{"id":512198,"date":"2013-09-20T21:13:30","date_gmt":"2013-09-20T21:13:30","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-06-24T17:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T21:35:07","slug":"many-ways-to-share-proper-21-c-2013","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/sermons\/many-ways-to-share-proper-21-c-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Many Ways to Share, Proper 21 (C) – 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[NOTE TO READER: The Latin word dives, in the seventh paragraph, is pronounced \u201cDYE-veez.\u201d]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI always thank the person for asking, even when I don\u2019t have anything to give at the time.\u201d  These are the words of Archbishop James Salisbury of the African Orthodox Church in America, about being asked for money by people on the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you look up Archbishop James up on their church\u2019s website, you\u2019ll see that he has the look of a beneficent and cheerful grandfather. You can imagine his kind, dark eyes looking deep into the soul of a poor person and thanking that person for having the courage to ask for something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, you may be saying to yourselves, how could an archbishop not have money in his pocket to share? To be honest, don\u2019t we all have times when we don\u2019t have a cent on us, usually because we\u2019ve forgotten to go to the ATM or in this difficult economy there are days when we, who may be far from homeless, stayed away from the ATM until we were sure there was something there that month?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might be nice to do what James does when we are asked for some spare change on the street instead of assuming the person is too lazy to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another thing that would be thoughtful when we interact with people in need, is to ask their name and have a conversation with them. If you read \u201cDown and Out in Providence\u201d by Bishop Geralyn Wolf of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island, you would read her journal written during the time that she lived among the homeless for her sabbatical. She talks about how important it is to be acknowledged by name \u2013 how desperately alone and invisible the homeless feel when no one speaks their names. Read her book. It\u2019s life changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each of our passages today reminds us that those in need are our responsibility. God expects us to care for the poor. It\u2019s all through the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. Every prophet, from the Old Testament to the Liberationists and beyond reminds the people that the poor are our neighbors and that none of them should ever have to beg for the crumbs that fall from our tables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isn\u2019t that image from the gospel heart rending? We can\u2019t imagine that a rich man would be so callous as to ignore poor Lazarus who lay by the gate of his house. He was so poor and so sick that we\u2019re told dogs would come and lick his sores. If you Google \u201cLazarus and the Rich Man\u201d or \u201cLazarus and Dives\u201d \u2013 dives<\/em> is Latin for \u201crich man\u201d \u2013 you will find many images in art portraying this scene. In most, the dogs look like friendly sorts, just lolling around calmly with their tongues hanging out. It probably wasn\u2019t like that at all. Dogs will fight over the taste of blood. Lazarus had a horrid and probably frightening existence, and still, the rich man ignored him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus tells this story to point out that some of the Pharisees were ignoring the needs of their own people just like the rich man \u2013 and we may be surprised at the reluctance of those religious leaders to understand Jesus\u2019 concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why might we be surprised? Again, we need to see what this is teaching us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Jesus\u2019 day, the assumption was that a man like Lazarus was that way because of his or his parents\u2019 sin. In our day, isn\u2019t the assumption often that a person in Lazarus\u2019 condition, the homeless, the poor, the down and out, are that way because of their \u201csin\u201d of laziness or poor judgment or that they\u2019re scamming us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We often hear people say that they don\u2019t give a street person any money because he or she will spend it on alcohol \u2013 end of story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, sometimes they do, but many times they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we assume why a person is in need, are we any better than the rich man or the Pharisees? This is when it\u2019s helpful to engage a person in conversation. Like most human beings, the person in need often yearns for someone to listen, to show even a few short moments of care. If you\u2019ve ever worked in a shelter or soup kitchen, you know that\u2019s the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in considering the image of rich versus poor, there\u2019s another issue to think about today. Our own economy places many of us in very difficult circumstances. Sometimes those who may look quite comfortable are hiding the fear of losing everything if the next paycheck doesn\u2019t come. God doesn\u2019t expect us to put ourselves or our families in danger because we give others our last bit of money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many ways to share \u2013 we all know this. Acknowledging the humanity of another is one way; listening, volunteering \u2013 these are all ways of being human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Timothy gives us another. The author reminds us about the danger of excesses. Our culture also encourages us to amass much more than we need, doesn\u2019t it? If we\u2019re honest, we might have more to share if we were more content with having enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut those who want to be rich, fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, those are scary words. Strong verbs, \u201ctrapped\u201d and \u201cplunged,\u201d warn us that greed can lead to our destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isn\u2019t it annoying, though, when we see some extremely rich and assumedly happy people splashed over magazine covers and news articles?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ah, but there\u2019s a catch. We assume<\/em>, we don\u2019t really know<\/em>. We don\u2019t know what\u2019s really going on inside them; we can\u2019t. So it\u2019s better if we turn our faces toward those who need what we can share \u2013 our thoughtfulness, our care, and sometimes our material goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All people should be content as Timothy says \u2013 content with having enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[NOTE TO READER: The Latin word dives, in the seventh paragraph, is pronounced \u201cDYE-veez.\u201d] \u201cI always thank the person for asking, even when I don\u2019t have anything to give at the time.\u201d  These are the words of Archbishop James Salisbury of the African Orthodox Church in America, about being asked for money by people on the street….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,52,33,3],"tags":[351],"class_list":["post-512198","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-the-season-after-pentecost","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-proper-21c"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":33,"label":"The Season After Pentecost"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":351,"label":"Proper 21C"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":950118,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512198\/revisions\/950118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}