The Prosperity Gospel (Luke 16:19-31)

Sermon as preached at Lambs and Evington UMC on 9/29/13

Last week we read from the first part of this chapter here in the Gospel of Luke, and we heard about the parable of the shrewd steward. We talked about how this parable didn’t seem to make sense to us, how it didn’t sound like many of the other teachings that we have heard from Jesus. The parable was difficult in that the shrewd steward backstabbed his master, costing the master lots of money, and that this steward was then commended for it by the master himself. Whereas last week’s parable was troubling because it seemed to be very different from what we are used to hearing from Jesus; this week’s parable is troubling because it is exactly what we are used to hearing from Jesus. This week’s parable talks about wealth and greed, it talks about the rich and the poor.  It talks about money, and let’s face it, none of us really like to talk about money. Well, maybe that’s not true. We like to talk about money when we are making it, we love to talk about money when we are using it to fulfill desires in our lives; what we don’t like to talk about is the responsibility that comes with money. What we don’t like to talk about is our greed, what we hate to talk about is our love of money. This is why this parable for this morning is troubling for many of us, because it forces us to talk about greed and money. We should have seen it coming though, last week Jesus finished the parable by saying, “No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”  Now, Jesus hits us with the uncomfortable truth of our own greed in this parable for today.

            In the parable we start off by being told about a rich man who as the scripture tells us, “was dressed in purple and fine linen and feasted sumptuously every day.”  This short line actually tells us a lot about this man.  First the man dressed in purple. Now that may not seem like that big of a deal but in fact it shows the depth of his wealth and power. This is not just a fashion statement, the man didn’t just run to Old Navy, or Kohl’s and decided picked purple clothes because it went with the color of his hair or his skin complexion.  The dye that was required to make purple clothing was very expensive back then, meaning that someone who is able to wear purple, must rather wealthy.  That is why Lydia that we read about in acts is able to be a helpful patron of the early church, because she did the dying of the clothes.  Because, purple was so expensive, the Romans set standards of who could and couldn’t wear purple, reserving that privilege for highly ranking officials or for the noble family.[1] Besides his clothing, the man’s lifestyle tells us a lot about him as well. First we find that his house is gated, allowing himself to be separated from the rift-raft on the streets. Secondly we see that he is able to feast sumptuously every day.  All in all, we find that this nameless man here in the parable is very wealthy.

            We then are introduced to another character named Lazarus, who is the opposite of the rich man. We are told that Lazarus is poor, so poor that he is covered in sores, maybe from malnutrition, maybe from lack of medical care, maybe from lack of housing. We also find out that he is so poor that he waits outside of the rich man’s gates hoping for the scraps that fall off of the table. This is not the only time in the Gospels we hear about someone talking about the scraps from the table. In Matthew 15 when the Gentile woman is begging Jesus to heal her daughter, she cries, “even the dogs eat the crumbs from the master’s table.”  This idea may not be just referring to a messy eater like me who drops a lot of food, but rather to a cultural custom at that time.  It was common at feasts for pieces of bread to be used to wipe the grease off of one’s hands, kind of like a napkin, and then to be thrown onto the floor.[2] This is probably the type of scraps that the woman in Matthew is talking about the dogs eating, and it is probably the type of scraps that Lazarus is waiting outside of the gates hoping for. When we read these two passages together to understand what it means by the scraps from the table, then we might take the fact that the dogs licked Lazarus’ wounds to be a double insult, that the same dogs who lick his wounds were able to eat the scraps from the table and yet Lazarus wasn’t.

            The story progress as both Lazarus and the rich man die, and here we get the twist in the story. Lazarus is taken up by the angels to be at the side of Abraham, while the rich man is cast down into Hades, or hell, where there he is tormented. He cries out to Abraham to let Lazarus come and give him a drop of water, but Abraham refuses.  Lazarus no longer serves the beck and call of the rich man, in fact the roles are reversed. Lazarus, who was the poor man on Earth has now become the rich man in paradise, while the rich man on Earth has become the poor tormented man in hell. 

            For many of us today, this story isn’t really that shocking. In fact this is the kind of cosmic justice that we expect. That the poor man is rewarded for his faithfulness and the rich man is punished for his disregard for the poor.  While this is an overly simplistic understanding of justice that doesn’t really leave room for much grace, it is still a understanding that we are familiar with, and therefore this parable doesn’t really shock us too much. In the time that this parable was told however, this twist would have been extremely shocking. Wealth and status was seen in those times of a sign of God’s favor, whereas poverty and sickness was seen as God’s punishment and wrath.

