We know the story of the Garden of Eden, how we were given firm instructions not to eat a particular fruit – we could eat any other fruit, but not that particular fruit, how the serpent played on Eve’s vanity, telling her that she could be like God if she ate the fruit, how she and Adam both ate the fruit and were kicked out of the beautiful garden to wander the earth, subject to becoming captive to sin and evil. Sin and evil have made people captive since then. We remember that story, right?
It reminded me of a story my wife told about a place she worked at which made made IV bags. They kept a group of test rabbits on site to inject with samples from the IV bags – nothing deadly, they just needed to make sure the liquids were safe for people, so they made sure the liquids were okay partially by taking samples and injecting the bunnies. One night, the power went out at most of the plant, so a group of workers, including Saundra went to see the bunnies.
Beautiful white bunnies in 2 foot cages. One of the men who worked in the area took a bunny out and put it on the floors. “Oh no! it’ll run away!” Saundra said, having seen many wild bunnies when she grew up in the mountains. But it didn’t run away. It hopped 2 foot, turned, hopped 2 foot more, turned, hopped 2 foot more, did it again and sat right there. It had been taken out of the cage – but it limited itself to the dimension of the cage that was there in its mind.
This is the way life is before we meet Jesus. We are slaves, prisoners, unable to truly live. Even after we are freed from our enslavement to sin, we still go through life in a cage that is in our mind. When will we learn to follow Jesus to total freedom and become the men and women that God truly planned for us to be? This is the purpose of following the path of holiness that God has designed for us.
Our reading today from Luke is less well-known than most. Jesus is telling a parable, an educational story. Jesus tells the story of two men – an unnamed wealthy man who wore purple clothes – the most expensive garments of the day – and had large feasts served to him every day. Notice that this wealthy man flaunts his wealth - and he ignores his neighbor. He doesn't harm him - he just ignores him.
The neighbor was a poor man named Lazarus who was covered in sores. Note that this is NOT the Lazarus that Jesus resurrected, the brother of Mary and Martha. This Lazarus was simply an unknown beggar who lay at the rich man’s gate, awaiting the scraps from the wealthy man’s table. Notice that the wealthy man has apparently ignored Lazarus’ condition, even though the man begs at the gate to his house. To further emphasize Lazarus’ terrible condition, Jesus says that even the dogs would come and lick Lazarus’ sores. The dogs showed more compassion on Lazarus than his wealthy neighbor.
Poor Lazarus died and was taken by the angels to be with Abraham. The wealthy man also died and was buried. Notice the difference in Jesus' wording.
The rich man finds himself in Hades, which is the name of Hell used in the Greek language. There, he looks up and he could see Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. And so the formerly wealthy man prays to Abraham to have mercy upon him and to send Lazarus to him to give him just a drop of water because the flames have him in agony. He wants Lazarus to serve him.
But Abraham tells the man, “Child” – notice he calls him “Child”, a measure of the wealthy man's immaturity. "You got your good things during your life and Lazarus got evil during life. Now things are reversed.” But even more so, there is a great chasm, a valley between the wealthy man and Abraham so no one can pass between the two.
So the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to the rich man’s father’s house to warn his five brothers. Once again, he wants Lazarus to serve him.
But Abraham tells him that they should listen to Moses and the prophets. The rich man says “if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. “
And Abraham replies. “No, they won’t be convinced even if someone rises from the dead”.
Look what we see here. We have a man who is flaunting his wealth and man who is suffering. The rich man goes to a fiery hell and the poor man goes to be with Abraham, clearly in a pleasant place.
They can see each other and speak – at least in this parable – remember that it is an educational story, and doesn’t necessarily mean that those in hell can see those in Heaven. They find out their end is permanent – don’t count on someone in Heaven to rescue you if you are in Hell. In fact, Abraham shows a certain wisdom. If you won’t listen to Moses and the prophets – in essence, the Old Testament – you won’t listen even if someone comes back from the dead.
So how do we end up with Abraham and not with the wealthy man in Hell? What is necessary for us to go to the “Good Place” and not to the “Bad Place”? (And yes, I’ve watched the TV show.)
