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O Lord, I have trusted in Your steadfast love

The First Sunday after Trinity

O God, the strength of all who trust in You, mercifully accept our prayers; and because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing, grant us Your grace to keep Your commandments that we may please You in both will and deed; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

The Rich Man in Hell and Poor Lazarus in Abraham's Lap from Das Plenarium Hans Schäufelein

An Overview

For many of the Sundays following Trinity, the "mood" of the day is set by the appointed Gospel reading, with the other readings and Psalms, highlighting and complementing the Gospel text.

On the heels of last week's confession of the Athanasian Creed, in which we confessed that at the return of Christ, "those who have done good will enter into eternal life,  and those who have done evil into eternal fire," we get a glimpse into hell itself. It is admittedly unclear (and undecided in Christian history) if Jesus is telling a parable, or if He is reporting an actual historical event that occurred between a Rich Man and a poor man named Lazarus. There are some hefty implications either way, but we will follow the more traditional take that Jesus here is speaking in a Parable, and that this Rich Man, Lazarus, and (to a certain extent) Abraham, are all "fictional" characters.

The takeaway from this Sunday is simple, but difficult to swallow: if men, while on earth, do not believe the words of Holy Scripture, there is nothing - not even a visit from a dead man - that will convince them otherwise. In this life we are to seek after justice and righteousness, continually confessing that "those who have done good will enter into eternal life," never putting our trust in those "good" things, but instead fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things who told us again and again in His Written Word that whoever believes in Christ Jesus will be saved.

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Artwork: The Rich Man in Hell and Poor Lazarus by Hans Schäufelein. German, 16th century. On Display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 

The Old Testament

Genesis 15:1-6

  • The reading begins "after these things," which draws us back to earlier in Genesis when Abram had his meeting with Melchizidek. It's worth noting that the Holy Spirit ties together these two Bible Stories by adding "after these things." That is to say, if we want to fully understand the depth of Abram's Vision, we should re-read about the encounter between Abram and Melchizidek.

  • verse 1 - "fear not" is a typical greeting when God or an Angel visits a mortal.

  • verse 2 - Abram confesses that anything Great the LORD might give him will be worthless - since Abram has no children, he sees any blessing (including inheritance) as meaningless.

  • verse 5 - Abram, a childless man approaching 100 years old, is told that his heirs will be greater than the number of the stars.

  • verse 6 - Abram believes the LORD's promise, and this belief is counted to Abram as righteousness. This is one of the most important verses in the Old Testament regarding what it means to be saved: to believe in what the Lord has said, and to receive righteousness on account of that faith.

Translation Notes

  • verse 4 - "Your son," Hebrew is literally "that which will come forth from your belly [inward parts, internal organs, etc.]." The Lord's promise leaves no room for adoption, this is a literal, biological heir.

  • verse 6 - "believed," the Hebrew root of this is ʾāman, the origin of our English word "Amen."

The Epistle

1 John 4:16-21

  • Reading this passage in light of the Gospel reading, we learn that we are not to "do good" because we fear punishment, but because we have been united with God through God's love.

  • verse 16 - the Holy Spirit, speaking through John, does not hesitate to place "knowledge" and "faith" next to each other.

  • verse 17-18 - Abiding in Love (a life of repentance and good works and trust in God) perfects us so that we have confidence in judgment day, not fear.
  • verse 19 - just as the moon doesn't produce light but reflects the light of the sun, we are only capable of love because we have been first loved by God.

  • verses 20-21 - hypocritical "Christians" are those who claim to love God but have no love for their brother. There is no such thing as a Christian who doesn't love other people anymore than there is such thing as a Christian who doesn't love God.

Translation Notes

  • verse 16 - some ancient manuscripts render the verb "believe" in the simple past tense, but the way that most Bible manuscripts have it, we should read this verse more like "So we have known and have believed the love that God has in us." This is only a slight change, but it's worth noting that both "knowing" and "believing" are completed actions.

  • verse 17 - "perfected" Greek: teteleíotai. The same word that Christ uses at His crucifixion when He says "it is finished," (tetélestai) in John 19:30. John is likely echoing what he heard Jesus say

  • verse 20 - a rhetorical question in Greek that somehow gets lost in the ESV. See the King James Version: "for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" 

The Holy Gospel

Luke 16:19-31

  • Contrast the two characters: one wears purple and fine linen and "feasts sumptuously every day," and the poor man, covered in sores, who eats crumbs, and only receives medical care from stray dogs who lick his wounds. We don't have to go far to find parallels in our own world

  • v. 22 - Implied that the poor man did not receive a funeral or burial, all that matters is that he (that is, his soul) was carried to Abraham's bosom.

  • v. 23 - The Rich Man, though receiving a proper burial, found himself (that is, his soul) in Hades.

    • note: Hades is the ancient Greek word for the realm of the dead. Though it is not the same as the Christian concept of Hell, the New Testament authors used ancient Greek Words like "Hades" to describe the place of punishment. We can see this clearly in Luke 16 because the Rich Man is "in torment." Thus, this is an image of the Hell of the Bible, not the "Hades" of Greek Mythology.​

  • v. 24 - The Rich Man is suffering in hell, though in the vision of heaven, he cries out to a dead Saint instead of God, asking Abraham to send Lazarus.

  • v. 25 - We learn here that the Rich Man was content to have "good" in life even if it meant "evil" in the life to come. We learn that Lazarus endured all hardships as a Christian and thus, even though his life was "bad," he will forever experience the "good."

  • v. 26 - There is no way to move from hell to heaven. The Holy Spirit here anticipates the false doctrine of "purgatory" in which a soul can change its fate by being purged of sin.

  • v. 27-28 - The Rich Man accepts his fate, but desires for his brothers to be saved. A noble idea, but a misguided one.

  • v. 29 - Abraham tells the Rich Man, in so many words, "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ," (Romans 10:17).

  • v. 30 - The Rich Man desires something "Greater" than the Bible.

  • v. 31 - Abraham speaks to all men throughout history here: if someone won't believe because of the Bible, then no miracle is going to convince them. Nobody gets a special path to salvation, we are all sinners in need of the saving Gospel.

  • This is also a call to learn to die to ourselves, to place eternal bliss over any sort of earthly comfort. Why feast sumptuously when we can love our brother? Why clothe ourselves in purple and fine linen when we can feed the poor? Why live in comfort and risk eternity?

Translation Notes

  • n/a

Poetry Used in the Liturgy of Trinity 1

  • Psalm 13- This Psalm is, in many ways, the prayer of Lazarus in life: why does it feel that God is far off? Why does it appear that the enemies of God are prevailing?

  • Psalm 33- This Psalm is, in so many ways, the prayer of Lazarus in death: thanks be to God for He loves righteousness and justice.

  • Psalm 41- This Psalm calls us to a life of thoughtfulness, love, and service. In this song, we confess our sins, our weakness, and our need for God's mercy. Blessed is the Lord - He remembers the poor. Blessed also are we when we remember the poor.

  • Psalm 7- Again a song of praise, thanking God for His justice and righteousness carried out, not only eternally, but specifically in this life.

Artwork:  Family Group Kneeling Before a Street Shrine, by Ventura Salimbeni. Italian (alternatively attributed to Francesco Vanni, also Italian), ca. 1600. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Further Reading & Listening

 

 

Artwork: The Death of Lazarus, by Abraham Bosse. French, published by Jean I Leblond sometime between 1620 and 1676. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

St. John's Lutheran Church
 

1-307-548-7127

stjohnslovell@gmail.com

On the Corner of 5th and Montana

Lovell, Wyoming 82431

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