"Fully Converted?"
Luke 16:19-31
September 30, 2001 (Year C Pentecost 17)

I want to begin this morning just by reading to you from Tony Campolo's book "20 Hot Potatoes Christians Are Afraid to Touch."  Campolo writes,

"In 1984, I was in Africa.  I was in the Sahil region just south of the Sahara where drought and desertification (which is the gradual transformation of arable land into desert) were prevalent and devastating.  In village after village, I saw what most of us have seen on those television specials designed to tell us of the suffering of the poor who live in the midst of the African famine.  I saw the children with their swollen bellies - swollen, ironically, not because they had eaten too much, but because they had eaten too little.  I saw these children, too debilitated from malnutrition and dysentery to brush the flies out of their teary, sick eyes.  On that trip, all the sights which have become familiar via those late night TV shows that promote the child sponsorship programs of Compassion International, World Vision, and others became living realities to me.

 

In such a situation, one instinctively tries to accept the unacceptable in order to survive emotionally.  But one experience shook me out of the almost matter-of-fact manner with which I had quickly learned to view such horrors.  I watched a little boy die.  His mother was sitting rocking him, trying to comfort him with her singsong moanings when, suddenly, he just stopped breathing.  His frail frame, with the dried-out skin stretched over its bones, went limp in his mother's arms.  Her moans turned into screaming and wailing.  And it all happened while I watched."

If this story seems a little manipulative, I don't apologize.  I don't apologize because Jesus didn't apologize when He told this story in Luke 16.   From that story it is clear that Jesus is willing to make some rich Christians feel distressed because they have adopted an affluent lifestyle of conspicuous wealth while turning their backs upon the desperately poor of the world.  If this is manipulation, then Jesus did it and so will I even if it makes some of us feel guilty.  Guilt, I believe, is a proper reaction to sin.  And I believe there is  something sinful about some of us Christians buying piles of stuff we do not need, use, or for that matter particularly enjoy while we ignore people whose basic needs go unmet.

Yet as we find ourselves in our time of national crisis we are ready to rise far beyond a mere guilt reflex.  I'm actually not looking for guilt today, I'm looking for a people ready to step up to demands of being real followers of Jesus Christ.  The events of the past few weeks are awakening us to eternal realities.   What excites me about this passage is that I believe the church of Jesus Christ is awakening to the need to invest ourselves in matters of eternity.

          Anytime that you come to a passage such as this in Scripture, there are really 2 questions that are implied.  The first question is this:  1) Can I trust God?  Any time we deal with our material resources in this life, the implied question is "Can I trust God enough to obey what He commands me to do with the resources I am the steward of?  But the second question is this. 2)  Can God trust me?  Psalm 24:1 tells us, "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it."  That means that everything that we have ultimately belongs to God.  So the question is, "Can God trust me to use His money and His resources the way He intends to see me use them?"  Am I a trustworthy disciple?

I.  We have been blessed by God.  When we look at this Scripture as American Christians, it is clear who we are in this passage.  In this church, we are for the most part solidly middle-class.  But we have to understand, that is middle-class by the standards of our great country.   By the standards of the world, we are incredibly wealthy.

A. In the beginning of this story, Jesus introduces to someone who by the world's standards was tremendously wealthy. 

There were certain things that distinguished the man as wealthy.  A.  He had nice clothes.  He wore clothes that were dyed purple.  Purple garments were basically the designer clothes of his day.  He had fine linen, in other words, he also had nice underwear.

Folks, we have nice clothes, right?  Compared to the world, absolutely.  When my friend Greg was in Armenia in 1997, he went to a very poor region called Nagorno Karabakh.  There is one poor village the UMC of North Carolina has done significant amounts of ministry in.  You know what I saw?  Halfway around the world I saw people in that village wearing UNC shirts.  They were wearing Disneyworld shirts.  The missionary there told me that everyone in that village wore clothes that were sent by United Methodists in North Carolina.  In other words, our leftovers, our throw-aways were better than anything they had.

In Argentina, the little boy that became so attached to him clomped around in shoes that were too big for him that didn't even have shoe laces.  We dress, like the rich man.

B.  The rich man ate well every day.  I want to read to you the RSV translation of verse 19.  "There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day."  Luke 16:19 RSV.  In other words, this guy never missed a meal.  He never had to worry about where his next meal was coming from.  As a matter of fact, this guy just took for granted that he was going to get three good meals a day.  He never gave it a second thought.  Do you see the connection?  Probably none of us have ever had to worry about whether or not we would have enough to eat a single day of our lives.

The rich man is regarded as rich because he has good clothes, ample food, and plenty of luxuries.  That is us, bottom line, that is us.

II.  The issue is not “are we wealthy?”, but, “are we obedient?”  Wealth is not condemned in the Bible.  What is at issue for believers is what we do with the wealth God has entrusted to us.  There are a couple of things that really leap out at us about this rich man in this parable.  A.  He knew scripture, but he ignored scriptural teaching on wealth.  How do I know that he knew Scripture?  He was Jewish man.  He would have been raised learning the Scriptures of the Old Testament.  He also was familiar with Abraham.  When he looked up from hell and saw Abraham, he immediately knew to address him by "Father Abraham".  In his conversation with Abraham, they discussed the prophets and Moses. 

