Well here we are on the last Sunday of September, ¾ of the year is behind us already and we’re now less than 3 months away from Christmas Day. Exciting isn’t it? I mention that because, notwithstanding that it is a little early, I want to start my sermon this morning with a quote from that most famous of Christmas stories, Charles Dickens’, A Christmas Carol.
It’s from the scene in which Scrooge’s fiancée breaks off their long engagement because she believes that money has replaced her in Scrooge’s affections. And Scrooge responds by saying,
“This is the even-handed dealing of the world” … “There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!”
At the heart of Dickens’ story is a critique of the social conditions of his day and an advocacy of a compassionate social responsibility towards the poor. But in spite of this, and in spite of the high ideals and fine words of so many people since, has anything really changed in the since Dickens wrote those words in 1843? To be honest, I think not. We might not have in this country now the level of abject poverty that existed in Dickens’ time, but nevertheless the poor are still with us, and the world is still very hard on them. And things are still the same when it comes to the pursuit of wealth.
Now I think Dickens chose the words he put on Scrooge’s lips here very carefully and very well. Many people today still do profess to condemn the pursuit of wealth, but for most people it is only a profession, it’s a claim. Because isn’t it true that those who condemn the pursuit of wealth, the greed of the wealthy, very often want to be wealthy themselves? Isn’t it true that they condemn the pursuit of wealth on the one hand while on the other hand, and at the same time, look for ways to make themselves wealthier? And how many people would complain if they were wealthy, very few indeed, I’m sure, because while we often hear people complaining about not having enough money, when do we ever hear anyone complaining about having more money, let alone too much money?
So just as in Dickens’ day, the world is still very hard on poverty and still professes to condemn the pursuit of wealth while at the same time actually doing all it can to pursue wealth. As Christians though, we should have a different attitude towards these things. We should be hard on poverty, but not on the those who suffer from poverty. That is, we should be hard on the existence of poverty as a condition in which people are forced live, lacking the resources and essentials to sustain at least a reasonable standard of living, while at the same time being compassionate and showing some care towards those who are living in poverty. And while there’s nothing wrong with wanting a better standard of living for ourselves and achieving the means, the wealth, to get that, and the Christian faith does not condemn wealth, we should see wealth as something through which we can help not only ourselves but help others too. And this is the lesson of the parable in this morning’s Gospel.
Nowhere in the parable does Jesus say that it’s wrong to be rich. Nowhere in the parable does Jesus say that it’s wrong to enjoy the good things that wealth allows us. Nowhere in the parable does Jesus say that the rich man was a crook, that he’d acquired his wealth dishonestly. Jesus simply says,
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.”
Similarly, Jesus makes no comment on why Lazarus was poor. He doesn’t say Lazarus was a bad man who was in any way deserving of his lowly condition. We know that to the ancient Jews, misfortune was often seen as divine punishment for sin, and there are people today who do believe that at least up to a point, the poor are to blame for their own plight because they’re lazy and can’t, or won’t, make good judgement calls between what’s right and wrong, good and bad. But there’s no hint of that in what Jesus says about Lazarus. Rather Jesus simply says,
“And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.”
So there’s nothing in the parable about the relative merits of either the rich man or Lazarus. Because that’s not what the parable is about. The parable is about the unrighteousness of turning a blind eye to the suffering of others. And more precisely in this case, it’s about turning a blind eye to the suffering of others when it’s going on right in front of our eyes, and we could easily do something to help alleviate their plight.
We’re told that the rich man in the parable dressed in purple. That was the royal, or imperial colour, so it tells us just how rich the man was. He was as rich as a king. And he” feasted sumptuously every day.” So he spent a lot of money, an excessive amount of money, just on food and drink while all the while, there was a poor man, who’s plight he couldn’t help but notice, lying at his gate. A poor man who would have been happy with just a few scraps of food, not from the rich man’s table, but that fell from his table; a few scraps of food that would have either been eaten by dogs or swept up and thrown away with the rubbish. But he wasn’t even offered that. Jesus doesn’t say this explicitly in the parable, but I don’t think we’re left in any doubt that this situation was left unchanged until that great leveller, death, took both the rich man and Lazarus; one to the side of Abraham and one to Hades, one to heaven and one to hell.
