Warning! Warning!

September 30, 2007
18th Sunday after Pentecost

Text: Luke 16:19-31

Preacher: The Rev. R. Bruce Todd

There was a beautiful lake that lost its zesty freshness. The water used to be very clear. It attracted animals and people alike. But it became covered with a green scum. The farm animals became ill from drinking the water. Finally someone came by the lake who understood the problem. Debris collecting from the hard spring rains had stopped up the dam and prevented the free flow of water, not into the lake, but out of the lake. The spillway was cleared, and soon the lake was fresh and clean again. The flow in and out was necessary to keep the water pure!

The same principle applies to you and me as human beings? The blessings of life flow into to us, but we fail to realize that most of these blessings are not meant just to flow to us, but through us, for the good of others around us, especially for those in need.

We don’t like “Bottle Necks.” Not the literal kind, but the figurative ones. Ones like we see at Church Road & Ridge Pike every afternoon from about 3:30 until 6:00 p.m. when two lanes of traffic have to merge into one, and let the left turns in from Church Road. Even the Air Traffic is experiencing “Bottle Necks” to the point that the President is addressing the issue.

We don’t like Bottle Necks. God doesn’t like Bottle Necks either. God gives us blessings to flow through us, but some how a bottle neck gets formed and they become stuck within us and the flow of God’s Blessings stops!

In today’s Gospel reading we have one of those sad stories, even a somber story, about a person who didn't keep things flowing in his life, with the result that his life became clogged and ended in tragedy. We don't know the man's name as Jesus told this story. Jesus simply called him "the rich man." We may take that to mean that the man was richly blessed. A lot of life's blessings had flowed in to this man. But it seems that very few of those blessings flowed through him, reaching other people.

Jesus gives us this sparse description, "There was once a rich man who dressed in the most expensive clothes and lived in great luxury every day." Jesus doesn't say he was happy because he "dressed in the most expensive clothes." He doesn't say the man was joyful because

“he lived in great luxury every day." Jesus simply says that a lot of life's blessings flowed into this man's life. Hardly anything, it seems, flowed through the man to other people. Equally importantly, you and I need to allow God's loving care and healing to flow through us, to others. Then we will refresh the lives of others, and our own lives will be constantly refreshed. That's what happened in Jesus' own life all the way through his ministry. The Bible tells us that when Jesus began his ministry, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. That means that all of God's power and blessing were with Jesus, were in Jesus. Imagine if all of that divine power had gotten clogged within Jesus, if he would not have allowed that power that came to him to flow through him for the good and blessing of others. But everywhere in his ministry we see God's power for good flowing through Christ. People were healed; people were brought to life; people received new hope for the future; people had their sins forgiven; storms were calmed and bread was multiplied, because Christ was not a bottleneck for God's saving power but was the very instrument through which God's blessings flowed to others.

Jesus once observed that after a certain woman touched his robe, he felt the power of God going out from him to her. Jesus kept things flowing. God's power flowed through him to others. Jesus never once faulted the man in the gospel story for being rich. That wasn't the point at all. The man's tragedy was that all his blessings got clogged. They never moved beyond his own heart or table. Blessings to him never became blessings through him. There was no recycling. To put it in biblical terms, the man wasn't practicing good stewardship. What was only loaned to him, he thought he owned. He stopped the flow, the exhilaration, the fulfillment, the purpose, and the joy of life when he became a container instead of an instrument of God's blessings. So in what area of life can you and I become instruments of
God's blessings? Simply in those areas of life where we see people in need.

Sometimes we see what we want to see and don't see what we don't want to see. It reminds me of a line in the old Broadway musical Jumbo. Jimmy Durante, who has just stolen a circus elephant, is tiptoeing across the stage with the huge pachyderm clomping behind him.
He’s stopped by the sheriff, who demands, “Where are you going with that elephant?” And Durante, looking as innocent as only Durante could, says, “WHAT elephant?”