The problem was not that he didn't know Scripture.  The Scriptures of the Old Testament are clear.  God has incredible concern for the poor.  In the writings of Moses we see it.  From Leviticus 19:9-10, "When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.  Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen.  Leave them for the poor and the alien.  I am the Lord your God." 

We also see God's concern for the poor in the writings of the prophets.  The prophet Amos condemned those who mistreated the poor when he prophesied, "They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed."  Amos 2:7

It wasn't that he didn't know Scripture.  It was a matter that he chose not to obey Scripture.

The reality is that American Christianity as a whole has chosen to disobey and ignore God's teachings on the use of our wealth.  I came across some incredible statistics just recently.  One of the clear teachings of the Bible is that Christians are supposed to tithe.  Christians are supposed to give 1/10 of their income to God.  The actual percentage of Christians who do that is only 4%.  That means that 96% choose to disobey or ignore this teaching.

More than 1/3 of adults who go to church at least once a month contribute nothing to the church.  The average contribution by adults who attend Protestant churches is only $17 per week.

The reason is that as Americans we have changed from stewards into consumers.  The Apostle Paul tells us that the children of God are people whose activities and decisions in everyday life are to be guided by the Holy Spirit:  "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God."  Romans 8:14.  That means that each of us should endeavor to obey the will of God insofar as we can discern that will through Scripture, our shared reflections with fellow Christians, and those inner impulses which we sense are from God Himself.

Unfortunately, most of us are not so much led by these divine inspirations as we are by ads on television and the consumption styles dictated by the dominant culture.  What we buy is much more under the control of the media than under the lordship of Christ.  To be Christian involves having a Christlike spending pattern that is ordered by God.

There are some inherent problems with this.   When we live as consumers rather than stewards we ignore the cries of the needy.  One of the things that is so fascinating about this passage is that the rich man knew Lazarus by name.  It was not an issue of information, he knew Lazarus was at his gates.  He knew Lazarus was hungry.  He knew Lazarus was in need of medical attention.  He knew Lazarus was so weak that he didn't even have the strength to keep the street dogs from licking his sores.  It was not a matter of information, it was a matter of his heart.  He heart was unable to hear the cries of the needy.  His heart had been lulled to sleep by the insatiable lust for more and more things for himself.

His physical eyes were open to the situation.  His spiritual eyes were closed.  His heart was closed.  The Bible tells us that Lazarus longed to eat what fell from the rich man's table.  What that is referring to is in that culture, chunks of bread would be used as napkins.  You would wipe your hands on the bread and then throw the bread away.  What the rich man was wiping his hands on and throwing away would have been a feast to poor Lazarus.

The rich man appropriated what belonged to God to himself and he allowed one of God's children to died in misery at his gates.  All his prayer, fasting, scripture reading in the Temple did not change the fact that he rejected God in his life.  His heart was never changed.

Folks the issue for us is also an issue of the heart.  We've got all the information we need.  We know the teachings from the Bible.  We know that whereas we live as kings and queens the world at our gates suffers in poverty.

Tony Campolo tells of one his experience in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.  He works extensively in mission among the poor there.  He was sitting in a restaurant with a friend next to a window.  When the waiter brought their food and placed it on the table, they looked and there were a couple of little street children with their faces pressed at the windows staring at the food.  These were what are called the "street urchins",  little kids who struggle on the street to survive, they types who have to go through garbage to eat. 

The waiter saw the children looking in the window and quickly reached over and pull down the shades and said, "don't let them bother you."  In other words, ignore their cries. 

The problem is when we ignore them, we ignore Jesus. 

III.  Our response to the poor, reveals our relationship to God.  You know why the rich man ended up in hell?  It was because he was never fully converted to God.  If he had believed God, if he had loved God, if he had wanted to follow God, his lifestyle would have reflected it. 

If we are disciples of Jesus, absolutely every area of our lives will be affected.  If we are disciples of Jesus, we cannot live as though the way we handle our material possessions is separate from our discipleship.

If we are really following Christ, it's going to mean more than simply going to church and maybe taking in a Bible Study.  It means the changing of our hearts, of our perspectives to line up with the heart of God.  I've shared this with you before, I am going to keep harping on this until the Holy Spirits finally converts our use of wealth or unitl you become so uncomfortable with hearing it that find some excuse to leave this church and go somewhere else.

The only picture that Jesus gives us of the final judgment is in Matthew 25.  And it is not a multiple choice exam.  It's not a big old angel saying, question 1, "Virgin birth, Strongly Agree,  Agree, UNSURE, Disagree, Strongly Disagree." Jesus makes responding to the needs of the poor the criteria for evaluation when we stand before the Eternal Judge of history.  "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me...I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

The reason is that this is inextricable bound to whether our conversion is authentic or not.  You cannot separate care for the poor from authentic Christian conversion.  Jesus has not given us that choice.  We are not saved by works, we are only saved by grace.  The warning, though,  is that wealth can be a barrier to faith that saves.  As those who are wealthy we feel threatened by the call of Christ who bids us to leave all and die for Him.

