Sept 30,2001

Good to have the Sunday school and the Confirmation Class present today.

The Confirmands are a nice group. They are very positive.

I asked them the question; what is good life for you?

They wrote down their thoughts. They were very good.

Here are some of those:

" I think good life is being happy. Also doing something big with your life."

"I hope for no terror in the world."

"To have good friends."

"Being with people I love, have fun, have money, feel good about myself."

In the Gospel for today we learn about two different people and two different lives.

The one was rich, he had a luxury life, and he had good and happy days. Life was good to him. The other was poor Lazarus. His body was covered with painful sores and he was always hungry and was a beggar.

These two represented from one extreme to the other.

The rich man died and in Hades he was tormented. No one wants such a death.

The poor Lazarus also died and was carried by the angels to be with Abraham. These are nice words about death and heaven. All would like a death like that.

There are so many poor people in the world. It is hard to find adequate words.

Many want to help but it seems to be of little use.

The rich part of the world offers a lot of money to fight against poverty and sickness.

But what do we gain from this when we in the same time have in return much more?

Poverty is increasing. There are also many poor people in this rich country.

Many poor are living next to our church.

Karl Max wrote in his book Das kapital about the necessity of revolution in order to distribute the riches in a justice manner.

My Dean in Norway some years ago used to have two books on his desk; the new Testament in Greek and Das Kapital in German. I do not know of other Norwegian Pastors, neither I myself nor any other Norwegian Pastors I know about belong to marxism but do you think Karl Marx was totally out of touch? I doubt it.

But his book is not that important to us.

The Bible is good enough. The message of Jesus is as powerful and clear that we cannot misunderstand. Rather it is clearness the problem.

It is not wrong to be rich. But it is bad to be poor. And it is unjust.

What was the wrongdoing of the rich man?

What was wrong was that he did nothing at all. He did not care. He was a super egoist. He loved himself more than God and his fellow human being. He was wealthy but that was all he had.

As Church and Christians we do know what to do.

I hope you Confirmands and your generation will be able to do more to create a better world.

Our text about the rich man and the poor Lazarus also has one more thing to tell;

The poor Lazarus had something that the rich man did not have.

The poor had a treasure that the rich man did not have.

The beginning of the Sermon on the Mount reads,

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

"the poor in spirit" are those who know by themselves about their dependence on God, they are constantly receiving from him and opening their lives to his boundless riches, again and again. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven, Jesus says, because they have received it. Because they do not have anything by themselves to bring, they do receive from outside.

Paul the Apostle is talking about "the boundless riches of Christ." Ephesians 3:8

On Monday of last week I attended a meeting with our new Bishop together with the church president and others from the Church Council.

The Bishop spoke about the foundation of the Church and the content of our faith from Romans 3:21-24,

"But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."

The Bishop said this is an expression of what the Church stands or falls with.

That is certainly true. This is what Martin Luther rediscovered.

The "boundless riches of Christ" were given to you in your Baptism.

It is handed over to you in Holy Communion.

In your everyday praying "Our Father in heaven" you do stretch out your empty hand like a child. In this way you receive God’s gift, the riches of Christ, his righteousness.

Poor or rich does not matter when we are to leave this life.

During life it means a lot, but when we die, it is no distinction of poor and rich.

What matters is to have the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, that is the real distinction.

For this reason you can put your heart into this hymn, "Just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me,"

Amen.

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church ·  924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 ·  (612)874-0716