The life we are having in this world is not all that there is to it – there is a lot more to come, and what is to come is based on – to a very large extent to what we do here and now – it is basically based on the kind of foundation that we are building for ourselves with the help of God.
The two Scripture readings we heard this morning speaks of the future life and of what lies beyond this mortal coil of ours. And the Scripture readings do so in a most solemn manner – one with the story of Lazarus and the rich man, the other one with a reminder to us of what it is we should all be about, what we should be doing in this life.
Reading from Timothy –
As for you – pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith – take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called…
And again –
As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everyone for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
Pursue righteousness – godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Set your hops on God rather than riches. Do good, share with each other.
Very simple instructions – ones in fact contained in the Law and the Prophets. Yet how often in our daily lives do we really go about building the foundation of our future using these set of instructions?
Let us all take into consideration the story of Lazarus and the Rich man for a moment –
Lazarus, a poor beggar – ends up in heaven, while the Rich man – ends up in hell.
Do you know what happened? What is all seems to come down to is that the rich man failed to share even the crumbs that fell from his table with the beggar who was laying right at his gate during his lifetime – the Rich man failed to have any compassion for his neighbour.
The Law and the Prophets tell us to feed the hungry. We are to look after the widows and the orphans. We are to do justice to those who are foreigners and the strangers in where we are living in. We are to take car of those who are suffering. We are to love God and to we are to love our neighbour as ourselves.
The Rich man probably knew what he was supposed to do. He probably obeyed most of the Law and the Prophets, but for some reason or other, the beggar at his gates did not seem to be worthy of his attention. For some reason or other the beggar was not even worthy to be given the leftovers of his feast. How about us?
Do we ever notice the poor people who are in our community? Do we ever notice the suffering of some of the people in our community? Do we ever notice the hardship of the orphans and widows? Do we do justice to those who are foreigners and strangers here in our community?
As we eat our fast food meals, as we go out to nice restaurants and watch television shows like “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”. As some of us may be dreaming of winning the great Mark Six lottery prize or some other lotteries so that we might become even richer – do we spare a thought – let alone a few crumbs – a few dollars – to help those who se sores are fill of puss – whose bellies know little but dirty water and the odd bit of bread that others may from time to time have provided for them?
I heard recently a story of a Texan who, after a whole lifetime of striving, finally struck I struck it rich in oil. The first thing he did was to take a trip to Dallas and got himself an outfit that he has been dreaming for all his life – boots, spurs, a 10 gallon hat, together with all the trimmings – including a nice big Cadillac with a set of Texas Longhorn horns mounted on the front end of the car. No sooner had he got home from his trip to Dallas, he had a heart attack and died. His wife, knowing of her late husband’s new found pride and joy, decided that the only appropriate thing for her to do is to have him bury with his new finery. Accordingly a concrete vault was prepared, and a large crane was hired for the occasion. With his hat, his boots, and all the trimmings, the body was placed behind the wheel of the Cadillac. As the crane lifted the car and began lowering the Cadillac with his body in it into the vault, a friend of the deceased nudged someone standing close by and said “Man, that is living.”
I am afraid that there are many people in the world who think that way. They think that life is all about living affluently. They think that living is all about having a DVD player and a television, a nice car and a nice apartment or house, not to mention a nice funeral when it is time to go.
But that, my dear sisters and brothers in Christ, that is not living, that is dying.
Andrew Carnegie, who amassed a fortune of over 400 million dollars, ended up giving away 99.5% of his fortune away. When interviewed as to the reason for his doing so, he said – “The man, who dies rich, dies in disgrace.”
The bible seems to give us an indication that only does the rich man died in disgrace, but he also ended up in hell. While the very people that the rich man very likely despised during his lifetime, the poor beggars of our society, the welfare cases that a lot of people only talked about but never lift a finger to help, the millions of children around the world who die each year for lack of basic sanitation and a lack of food, all ended up in heaven.
What do think are riches worth in the very end of our lives? Riches that have not been shared with the needy?
