Living Large or Living God

Myrna, a lady in the congregation I serve, was in the office the other day and we were talking about gardening as we are prone to do when she comes in. She was telling me about some 'moonflowers' that she grew from seeds that a friend gave her. The flowers grow quite tall, almost as tall as she. But she noticed the other days that the leaves were eaten so badly that only the veins were left. She discovered that there were hornworms on her beautiful flowers. They had apparently been there a while, but had gone unnoticed until they ate enough of the leaves to catch her attention and by then, they had grown quite large, living in ease off of the greenery that Myrna had worked so hard to grow. The hornworms were living large, they were prospering and enjoying their prosperity, that is until their comfortable and prosperous lifestyle brought them to Myrna’s notice. In the same way, sometimes people become so prosperous that they begin living large, sometimes without noticing it.

The man was a C.E.O. for a large corporation. His employees loved him because he was generous with bonuses and celebrations for achieving their goals. We are a team, he said, we share the work and the rewards, they liked him and looked up to him. He was driven back and forth to work in a chauffeured limousine, and he lived in a beautifully landscaped, new and modern gated community. He was content and had as much security as one could hope for in life. Outside the gate of his beautiful community lived a homeless man – we’ll call him Lazarus – who was crippled and could not work. There was perhaps a government grant he could receive, but he did not know how to apply for it. He was hungry. Not just today and not just occasionally – it was a constant hunger. He often searched through the garbage for the scraps of food that were thrown away. The rich man had noticed Lazarus, but had looked through and beyond him, after all he paid taxes so people like that could be taken care of – he gave money to the church so that people who were gifted for that sort of thing could minister to the homeless and poor. So his limo passed through the gate and it closed behind him and he was secure on the inside from the Lazaruses of the world.

Then one morning Lazarus, who had been slowly wasting away for months, lay down in a puddle in the alley near the garbage cans and died. Unknown to him the rich man was finishing his preparations for work and at that moment had a massive heart attack and died. Death is the great equalizer you see. It doesn’t care who you are or what you have; it simply claims you when it is your time. Now for most of us what we could know of the story would end there, but it doesn’t. Lazarus went to be in paradise where he found comfort and contentment, and the rich man went to the lower darkness where he yearned for some touch of human contact, some touch of comfort.

Our first thought as we share this parable is that the rich man was not a good person. That is not the case however, for his employees loved him, and I am guessing his funeral was well attended with many flowers and the wake was lavish with many to offer comfort to his family. He was generous with his employees, he paid his taxes and he even gave to the church. So, why does Jesus suggest, and this is a modernized version of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16, that the rich man didn’t make it to paradise?

I think that Paul’s admonitions to his son in the faith, Timothy (1 Timothy 6:6-19), can help us to understand the parable, and our own perspectives on material goods. This pericope includes one of those scriptural references that is often misquoted and I first of all want us to truly hear this – it is not money itself that is the problem; it is love of money that is the root of evil. So if the problem is not money, then what is it that sends the rich man to the lower darkness?

Paul urges Timothy to godliness with contentment. This is a difficult passage to translate and without going into a long discussion of Greek grammar, let me simply tell you that contentment in this context is a description of godliness – it is an aspect, an attribute, of godliness. In the prior verses Paul suggests that some pursue godliness for their own gain, and this he says is wrong, true godliness requires contentment: we are imitators of Christ when we live by an inward sufficiency through the Holy Spirit. That is in opposition to the world which teaches us that bigger is better. Modern consumerism opposes the old saying that less is more. A recent issue of “Good Housekeeping” had an article entitled ‘Clutter Cure’ in which they suggested ways to overcome the clutter in our homes. The article outlined organizational strategies and storage solutions, but nowhere in the article did they suggest getting rid of stuff and not buying more – that would be countercultural. We are overburdened by the pursuit of the material and living large, perhaps without realizing it. And while we should be aware of the dangers inherent in the accumulation of material goods, this is not a call to poverty. It is not money or material goods that create problems; it is the improper perspective on them – the love of them.

The danger is that in loving money and material things we wander away from the faith. Money and material gain should not be the focus of either our life's journey or our faith journey, nor should they be a distraction from it – we are to pursue a godliness that is defined by contentment that is rooted in Christ

Paul suggests that the things of the world can cause us to lose sight of the Lord and to drift away. When we decide to live large, instead of living God, we are admired by the world, but perhaps we lose sight of God. Paul contrasts this with the active pursuit of righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness; and to take hold of the that to which we have been called – life, life abundant, and life eternal. Paul is not suggesting here that we earn salvation, what he is directing us to is the mystery of living in the already, but not yet of salvation. We are saved by grace, but we are also saved for discipleship, for service, for participation in the radical Kingdom of God that comes into being through Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of Life. It is Christ who holds the key to real life, eternal life, a life that counts. His is the only path to this life. Paul uses a formula that was familiar to the early church when he suggests that Jesus is king of kings and Lord of lords, he is making a political statement. In this text Paul is suggesting that life cannot be found in economics or politics, but in Jesus Christ, who is Lord of life. The economics and political structures of his day, and of ours, are not God’s kingdom or God’s economy. We are to be, he says, tekna fotos, people of the light, the indescribable and unapproachable light of Christ.

And so, he suggests, with money then, comes great responsibility. Money does not buy contentment or security, but is given to us that we might enact God’s economy. And when we do, we declare in our words and our actions that Jesus is Lord, Lord of the world, Lord of life.

When we see our money and material goods with the proper perspective, not as permanent, but as temporary, we engage in discipleship that proclaims Jesus as Lord of our lives. We also engage in a faith statement that says we understand the difference between temporary and permanent. You’ve heard the old saying; you can’t take it with you. We are blessed to be a blessing, and when we focus on our money and material things they become a gate that stands as a barrier to community.

The name Lazarus means “God heals.” One of the ways we share that healing that we have received is by rejecting our culture’s call to living large and intentionally living out God’s love and compassion for others. Our cultural mindset is about living large, but living God is about contentment and sharing - it is about understanding God's economy as revealed in Jesus Christ. As people of faith, we are not called to live by cultural norms, but to live in a radically new way that calls attention to the Kingdom of God on earth. It is about contentment - an attribute of Godliness.