Just a note,
many in our town have had some water in their basements after significant rains in the past week. Folks in other towns near by have faced even greater flooding and even greater challenges in the aftermath. Please keep those who have lost so much so quickly to this surprising fall flooding in your prayers.
thanks
John
Your name matters to God.
God's known you everyday every breath even every hair on your head.
Your name matters to God.
Whether you're rich or poor you matter. Who you are to God isn't just a matter of what you can give or do; the truth is you matter each person in this room is of value enough for God to offer a son's life in exchange for your eternal soul.
There's an story told about a seasoned nursing prof who taught a class and at the end of the class was a question that was worth ¼ of the exam. The question was simple. Can you name the person who cleans the nursing department every night. An a student was absolutely incensed with the question. “This isn't a fair question” she turned to the professor on the way out. Why do I need to know her name. The professor replied, “It is because as a nurse there's never an insignificant person on your team.
God feels the same way about each of us.
You came to church today for a reason. The more you talk to people who come to church the more you will learn about all the different reasons people have for being here in this room
tradition
trouble in your life
hunger for a real encounter with God
a desire to give your kids something more
there are other reasons why people come some sinister and some glorious
You and I have a all kinds of reasons to be here.
And now that you're here, for whatever reason it is that you've come, open your ears and listen closely to Jesus' words. We have all kinds of reasons all kinds of agendas that might lead us here into this space today. And Jesus invited people to start looking around them and really seeing what happens in the world.
There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,1
If you came today wanting to know what God is after, in your life, just to pay attention to Jesus' stories. Jesus made many of his strongest points not by lecturing people about what they were doing wrong; but by telling stories that challenged them to start seeing the world differently. Jesus wasn't vaguely telling people stories with easy happy endings. He was inviting people 2000 years ago, and people today, to see the complex reality of human life. Jesus was concerned with more than just the world in general Jesus was most concerned with the way his hearers cared for the people around them, most especially the ones they walked past on any given day.
Today we listen to Jesus and join him considering the lives of two men who lived and died in very close proximity to one another.. One of the two men has a name, Lazarus. The other man has no name.
Jesus is telling this story in no small part to emphasize the great difference between human society and the world as God would have it be. In our world having a name matters and we know all the big names. Just this past week there was a list of the billionaires in our nation published. We celebrate celebrities. There are whole tv channels and websites dedicated to gossip about the celebrated. But in this story Jesus invites us to consider the life of a man who celebrated while a man who lived just outside his door suffered.
who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.2
Lazarus the man with a name had no permanent address that he could call his own. He laid in front of of the unnamed man's gate. Lazarus had sores on his body that the dogs would like when the came near. The thing is Jesus tells us the story in the reverse of the way that our culture tells such stories.Lazarus watched the unnamed man live sumptuously just beyond inside the gate of his home. Human culture celebrates wealth. We have no trouble naming the billionaires. But God knows every name of every person.
God knows the people who have water in their basements tonight. He knows the names of those who have gone about their lives and the names of those who have sought out a way to help those in need.
There's real ministry happening in this world that you won't hear about on CNN, or FOXNews. There is real ministry happening, and much of it goes unnoticed and uncelebrated. Ministry happens when any of you bring Christ's great gifts, faith, hope, and love into the world.
In this life the rich man had it all. He'd be the guy with the best of everything. He'd have the biggest house, the best boat, the best cars, everything that he had would be the best. And His neighbor, Lazarus, knew suffering right outside his door. And Jesus says that God saw it all. God saw one man's luxury and one man's pain right next to each other. Jesus said that Abraham, the man who received God's ancient promises welcomed Lazarus home to eternal rest. Abraham, the one God said would become the father of a great nation, more numerous than the stars or the grains of sand on the sea shore, welcomed Lazarus with open arms to eternal life.
Across a great chasm from Lazarus and Abraham the rich man sat in the eternal fire just wishing that somebody would come to cool his tongue with one drop of water. Now he called for Lazarus, the poor man he ignored while they were neighbors, to come across that great chasm to serve him.
What catches me most is that the wealthy man would have walked over or arround the poor hurting Lazarus laying at his gates. Growing up in Minneapolis and going to good old South High just off Cedar Avenue and Lake Street we all figured out ways that made it possible to zip past the poorest places and the most hurting people. It was easy, we just hopped on the freeway and cruised right past the places where we'd see the homeless and the hurting. Now as a pastor in I can see the divisions and distance from other places can sometimes make it easy for us not to see the hurting people who are all around us.
Sometimes just looking left or right, instead of straight ahead, is all that it takes to see what God sees as we drive around the poorest places or through them with our eyes straight ahead like we are in a tunnel.
Slide 7
A few year ago Time magazine published excerpts from several of Mother Theresa's letters. Many of you know who she was, the Saint of Calcutta who spent years caring for the most basic needs of the poor and sick in India. Her private letters that she exchanged with people she sought spiritual counsel from reveal the deep wrestling with God that lay beneath her faith.
Most surprising in the letters that she exchanged with spiritual leaders who tried to help her wrestle with her faith was her description of God's absence. She devoted her life to rescuing the dying homeless people from the gutters of Calcutta in order that their last days might be spent in dignity. Hundred's joined her caring for the poor. And all along people assumed that she must have seen Christ's face day after day; but no, instead she didn't see it for years on end. She knew and shared God's love and yet she experience God as real for years on end.
Jesus invites us to join him in this world and in the next. He invites us to follow when we see him and when we don't. He invites us to walk with him when our faith is strong and when our faith is gone. Jesus cross is the reason we gather here week after week. His life given for each of you bridges every gap and gives every one a chance to start over and to re-prioritize like eternity matters; like there's so much more than just today.
God's vision for us is eternal. He sees beyond one stage of life to every part of our human experience. And his promise to be God for us, revealed in the cross and grave, is good no matter what we've done or where we've been. There are many chasms we can never cross, but for God nothing is impossible. He know's you very well and nothing not hell and not high water will keep him from you.
1The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version, ( Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Lk 16:19-20.
2The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version, ( Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Lk 16:21-23.
