Know the Name, Love the Person

Last updated on: October 30, 2016 at 3:30 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

Know the Name, Love the Person 2016-10-30T15:30:03-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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If your pastor’s sermon doesn’t cry out for note taking, then you need a new pastor. The truth is simple and simple ideas are the hardest to understand. You can think about two words, say “amazing grace,” all your life and a good pastor is there to help.

Father Richard is a good pastor.

Today the Gospel reading was the story Jesus told about a rich man who woke up dead. Waking up is what all the dead do, the only question is the place you find yourself when you finally see things as they are. The rich man woke up in torment. He had (he learned) gotten his good things in this life and now was getting justice in the life to come. The rich man noticed that Lazarus, a poor man who sat outside his house, was being comforted by the Father of all the Faithful: Abraham.

Father Richard pointed out two important truths about the rich man.

The rich man starts giving orders to Father Abraham as if his privilege mattered in real life as it had mattered in human society. The dead find out what is real and nobody is allowed to pretend. Character counts and all men and women may be created equal, but become what they choose to become in this life.

The rich man has become fit only for torment while the poor man has banked virtue for eternity.

The rich man knows the name of the poor man, Lazarus, but he has never helped him. Father Richard noted that the dogs outside the rich man’s house give the poor man more comfort than the rich man even though he knew Lazarus’ name.

Yet note: in real life, after the shadows have passed away, we never learn the rich man’s name. He has become merely “the rich man.” If you love your job, status, and money, then you become what you love. The poor man has become himself: Lazarus. His suffering did not (evidently) make him bitter but a better man.

Do I look at the poor and see “the poor.” If so, then I am wrong, but worse would be to know a man well enough to know his name, be able to help him, and never do so. God help me.

This much we learn: the rich man wishes his brothers to avoid his fate, but we are told no evidence will convince the rich man’s brothers. Why? If they could read Moses and the prophets and ignore a poor man at the gate, then nothing, no evidence will save them.

No Christian can ignore the poor. Every Christian must give and treat every human as a person. We dare not say we are Christians, knowing our Bible, and not have active compassion for the poor.

Which reminds me: check this group out.

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