Some of you here sitting here in church this morning are probably thinking – “this teaching of Jesus does not apply to me. I am not rich. I only earn very little money every month. I do not have sumptuous feasts or live in a big mansion.” However, please allow me to remind you, wealth is a relative thing – and I dare say to you that most of us sitting here are rich beyond measure when you compared yourself to 90% of the world’s population, and not doing too bad if you compared yourself to about 40% of people in Hong Kong or in your own country.
What good will all that does to us in the end? Unless we are first rich, as Paul so puts it in verses 18 and 19 of today’s Epistle reading, and unless we are rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, and thus have stored up for ourselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future.
Some people may say that this is a hard teaching, and I do not doubt that at all, for it is. However, again using the words of the Apostle Paul, it is the way to take hold of the life that really is life.
Jesus, in another passage in the Scriptures tells us that a rich man is as likely to get into heaven as it is for a camel to get through the eye of a needle.
Some interpreters of the Bible say that what Jesus was referring to in this particular passage was an ancient gate that went through the walls of Jerusalem and into the city. This gate so we understand was so small, that anyone wanted to pass through with his camel will have to first get off the camel, unload his camel, and then have to have the camel kneel down and basically go through the gate by repeated crouching down and rising up movements. There are interpreters who rejected the idea of there ever being such a gate in existence. However, the message to us is very clear, whether this gate existed or not, you cannot be so attached to your possessions, to your wealth and your pride and your position in life, and hope to be able to enter the Kingdom of God. You rather have them put aside, you rather that you give them away, you rather that you get down from your high place and in an attitude of humility, then walk through the gate.
There are many people in this world who would love to be able to have their hunger satisfied with what falls from our table. And there will be come a time when we will all be reduced to being equal with all those people
A time of dying
A time of judgment
Although the mercy of Christ is there for those who will seek it, but personally I doubt whether it is going to do us much good, if we do not prepare ourselves during this lifetime, if we have not laid a good foundation for ourselves, a foundation that is based on the love of God and the love of our neighbours. I am talking of all our neighbours, not just the ones whom we think as being worthy of our love.
A deacon of a church went out one day to paint his house. He purchased five gallons of white paint and began the job. As he got to the third side of the house, he notice that he was running out of paint, so he added some turpentine to the remainder of the paint and kept on painting. On the final side of the house, he noticed that he was again running out of paint, so he added a bit more turpentine and succeeded in finishing off painting. After the paint dried, he noticed that the last two sides of the house were streaky, the whole thing looked awful. Being a religious man, he bowed his head in prayer, and asked God what he should do. A voice came from heaven and said to him – REPAINT AND THIN NO MORE.
This is also the message of Christ for us. He calls us on us to repent and sin no more. We are called by Christ to repent of our selfishness, of our lack of caring for those who do not fit our concept of deserving, of our tendency to pass judgment in such a way that we can justify ignoring those who are outside our gates.
Where does the Grace of God fit into all that I have talk about today?
It is in the very fact that all of us can enter the Kingdom of God, and this is the will of God for each and every one of us.
As Paul wrote in his epistle:
As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Set your hope in God, and build a good foundation for the future, by using what God has given for our enjoyment to increase the enjoyment of others. Visit those who are sick. Cloth those who are naked. Feed those who are hungry. Give a cup of cold water to those who thirst. And bless God’s name for the fact that God has made it possible for you to show His love and His grace to those who are in such deep need for it.
The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 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.” But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your many good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us. The rich man then said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house – for I have five brothers – that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.” Abraham replied – “They have Moses and the prophets, they should listen to them.” The rich man said, “No father Abraham, but if someone should rise from the dead, they will repent.” Abraham said to him – “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convince even if someone rises from the dead.”
Listen my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to Moses and the Prophets. Their message is the same as that of the one who rose from the dead. Listen – do what they have told us to do, and thereby build a good foundation for the future.
Blessed be God – day by day. Amen.
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