Time: a bracket within Eternity (Luther, Luke & Lazarus)
Luther, sixteenth century Reformation founder Martin Luther, preached, and we have of his, English translations and audio readings of at least two sermons on “Lazarus and the Rich Man”. A graduate of Gettysburg Lutheran seminary, I heard Luther reverently quoted almost without fail in every student and faculty sermon preached while I was there; and it was never past tense “Luther said”, it was always “Luther SAYS” a Real Presence in the congregation. And never pretentious, Luther’s preaching is down to earth for everyone in the pew.
When I hear Luther, I stop and listen - - as this week in reading and hearing his two sermons on this gospel from Luke 16, that Luther pityingly calls “The Rich Man and Poor Lazarus”. He always says “armer Lazarus”, Poor Lazarus.
We take this gospel as a Parable; but, picking up on the fact that Luke does not SAY it’s a parable, Luther says it MAY be a parable and you may take it that way if you wish, but Luther chooses to take it literally as recalling a historical event in real life. And Luther preaches it accordingly.
Luther is commonly misunderstood to hold, in his Pauline sola fide theology of salvation by faith alone, that what we do does not matter, only what we believe. But not so: in line with what Genesis and Hebrews tell us about Abraham, whom he cites often, Luther teaches Glaube und Gehorsam, belief and obedience. Faith is belief and obedience, and faith without obedience is unbelief and not faith, no matter how piously one worships and sings and prays and praises and tithes and puts on the right shoe first.
In the Summary of the Law Jesus says Love God, Love neighbor, where loving God IS loving your neighbor. And if you are not loving your neighbor as your life of faith, then your claim to loving God is a lie - - as in this story of Poor Lazarus and the Rich Man - - not just a “damn lie” but a damning lie that, in what Luther calls “the other life”, will land you, with the Rich Man, in Gehenna, fiery Hades of terrible thirst as you abide in eternity until the day of judgment.
The story is not about Lazarus, it’s about the Rich Man, whom Jesus holds up as precisely what I am not to be. Luther goes into detail about how pious and keeping the Sabbath and all that the Rich Man was in this life, proudly regarding himself as holy and good while entirely missing the point of loving God, which is to love neighbor.
Luther also goes at length into “armer Lazarus”, the obvious belief and obedience of Poor Lazarus, that lands him in Abraham’s bosom for his wait until the day of judgment (while the Rich Man waits thirsting in Hades). Taking it as history not parable, Luther points out that being a poor, naked beggar covered with sores is in itself no more a virtue than being a rich man is in itself a sin; it’s whether one lives this life in faithful obedience that makes the difference in salvation or damnation in “the other life”.
So, Luther says Poor Lazarus obviously was obedient and trusting in his own assigned place in this life otherwise he would not be resting in Abraham’s bosom in the other life. And, as Bailey said in our Wednesday evening dialogue, the Rich Man is in Hades because he did not share. And that’s the essence of the gospel, Bailey rocked it.
Sixteenth century, just coming out of the Middle Ages, Luther was more literal than I, not only about this story, taking it as history not parable, that when we die, we wait, abiding conscious and aware, for the End Time Judgment (1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15, Paul called this “asleep in Chist”). Luther says that for all he knows, this Man who was rich and selfish may still be waiting and thirsting in torment, and Poor Lazarus may still be waiting in Abraham’s bosom with the rest of the faithful, as eternity is timeless, without days or hours or years or centuries, because, (Psalm 90) with God, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day, it’s one and the same in eternity, while the Time of life in which we humans live is simply bracketed in the eternity of God.
Time as “a bracket within Eternity” is an intriguing theological proposition that - - for me, a one-time amateur astronomer - - fits Earth rotating on axis in our day, revolving around the Sun in our year, as our Solar System moves within our Milky Way Galaxy circling round its central Black Hole consuming stars, as our particular Universe continues to expand - - all in our human Time that is but a whiff of the Creator’s eternity.
For all his digressing, Luther totally nails it, the point of Jesus story as Luke tells it: not a threat but a warning, a promise from the Word of God himself, that if we do not Love our Neighbor - - “love” (ἀγάπη) being how we treat other people, thoughtfulness, consideration, generosity - - the lovingkindness of sharing all that we have - - if we do not lovingly share, we end up in company with the Rich Man, thirsting in the fires of Hades, like Beckett’s Estragon, Waiting for Godot until the end of time. And by the way, it’s French, not g’DOH, Beckett says GOD-oh, "Waiting For Godot".
How you want to take all that in your postmodern Century 21 theological sophistication is not my problem. It’s also not God’s problem as God freely offers salvation through the belief and obedience that is the faith of Jesus Christ, who said,
Shema Yisrael, Adonai Elehenu, Adonai echod, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. And the Second Commandment is the only way to love God: you shall love your neighbor as yourself - -
- where your neighbor is NOT the equally well off Jones family next door. In fact your neighbor may not be anyone you know or ever laid eyes on. Your neighbor is the poor ragged hungry black man with rotting teeth sleeping on the sidewalk grates of New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Washington DC, and in the woods of Bay County, Florida. Your neighbor is the terrified immigrant child who has been taken and separated from his parents. Your neighbor is that immigrant child’s immigrant mother who, because she trusted, believed and hoped in America, now does not know where the hell her little child is. THESE are your neighbors.
And this is the Gospel of the Lord.
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Sermon preached in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida on Sunday, September 29, 2019. Proper 21C. The Rev Tom Weller. Text: Luke 16:19-31 (scroll down)
pics pinched online.
Luke 16:19-31
The Rich Man and Lazarus
19 “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, 21 who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22 The poor man died and was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom. 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 in his bosom. 24 He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’
25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ 27 He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ 29 Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ 30 He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”