In 1975, British humor crossed the pond in an intractable way. For anyone familiar with Monty Python, quotes and parody made a big splash in the pond. One of the classic scenes involves soldiers who are traveling the town collecting those who died from the plague. In the scene, as the wheelbarrow pusher calls, a particular man is carried over shoulder to be deposited in the pile. On trouble, the man is not yet dead. He claims that he will soon walk. I’m not dead yet!, as the line goes. He has to fit and remind others, he is still in it – still useful. For all of those who remember and love Monty Python, usefulness continues.
This morning, we continue in our series of messages about our vocation, our special callings as God’s people. We have been faithfully looking at who God is and in light of that wisdom, who we are? We who are fearfully and wonderfully made; we who are found; we who are disciples; we are useful. Regardless of how arthritis has changed the shape of our hands, regardless of how our voice projects or conveys melodic notes, regardless of how well we remember how to decline nouns or integrate equations, we are useful.
We have to remember that we are useful because like the Monty Python sketch, they are those voices that would tell us elsewise. It is not just in today’s popular culture, but this was even captured in the gospel lesson from today. Jesus answers the questions of Pharisees with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. How likely was it that the rich man had assigned the label to Lazarus that he was not useful in this life. Sitting at the gate, covered with sores, the rich man probably had no use for Lazarus and could not imagine what productive contributions that Lazarus might make to the larger community. Certainly not useful in his life, the rich man conjectured. He might even had felt good about himself that he would give Lazarus a purpose in the next life, by giving him the privilege, can’t you hear it, of cooling his tongue with drink or later, going back to warn the rich man’s brothers about the life after death. The rich man assigned a purpose and use to Lazarus. He knew how Lazarus could be most helpful, or so he thought.
The parable turns the expectation of the rich man upside down, as Jesus is apt to do. Lazarus had incredible purpose in life, even though it might not have been obvious to others. Two things to notice in this parable: Lazarus does not speak in this parable – Abraham speaks on Lazarus’ behalf. God is always on the side of the poor. Theologians call this, the preferential option for the poor and vulnerable. Second, the poor man is given a name. Nowhere else in parables are the characters given names. Most scholars believe that this is a practice that Jesus used in order for listeners to imagine themselves within the parables. The poor man is given the name of Lazarus. This elevates him and emphasizes the purpose that God has given him, even when others, like the rich man would not value him or see his purpose or use. Lazarus’s purpose was inherent in personhood.
Despite the presupposition of the rich man, Lazarus had valuable purpose, in this life and the next. Where do we find ourselves as rich men and women, not noticing those around us, not giving others value and purpose? Where do we find ourselves as Lazarus being subjugated in the eyes of others and finding vindication in the actions of God? Where do we find ourselves as siblings of the rich man who have heard the warnings and refused to heed them? We are useful in knowing and noticing those around us. We are useful in caring well for others and in supporting their purposes in lives.
This is the theme on which our epistle is based. Paul writes to Timothy about how you fight the good fight and what some of the purposes of being a follower of God are: he says, do good, be rich in good works, generous and ready to share. What does it mean to do good? Doing good is attending to the purpose to which we have been called. Doing good is caring well for patients, by the medical professionals. Doing good is teaching your children about the value of giving to others by parents. Doing good is working fairly with colleagues who do not always play by the same set of rules. Doing good is living into our purpose in being generous and ready to share.
If we are most honest, we often set out to do good or can nod our heads at doing good. It is when it comes to the living it out, that we begin to sputter and wonder. We hit certain points in life, and we raise the question about our usefulness and our purpose. We wonder what is still left for us to do? We wonder when we cannot do the same things we did earlier in life, how we will do anything? We watch some without certain functions and wonder what is their meaning, their purpose?
We watch the disease of ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease invade the bodies of those we love and wonder who will they be when they cannot run or even walk, embrace or even shake hands, what will their purpose be? And then we think of 74 year old Stephen Hawking who communicates his groundbreaking discoveries in the realm of theoretical physicist with a single cheek muscle attached to a speech-generating device.
We watch the tragedies befall active people and wonder how they will find purpose, when basic interactions are forever changed. What will their purpose be? And then we think of Joni Eareckson Tada, whose quadriplegic status does not keep her from sharing the gospel, writing, and painting, even when she can use her hands to write or her feet to walk.
We watch the heartbreaking lives of those trapped in the disease of Alzheimer’s and its cousin dementia. We think of the 6 million people (and more with dementia) whose minds are no longer their own and whose bodies are confused by their minds. What will their purpose be?
We can feel lost and in despair. But it is the work and call of all us to be useful. And it takes all of God’s people for us to be useful. “Nobody can push back an ocean”, says Native American poet Naomi Littlebear, “it’s gonna rise back in waves.” What counts is solidarity; what counts is love.1 In a different context, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu says,” “Ubuntu […] speaks of the very essence of being human. [We] say […] “Hey, so-and-so has ubuntu.” Then you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, “My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours.” We belong in a bundle of life. We say, “A person is a person through other persons. […] A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they were less than who they are.” We are useful with Ubuntu. We are useful when we urge one another onto perfection.
How are we useful now? What is the purpose to which God has called us now in this chapter of life? What is the living out of the vocation to which God has called you in this stage of life?
For the parent who loving walked each step with their children from developmental ages to emotional maturity, from faltering steps to pubescent angst, from cheering at soccer games to disciplining poor choices, the question becomes how do you continue to be a parent after becoming a grandparent? What does it look like to parent grown children as they parent their children?
For the neighbor who has always cleared the snow from the sidewalks of others, for the neighbor who has always hosted the Christmas party, for the neighbor who is always at the ready to share and lend tools and cups of sugar, the question becomes how do you remain a neighbor when you do not have the capacity to do what you have done before? What does it look like to give in different ways as well as becoming open to receive the generosity of others?
For each of us who has defined ourselves by what we have done and wondered who we will be when we can no longer do that which we love, God calls us to affirm that we are still useful, we are still a part of God’s family, we are still necessary to usher in the kingdom of God.
This is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
1http://www.politicaltheology.com/blog/the-politics-of-a-name-luke-1619-31-fritz-wendt/
New Testament Lessons: 1 Timothy 6:6-8, 11-12, 18-19
Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
Gospel Lessons: Luke 16:19-31
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, September 25~ Saturday, October 1
Sunday: “Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.” 1 Timothy 6:6-8. Cultivating contentment is a gift of faith. Contentment says sufficient is the grace of God. How are you cultivating contentment?
Monday: “But as for you, [person] of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.” I Timothy 6:11. Prayerfully consider how you are seeking righteousness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.
Tuesday: “Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” 1 Timothy 6:12. Prayer for discernment as you fight the good fight. May God reveal how to persevere in your calling.
Wednesday: “They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share,” 1 Timothy 6:18. John Wesley understood this as ‘earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can’. Are you useful in how you use what you have been given?
Thursday: “Thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.” 1 Timothy 6:19. Prayerfully consider how God is showing you life that is really life.
Friday: “ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’” Luke 6: 29. As the rich man begs for special sharings for his family, he is reminded that God is already and still talking. Where are you hearing the hope-filled voice of God?
Saturday: “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” Luke 6: 31 Jesus Christ rose from the dead for you. Are you convinced?