“Preaching to the Choir” (Luke 16:19-31)

“Preaching to the choir” is when a person speaks for or against something to people who already agree with what is being said.  I think that a lot of ministers will tell you that they spend a lot of time “preaching to the choir” . . . or at least that is what they are told by the people sitting in the pews.  Ministers are also told when this happens that those listening in the pews are not the ones who need to hear it, its “those” who are out there beyond the doors of the sanctuary. Those are the ones who need to hear it!  Not the choir.

Have you ever thought about the five brothers that are mentioned in our reading?  In the story two people died—a rich man and a beggar who sits at the gate of the rich man’s home.  The rich man has it all . . . the beggar, named Lazarus, has nothing and longs to even eat the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.  In death Lazarus is whisked up to the heavens to stand by Abraham’s side.  The rich man heads south . . . way south to the warmth of Hades where he is in torment.  When he asks Abraham to send Lazarus to provide some comfort, he is told that it ain’t going to happen.  You get what you get for the life you’ve lived.

 

Shocked and realizing the situation, the rich man then pleads for Abraham to send Lazarus back to earth to warn his five brothers about what could happen if they don’t change their ways.  Again, Abraham denies the rich man his request, basically telling the rich man that they are on their own.  Besides, alludes Abraham, it would do no good because it would just be “preaching to the choir”.  They have already been warned.  Moses has spoken to them.  The prophets have spoken to them.  Despite the message they have not changed their ways.  Even sending Lazarus to share the message is not going to change the way the five brothers live their lives.  They would shake their head in acknowledgement and proclaim: “You are preaching to the choir!”

 

At this rate it should be a “warm” family reunion when the time comes for the brothers to give up the ghost!

 

“Preaching to the choir” doesn’t often get results.

 

Well, Jesus tells us.  In the story, Abraham’s answer to the rich man about warning his brothers tells him that they should “listen”.  Abraham tells him, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them . . .if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”  Listening is the key!

 

The word “listen” appears 278 times throughout the books of the Bible.  It seems as if the phrase that Jesus used most frequently in the Gospels seems to be “he who has ears, let him hear.”  He says that at least eight times.  The “key” is in the “listening”.  For Jesus actions were proof of listening.  If the five brothers were listening then they would know that they were to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, endurance and gentleness.  Or, as Jesus would sum it up, they would love the Lord with all their all and love others as God has loved them.  Their lives and actions would reflect what they had heard.

 

And the brothers had heard it all.  They had heard it from the top dogs . . . Moses and the Prophets . . . and nothing changed.  They had heard it and agreed to it—after all they were all religious people, but nothing changed.  They continued to live life as they always had . . . people of privilege whose only concern was for themselves.  And like any good choir their response to the message they heard was a great big “Amen!”  Abraham was pretty certain that even someone risen from the dead wasn’t going help them “hear” the message any clearer.  Nothing was going to change.

 

Now don’t get me wrong.  The message in the parable that Jesus is sharing is fairly obvious—don’t live like the rich man unless you enjoy warm climates.  But that is just the background to the bigger issue being addressed—listening.  Will the five brothers listen?  Well, if they are chips off the old block like their deceased brother . . . probably not.

 

Apparently, God thinks that listening is important.  We have two ears and only one mouth.  God understands the power of listening.  Listening builds trust.  Listening builds respect.  Listening encourages empathy.  It improves relationships in all realms of life.  It promotes growth.  It shows that people care.  When listening occurs and real hearing takes place, there is opportunity for growth and change for everyone involved.  Thus, it was that Jesus was always imploring those around him to “listen”.

 

We have all been a part of that “choir” that gets “preached” to, but hopefully we are really listening to what is being said.  One of my favorite hymns around Advent and Christmas is the Avery and March carol Hey!  Hey! Anybody Listening?  Our choir has sung it quite often, but were we listening?  Especially the chorus that goes like this:

 

Hey!  Hey!  Anybody listening?

Hey!  Hey! Anybody there?

Hey!  Hey! Anybody listening?

Anybody care?

  

The rich man in the story was apparently educated.  He seemed to be religious—a person raised in the faith, after all he did make it somewhere upon his death in order to have the conversation with Abraham.  He probably heard the words of Moses and the Prophets.  He was not ignorant to the will of God.  He probably joined in the “amen” chorus whenever the word was preached.  But he didn’t listen . . . really listen . . . because if he had he wouldn’t have been roasting in Hades.

 

Same goes for his brothers.

