Readings:
Jeremiah 17:5-10; Psalm 1; Luke 16:19-31

The Lord says this, “The heart is more devious than any other thing, perverse, too: who can pierce its secrets?‘
Jeremiah 17:9

Jesus said, ‘There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there lay a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table… Now the poor man died… The rich man also died.
In his torment in Hades, Dives… cried out, ‘Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.‘
Luke 16:19-22, 24

Abraham says that no one can cross the gulf between Dives and Lazarus, so Dives asks that Lazarus be sent to warn his brothers. Abraham replies that if they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise again from the dead.

Dives stands for the wealthy, Lazarus for the poor. Dives is not portrayed as a malicious persecutor, oppressing or exploiting Lazarus: Dives simply does not notice Lazarus, and that is the most disturbing element of the parable.

A British cabinet minister stated recently that there was no longer any poverty in Britain. His statement came at a time when the rich were becoming richer, the poor poorer, many without enough to eat, an increasing number homeless. The government meanwhile, through cuts in social services, was putting extra burdens on those least able to bear them.

Our situation in Britain is mild compared with Third World countries, where a billion of the world’s population are malnourished and thousands die daily of starvation, not because there is insufficient food available, but because of its unjust distribution. The world’s starving could be fed on a fraction of the money which is spent on arms. which exonerate the wealthy from any blame, or from any obligation to redress the balance. Third World poverty is attributed to the backwardness of its peoples, the corruption of its governments and officials, while poverty at home is attributed to the fecklessness of the poor, who spend on drink and tobacco what could be spent on wholesome food. In face of all this poverty, the wealthy have a simple answer, ‘Create more wealth’, a policy from which the poor themselves will eventually benefit by a trickle-down effect, a theory not verified in the experience of the poor, nor by statistics. ‘The heart is more devious than any other thing’ (Jeremiah 17:9).

To protect ourselves and our national values, we have, as part of our defence, four Trident submarines on order, each submarine costing the equivalent of the total educational budget of twenty-three developing countries. Each submarine has a firepower several times more than the total firepower expended in the Second World War, and equivalent to at least one thousand Hiroshima bombs.

Our spirituality is so split that most Christians believe that world hunger, homelessness, the arms trade, war itself, are political questions, not religious, and therefore unsuitable topics for the pulpit. Such a split spirituality is attractive to the better-off. It was attractive to Dives and enabled him to dine sumptuously every day, without even noticing Lazarus.

The problems of world injustice are massive, complex and apparently intractable. As individuals, what can we do? Firstly, acknowledge that these are religious questions. To ignore them is to ignore God and to live a practical atheism. Secondly, we need not only to inform ourselves and our parishes about poverty in our own country and abroad, but befriend some of its victims.

Prayer
God, create a clean and compassionate heart within us. Deliver us from all deviousness, so that we can face the plight of the poor at home and abroad, and facing understand, and understanding work to put right the structures and attitudes which keep Dives feasting, while Lazarus starves. We ask you this through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.