Intro to 1 Timothy. Warning against false teachers (profit from religion) (riches distract from God)
      This is a warning, not a condemnation - just don't be ID'd by what you "have"
      v. 6-10: Christian life holds God as ultimate quest, would be distracted by wealth
      Contentment = capacity to be satisfied with what is ours
      v. 11-16: distracts himself with how wonderful God is, possible ordination service?
      v. 17-19: positive instructions for rich people (riches are uncertain; God isn't)

Intro to Luke. Warning: this is NOT what life is "like" after death
       Only parable to name names (Lazarus = the one who is helped - irony? description?)
       Addressed to Pharisees: "lovers of money" and "lovers of Book"
       Negative effects of greed and money on the soul

Why to do they hate us? Since September 11, it's the question that has been on the lips of all Americans. Why do they hate us? "They" being whoever it was that sent airplanes into the twin World Trade Towers and the Pentagon building. It's a good question. What else could it be but hate? I've heard many of you asking that question: "Why?" We keep hoping if we just take in enough news stories, hear enough commentators and analysts, we'll get some insight into the motives, we'll be able to give some meaning to the incredible loss of life.

Right after the events, I heard a journalist stationed in Palestine "explain" it. "They hate who we are," he said. Who we are? Don't child psychologists tell us to focus on correcting a child's behavior, not on "who they are"? Didn't anyone tell the terrorists this was bad psychology? It's not just bad psychology, it's bad theology! Even the church says, "Hate the sin, love the sinner."

There were some commentators who said the acts of terror were because the US has taken a public role in supporting Israel's Zionism, which they say in effect means we condone the terrorizing and destruction of Palestinian peoples and homelands. But mostly, what it seems to keep coming down to - despite our protests that it's bad psychology - is that "they" hate who we are. And who we "are," at least to the Third World, is rich people. Which brings us to our lectionary texts for today.

It turns out that nobody likes rich people. Rich people have been the bad guys of choice since before Jesus was born. Even then, though, rich people were considered useful. Rich people could be benefactors, but the whole point in rich people giving money away--to artists or in benevolence-- was so they could win friends and influence people. Get what you want. Unless you were Jewish. The Pharisaic school of Biblical scholarship interpreted the blessings in the Torah to mean that, if you were rich it was proof that God was rewarding your righteousness. You deserved it if you were rich. In more recent times, the Protestant work ethic and capitalism use the same notion. Work hard, do right by doing good, prosperity is sure to follow. It's what our country was founded on.

So there is no use in our saying "we aren't rich." More than 50% of the world's wealth is centered in the USA. We annually use more of the world's natural resources than all the other nations combined. And there's no use saying, "I'm not rich." Unless you live in a cardboard box under a bridge in Portland, even the poorest among us lives better than how most of the rest of the world lives. Dreadful as it is to be among the "working poor" in our country, even that little bit is more than what most people in the Sudan have. Not everyone here has health care, but even indigents can get bandaids and aspirin - even if they have to steal them - which is more than what the folks with whom Carolyn Kurtz served in the Sudan can get. Even if you have to go to the Family Resource Center to get food, or the only place you can eat is once a day at a free meal program - it's more than what is available to most of Africa. When even these small comforts are impossible for you, it is easy to hate a whole country full of people who think they are entitled to the American Dream. Hollywood doesn't help. Our movies and television shows are translated and beamed out on satellites across the globe. Most of the world thinks we all have swimming pools and eat at banquet tables because they can see it.

If "Married With Children" and "The Nanny" and "Happy Days" is what the people in the Third World watching our old re-runs know about us, maybe we should take the advice from last week's gospel lesson. Last week, Jesus told the story of the crafty steward, a dishonest manager who, having lost his job, on his way out the door, dishonestly forgave his master's debtors. Some under-the-table debt-reallocation. That's our foreign aid policy. Well, maybe not "dishonest wealth," but since we are Afghanistan's largest source of foreign aid, their major source of cash money and medical supplies and food, isn't it natural that we would feel a little miffed when they harbor groups who think nothing of blowing up our buildings?

Paul's letter to Timothy today warns against this. His practical advice to rich people isn't because it is a sin to be rich. The trap is in thinking they can "buy" friends. The sin is in thinking riches are the guarantee of a ticket to heaven.

