Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

1 Timothy 6.6-19, Luke 16.19-end

Today’s gospel reading relates the fate of someone who lived a life surrounded by riches. Not only his clothing was out of this world, but his food too. I can imagine that after spending two or three days staying at a place where the food was not just first rate but of gourmet standard I would be more than ready to pop down to the local chippy or burger outlet to have some ‘real food’, food that was not over spiced but just straight and plain.

Watching MasterChef on the television almost every plate of food is accompanied by cries of more spices, more spices. The original tastes are hidden by mountains of this extra taste and that one.

In contrast we also read of Lazarus, a poor man. His diet would have been, at best, the scraps of food left at the chippy, for the main part.

Both men died and passed from this world. Lazarus was carried by the angels to be with Abraham whilst the rich man ended up in Hades. There he saw his predicament and wished to warn his family against the possibility of them joining him in Hades, the halfway place for those awaiting judgement. He could see where he went wrong.

But seeing where we go wrong is not always good enough. For the rich man, he was in Hades and there was no possibility of him leaving there. But, to warn his family, that would be a good thing to do. He was not to be offered that option.

Throughout his life the rich man had had opportunity to change his lifestyle. The teachings of the prophets, the words from Moses, all of these were there to give him the opportunity to change the path that he had set before him to travel along.

In our own life we are surrounded by advice, by teachings. Our libraries are full of books giving us, not only entertainment, but also knowledge, and importantly teaching. These resources all help us plan our life. But, above all, there is God’s Word.

It is all right sitting in church and, when the vicar stands to deliver his address, listen attentively to his every word. I have known one organist actually take a book to read during the sermon! However, we go to church to get to know God, to bare our soul as we confess our sins, our wrongdoing. We go to receive Absolution and to sing God’s praise. We hear the Word of God. All of this helps us to fashion our lives. To decide just what we are going to do and how we are going to do it.

At the heart of this passage is the way one leads one’s life. Or what we do with it. The rich man ended up in Hades, a place of suffering, because of what he did not do. All about him was the teaching of the prophets. Examples that were placed before him which he chose to neglect. He did not live a life of cruelty, one where he would go out of his way to inflict punishment upon others. That was not his sin. Instead, his sin was one of not doing anything. About him was poverty and want, pain and hunger.

In those days one did not wash one’s hands after eating greasy food, for instance. Normally the practice was to wipe the hands on bread and throw the bread to one side. This was the type of food scrap that Lazarus was looking for. If the rich man had opened his eyes to see about him the need then those scraps would have been given rather than discarded. Here was his sin. He did not see about him the need.

It was this neglect that cast him into Hades. Heedless of the teachings available to him, closing his mind to the evidence of his eyes, this was the evidence that convicted him to Hades.

It would have made no impression on the rich man had someone come back to warn him. He was so blinded by his own lifestyle. Sending someone to warn his family would possibly have some effect but if they too ignored the teachings around them, they probably would take little notice, preferring to continue their exorbitant way of life here on Earth.

We have mountains of teaching available to us. We have churches where we can hear for ourselves God’s Word. We have the media bringing before us the need in the world. If we close our eyes and shut our ears, then we too run the risk of being condemned to Hades. The time to act is now, not to moan when it is too late.

Collect for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

God, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spirit

upon your Church in the burning fire of your love:

grant that your people may be fervent

in the fellowship of the gospel

that, always abiding in you,

they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.