now, and to get out there and share. It is a basic concept that our parents began teaching us at an early age and there is no reason to forget that or to discard it simply because we are older.
How can we share what God has given us?

Ted plays music as the students write.
Bless the offerings at the beginning of communion.