Living in denial is a favorite occupation of many people. Some people would simply prefer not to face reality. But most of the time, we see it all. It’s just that in our sinful selfishness, we tell ourselves we can’t be bothered by the needs of other human beings. In the lengthy verses of this Gospel story that remain, Jesus makes it clear that if we have our minds and hearts made up not to hear and see, we probably won't.

And after the Rich Man realized it was too late for him to change his ways. He pleads with Father Abraham, “Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him WARN THEM, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.”
“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ “No, father Abraham,” he said, “but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.” Abraham said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”

Well someone has Risen form the dead - Jesus Christ! Christ has come to warn us and how we can have victory over the power of Sin and Death. Today we are commemorating the 255th Anniversary of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Barren Hill. And I can’t help but wonder if there aren’t some of those faithful saints who worshiped in this place over these past 255 years, up there in heaven saying to God: “Those are my family and friends in that congregation. Send someone to WARN THEM!” What is our Mission? Our mission is to
Share the life, love and joy of Jesus Christ with others! Those members of the 1700's would warn us of the risk they faced in not maintaining their building after the British occupied it during the Revolution. Fortunately, St. Michael’s congregation helped them to make the repairs needed to continue ministry. The members of the late 1800's would want to warn us that as their Building burned to the ground, to remember that the ministry continue through the people, not the Building. Those saints of the 1930's who lived through the Great Depression would warn us to not put our faith in material things that can be lost, but rather into the things that can be stored up in Heaven.

A couple of months ago I was having a conversation with former Bishop Mike Merkel. He asked how things were going here at St. Peter’s. I told him about our growth, our expanding programs, our outreach programs and our Building Program. He got a big smile on his face and said,“I’m really glad to hear that. When I was the Bishop, they were an At Risk Congregation on the verge of closing.”

“Then I beg you, father Abraham, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him WARN THEM! If someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent. We have had someone Rise from the Dead! Someone through whom God’s blessings flowed.
Someone to show us how to be instruments of God’s Blessings. But we are in the midst of a Bottle Neck. Tons of blessings are flowing into the members of our congregation. But they often seem to get caught in a Bottle Neck. And God does not like Bottle Necks. God gave us these blessings to be shared! If they are not shared, they become stagnant like that lake.
Eventually it becomes unhealthy. Ministries begin to die.


As we enjoy this 255th Anniversary I need to give you a warning! As we entered into our Building Program, I stood up at the Congregational Meeting and said I do not want us to be doing a Building Program instead of doing Ministry. We are presently $21,000 behind in our giving. We are usually about $7,000 behind at this point of the year, and we often catch up in December. Somewhere there is a giving Bottle Neck. I don’t know if it’s at the Gas Pump or the Vacation Club or the Bank Account. Is it the time it takes to teach Sunday School, help with a program, fill out a green Pledge Sheet, serve on Altar Guild, attend Sunday Worship every Sunday? Or is it a lack of trust that God will continue to provide in the future as he has consistently provided in the past? The financial blessings you have received are not flowing the way God intended them to be flowing! WARN THEM FATHER ABRAHAM! If that Bottle Neck is not broken, we will not be able to re-enter the Internship Program, which is one of our goals. We might have to cut back on present staffing. Our youth ministry programs will be affected. Our outreach to World Hunger, Colonial Neighborhood Council, Martin Luther-Silver Springs School, Lutheran Children & Family Services, Lutheran Social Services, Missionary Support, will have to be cut back.

Brothers & Sisters in Christ - Friends - I have been your pastor for going on 11 years now. You know I don’t preach Doom & Gloom or give more money sermons. But I would not be faithful in my preaching if I had to stand up at the January Congregational Meeting and say we need to stop half of our ministries without ever having given you a Warning!

Someone has come back from the dead! Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And if Christ’s love and sacrifice for us is not enough to break through the power of Sin and Death and whatever Bottle Neck is keeping God’s blessings from flowing freely, then maybe a 256TH Anniversary is not something we will be celebrating. We can’t ignore the Elephant in the room.

Our mission IS to share the life, love and joy of Jesus Christ with others. Father Abraham - send someone to warn them! God HAS sent someone to warn us. . . Jesus Christ! Are we going to HEED the Warning? Amen!