PENTECOST XIX 2013

• Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15 and Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16 •
• Amos 6:1a, 4-7 and Psalm 146 •
• 1 Timothy 6:6-19 •
• Luke 16:19-31

Lazarus and the Rich Man Eduard von Gebhardt (1838 - 1925)

The readings for this Sunday have a greater thematic unity than is often the case. They all have to do with the possession and use of wealth. The Old Testament reading from Amos contains a prophetic denunciation of the rich, the Epistle contains the famous line ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’, and in the Gospel Jesus tells the story of the rich man who dies suddenly in the night.

The message to be learned from these passages is really very simple. The Epistle underlines the truth that the avid pursuit of wealth can easily ‘plunge people into ruin and destruction’, while the rich man in the Gospel learns a complementary lesson: that all the wealth in the world will not make us any less vulnerable to death or to Divine judgment. Between those who put their trust in material well-being and those who put their trust in God, ‘a great chasm has been fixed’.

Eternity Mikalojus Ciurlionis (1875-1911)

The choice with which we are confronted is plain enough. The difficulty does not lie in understanding it, or even making it, but sticking with it. It is easy to say that the love of wealth not wealth itself endangers us. It is hard be wealthy without trusting more and more to the things wealth brings. This is true even for those whose wealth is modest by contemporary standards.

One aspect of the Epistle is worth emphasizing. Contrary to any impression the Gospel story might give, this is not just about what happens after you die. The author of Timothy (probably not Paul himself) tells members of the fledgling Christian church to ‘take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called’. This is an instruction for the present, not the future. ‘Eternal life’ is not a post-mortem state. It is a mode of living now -- a way of life that death cannot destroy because, through the Cross, Jesus has enabled us to participate in the life of ‘he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light’. It is this ‘prize’ that even modest wealth can put at risk, though only if leads us to forget just how incomparable the two are.