26th Sunday of the Year—Cycle C—2016
FIRST READING Amos 6:1a, 4-7
Thus says the Lord the God of hosts: Woe to the complacent in Zion! Lying upon beds of ivory, stretched comfortably on their couches, they eat lambs taken from the flock, and calves from the stall! Improvising to the music of the harp, like David, they devise their own accompaniment. They drink wine from bowls and anoint themselves with the best oils; yet they are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph! Therefore, now they shall be the first to go into exile, and their wanton revelry shall be done away with.
SECOND READING 1 Timothy 6:11-16
But you, man of God, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Compete well for the faith. Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who gave testimony under Pontius Pilate for the noble confession, to keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ that the blessed and only ruler will make manifest at the proper time, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, and whom no human being has seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal power. Amen.
GOSPEL Luke 16:19-31
Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores. When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’ Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours. He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.'”
My sisters and brothers in the Lord,
Woe to the complacent in Zion!—these words from the Prophet Amos can serve to stir us up a bit on this 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time. We don’t have to become fanatics to recognize that so much of modern culture is about avoiding those who have nothing, avoiding those who are poor, avoiding those who have problems, and so on. Most of us want to feel all right about living in a way that makes us comfortable and in a way that practically blinds us to the problems of so many in our world.
The Prophet Amos is famous in the Old Testament, the Jewish Scriptures, for poking at the complacent, for pushing those who have too much to help those who don’t and for reminding everyone that God has given a way to live and we should follow the Lord. The passage today goes with the Gospel for today: remember the poor because they are always outside your door and the way that you treat them is important for your salvation!
Today’s second reading is from the First Letter to Timothy and speaks of the virtues of a good person: “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Compete well for the faith.” None of us would argue with such straightforward advice! On the other hand, at times we disagree about what it might mean. Put into the context of the first reading today and the Gospel, it is clear that we must go out of ourselves, pay attention to those who have less than we do and not get so caught up in our own comfort that we forget others.
The Gospel from Luke which is given to us today repeats these admonitions but also adds that even if someone rises from the dead, people will not necessarily listen to him. This is strong medicine because it tells us that even with our faith in the Lord Jesus, we can end up ignoring those in need. Over and over in the New Testament, the Christian Scriptures, we are told that saying nice things is never enough. Our faith in the Lord Jesus must result in actual service to the poor, to the needy, to those who mourn, to those who lack clothes or food or any kind of care.
Not only are we told to love and serve others, we are even told to go to the extremes at times and give more than is asked of us. Loving and serving others must become a way of life for us, not something that we do when we have extra time! We are invited to learn how to follow Jesus! There is no way by which we can ever say: I did what He asked of me and that is enough. No, instead, we are invited to form a living relationship with God, a relationship that is ongoing, personal and loving at every moment of our lives. Our life must become a response to HIM.
Your brother in the Lord,
Abbot Philip