To understand salvation, I’d like us to go back in time to the early church and work our way forward.
In the Book of Acts, we see the early church growing like gangbusters. They grew rapidly, probably because they heard passionate testimony from the 120 or so people who followed Jesus the last year or so of his life on earth, the men and women who had seen Jesus die and then saw him alive. Paul tells us that over 500 people actually saw Jesus alive after that first Easter. The followers of Jesus were passionate and serious, joyful and loving. They received the Holy Spirit and tried to do what the apostles told them Jesus wanted.
Over the next decades, those original witnesses died, and so the New Testament was written to preserve what Jesus had said. Soon, simple creeds were appearing which helped people remember what was important. The earliest which had widespread usage we know as the Apostle’s Creed. Later, the Nicene Creed was adopted because it was more specific. Both Creeds are commonly used among many Christians of different backgrounds - not to replace the Bible, but because they are much shorter, easily remembered synopsis of belief.
The church grew and eventually the elders in five cities began to lead the church in different regions. Jerusalem for obvious reasons, Antioch from where Paul and Barnabas and Silas were sent on missionary journeys, Alexandria, the center of learning in Egypt became a center of Christian study and teaching, Constantinople became the capital of the eastern Empire, and, of course, Rome was the capital of the Western Empire. Eventually, Rome tried to push its weight around, and there was a split between the Eastern churches and the Western Roman Catholic church, the Roman “Universal” church, for that is what "Catholic" meant in the language of the day. "Universal". This split occurred around the year 1054.
Things continued in this way until the 1500’s, when new churches split from Rome. The Lutheran church in northern Germany and Scandanavia, the Anglican church in England – eventually known in America as the Episcopal church, the Reformed and Presbyterian churches all spun off of Rome during the 1500’s.
Another important group were the Mennonite churches, named for Menno Simons. It is from the Mennonites that the Amish split off a hundred years later. It was the Mennonites who, for the first time, rejected the baptism of infants and insisted that only adults were candidates for baptism. For 1500 years, the various churches had held that infants not only could be baptized, but should be baptized. For 1500 years, the various churches had held that baptism was legitimate by sprinkling, by pouring, or immersion. Now, the Mennonites, the Amish, and the modern Baptists began to insist that only immersion baptism of adults was legitimate, contesting a tradition that dated to the First Century AD and had been supported by both Eastern and Western and Protestant churches.
All of the new churches saw themselves as reforming a Catholic church that had gone wrong. They all went back to the Bible to try to understand what was the right answer about how to end up with God and not go to Hell. Wars were fought, because the people of the day understood that the answer might be very important for themselves and their children, their grandchildren. They wanted to get it right. They felt they had to get it right and so were willing to die in war over this.
In the 1700’s, many new churches were formed, but for the sake of our story, I’ll focus upon two men, John and Charles Wesley. The younger man, Charles was a poet – you will see many of his 4000 hymns in our hymnal. Older brother John was an highly educated, intelligent, immensely practical man, educated at Oxford, who didn’t care about many of the traditional issues of theology – John just wanted to understand how to ensure people avoided God’s wrath. John wanted to make sure people did not go to Hell. John wanted to make sure his followers were okay with God. So he began a renewal movement for the Anglican church, the Church of England, the church that we know in America as the Episcopal church. His followers became known as Methodists.
He walked outside of the church and began to preach at mines, at factories, and in city parks. He took the people who came to him and organized them into weekly classes that met on Tuesday, Wednesdays, or Thursdays. In these classes, they studied the Bible and helped each other stay on the straight and narrow. If you had a drinking problem, the men in your class would help you stay sober. If you had a problem with cussing, they’d help you keep your mouth shut. If you grew depressed or sad, they’d cheer you up. And if you refused to follow the straight path, after warnings, they’d kick you out. If you came back, they’d put you in a backsliders class. For the Methodists that the Wesley brothers founded were serious about Heaven.
What was their Method and path? Let me compare it to competing views. And please note that I am simplifying a bit, but not much with these views.
At the time and today, the Catholic church said that salvation comes only through belonging to the Catholic Church and taking the seven sacraments beginning with baptism, for that was how you joined the church. All of the new churches rejected this view, for Martin Luther had pointed out that Paul’s letters talk about faith in Jesus Christ being the critical idea to avoid Hell, not the works performed by priests.
