16 Pentecost Proper 21
Based on Luke 16:19-31
25 Sept 2022
I wish that when, in public schools, we studied taught American history we had been taught the big picture. I realize that memories are sketchy and selective, but I can tell you what I do not remember. I have vague recollections of the IWW, International Workers of the World (Wobblies), and socialism. Eugene Debs is somewhere in my memory bank. Other names of socialists like Emma Goldman are at least familiar; but the trajectory of what I was taught was that it was a weak and minor movement in the great progression of capitalism and that it was distinctly un-American. I believe I was taught that capitalism triumphed because it was the system that served the needs of the American republic best and that all benefitted.
I am no longer at all certain that is the case. I discovered that in the early 20th century the IWW organized thousands of workers to demand a better share of the profits and for things we now take for granted, such as a limit of hours worked and safe working conditions. Between 3-4 of every thousand miners died each year; working on the railroads increased your odds to between 7-8 per thousand of dying. There was no workman’s compensation. Labor was viewed as a cheap and easily obtainable resource, not as the thousands of human beings they in truth were. Certainly not as children of God.
I learned that the state destroyed the socialist movement during WWI after the passage of the Espionage Act of 1917, which is still on the books, and which included a provision to imprison someone who “willfully caused or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty in the military…”. This effectively allowed the US government to prosecute anyone speaking up against the US role in WWI. So much for free speech. It was far more important to the capitalists, to the few who controlled most of the wealth of the nation and its industries, to make sure that profits were made. Like the rich man, the few lived quite sumptuously. Andrew Carnegie became one of the wealthiest men in the world as head of US Steel. I was in a group where one of the members shared his loathing of Carnagie because his grandfather had died, or rather was killed, during one of the strikes for better wages and working conditions. Labor was no different than the iron and coal used to make steel; people were measured by how much work they could do and were expendable.
At this point you should be asking what this has to do with the Gospel in general, the Gospel of Luke more specifically, and the story of Lazarus and the rich man at the most particular level. I am here to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ and the story of American labor is a bit of a Debbie Downer.
Last week we heard about “dishonest wealth.” Luke does not like the idea of dishonest wealth, but what he says Jesus tells people to do with wealth: be audacious. That is what the dishonest manager did. He used money to spread around good to more and more people, even as he remained self-centered. Perhaps Carnegie’s libraries count as audacious use of money. I am not so sure about the church organs.
This week it gets even more dramatic. I am indignant when I listen to the story of the rich man who doesn’t even see Lazarus. How could he ignore someone in such need, right in his sight. But he does not see!! And the rich man pays the penalty. We say to ourselves it served him right, or he should have done the just and right thing while he was alive.
But Jesus is speaking to us. It does not mean we are the rich man; for many who have heard this have been the Lazarus’ of the world. It does mean that we who have ears to hear should listen!
Eugene Debs was, despite his atheism, preaching the Gospel in his own way. He said, “wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder. And that is war in a nutshell. In due time the hour will strike and this great cause triumphant... will proclaim the emancipation of the working class and the brotherhood of all mankind.” That was the speech that landed him in prison, with others in the IWW, and broke the movement so that the war could continue and the capitalists continue to make their profits.
My father told me that he thought about joining the Communist party in the early 1930’s. He felt that the government was only protecting the few and doing nothing for the many. My mother talks about the great relief felt when a minimum wage came in the 1930’s and she received something like 10 cents and hour in a creamery. It was enough to help put food on the table.
This isn’t just a story of a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus; this is a story about the entire foundation of God’s reign on earth. This is not a story about how someone gets their just desserts; this is a story which had better resonate with us here and now. What do you do when you have resources? You share them!! It is that simple. Do not even begin to call yourself Christian if you do otherwise!! The robber barons, the colonial landholders, the wealthy merchants, and capitalists called themselves Christian. That has been the sad history of this nation and of many others. The few who have do whatever they can to deprive the many who do not have. Today there are groups who love to say that we are a Christian nation, stressing belief combined with Manifest Destiny. Jesus would call that an oxymoron; his kingdom is not of this world. We could be a nation and a people that espouse the teachings of Jesus; but to do so we would need to radically alter the way those with wealth treat those without wealth!! We don’t need Christian nationalism, we need Jesus.
The rich man still didn’t not get it, even after death. He had the audacity to ask for Lazarus to come and bring him water. How long will the wealthy remain clueless? For Luke, and for the socialists and for my father and for me, this is not a tale of what happens after death when you don’t listen to the Gospel message of justice. This is a message of what we need to do now, right now. Let those who have ears listen!