So Others Might Simply Live

16th Sunday after Pentecost - Sept 28, 2025

Rev Sarah Colvin

You can find this week's readings here.

“Live simply so that others may simply live.” is a quote by Mahatma Gandhi.  

This phrase is probably as a good place to start as any for this sermon. The last two weeks our readings, particularly our passages from the Gospel of Luke, have had a lot to say about money. Many clergy are uncomfortable talking about money, maybe especially in a sermon, which is kind of funny given how often it comes up in scripture. Given what Jesus talked about routinely, day in day out, and what he makes no mention of, it sometimes seems as if some Christians in our day and age have read a different Gospel. Jesus really, really cares about wealth and who has it and who doesn’t, and what effect it has on the haves and the have nots.  And so, we begin our stewardship season today, this is officially a stewardship sermon. 

This story in the Gospel is directed to the Pharisees.  As was popular at the time, and is still popular but now called a Prosperity Gospel, there is a belief that God grants good things for those who behave well. If one is suffering, then that is God’s punishment.  

Evidently at the time, the Pharisees were known to read scripture this way, a manner based largely on passages in Deuteronomy. For them, these passages could justify their actions.  In fact, it is possible to defend the rich man’s actions in the Gospel by saying that if someone interfered by helping Lazarus, that person would be interfering with God’s punishment. 

Yet, as a caution in response to this, when we read scripture always remember that Jesus points us to God. So, if you find conflicting ways to read scripture, Jesus tells us in not so many words that it is probably always best to choose the way that is the most loving and the most gracious. This is not something that the Pharisees wanted to hear, that the rich man in this story and therefore they should listen to Moses and the prophets, that Moses and the prophets say to be a giving and compassionate person. We all know that being convicted, or basically being told you wrong, never feels good. 

So, there is a rich man and there is a poor man. The rich man doesn’t get a name in the story, which is usually not a good sign. The poor man is named Lazarus, which the audience of Jesus’s time would recognize as the Greek permutation or almost nickname based on Eleazar, or “God help him.”  The rich man is living the good life—the decadent cocktails on the beach while watching the sunsets, or whatever you most think is decadent. Lazarus is experiencing extreme suffering. The rich man does not SEE Lazarus. It is as if he is invisible. He does not truly hear the teachings of Moses and the prophets just as he does not see Lazarus.  He does not see over the chasm in life that he has constructed for his eyes.  We could talk almost endlessly about which people we choose not to see, but because the lessons all have to do with how we handle our fortune, let’s for now focus on not seeing poor people, not seeing those in need. (Or worse yet, seeing them as those who should be exterminated as the Fox News host did a couple of weeks ago.) 

Death is, of course, the great equalizer, and so for a moment in the story, they are both dead. Then Lazarus gets whisked away to comfort. The rich man is sent to be tormented. In his suffering, the rich man can actually SEE Lazarus and then he calls out to Abraham as his ancestor, showing he HAS actually seen Lazarus in life and knows his name, asking for Lazarus to be allowed to come help him, to cool his lips with some water. Abraham explains that in death, there is a fixed chasm.  The rich man, then resigns to his fate, but wishes to warn his brothers, which are people that he was responsible for after his father’s death. He suggests that Lazarus go back and make a beyond the grave appearance to warn his brothers. Abraham explains that the brothers have Moses and the prophets and that people would not believe an after-death appearance.  This little phrase functions as a conviction or statement against those who do not believe in Jesus’s resurrection appearances.

Paul’s first letter to Timothy warns about the dangers of being rich, that inherent to being wealthy is a real danger that one will put one’s wealth before God. Rather than pursue wealth, we are taught to “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.”  There is also a command for the rich…that “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.” How can he say this with such assuredness?  And what is this good foundation? Well, he’s not offering an ad for a financial institution, although it sounds like it. Rather, he knows that when you are claimed by God, this is foundation for the future. God has claimed you. If you are baptized, God has claimed you. If you wandered into a church, once or many, many times, God has claimed you. And God’s claim on you involves relationship. 

I am quite sure that like all parishes, within this parish there is a range of incomes- whether the incomes are earned, inherited, invested or other. And yet, with the world becoming more and more connected and thus smaller and smaller, this has the effect of putting us in our place and we are convicted. No matter how you look at it, even the poorest person in the United States is wealthy compared to the rest of the world. We are convicted.

It’s probably worth asking yourself every now and then, what you believe and why. I’m not about to give everyone a litmus test, to see if what you believe is orthodox. You may have heard that Mother, now Saint, Theresa did all of her selfless work in the world reportedly only once being sure that there was God. What I ask from you is if you profess or say you believe that Christ actually matters in your life, then I challenge you to ask yourself: how do I live, and how do I give, as if Christ matters? 

We profess to be Christians, we profess every Sunday that 

“Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” 

`If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will [we] be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’"

Wow, we say we believe that Christ rose from the dead…and so I suspect then we are all convicted. 

I believe that we are all convicted by the Bible stories and left to feel we are kind of missing the mark when it comes to where God feels we should be in terms of taking care of those who do not have enough.  It follows that we have every reason to give more than what we have given. There are some who will be motivated to give out of fear that they will end up like the rich man in Hades.  However, I would put to you that we live in a relative abundance, and for all this abundance, there is nothing that we formed for ourselves. We are dependent on God for all.  And so instead take a look at why you give what you give.  If by chance, guilt inspires you to give, well, I guess by all means give. If fear of retribution in the afterlife inspires you to give, well, by all means give. I mean the process of giving is important no matter what the reason is behind the giving. Yet, there is a better way and it is what I hope for you. it is a desire of mine that as priest and shepherd of this flock, that you grow in your faith, as I try and grow in mine. And neither of these reasons (guilt or fear) is one that will help any of us grow in faith.  But to have abundant life, that is a motivation to give, and to work out of that motivation is to grow in faith. 

As we enter stewardship season, “live simply so that others may simply live.” 

As Paul says in his letter to Timothy, “for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.” So, look at your gifts that you have been given and be grateful. Don’t give to avoid guilt, don’t give to make yourself feel good, but give to those in need out of the gratefulness that the treasures that God has given you. 

Give to God from what you don’t need, for we are all rich indeed… and therefore “live simply so that others may simply live.”

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IMAGE ATTRIBUTION: Schäufelein, Hans, approximately 1480-approximately 1539. Rich Man in Hell and the Poor Lazarus in Abraham's Lap, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57073 [retrieved October 8, 2025]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Rich_Man_in_Hell_and_the_Poor_Lazarus_in_Abraham%27s_Lap,_from_Das_Plenarium_MET_DP849940.jpg.