At the other extreme was the view of the group who became known as "Free Will" Baptists. These people believed at the time and today, that you must be in a state of grace, a state where your sins have all been confessed before you die. To this group, the man who gets the piano dropped on him must not cuss before the piano kills him, or he will go to Hell. It is like walking a tightrope over Hell.
At still another extreme was the view put forth by the group that would become known as the Southern Baptists. Here, they believed that a public profession of faith in Jesus was necessary, that baptism was only a public announcement of whose side you were on, and that “once save, always saved.” Nothing more than your original public profession of faith was ever required to avoid Hell, no matter what you believed or did later in life.
But John Wesley thought carefully about salvation and developed what is probably the deepest view of salvation going.
First, Wesley said that we are totally depraved at birth and do not want to know God. We are all born in rebellion to God. But God goes before us and puts people in our path to lead us to Him via Jesus – perhaps our parents, our schoolteachers, friends, and acquaintances. John and Charles’ mother Susanna did much of this for John and Charles. Then God leads us to the point where we are given a gift of salvation – we can accept this gift of salvation or reject it, God has put it on the table in front of us. Nothing we did brought us this gift – it has nothing to do with how good we are or how bad we've been – we are all bad in God’s eyes, but he offers us the gift for us to accept or reject. It has nothing to do with anything we've done or anything other people have done. The offer of the gift is completely because God is generous and loving.
If we accept the gift, God justifies us, declaring us not guilty of the sin of rebellion, of treason to God. We may choose to be baptized – or our parents, being older and wiser and followers of Jesus, may choose for us to be baptized in the same way they choose for us to be inoculated against deadly diseases, they may choose for us to be baptized to receive the Holy Spirit and be inoculated against death. For that is the primary purpose of baptism, it is the laying on of hands to receive the Holy Spirit, our Guide through life who changes our heart and allows us to desire good and to follow Christ. Our heart is changed through baptism and God's action upon us. Not our action: God's action.
And then, God begins to work upon us to help us become the blossoming Christian, like a tulip bulb that is beautiful when still closed, but is even more beautiful later in its life as it opens up. We learn to follow the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit, to follow the Word of God who is both Jesus Christ and the Holy Scripture, and we begin to follow the path of holiness and we blossom.
Two mistakes are often made by people.
There are those who believe that God has no further requirements other than a profession of faith and all is right for ever more. That is like saying that a baby must just be born to be alive. Yes, this is true - yet if a baby refuses to eat, to learn, to walk, to grow – it will not have a fruitful life. It must grow and learn to run! God wants us to have a fruitful Christian life, and so He asks us to learn to walk the path of holiness so that we can become fully mature Christians who can run! This is why we come to church and why we study, and why we attend Bible studies. This is why we should never settle for simply professing our faith.
The other mistake is to believe that Christianity is all about adhering to a particular set of moral laws. That is not Christianity – that is what it means to be Jewish. We learn to follow certain laws because that is how we saw Jesus doing good to others and worshiping God the Father. But the laws are not as important as learning to act as Jesus would act. Jesus broke traditional interpretations of the laws of Moses by healing on Sundays. Instead, He always did good. Focusing upon the Law, the Torah, the Mishnah is learning to be Jewish, not Christian. Following Christ’s example and being guided by the Holy Spirit to do good is what Christianity is all about.
As John Wesley came to the end of his life, his movement began to come from England to America. And so, he appointed two men to lead in America. Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury. These two men brought together the Methodist clergy in America in Baltimore at Christmas time of 1784. It is from them that the American Methodist church grew. There was another man at that conference who would be very important, Phillip William Otterbein. Otterbein and Martin Boehm founded the United Brethren church, using a German translation of the Methodist Book of Discipline for German speaking Christians in America. Also working along the same lines in the American German population was Jacob Albright, who founded the Evangelical Church in the early 1800’s.
