Invitations are Peculiar Things

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
October 31st 2010
Libby Feagans-King
Luke 16:19-31
“Invitations are Peculiar Things”

Invitations are peculiar things. On one hand we feel slighted if we don't get an invitation; on the other hand we conveniently dispose of invitations to events that we don't want to attend. There is actually a broad spectrum of invitations, with the invitations that we deem as being meaningful and important on one and in the ones that seem to only want to solicit our money and time on the other. And in the midst of all this is a complex set of cultural rules that help us to tell the difference. I know this because I used to work in the development office of a major hospital. This is the office that plans and coordinates all the fund raising activities for the hospital. And of course one of our major activities was to invite people to help in our mission. Now there were several ways that we would do this. One way was to send a letter, an invitation of sorts, to anyone who had been associated with the hospital. These "invitations" were your basic business letter sent out explaining our mission and asking for their gift to help us continue to help others. It was enclosed in a regular business envelope, personalized by the latest mail merge program, and had the reproduced signature of the hospital CEO. And from this letter we could expect approximately a 4% return. The invitation had all of the basic elements, it had a mission, it offered a solution and it was personal. You see that's where our culture comes in because it didn't matter that this invitation had those elements, it was how the elements were presented that mattered.
Now we had another fundraiser that was the series of parties given by very influential people in the city. This invitation came professionally printed in a large gold envelope that was addressed in a very different manner. You see the people who had attended these parties in previous years, received an envelope that was hand addressed and in that envelope was a letter written to them from the co-chairs of the fundraiser, which of course were always their peers. These letters, instead of just using Mr. or Mrs., or using the first name oftentimes used a familiar name. For example, my legal name is Frances and when I receive letters that say dear Frances I know immediately that this person does not know me, for if they knew me the letter would say dear Libby. The other thing about these letters was that they were hand signed by their co-chairs. The third difference was that even though this invitation was asking the invitee to give money, in return the invitee was able to attend an elaborate party. The rate of return on these invitations was closer to 80%.
The difference between these two invitations is not in them being personal for they were both personalized, but it was the degree to which they were personalized. The first invitation had a name and address, but it had no real personal relationship to the person receiving it. The second invitation however was not only personalized in name, it was also personalized by offering the person who was receiving it something in return for participation.
By now you're probably wondering just what any of this has to do with Lazarus and the rich man in Jesus’ story. Well, this story is all about invitations and being personal. Jesus’ ministry was all about liberation of the oppressed. Jesus was eating with the sinners, healing the sick and caring for the poor. And the Pharisees just didn't understand this. If Jesus was such a great teacher, why wasn't he lecturing in the elaborate Temples and eating with the elite. For if you are righteous then God will give you great blessings. And that is how the Pharisees would judge the righteous, by how many blessings God had given them in their lives. What made Jesus even the more of a paradox to the Pharisees was that Jesus himself was denying his status in the Jewish community and was eating and ministering to those who were beneath his status. So they are yelling things at Jesus like, “look at the man who is talking about riches in heaven when he can’t even take care of his riches here” or “you better hope you will have riches in heaven because you are sure throwing them away here”. So Jesus tells a story of a rich man who was very much aware of his status in life. This rich man had many blessings. He had a big house and plenty to eat. He had beautiful clothing and many friends. This was the type of man who could stand out in town square and exclaim "look at the many blessings that the Lord has given me," and many would believe in this man’s righteousness. And down by the gate was a man named Lazarus. The contrast here is huge. The rich man had a home and food and health. Lazarus had no home. Lazarus had no food and in fact was envious of the leftovers that the dog of the rich man ate. And when people saw Lazarus they would shake their heads saying "what horrible thing must he have done to be so punished by God?"
Then comes the day when the rich man and Lazarus dies. And here is kind of interesting paradox, because now that both of these men have died, one can really tell who was righteous by what blessings they receive. It wasn't the rich man who was blessed. It was the rich man now who suffered. And when he looked up into heaven he saw Lazarus. And you know at this point the rich man still does not get it. He doesn't see Lazarus as receiving reward. He sees Lazarus as the Abraham’s servant and he asked that the Abraham send Lazarus down to him if only to give a drop of water from his finger. And Abraham corrects the rich man and says "Lazarus could not come help you even if he wanted to, for Lazarus is receiving his reward. He has suffered on earth and he will suffer no more."
