God’s Love Reframes Justice and Generosity
Given by Rev. Kelly Nieman Anderson
September 28, 2025
Friends, over the past 13 weeks, we have journeyed together through scriptures that teach us how God’s love calls us into communities, leads us to deeper faith, and renews us for mission in our world. Today, our Bible readings remind us that God’s love renews everyone – and thus, the faithful are expected to share God’s love with all of our neighbors, especially those who are poor, sick, or lonely. God’s beloved children should never have to beg for the crumbs that fall from someone else’s table.
Thus, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus is not about ultimate revenge. And it’s not about the afterlife, either, as much as we may wish it was. Jesus is retelling a classic folktale of his era, similar to how A Christmas Carol is retold today, using images of an imagined future to help us refocus on how we are living now. And Jesus isn’t talking to crowds of average people, either. Jesus is speaking directly to a group of religious professionals who were part of the rich, ruling classes – people who were ignoring the needs of their own people, much like the rich man in the story. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is explaining how God’s love renews us for a truly abundant life.
The other scriptures today are trying to share the same truth: wealth can be a particularly heavy and stubborn barrier to living the abundant life which God wants for us.
During his life, the rich man lets his material goods create a barrier between himself and his neighbor, Lazarus. That human-created “gulf” is keeping him from the full, abundant life which would have come from beloved community with his neighbors. God created us to love one another, not to use one another; so, sharing his resources could have been one step towards building a more abundant life.
Today’s scriptures remind us that God’s love liberates us from the chains of our “stuff” and realigns our priorities so that we can help one another experience the “life that really is life”.
Such a loving realignment of our priorities is one example of “death and resurrection” while we are still here on earth. God lovingly supports us in letting certain assumptions and expectations die… and God invites us to participate in the holy work of renewing our relationships and revitalizing our communities. Sometimes, as we begin to notice all of our neighbors … we may notice that some of the people whom God uses to bring new life into our world are different than we may have otherwise expected.
Waste Management is one of the most interesting aspects of death and resurrection in our modern world. Every week, I put out all my trash and recycling, and it just gets magically whisked away. All the dead and useless and dirty things in my life go somewhere else, so that my house can only be full of life-giving and clean things.
It’s amazing, actually. Occasionally, some of my trash gets recycled into something amazing, too, like a park bench or electrical energy.
But I don’t think at all about the people who take away my trash. I don’t know the names of my trash collectors. I don’t know where my trash goes, or what happens to it when it goes there. I am feasting every single day in my home, and someone I don’t even know is paid to whisk away the crumbs which have fallen from my table. As someone who can afford to pay for trash removal, I am one of the richest people on earth. It feels awkward to be compared to the “rich” person in this parable – someone who is most likely just trying to follow God’s laws. It feels uncomfortable to realize that whoever picks up my trash is the “Lazarus” in this parable. If I met my garbage collectors in heaven, I wouldn’t recognize them or even know their names.
Of all the bills I pay each month, my trash and recycling bill is fairly small. So cheap in fact that I rarely ever think about it, or the people who do that job. But one of my larger bills every month is my student loan payment. Most pastors are in the same boat – with the average Pastor in the US carrying about $50,000 in student loans. I am still paying a lot for my already completed Divinity degree, and I routinely pay very little for my trash collection, so in the algebra of life, one appears to be more valuable than the other.
But Jesus’ parable about Lazarus and the Rich Man is all about how in God’s economy, everything is upside down. God’s love liberates us from our stuff and realigns our priorities. God’s love encourages us to question the kinds of “chasms” we have created here on earth.
Why does it cost so much to learn about God, when the Word of God is free and available to everyone? Why does it cost so little to manage the resources God gave us on this earth (so little that I think of some resources as “trash”)? I really never thought about those ideas until recently, which is embarrassing to admit. But someone did think about it, very seriously, just a few years ago, when a CEO from a Waste Management company made a choice which dramatically altered the future of theological education in the ELCA.
A few years ago, before the pandemic, Luther Seminary (where I attended) was in danger of bankruptcy. There wasn’t enough money to maintain the buildings and pay the professors, and there weren’t enough people able to pay for their tuition, and there weren’t enough churches able to hire seminary graduates with debt. Death of the seminary was not yet imminent, but it was looming.
Then, an anonymous CEO from a Waste Management company brought resurrection to Luther Seminary in the form of a 20-million-dollar check. That donation inspired other investors to think differently about Seminary costs, too. So, in 2019, the seminary changed the rules, and many future pastors no longer had to pay for their theological education. Their tuition was covered, because an unnamed person whom the world forgot inspired radical generosity and created an illogical solution for a very practical problem. The first year, there were twice as many applications as there were seats available. The seminary was not only rescued, but completely reformed into a new thing, into something that seemed completely irrational just a few months before. Next year, the seminary will change again, selling their physical buildings and resurrecting themselves in a new way. Sometimes, God’s love liberates us from our “stuff” so that we can focus on living abundantly with our neighbors.
Who are we in this parable? We are not Lazarus, although we may be ignored or struggling or in need of something. We are not the rich man, although we may have more material possessions than we really need. Most of the time, we are the five brothers: the siblings of the rich man, still living, whom the rich man wishes to warn, to save from the torment of only using people, not loving them, and ignoring our neighbors, rather than serving them. We are the five brothers, in danger of waiting for some spectacular sign before we will let God’s love realign our priorities and change our lives.
For we do have all the signs we need: we have scriptures, we have Jesus’ resurrection, we have the church and each other, we have enough food and clean water for all to share, we have the gifts we need to be good neighbors and friends and welcome others into our families – if we will just open our doors and our hearts to learn the names of those right next to us whom we may have otherwise ignored.
Jesus reminds us that in God’s kingdom, investing in others is always worth the risk. In God’s kingdom, fighting for justice and peace is always worth the effort. In God’s kingdom, partnering with the least of these is exactly where we are called to devote our time and energy.
God is calling us to live generously – and to start today – even if the first step feels as if our entire world is being turned upside down. Disciples live generously when they volunteer on Sunday morning for worship right here, and also when they serve meals at Care for Real. Disciples live generously when they faithfully contribute to the offering plate and also when they faithfully invest in community partnerships. Disciples live generously when they support their pastor’s sabbatical and renovate the scout room for their neighbors in need. Disciples live generously when they treat their garbage collectors with dignity, and when they invest in the dignity of workers everywhere.
Disciples live generously – and in doing so, we get to experience resurrection hope whenever we let God’s love liberate us from the chains of our “stuff” and realign our priorities so that we can help one another experience the “life that really is life”.
Thank you, people of Immanuel Lutheran Church, for the opportunity to experience God’s love in community with all of you this summer. Thank you for generously welcoming me and thank you for sharing God’s love with me in many and various ways. I hope and pray that you get to keep experiencing “the life that is really life” together for a very long time, as you continue to let God’s love call you, lead you, and renew you throughout your life of faith.