 

We can avoid this fate.  All we have to do is to really listen to Jesus’ call to love . . . to love God . . . to love one another.  If we listen to Jesus’ call to live our lives as a reflection of God’s love and grace . . . God’s desire for peace and justice . . . God’s desire for the kingdom to be realized.  If we are really listening, then the world will change as we respond to what we are hearing.  We will care.  Our lives will change.  The lives of others will change.  We will be that much closer to the Kingdom of God.

 

Let us not be members of that “choir” that seems to be always preached to.  Let us listen.  Let us care!  Amen!

 

“Really! Me?” (I Timothy 1:12-17)

Do you remember George Wallace?  Wallace was the one-time governor of Alabama who was a staunch segregationist who stood in front of the entrance to the University of Alabama blocking the path of black students attempting to enroll.  In his stance he had the full support of the Ku Klux Klan and racists across the nation.  During the late 1970s he announced that he was a “born again Christian” . . . can you believe it?

How about Charles Wendell Colson . . . more commonly known as Chuck Colson?  He was the Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon before and during the Watergate era.  He was known as Nixon’s “hit man” because he was ruthless in getting things done.  As all of the political and legal stuff hit the fan during Watergate, he became an evangelical Christian prior to serving time in prison for his admitted crimes.  Can you believe it?

How about John Newton?  No, he was not the long-lost brother of Sir Isaac Newton nor the inventor of Fig Newtons . . . but I imagine that we are all familiar with him.  Newton was a slave ship master who was not religious by any stretch of the imagination.  Having endured a violent storm at seas, upon his arrival home he abandoned his life as a slave trader and devoted his life to God’s service . . . he was “born again”!  Can you believe it!

The truth is . . . neither could they.  Yet they were.  Each and every one of them was what we would call “saved”.  They had spiritual or religious experiences that brought them into relationship with God.  They were redeemed much to their disbelief.  It was Newton’s famous hymn that summed it up best when he wrote these words in Amazing Grace:

Amazing grace how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost, but now I’m found

Was blind but now I see

The Apostle Paul puts it this way in our reading this morning: “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy . . . the grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of who I am the worst.  But for that very reason I was shown mercy . . .”

Can you believe it . . . even the Apostle Paul was one of them!  Yea, our Apostle Paul . . . a mean and violent person, a relentless persecutor of the followers of Jesus, a stubborn man, an enemy of the faith.  He, too, was more or less a “born again” Christian.

Well, believe it.

One of the most difficult parts of faith is being able to say and believe that “God’s awesome and wondrous being is love” and that love encompasses all for we are all sinners.  We are all sinners.  Remember what Jesus said to the taunting and vindicative group wanting to stone the woman . . . “let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”  No one threw a stone.  They understood . . . all are sinners.  You . . . me . . . everyone.  Which makes it remarkable that through God’s love and grace we are pulled into and offered a relationship with the Holy.  Yea, even you and me.

The tough part of all of this is on our end . . . the buying into God’s grace for wretches like us.  Accepting the idea that God could love us . . . desires us . . . and is willing to take us just as we are.  I imagine we all have within us different ideas about the degrees of worthiness we are in God’s eyes.  Think about those individuals I mentioned at the beginning of this sermon and the terrible and despicable things that they did in their lifetimes . . . things we have not forgotten all these years later. Things that still define in our minds who these people were.  And, yet God welcomed them into the family . . . reached out to them in love.  For us these may be people we could never embrace and welcome into our family, but God does.

Maybe it is difficult to believe that God loves us . . . sinners one and all, but God does.  Maybe in our mind we cannot see the good in us beyond what we perceive as the bad, but God does.  It is to that “good” in us that God issues the invitation to come into relationship and to walk the path of life in grace and love.

I think that Paul carried within him this itching disbelief that God . . . this difficulty of believing that God loved him despite all of the terrible and nasty things that he had done in his lifetime.  Yet, at the same time, Paul wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.  He jumped at the opportunity to come into relationship with a God who was going places . . . in particular, the Kingdom of God.  Paul was going to go with God on God’s mission and fulfill his role in that journey.  Paul declares: “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service.”

 So, it should be for us.

God is an awesome God . . . a God of love who gives it to us through a wondrous grace that defies understanding . . . defies logic.  The rest is up to us to set aside our suspicions that it is too good to believe . . . that we are not good enough, worthy enough to receive such a gift. It is up to us to set aside that cumbersome baggage we judge ourselves by . . . that we allow the world to judge us by . . . to set it aside and to fall into step with the God of love and grace.  Jesus shows us the way.

Let us not see ourselves through the eyes of the world, but instead let us see ourselves through the eyes of God.  Through God’s eyes we are lovable . . . we are worthy . . . desired. 

Really!

You and me!

Amen!