Eventually, the Methodist church split over the power of the bishops into the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Protestant church, and then into northern and southern branches before the Civil War over slavery. But they came back together in 1939. In 1946, the United Brethren and the Evangelical Church came together to form the Evangelical United Brethren, the EUB’s, and then combined with the Methodist church to form the United Methodist Church, for they had the same basic beliefs throughout the years since Otterbein, Coke, and Asbury had all come together in Baltimore in 1784. (By the way, the United Brethren split way back in 1875 over a constitutional question, that’s why there are still United Brethren churches around who are not part of the United Methodist Church.) And there are also Wesleyan Methodists, Free Methodists, and Evangelical Methodists, all of which trace their roots, like the Methodists and the EUB back to John Wesley’s ideas about salvation. We have to search carefully and be quite picky to find things the Methodists believed that were different from what the EUB believed, because both groups followed the Wesley’s ideas from the beginning. They merged because they were already close cousins.
Back to our shared Wesleyan view of salvation:
Imagine you are walking along and you are led down a path to a gate. This is God’s "pre-event" prevenient grace leading you to the gate, which is your declaration that you believe Jesus is the Son of God, that He died on the cross and came back to life, and that He loves you and has the power to give you eternal life. There is a Person waiting there at the gate to walk with you and guide you the rest of the way. Maybe your parents introduce you to the Person – maybe you go through the gate before you ask for the Person. The introduction to the Person is baptism. But the Person is the Holy Spirit, who will walk with you and guide you down the path for the rest of your life.
And as you walk down that path through the woods of life, sometimes the path will be clear, sometimes the path will be hard to see. You will often be on the path, you will often step off the path. But as long as you are trying to follow the path – and remember to listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and read the Word of God, which is the map to the path - you will eventually get back on the path and safely reach your goal. It is only when you walk off the path and no longer care about following the path that we would say you have lost your salvation. It happens, but not to people who are trying to follow Jesus. If you are worried about your salvation, you have not lost it. It is only when you tell Jesus and the Holy Spirit to get lost that you become truly lost again. It happens, but rarely. It takes another choice. As St. Augustine said, “Have hope – one of the thieves on the cross went to Heaven. But don’t presume – one of the thieves did not go to Heaven.”
Back to our story of the wealthy man in hell and poor, suffering Lazarus who is with Abraham in a pleasant place. Lazarus was a relatively common name, the name being a transformation of Eleazar, one of Aaron’s sons who became high priest.
Imagine you are walking along and you are led down a path to a gate. This is God’s "pre-event" prevenient grace leading you to the gate, which is your declaration that you believe Jesus is the Son of God, that He died on the cross and came back to life, and that He loves you and has the power to give you eternal life. There is a Person waiting there at the gate to walk with you and guide you the rest of the way. Maybe your parents introduce you to the Person – maybe you go through the gate before you ask for the Person. The introduction to the Person is baptism. But the Person is the Holy Spirit, who will walk with you and guide you down the path for the rest of your life.
And as you walk down that path through the woods of life, sometimes the path will be clear, sometimes the path will be hard to see. You will often be on the path, you will often step off the path. But as long as you are trying to follow the path – and remember to listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and read the Word of God, which is the map to the path - you will eventually get back on the path and safely reach your goal. It is only when you walk off the path and no longer care about following the path that we would say you have lost your salvation. It happens, but not to people who are trying to follow Jesus. If you are worried about your salvation, you have not lost it. It is only when you tell Jesus and the Holy Spirit to get lost that you become truly lost again. It happens, but rarely. It takes another choice. As St. Augustine said, “Have hope – one of the thieves on the cross went to Heaven. But don’t presume – one of the thieves did not go to Heaven.”
Back to our story of the wealthy man in hell and poor, suffering Lazarus who is with Abraham in a pleasant place. Lazarus was a relatively common name, the name being a transformation of Eleazar, one of Aaron’s sons who became high priest.
Yet what happens soon afterward Jesus told this parable? A real man named Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha dies from sickness, Jesus then raises him from the dead about two weeks before Jesus goes to Jerusalem, where Jesus is killed and then is raised from the dead. Yet we find few repented because of Lazarus, just as Abraham said. In fact, those who plotted to kill Jesus expanded their plot to include killing Lazarus if possible. But they were not successful in this.
