I do not think that we will resolve all those differing views today, nor do I think that we need to, but I do think that there is an unmistakable message being communicated by our text for this morning, also known as Jesus’ parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.  A parable may not be true in the literal sense but it does have power to communicate certain truths.  Oftentimes speaking parabolically has more truth-telling power than speaking literally, which is why Jesus taught so often with parables.

How much power can a parable have?  Our parable for today was powerful enough to move a man with three doctoral degrees (one in medicine, one in theology and one in philosophy) to leave civilization with all of its culture and amenities and to depart for the jungles of darkest Africa.  Our parable was powerful enough to induce one of the greatest concert organists of Europe to go to a place where there were no organs to play.  Our parable was powerful enough to motivate a man to give up a teaching position in Vienna, Austria so that he could work with people still living in the superstitions of the dark ages.

I am speaking about Dr. Albert Schweitzer, of course, and the single parable that so radically altered his life, according to him, was our text for this morning.  It was the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.  About it he wrote: "We British are the rich people.  Out there in Africa lies wretched Lazarus.  Just as the rich man sinned against Lazarus because of his lack of heart and compassion, so the rich man would not put himself in Lazarus’ place.  Nor did the rich man let his conscience tell him what to do.  And we English have sinned against the poorest of the world at our gates."

I suppose it would not be too great a stretch to transpose "Americans" for "English" in Schweitzer’s quote.  Just as Jesus’ parable continued to speak to Albert Schweitzer in his day, so it continues to speak to us in our day.  What are we doing for Lazarus today?  Sweeping the crumbs off our table for him, or maybe ignoring him altogether?  There is a cartoon about Garfield the Cat who is looking out his window to find Odie the Dog peering back at him from the cold outdoors. Garfield thinks to himself: "This is horrible.  Here I am in the comfort of a warm house, well fed, and there is Odie outside begging to get in, cold and hungry.  I can’t stand it anymore.  I just can’t stand it."  So Garfield goes over to the window… and closes the curtains.

Closing the curtain does nothing to help Odie.  Looking the other way does nothing to help Lazarus.  But neither does ignoring the plight of the needy help us, especially when the tables are turned and our fortunes are reversed.  The title of our message is, "The Reversal of Fortunes."  What seems so valuable to us today will one day prove worthless.  As the old saw says, "You can’t take it with you when you go."  But there are spiritual treasures we can store up today whose value will endure through this life and on to eternal life.

Lloyd Ogilvie tells of a father who knelt down to tuck his little boy into bed.  The little boy began the prayer that many of us learned to say as children: "Now I lay me down to sleep…."  But this night he got the words mixed up and said, "If I should wake before I die…."  Then he stopped in embarrassment and apologized.  But his father reassured him saying, "My deepest longing for you is that you may wake up before you die."  Jesus wants us to wake up before we die, and his parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is a wake-up call.

This is the only parable where Jesus gives a name to one of the characters—Lazarus, from the Greek Lazaros, from the Hebrew Eleazar, meaning: "whom God has helped."  We will find it to be an appropriate name for a fellow whose fortunes are reversed by God.  Tradition has assigned a name for the other fellow, Dives, which is Latin meaning "rich man."  But Jesus did not name this fellow, which is quite the opposite of what the world does.

We all know the names of the rich and famous.  Oprah Winfrey will earn 260 million dollars this year alone.  Everybody knows her by name.  But can we name any homeless person on the streets of, say, Cleveland?  I doubt it.  But in a reversal of worldly ways, Jesus gives a name to the poor man in his parable and not a name to the rich man.  This is a precursor of the reversal of fortunes that is to come.  But we get ahead of ourselves.

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day" (Verse 19).  You may recall how, in a sermon a few weeks ago, we mentioned how purple was a color reserved for the rich and powerful since it was such an outrageously expensive dye to produce (literally worth more than its weight in gold).  Dives was apparently into conspicuous consumption since he wore it every day while living in the lap of luxury.

But just outside his gate things were not so luxurious.  "At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table.  Even the dogs came and licked his sores" (Verse 20).  What we have here is a complete invalid (spelled exactly the same as invalid, by the way), who is apparently paralyzed since he has to be laid at Dives gate.  Paralysis would help to explain the bedsores he has acquired, as well as his inability to shoo away the dogs that lick them.  In short, we find a very sick man being laid at Dives gate.  Indeed, he does not survive very long in his abandoned state.