On the other hand, despite what the Lazarus story tells us, being rich isn't a one-way ticket to hell, either. Despite what fundamentalists of other faiths might say against us. The rich man's sin was not in his income bracket. His sin was ignoring the poor man, interpreting the Law to suit himself. This man's wealth was unbelievably opulent. His lifestyle was as extravagant as a king's. He dressed and ate and acted like a king. The lovers-of-money, to whom Jesus addresses this parable, were interpreting the Torah Law for their own benefit. While there were plenty of scripture passages to say that wealth was a reward for righteousness and poverty a sign of punishment, there were plenty more passages that described the obligations to care for the poor. The lovers-of-money-and-of-the Book, listening to Jesus, understood that to ignore Lazarus in this life was the pious response. It was good religion. "Poor and miserable" meant "You must have done something to deserve this." That Lazarus showed up in the afterlife in the bosom of Abraham was shocking. The rich man in torment was shocking. But Jesus was not saying. "Rich people go to hell." Jesus was saying, "If you ignore poor people you are ignoring the law concerning God's beloved; there will be consequences." We don't need to save the world. But we do need to make sure we aren't tripping over poor people on our thresholds. What Paul tells Timothy and his congregation is that love of money puts distance between us and God. Kind of like that chasm put between Lazarus in paradise and the rich man in Hades. The impression one gets is that the chasm is the one the rich man himself built during his lifetime. In which case, you have to wonder if the chasm was between himself and poor people, or if it was really between himself and God. Jesus thinks it's the same thing.

Paul tells Timothy to warn people that their condition does not define their identity. Paul is the guy who wrote that in the Church there is neither slave nor free, Jew nor Greek, male nor female. According to Paul's theology, our social or economic positions do not have a bearing on our call as Christians. Contrary to how life was in the world at large, it was no benefit to be rich in the 1st century church. It didn't matter to God, therefore it didn't matter to one's fellow Christians. Our dignity as human beings does not come from whether we have a Platinum Master Card or whether our library card is carrying too high a balance. We have dignity in the kingdom of God simply and only because of God's love. If we are identifying who we are as Christians with what we have or what we can earn, we are limiting the possibilities of God in our lives. That you are a Christian - a child of God - is the beginning and end of "who you are" - and everything in between. Everything we have is a gift from God. The abilities that make it possible for us to earn a living. The rain that waters the trees that grow the fruit that we eat. The breath in our lungs, our very lives. We know that. We're Presbyterian, for pity sake. But do you know why God provides for us so richly? Paul tells us in 1 Timothy: for our enjoyment. Not only do we get to take no credit for what we have, we have to acknowledge that the Giver of all these good gifts is generously showering us with more than we need just so we can enjoy it. I find this humbling.

Knowing this, generosity becomes something else entirely. If we earn all we have, if we work for it, if we deserve it, when we are generous the credit should come back to us. But since we know that all we have is from God, we also know that we are blessed, not because we deserve it, but because the Giver of all Good Gifts - our gracious God - chooses to bless us. For our enjoyment. It isn't about us. It's about the Giver. Therefore, our generosity cannot be about us, it has to be about the One who gives to all: God. It's about our relationship to God.

Which makes the bottom line eternity. If, like the rich man in Jesus' parable, we are stepping over the poor sick man on our thresholds, ignoring him out of some misplaced sense that we deserve what we've got so therefore he deserves what he's got, we are working on a chasm between us and God. Which none of us would do. On the other hand, if we are giving gifts to this poor sick man out of our own wealth, we are still working on that chasm. Do good works! Pursue righteousness! But not because you are rich. The bottom line is eternity. Do good works and pursue righteousness because you are absolutely poverty-stricken yourself without the gifts of the Good Giver. You are totally bereft of resources on your own. Because you have only what God gives you. And God gives to you for your enjoyment. Your call as a Christian is to be generous. Your call as a Christian is not to explain to God that you don't do something because that isn't "who you are." Or that you do something because that is "who you are." God gives us everything. God gives us that "everything" for our enjoyment, not to build a chasm between ourselves and God or even between ourselves and other human beings. God gives us "everything" to break down that chasm between ourselves and God, between ourselves and other human beings. Don't limit God's possibilities with you by limiting your generosity, because we are rich. We are blessed. Thanks be to God.

God, help us to see our essential poverty without you. Then, knowing that, help us to be generous people. Give us generous hearts. Amen.