IV.  The Bible commands us to invest in eternity.  The frightening thing about this passage is that when the rich man died there was absolutely nothing left of his life.  There was nothing of eternal significance to his life.  Everything that he had invested his life in vanished like a puff of smoke.

There are two things I want us to see about this: A.  Our time on this earth is incredibly brief.   Just try to grasp human life from the perspective of eternity.  In Psalm 103:15-16 David writes, "As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more."  James 4:14 gives us this sober reminder, "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."

The surprise in this passage is how quickly the rich man's life comes to an end.  We don't expect him to die.  We are not surprised when Lazarus dies, that is expected.

We have become accustomed to seeing the Lazaruses of our world die.  We have become accustomed to starving children around the world dying.  We have become accustomed to car bombs and bloody wars in other parts of the world.  We are not surprised to see others' lives cut short in other parts of the world. 

What does surprise us is when it happens to us.  What does surprise us is when the violence strikes us.  What surprises us is when the Trade Towers and the Pentagon on our own land are viciously attacked.

It's then that we are reminded of how uncertain the things of this world are.  It's then that we are reminded of how brief our lives really are.  It's then that we are reminded of the magnitude of eternity.

God intends for our time on this earth to be an investment in eternity.  This crisis should cause us to spiritually reorient everything about our lives with a view toward eternity.  Folks, the part of our most of our lives that is the least oriented toward eternity is in our possessions.

When I was talking with Will Barnes about this message he told me I needed to say something that I had said a year or 2 ago that makes this point clear.  What is that we teach our kids?  We tell them that should study hard so that they can make good grades.  Because is they make good grades they can go to a good college.  And if they go to a good college they can get a good degree and get out and get a good job.  And if they get a good job they can make a lot of money.  And if they make a lot of money they can have a lot of nice things.

Folks, the day has come that we need to teach our kids to invest in eternity.  We should teach them to study hard in school because they can make good grades.  Because if they make good grades they can go to a good college.  And if they go to a good college they can get a good degree and get out and get a good job.  And when they get a good job they can make a lot of money.  And when they make a lot of money, they can give a lot of money to touch other's lives in the name of Jesus.

But we need to model it.  This is our hour to faithfully rise to the challenge in all areas of discipleship in following after Jesus.  This is our hour to say that my life is going to transcend the temporal limitations of this world.  This is our hour to truly be a guiding light before a nation that is frightened and longing for true direction.

The prophet Malachi made it clear.   We are to bring the tithe to the storehouse, to the church.  And then together as the church we are able to live out our mission To Win the Lost, Feed the Hungry, and Make Genuine Disciples of Jesus Christ.

And we have been doing this.  We have provided food to the hungry right here in our own backyard, as well as in places around the world.  We have provided money for families who were desperate and had no where else to turn.  We have provided relief after Hurricane Floyd.  We have paid medical bills, made car payments, and provided furniture for families in crisis.  We have helped plant one church and we are just before planting another in poverty stricken areas of Rosario, Argentina.

We've touched lives, but I'll be frank with you, Jesus wants us to do far more than what we've done.  And if we are faithful we will do far more than anything we've even begun to fathom.  As we do this, our hearts will be more intertwined with God's than you can begin to imagine.  And the Bible promises that will remember. 

Listen to this passage from 1 Timothy 6:17-19, "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provide us with everything for our enjoyment.  Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.  In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life."  1 Timothy 6:17-19.

The principle is clear, what we hoard for ourselves in this life is uncertain, but certainly won't last beyond this life.  What we place in the hands of God will be ours to enjoy as treasures in heaven for eternity.

This hour, is our hour.  We have been confronted with all the uncertainties of this life.  Christians can no longer live as though we can be followers of Jesus without sacrifice.

I have been told to tell you something today which in I'm going to say to you in closing.  Actually, I am commanded to say this to you.  The choice is not mine.  The message is not mine.  The message is God's sent through the Apostle Paul.  So I command you, by the authority of God's word, not to put your hope in wealth which is so uncertain, but to put your hope in God  who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.  I command you to be good.  I command you to be rich in good deeds.  I command you to be generous and I command you to be willing to share.  

And by the authority of God's Word, I promise you this.  As you do this, you will lay up treasures in heaven for yourself as a firm foundation.  And in obeying, you will take hold of the life that is truly life.

Thanks to Greg Jenks who wrote this sermon!

Back to Sermons

Questions, suggestions and problems concerning the Cornerstone United Methodist Church Website should be directed toward the Cornerstone Webmaster at: webmaster@cornerstoneumconline.com

This Website Has Been Visited

Since Beginning Operation.
Thanks for Stopping By!