🐮 Proper 21
Readings: Amos 6:1, 4-7; Psalm 146; 1 Timothy 6:6-19; Luke 16:19-31.
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Reflection
Hello, and welcome to Proper 21. This is Brother Logan Isaac, broadcasting from Albany, Oregon. Our readings from today come to us from Amos six, Psalm 1 46, 1 Timothy six, and Luke 16. I really love the pastoral letters, but they're dubious Pauline letters even though it talks about fighting the good fight of the faith, the ka.
Anyway, I like the gospel and one thing that stood out to me is how, here in Luke 16, um, they, the authors or author is borrowing from. Greek imagination. When it says Hades, there's a whole legendary around Hades and who rules down there and which, you know, what spiritual story the Greeks told about it.
And in Greek, it's Hades in the Hebrew Bible, um, it is sheel. And Sheol is, um, very close to the name of the first king of the unified, uh, tribes, Shaul or Saul. They are cognate words. They sound very similar. It means to ask for. To ask or to ask for. And so Sheel is the logical place where you go when death has come for you, you ask for the grave.
Um, Saul asked for the grave. He committed suicide. Saul as the first king was also asked for in one Samuel eight. They didn't want to be like. Or they didn't want to be holy and different with judges under a confederation. They wanted a king. And so Samuel, a prophet and judge, and Nazarite anoints them.
Shaul Saul asked for one who ends up in the grave of Sheol. And I say that because there's a number of the, there's a lot of. Word play going on in Luke 16. The whole kind of exchange is set within Hades, which is this Greek construct, and the author Luke, who's a Gentile doctor. So he is smart, like.
Medicine is not what you'd think of it before, but he was a healer and he tried to do what would work to heal people. I, I have a great respect for medicine first responders. You know, scientists who follow the facts as far as they know them, and so he's. In this weird place, he's probably a God-fearing gentile, which means he's interested in the Hebrew faith.
But depending on when it's written, he may not have, he may have been excluded from full participation unless he was ready to be circumcised. And that was the distinction that was operative or or intention at the time of Christ. And Paul, uh, the first generation after Christ, you know. Who's Gentile and who's Jew, who's in, and who's out.
And so Luke is using things from Greek literature and Greek imaginarium, where Hades is this place where you can talk to people but you like can't go. It's all embolic and. This rich person who wears the imperial colors purple was reserved for the imperial cult. So only things having to do with Augustus were allowed to be purple.
And so he's either tongue in cheek referring to the emperor or someone in the emperor's circle. Um, he dies alongside Lazarus who. In the rest of the gospels is somebody who's been raised from the dead, which is a very rare occasion, even in the gospels. Like we make a big deal out of it, as you know, as Christians sometimes do.
Like he raised people from the dead. He was raised from the dead, blah, blah, blah. But like Luke uses Lazarus the most amazing miracle, um, to. Remind the rich, not that they don't have a place in God's republic and God's family, but that look, don't ignore your, your neighbor. Why couldn't, you know once you're dead?
If you want the, I, I'm struck by the, the rich man's situation because he just doesn't know any better. Kind of feels like Matthew 25, where. The, the good and the evil are separated like sheep from goats. Sheep and goats are very similar. The, what they have different is that they eat their, the diet of goats allows them to be independent.
And in some ways that's very important. It's the goats who are sacrificed in Yom Kippur and the sheep are the ones who have a symbiotic relationship with people. They have to be shorn, you know, they are not independent. And so these two. Herd animals were very much like otherwise are used to be the polar opposites of each other.
And just like this rich man finds that he's a goat, he thinks he's okay. He finds that, nope, he's not a sheep, he's a goat. He's too independent. He's independent of God. Well shoot. Well, okay, like I'm suffering, but what about my neighbor now? And that's the irony. He wants to think about his own family. And Abraham, you could read Abraham's response as kind of callous, but it's also pragmatic.
Look, they have the prophets in Moses, who by the way, is not called a prophet. He's a judge. The judge, prophet priest, are the main kind of, uh, political figures of Hebrew polity. Um, but he says, look, you. You, your family has neighbors. They have Moses and the prophets. They have the writings, but they also have other people.
Like if you're not gonna be made to listen when someone raises from the dead, who by the way, Lazarus is this, you know, reminder that God can raise people from the dead before God did it with. Joshua. Um, if you're not gonna listen to each other, why would I, why would they listen to someone who has died and come back?
Like it defies all reason. Why do you need miraculous things to do? The thing which works in and of itself, like looking out for your neighbor, will make you good. I mean, I talked about Matthew 25 already, like. There is a pretty strong thread of if your faith does not inspire you to act, what is it? If you have remained blissfully ignorant of the plight of the poor right in your own neighborhood, how is it that some.
Random miracle. How? Why should that convince you when it hasn't convinced you as you walk by the poor every day? Why do you only think of your own family and not as the entire human family? When you look in at someone on the who's porn, on the streets, why are they not your family? Why wasn't Lazarus your family?
Why couldn't you have looked at him, you know, before he had died and treated him right? Um, and so Luke. Uh, who also authors the book of Acts as just one of the most important writers, uh, of the entire, you know, Hebrew, uh, Christian Testaments, Christian scripture. But he's clearly got a very good grasp of, uh, the Hebrew, not just the text, but like, what's going on?
He has no, he doesn't hesitate to bring up Abraham to tie. All humanity together, um, as opposed to any number of Greek gods that he could have pulled on. In fact, he pulls on the one person who at that time was beginning to say, I'm a God Augustus, you know, Octavian, who, um, becomes Augustus and, you know, becomes the, you know, the first very, you know, kind of oppressive ruler of the Roman Empire.
Anyway. The lesson, I think that is kind of written through this, the reading this morning, is to treat. Not only recognize your neighbor as family, but to treat them as trustworthy. Lazarus apparently had nothing to teach. The rich man or the rich man had nothing to learn from Lazarus. He could have learned from Moses the prophets.
He seems to be aware of Abraham at least, but he only knows him as someone that Lazareth Lazarus is. Is being doted upon. And so he is, you know, ignorance may be bliss, but it's not an excuse if you are unaware of the suffering right in your own neighborhood. How do you expect God to be aware of your suffering?
You complain to God, uh, without hearing the complaints of those who have even more to complain about. So it's this cautionary tale. That pulls on Greek literature and Greek imaginative kind of structures, but centers itself on the Hebraic imagination of Abraham and the, and Moses and the prophets. And that is as strong a case for a gentile interest in the Hebrew Bible as, as I think I've ever seen.