Because Jesus didn’t condemn the rich man simply for being rich, there’s no doubt he wasn’t tormented in Hades simply because he was rich but because of his complete indifference towards the plight of the poor man at his gate. A man who’s suffering he was well aware of, and whom he could so easily have helped without it in any way affecting or diminishing his own lavish lifestyle and yet didn’t. And this is what condemns him, not his earthly wealth per se.
In the parable, the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers so that they might change their ways and avoid the torment of Hades. But as Abraham says this has already happened. No, they haven’t been visited by Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas past, present and future, but they have been visited by Moses and the prophets, so they should listen to them. This is something he, and no doubt they haven’t done but perhaps if someone were to go to them from the dead, they’ll not only listen, but repent. But, as Abraham says,
“If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”
We know that Jesus is speaking about himself here. He’s saying that if people won’t listen to Moses, to the law, and the prophets, they’re not going to listen to him either. And we know that for many people has been and still is the case. But we’re Christians. We’re people who not only say that we do listen to Jesus, but that we follow his example and live by his teaching. But do we? And especially do we listen when it comes to what he says about wealth and what we should do with it?
We might say, and I’m sure many would say that, Yes, they do listen. And they show that by contributing to charity and so on. But even so, isn’t there still at least a bit of the Ebeneezer Scrooge in all of us? For example, one of the issues that people often raise with me is the inequity of a society in which footballers can be paid more each week, than what even nurses at the very top of their profession earn in a year, and many, many times more each week what nurses lower down the pay scale earn each year. And yes, I would say that is wrong, just as those asking me the question think it’s wrong. But when I’ve asked those people if they were offered tens of thousands of pounds per week to do something they like doing, would they turn it down, suddenly, their expression changes. Because of course, No, they wouldn’t. And the vast majority of people I’ve asked that have been honest enough to admit that they wouldn’t.
And how many of us do the National Lottery? How many of us say that if we had a big win on the lottery that, while we’d obviously look after our family, we’d give lots of money to our parish church and to various charities and we’d use the money to help people. Well we may very well do that. But can any of us honestly say that if we won millions of pounds we wouldn’t use an awful lot of it, perhaps, or probably even, the majority of it to look after ourselves, to improve our situation and indulge in our own pleasures?
I started with Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, because this morning’s parable reminds me a little of the story of Scrooge and Tiny Tim Cratchett. Scrooge is aware of the poverty in the world around him, but he’s so wrapped up in his pursuit of wealth that he ignores it; as far as he’s concerned it’s nothing to do with him. And Tiny Tim is the poor, sickly child of Scrooge’s clerk. But as the story unfolds, Scrooge does begin to listen, he sees not only the error of his selfish ways, but also the good that his wealth can do to help others less fortunate than himself. And he changes. He changes from the “odious, stingy, hard, un-feeling man” he has been and becomes ‘a second father’ to Tiny Tim and
‘… as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world.’
Scrooge didn’t give up his wealth as such, he didn’t make himself poor, he just learned how to use the wealth he had for the good of others and did it. And Jesus doesn’t ask us to make ourselves poor, but simply to share our wealth with those less fortunate than us. The question is, are we listening?
Amen.
Propers for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 28th September 2025
Entrance Antiphon
All that you have done to us, O Lord, you have done with true judgment, for we have sinned against you and not obeyed your commandments. But give glory to your name, and deal with us according to the bounty of your mercy.
The Collect
O God, who manifest your almighty power above all by pardoning and showing mercy, bestow, we pray, your grace abundantly upon us and make those hastening to attain your promises heirs to the treasures of heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
The Readings
Amos 6:1, 4-7
Psalm 146:6-10
1 Timothy 6:11-16
Luke 16:19-31
Prayer after Communion
May this heavenly mystery, O Lord,
restore us in mind and body,
that we may be coheirs in glory with Christ,
to whose suffering we are united
whenever we proclaim his Death.
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 