Pentecost 17, Proper 21, 2004:

The Church Pension Fund sponsors conferences around the country from time to time to help clergy prepare for their eventual and inevitable retirement. Sometimes conferences are held to update current retirees about benefit changes or enhancements. I heard about one young financial planner from New York who was leading a workshop about the need to continue investing in the stock market. One older priest spoke up and said, "At my age I don’t even buy green bananas." The financial advisor was talking about the fact that in the Episcopal Church women clergy and women spouses outlive men by more than twenty years. "For example," he said, "for every man of eighty, there are two women of that age or older."

"Young fellow," an old clergyman said, "I’m eighty-nine years old, and that’s about the most useless information you could have given me."

I pray that I can give you some information that might be of some use? There is an old story about a man who applied for admission to the Gates of Heaven. St. Peter told him that the ticket to get in was earth’s most priceless possession. He would have to go back and find that most treasured object.

From what he had seen and heard, the man was sure that wealth itself was the earth’s most priceless possession. So, he bargained for and obtained the Crown Jewels of the British Empire. He quickly presented these to St. Peter, but was denied entry and told to keep searching. St. Peter said, "What is wealth here, where the very streets are gold and grandeur beyond imagination?"

So the man thought and thought and decided that earth’s most valuable possession must be power, since so many people sought it. So he bargained and bought the Sword of Alexander, the one he had used to conquer the then known world. He handed the sword to St. Peter but was again refused entry. St. Peter said, "What is power here, where all power resides? Alexander is dust, just as all powerful men are or will be."

The man continued his search and thought that perhaps wisdom was earth’s most valuable possession. So he searched for and found the Lost Books of Solomon. He handed these to St. Peter but was refused admission for the third time. St. Peter said, "What is wisdom here, where the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom?"

So, again, the man walked the earth and searched and searched. But, he would not imagine what earth’s most valuable possession might be. As he walked one day, thinking about earth’s most priceless treasure, he happened to stop to eat lunch and sat down beside a fellow sojourner. He noticed that the man was without any food, so he offered some of his own bread and fruit. He listened as the fellow seeker poured out his troubled soul.

Something made the man reach out and take the other man’s hand in his and with the other he gave a reassuring pat on the back. Together they cried and the man felt genuine concern and compassion for his newfound friend.

Slowly, the man made his way back to the Gates of Heaven and reported to St. Peter that he had been unable to find earth’s most priceless possession. St. Peter said, "But of course you’ve found it! It’s shining here on your cheek. It is the tear of compassion, from caring for and sharing another person pain and hurt and from listening to their soul." And with that the gates swung open.

It’s just a story, of course, but one that is intended to help us overcome the most dangerous attitude anyone can have in this world---the attitude of indifference. It is intended to remind us of the three great words Jesus used over and over---the last, the least, and the lost. "The last shall be first, the least shall be the greatest, and the lost shall be found."

The descendants of Lazarus are all around us. Some are careless and indifferent because we have given them no reason to be otherwise. Some are just unloved rebels living in what they perceive to be a callous world. Some have just fallen through the cracks. Like the rich man, they don’t fit our standards of income, color, moral habits, culture, religion, or social customs. They don’t need to be cared for; so much as they need to be cared about. They don’t need so much a handout, but a handclasp to help them stand. More than anything, we need to put their pain, their problems, their frustrations, and their sorrows in our own hearts. If we can’t be bothered with them, how can we expect God to be bothered with us?

It has to do with compassion. The sin of the rich man was not his riches. Jesus never said people couldn’t have things. No, the rich man’s sin was indifference. He just didn’t notice Lazarus at his door. He just had no compassion.

I don’t know your view of Jesus or how you interpret the things he did or said, but I do know that if you cut out the compassion he demonstrated, you don’t have much Gospel left. I would simply want to suggest that it is rather difficult to be a Christian and base your life on only 62 books in scripture. You have to have the four Gospels and you have to come to terms with what Jesus commanded. I do know that if we cut compassion out of our lives, we don’t have much Gospel left in them either. Oh, we can justify and rationalize all we want, we can say that the church ought to be concerned only with people’s spiritual wellbeing and leave the social problems alone. I have to tell you that I want no part of such a church. I believe we are most truly alive and living according to the precepts of God’s will when we have a proper balance between those things. Yes, I’m deeply concerned with my spiritual wellbeing; it is something on which my very life depends. I’m deeply concerned with your spiritual wellbeing, too. We need more people involved in Bible study and prayer groups. We need more people who will volunteer at Bedford Christian Ministries, with Bedford Ride, the Free Clinic, and our in-house outreach efforts.

I am also convinced that there is a direct relationship between your giving and where you are in your spiritual journey. In October we will be given an opportunity to present a pledge to God. I remind you again that you never pledge to St. John’s Church or any other church. If your pledge is just a pledge of money and a representative offering of all that you are and all that you have, it is less than it needs to be. Giving needs to always represent more than just the gift. It must always point to the giver and the true giver is God. Otherwise, whatever is given amounts to a bribe and giving that does not point back to the true giver leads us to think we can get away with embezzling from what is rightfully God’s.

The rich man did not see that he had many opportunities to close the gap between himself and God. He failed to acknowledge the source of every blessing he had been given. He didn’t see how costly the bridge was that gave him the opportunity to walk again back to the Father. We forget those things at our peril, as well.

We represent that high cost again this morning. We call it Eucharist, the Great Thanksgiving. It is a priceless gift and demonstrates in no uncertain terms the love so great that it would come looking for us and would even lay down its life for us. We do this in remembrance of that great love. We have compassion because we have been shown the meaning of the word.

Many years ago, travelers on the West Virginia Turnpike, which is now Interstate 64, saw a sign that said, "Driving while drowsy can put you to sleep---permanently."

Jesus gave the story of the rich man and Lazarus as such a sign on the road of life for us to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest. We need not be actively criminal or deliberately evil to miss the Gate of Heaven. All we need to do is go drowsily along on our contented way, unconcerned an untroubled by other people’s needs and hurts. Or, we may find earth’s most priceless possession.

Hopefully, that is some information we can all use. Amen.