“If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead”. These words from our Gospel reading, are a strong foretelling of the problems that we continue to face with rebelling against our Lords commands. We remain a rather stiff-necked people who would often rather do things our own way, than adhere to God’s teachings, even when they come from His Son who rose from the dead.
Our Lord continually has warned us of the dangers of pursuing our own pleasures to the exclusion of noticing or caring for the needs of others. In our first reading today from the book of Amos, there is a strong rebuke against those who spend their lives accumulating and enjoying their own comforts and leave nothing for those in need. They lie upon beds of ivory and soft couches and eat and drink with no concern for those who are without shelter and are hungry. They do not care that their brothers and sisters are going without due to their own excesses, and the Lord sees this and makes them the first to suffer exile, and all their comforts, even their basic needs, are done away with, just like those they did not care for.
In our Gospel today, the account of the neglect on the part of the rich man toward Lazarus echoes the same plight, there is more than enough of the things needed for life, and yet the rich man is uncaring, and does not share these things with Lazarus. It does not say that he specifically seeks to keep Lazarus from having these things, only that he does not care enough to address his needs, even though he is right there on his doorstep. His sin is one of omission and inaction and it leads to his condemnation and eternal existence separated from God and His children – hell. He cannot be comforted by any who are with God because they are separated by the choices they made, both in life and in the afterlife. The rich man’s final request, that someone return from the dead to warn his brothers and convince them to listen, takes us back to our original statement – if they will not heed the words of God through His prophets and His word in the bible, neither will they listen to one who has risen from the dead. Our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and yet even with that, there are many who will choose to ignore Him.
We as Gods people are called to pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, gentleness, and generosity. We are called to be aware not just of our own needs, but of those around us. This call is what defines our belief in Jesus Christ, and our faith in Gods words and commands. It means that our lives by definition are not just our own but are to be filled with caring for those around us who are all created in His image. Those who are lonely, who need any of the material necessities, those who cannot help themselves due to any number of reasons, are the ones we are called to look intently upon and see the face of our Lord Jesus Christ in each and every one of them. No one sets out to be homeless, or impoverished, or in need, and yet so many find themselves in this situation. It can happen to anyone, those to whom it does happen are no less human beings with the same right to dignity as any of the rest of us. They have the same goals, the same hopes, the same desires, and they hurt the same way we would hurt if we were in that situation. If we see a need, we are called to not conveniently look the other way, but to try to help in any way we can. This is Gods call and challenge to each of us, it is why He sent His Son to us in human form, and it is why Jesus spent so much of His time with the poor and the neglected. If we truly follow him, not just claiming to be followers, then we too are called to draw near to those in need, and never, never ignore them for our convenience.
The Deacons Bench 