"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side" (Verse 22).  Isn’t that a precious image?  The angels carried him to heaven, here described as Abraham’s side.  What a great reversal of fortunes—from dogs licking his wounds to angels carrying him to heaven.  What lies beyond this life is a great mystery that can never be fathomed, and do you know why, because if we were to comprehend the bliss of heaven we would not want to stay here a minute longer.  Let us remember that whenever we lose a loved one, lest we grieve beyond measure as those without the hope of heaven.

The King James Version puts it this way: And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.  Perhaps you are familiar with a Negro Spiritual that goes: "Rock-a my soul in the bosom of Abraham."  That song is about our text for today.  Some of the original lyrics to that song are printed at the top of our bulletin.  "Well the rich man lives, and he lives so well, yet when he died had a home in hell.  Well a poor man Lazarus was as poor as I, yet when he died had a home on high."

You can imagine what that song would have meant for slaves languishing their lives away on the plantations of those who presumed to own them.  First it would have meant that they would ultimately fare very well in the reversal of fortunes spoken of in our text.  But the corollary to this first understanding was that the rich and powerful who kept them in their place would not fare so well when the great reversal of fortunes came about.  There would be no angels carrying them off to the bosom of Abraham in heaven.

"The rich man also died and was buried.  In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.  So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire’" (Verses 22-24).  My how the tables have turned.  As Lazarus once begged for relief from Dives, now Dives begs for relief from Lazarus.  But because of the great chasm between heaven and hell, Lazarus cannot help Dives anymore than Dives helped Lazarus.

In other words, woe to Dives—woe to the rich man.  Well, not exactly.  This is not exactly about the rich man or woman, and do you know why?  Because I am the rich man compared with the vast mass of humanity, and you are likewise rich men and women.  Right now there are over 3 million people populating America.  Multiply that figure by three and you have the number of people worldwide who are not getting enough food to eat.  A good deal more than that do not have clean water to drink.  Just about 25,000 people die each day from hunger or causes related to hunger according to a publication of Princeton University.  That would be over 8 times the number who died in the World Trade Center Collapse.  Every day.  Today.

But the woe in our text is not for the rich, and I mean that most sincerely.  If it was for the rich, Lazarus would not be resting in the bosom of Abraham because Abraham became a very rich man himself while he lived on this earth.  Albert Schweitzer didn’t do to bad either, for that matter.  Whew, that’s good to know.  But if the woe in our text is not for the rich, who is it for?  It is for the rich who ignore the plight of the poor and needy, just as Dives ignored the plight of Lazarus while the latter lay at the former’s gate.

Who are the needy that have been laid at our gate?  I know one needy person who I will be visiting in the hospital this afternoon.  And after I am done visiting that person I will not have to leave a bill for my services.  The doctor and nurses and hospital will have to leave a bill to be paid, but not me because somebody here has paid that bill through a faith promise made last fall.  Rev. Horak is likewise able to provide pastoral care, and many other good deeds besides, because of your generosity.

This church reaches out to human need all the time: from the repairs performed by our youth at Workcamp to the school supplies provided for migrant farm workers by our 3-H Circle, from the meals delivered by our Care Team to the funds distributed to myriad causes by our Missions Committee, from the man-hours contributed to allied ministries like Habitat For humanity and Volunteers of America to the power of a Stephen Minister’s presence—this church family reaches out to human need every day in every way.

You may not be able to do all these things by yourself, but when you support this church through your Christian Stewardship you participate in all these ways we seek to meet the human need that has been laid at our gate.  By contributing a portion of the treasure God has entrusted to you to meet the needs of his children, you lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven that endures to eternal life.  This reversal of fortunes is really a win-win for everyone concerned.  We may lose a little of our personal fortune in the exchange, but we gain a surpassing spiritual treasure that can never be lost, stolen or degraded.

I actually changed the title and text I had originally selected for this Sunday because when I studied it a little I realized that it would make a good stewardship sermon for Loyalty Sunday, so I selected another text from the Lectionary instead.  Guess what?  It ended up being a stewardship sermon anyway.  Sometimes it is hard to find a text in the Bible that is not about our Christian stewardship in one way or another.  But maybe it was the wisdom of God that led us to this text.  On Loyalty Sunday we are preaching to the choir anyway, since most of those present have already filled out their Faith Promise cards and brought them to church.  Maybe God wanted to reach us a little in advance to encourage our very best effort this year.