Who Is Your Master

The Great Reversal!

Discipleship Questions for Sunday

September 30, 2007

Scripture Readings:

First Reading: Amos 6:1-7

Psalm: 146

Second Reading: 1Timothy 6:11-19

Gospel: Luke 16:19-31

Amos 6:1-7 ¹Woe to you who are at ease in Zion, And trust in Mount Samaria, Notable persons in the chief nation, To whom the house of Israel comes! ²Go over to Calneh and see; And from there go to Hamath the great; Then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory greater than your territory? ³Woe to you who put far off the day of doom, Who cause the seat of violence to come near; ⁴Who lie on beds of ivory, Stretch out on your couches, Eat lambs from the flock And calves from the midst of the stall; ⁵Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments, And invent for yourselves musical instruments like David; ⁶Who drink wine from bowls, And anoint yourselves with the best ointments, But are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. ⁷Therefore they shall now go captive as the first of the captives, And those who recline at banquets shall be removed. -- NKJV

Psalm 146 ¹Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul! ²While I live I will praise the LORD; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. ³Do not put your trust in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. ⁴His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; In that very day his plans perish. ⁵Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in the LORD his God, ⁶Who made heaven and earth, The sea, and all that is in them; Who keeps truth forever, ⁷Who executes justice for the oppressed, Who gives food to the hungry. The LORD gives freedom to the prisoners. ⁸The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; The LORD raises those who are bowed down; The LORD loves the righteous.⁹The LORD watches over the strangers; He relieves the fatherless and widow; But the way of the wicked He turns upside down. ¹⁰The LORD shall reign forever-Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the LORD!-- NKJV

1 Timothy 6:11-19 ¹¹But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. ¹²Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, ¹⁴that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing, ¹⁵which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. ¹⁷Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. ¹⁸Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, ¹⁹storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. -- NKJV

Luke 16:19-31 ¹⁹"There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. ²⁰But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, ²¹desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. ²²So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. ²⁴"Then he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.' ²⁵But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. ²⁶And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.' ²⁷"Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house, ²⁸for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.' ²⁹Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' ³⁰And he said, 'No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' ³¹But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'" -- NKJV

Discipleship Questions:

Listen to the woeful opening statements in our reading from Amos and then read the Epistle reading. Conclude by reading the Gospel reading. What we hear echoes of in these writings is the expectation of a great reversal! The poor will receive their rich reward in heaven. Who then are the “rich” ones? Please read the following and discuss:

“There are 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 North Americans, 8 Africans, 4 South Americans and an assortment fills up the final four places. There are 52 women and 48 men of whom only 30 are fair-skinned and 70 are dark-skinned. Only one of us has a University education and yet six people in our village own 64% of our town's wealth and all of them are Americans. 80 people live in substandard housing without electricity, clean water and sewerage. 70 of us cannot read and 50 suffer from malnutrition.

This village analysis sorts out very quickly who Lazarus and Dives are in our world. As hard as life is for some of us and as much as we struggle financially, we are, comparatively, dressed in purple robes and feasting off fine linen.

The UN report goes on to say that 1.2 billion people live on $1.50 a day or less. And while we might be personally very generous in assisting the poor in a variety of ways, our Dives-like countries are not. Australia only gives $98 per person per year to aid third world development. Canada gives $108, the UK gives $112 and the USA's third world development budget is just $67 per person per year. And it’s fascinating to realize that Denmark is the most generous country in the world, giving $649 per capita last year.

According to this report, we in the United Sates are the rich ones! The fact is though that some of us – in fact many of us – in this Sanctuary give extravagantly and consistently to God’s Church and to those in need all around us! That’s a fact believe me.

But there are still some of us who perhaps rely too heavily on our bank accounts, our investment portfolios, our retirement funds and our ability to make money and so on! Please know that I’m also talking to myself here.”

Please read the following and discuss: “At the end of the day this parable is much more than an exhortation to feed the hungry and be concerned and compassionate for the needy. It is in fact a sublime affirmation that Justice will be had! That Good will overcome evil!

The meek will inherit the earth. All who worship God will be vindicated. We, who love our Lord will most assuredly live happily ever after!

Our Sovereign Good God cannot be mocked! Truth will have it’s day! Good ultimately overcomes evil! All lies, all sins – will be exposed. Justice will be had.

Even more than this God is reminding us that “HIS” love cannot ignore those in need in His creation. This was never meant to be. God’s dream for His world was Paradise – the Garden of Eden before the Fall! God gave us a perfect Garden and bodies that would never suffer and die but we chose to rebel and the result is what we have now! A world which is being polluted and poisoned. A world in which mothers are allowed to kill their babies. A world in which many young men run away when they impregnate women. It’s a world dark with sin but it’s a world which God has not and will never give up on. That’s what we’re all about – we’re to become His Healing Hoard. He’s calling us out of our comfortable lives to become much more aggressive in His love for His broken world!

Ah! God is reminding us that we must live now . . . today, in the certain and comforting knowledge that all will turn out wonderfully well for those of us who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Make no mistake God is calling you and me out of our comfortable lives to care for the poor – to become sacramental – incarnational expressions of His love for those in need!

Now what was this reflection all about? If someone comes up to you tomorrow and says what did that Australian guy peach about – what are you going to say? No, better than that – what is God trying to say to you and to us this morning?

Love as I love! Help those in need now. Be may arms and feet – feed the poor, heal the sick, visit those in jail and so on.

I want to close with a quote from Pope Benedict the XVI

“In Jesus Christ, God has revealed Himself in His descending. . . . God descends, to the point of death on the Cross. And precisely by doing so, He reveals Himself in His true divinity. We ascend to God by accompanying him on this descending path of self-scarifying service to others!”