This is when the rich men begins to get it. He knows that he has missed out. And he's worried about his family. You see at this moment the rich man realizes that Lazarus was his invitation. Lazarus was business envelope invitation for the rich man to participate in God’s mission. Lazarus was a personal invitation to this man because he was at this man’s front gate day in and day out. So the rich man wants to send Lazarus back to his family to warn them to change their ways. We're having kind of a Charles Dickens moment here with ghosts coming to tell people to change their ways or else. The rich man wanted Abraham to dress up the invitation and send it again. He didn't say he put Lazarus back at the front gate so that my brothers have another chance to pick up the invitation. No, the rich man wanted Abraham to send Lazarus as he was now, healed and clean and all dressed up. You see in this way his brothers would receive the personal invitation, because they knew Lazarus, plus they would also understand the benefit that this invitation was for them. The rich man knew that his brothers would accept this invitation because they will be able to see the benefits.
And Abraham said "No, they have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them." Lazarus was not the only invitation. Abraham is telling the rich man that many invitations have been sent and still there's been no response. But the rich man tells Abraham "it wasn't made it personal enough, but if you send Lazarus then they will know that this is an invitation not to be ignored." You see the rich man wanted Lazarus to be the pretty invitation. And Lazarus was to go directly to his brothers, which would make this invitation hand addressed. Let's not forget this invitation was to include a warning. "Tell my brothers that I am in a place of torment and they need to change so that they do not come here.” He knew that his brothers would listen if Lazarus, someone they knew, came back from the dead, healed and dressed up with a message from their dead brother. His brothers would see that the poor will become the rich – so there really is value in helping the poor!
But Abraham says no. Abraham tells the rich man that if his brothers won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen to Lazarus. Abraham will not send this invitation.
So why won’t Abraham send this invitation? Let me tell you a little more about what I learned when I worked with the fundraising department at the hospital. This fancy invitation made us a lot of money one time of the year. We could not be guaranteed that come next year the same people will once again even attend one of the parties. Because it all has to do with who was giving the party. The people who responded to this invitation weren't really giving, they were buying. They were making sure that they would get a place at a party where they could be seen and people would know how important they are. Never once did we receive a letter that said "I remember what a good time I had at that party and what a good cause the party was for so I'm sending more money.”
So what about the 4% that answered the business like invitation? These were the people who continue to send gifts to the hospital all year round. Sometimes they were small gifts, many times they were substantial gifts. During my time working in this department, there were two gifts where people left their estates to the hospital. And when we looked them up in the database to see what programs they had been involved with, it was the simple invitation that they first answered. Now you may think only 4% is not enough to be the foundation of our program, but remember this 4% grew with every new invitation that we sent out. The 4% that I'm talking about were from people who had never given before, but believed in our mission and once they started to give, they continued to give.
The rich man wanted Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers to tell them that they are going to the wrong party. If they don’t change their ways, they are going to end up at the same party as the rich man is now at and the party that they want to be at is the one that Lazarus is at, the heavenly party. They will be good and caring if they know that it is to their advantage. But Abraham says “if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”
This is how Jesus ends the story. Jesus actually did raise someone from the dead, in fact in Luke’s account, Jesus did it twice, once with the widow’s son and again with a young girl. The widow’s son was being carried to the burial grounds when Jesus had compassion on the widow and touched the son and the son sat up and began to speak. And remember when Jesus arrived at a young girl’s house and the parents told him, you are too late, she is dead. Jesus told them she is just sleeping and took her by the hand and her spirit returned. And yet the Pharisees ridiculed Jesus for his teachings. This brings me to the last difference between these two invitations. It is timing. The simple invitation has no time limit. You could respond to the invitation at any time. It was often the case that when a gift came in and we looked to see which letter the person had received, that letter could be over a year old. However, the fancy invitation had a definite time limit. No response ever came in late, because it would be too late to attend one of the parties. It was also very important not to send the invitations out too early – for if you did that, people would either forget or dismiss the invitation saying that’s just too far ahead to plan for.
God doesn’t send the fancy invitation because time will invariably run out. If, in the story, Lazarus had been sent to the brothers, they may have repented for awhile – but just like the Pharisees had forgotten the people that had been raised from the dead, so would the brothers have forgotten about Lazarus.
God doesn’t want us to think of heaven as the place to be or a party to be present at. God wants us to join in the mission. God wants us to live each day caring for one another. God doesn’t want us to present once a year, God was us to be in a continuing relationship. God’s invitation does not have a time limit. God’s invitation is open and waiting for us.