Many years later, Paul wrote to Timothy, his protege about these things, the trade-off between godliness and wealth, between losing our faith and doing good:
6:6 Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment;
6:7 for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it;
I’ve never seen a U-Haul behind a hearse. Have you?
6:8 but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
If we truly love God, that is all we need. This was St. Francis’ rule – The Franciscan monks worked for their daily bread, clothing, and a place to sleep. But they didn’t take money, because then they would trust in their money for tomorrow instead of God.
6:9 But 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.
6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
Shall I list the famous Christians who have been snared by their love of money, of fine clothes, of large mansions, of the need to bring in constant donations for the television ministry?
6:11 But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.
Righteousness – being right with God. Godliness – imitating Christ. Faith – trusting in God. Love – caring for and helping others. Endurance – continuing through difficult times. Gentleness – interacting through soft words and touches rather than through harsh words and violence.
6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Remember the day you were baptized! Look back at the things you declared!
6:13 In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will bring about at the right time--he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. 16 It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
6:17 As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
And so I speak today to us who are rich, for each of us is wealthy beyond the dreams of any person from the time of Jesus. Don’t be stuck up, don’t trust in your employer or your 401K or social security, but trust in God instead.
6:18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, 19 thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
And so I remind us of Paul’s words. Do good. Be rich in good works. Be generous and ready to share so much that people will find us remarkable.
You see, my friends, God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. We do good, so that we may take hold of the life that really is life.
Like the bunnies that Saundra saw at work that night, God has taken us out of the cage. This is what the purpose of the path of holiness is. We must learn to hop down the path, learn to run free, run to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness – all those good things that were the birthright of people before the Fall in the Garden. Godliness – truly, we can be like God in our attitudes toward others – but we can achieve this only in a good, wholesome way when we bow down to the true God – God the Father, God the Son who is Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit.
And so, let us follow the Word of God and listen to the Holy Spirit. Let us believe that Jesus has the love and the power to save us, and let us accept the Holy Spirit through baptism, that we and our children may live forever. Is there a good reason to wait? I can’t think of any.
Many years later, Paul wrote to Timothy, his protege about these things, the trade-off between godliness and wealth, between losing our faith and doing good:
6:6 Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment;
6:7 for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it;
I’ve never seen a U-Haul behind a hearse. Have you?
6:8 but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
If we truly love God, that is all we need. This was St. Francis’ rule – The Franciscan monks worked for their daily bread, clothing, and a place to sleep. But they didn’t take money, because then they would trust in their money for tomorrow instead of God.
6:9 But 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.
6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
Shall I list the famous Christians who have been snared by their love of money, of fine clothes, of large mansions, of the need to bring in constant donations for the television ministry?
6:11 But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.
Righteousness – being right with God. Godliness – imitating Christ. Faith – trusting in God. Love – caring for and helping others. Endurance – continuing through difficult times. Gentleness – interacting through soft words and touches rather than through harsh words and violence.
6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Remember the day you were baptized! Look back at the things you declared!
6:13 In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will bring about at the right time--he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. 16 It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
6:17 As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
And so I speak today to us who are rich, for each of us is wealthy beyond the dreams of any person from the time of Jesus. Don’t be stuck up, don’t trust in your employer or your 401K or social security, but trust in God instead.
6:18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, 19 thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
And so I remind us of Paul’s words. Do good. Be rich in good works. Be generous and ready to share so much that people will find us remarkable.
You see, my friends, God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. We do good, so that we may take hold of the life that really is life.
Like the bunnies that Saundra saw at work that night, God has taken us out of the cage. This is what the purpose of the path of holiness is. We must learn to hop down the path, learn to run free, run to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness – all those good things that were the birthright of people before the Fall in the Garden. Godliness – truly, we can be like God in our attitudes toward others – but we can achieve this only in a good, wholesome way when we bow down to the true God – God the Father, God the Son who is Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit.
And so, let us follow the Word of God and listen to the Holy Spirit. Let us believe that Jesus has the love and the power to save us, and let us accept the Holy Spirit through baptism, that we and our children may live forever. Is there a good reason to wait? I can’t think of any.