            Unfortunately there are still many people who believe in ideas very similar to this. In fact there is a whole theological movement which has been dubbed the prosperity Gospel, that seems to preach this message. The message they preach is that if you are faithful enough, that if you put enough trust into God, then God will give you everything you need. That riches and money are a sign that you are being faithful to God, and likewise if you are poor, if you are sick, if bad things seem to keep happening to you, then you are doing something wrong or your faith just isn’t strong enough. These type of preachers take verses out of context  like Jeremiah 29:11, “ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  And use them to preach that everything in life is going to be given to you by God if you just have enough faith. And yet the gospel of Luke probably could be described as a prosperity Gospel, because it talks a lot the rich, wealth, money, power, earthly success, and this gospel is very different from the prosperity gospel that many of our brothers and sisters are preaching on television each week.   This gospel of Luke does not celebrate wealth, it does not celebrate riches, in fact quite the opposite is true; it warns against the dangers of wealth, greed, and power. This gospel says, “

Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now,
    for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.
22 Blessed are you when people hate you,
    when they exclude you and insult you
    and reject your name as evil,
        because of the Son of Man.

23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

24 “But woe to you who are rich,
    for you have already received your comfort.
25 Woe to you who are well fed now,
    for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
    for you will mourn and weep.
26 Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,
    for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.”

This is the gospel in which the poor Lazarus feasts with Abraham in paradise, and the rich man as Leonidas from the movie 300 would say, “dines in hell.”

            This gospel, this parable teaches us the simple truth that Evangelical author Rachel Held Evans sums up so well by saying, “If your theology doesn’t work for the poor, it doesn’t work.” Let’s be clear though, working to earn money is not wrong. Saving your money is not wrong either; but how often are we dining with sumptuous feasts, how often are we wearing the finest linen, how often are we using our money to keep ourselves more comfortable, when the poor man Lazarus is dying right outside of our doors.  There is a responsibility that comes with wealth. Now often we hear wealth and we think we are off of the hook because we are not wealthy, we don’t make hundreds of thousands of dollars and have private jets, and so these parables are talking to other people, not to us. And yet if we have enough money to take care of ourselves and enough to give food to someone in need, then we are indeed wealthy.

            We also tend to think of individual wealth, when we hear these parables, because the rich man was only one man. We tend to hear it as our personal need to feed and clothe the poor and the hungry. We hear it as a call to give our tithe to the Lord, and rightfully so. What if however, we also thought about this parable as the body of Christ? What if we thought in terms of a wealthy church?  Once again we may throw up many of the same defenses, well we aren’t a big mega-church with multiple pastors and busses, we are a small poor church so this parable doesn’t relate to us. Once again, if we have enough money as a church to take care of our basic needs, and have the resources left over to reach out to those in need, then we have a responsibility to reach out to those in need.  We must examine ourselves and see where our priorities lie.

            It reminds me of story of a church, who knows where, who knows if it even really happened but the message of the story rings true.  The story goes that one day as people were going into church a poor man in rags sat outside in the cold asking for help. The members of the church walked right by the man however because this was an exciting day, the church was getting a new pastor. As time got closer for worship to start, the members began to get a little worried because the new pastor had not shown up. As the bells rang for worship to begin, the poor man walks into the sanctuary, down the aisle, and into the pulpit. The ushers began to rush towards the front to stop the man, when the man took off his coat and uncovered his head to reveal that it was in fact the pastor, and that no one had even stopped to help.

            As churches it is so easy to close the door on those who sit outside begging for help, It is so easy to get wrapped up in our own feasts, our own worries and drama, that we fail to recognize the ones who need help, sitting right outside of our doors. This morning let us make the commitment that we will not neglect Lazarus’ plea for help. Let us make the commitment to not be like the rich man, but to practice a theology that works for the poor. Let us promise that worship each week does not become a time for us to separate ourselves from the needs of the world, but becomes a time that fills us with the spirit to go out into the world and serve.  Brothers and sisters there is so much need in the world, there is so much need in our community. As you may know it seems likely that the government is going to cut $40 billion dollars in food stamp support. $40 billion dollars, that means there will almost certainly be more in our area in need of help. Sure, we cannot help everyone, but we must refuse to sit behind our gates and listen while Lazarus cries outside. We must live out a new prosperity gospel, not one that see wealth as a reward from God, but rather one that see resources as a responsibility. One that is not self-serving, but that serves the least of these.

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[1] New Interpreters Bible Commentary pg. 316

[2] New Interpreters Bible Commentary pg. 316