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We in the Episcopal Church do not like talking about sin. In fact, usually if a priest preaches against sin, then that priest is labeled as a ‘Baptist’. This is not usually given as a complement, but as an intended slam. For some reason, we Episcopalians generally think of ourselves as being on a higher branch of order in the Body of Christ than our brothers and sisters in Christ in the Baptist Church. Having grown up under the teachings of the Baptist Church, I can honestly say that I personally find this attitude to be rather offensive and hypocritical. Hypocritical in that although we Episcopalians don’t like to hear about sin, we openly confess our sins at least once a week.
Please turn in your prayer books to page 360. Notice at the top of the page after the rubrics we read this statement, “Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.” The General Confession follows. Today we are not going to study the meaning of the entire confession, but just a small part of it. Let’s look at the first sentence:
“Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.”
The phrase “by what we have left undone” is known as the Sin of Omission.
In our reading today from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the story about a beggar and a rich man. In this story, Jesus describes the poor man as a beggar, “who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table”. In other words, poor Lazarus hungered for the rich man’s scraps, which in those days were given to the dogs. We know this from the story about the Gentile woman who came to Jesus and asked him to heal her daughter.
In Mark chapter seven, beginning with verse twenty-four: “From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre.* He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. 26Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ 28But she answered him, ‘Sir,* even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ 29Then he said to her, ‘For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.’ 30So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.”
In The Message, a more recent translation of the New Testament, the story about Lazarus and the rich man begins with these words: “There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man’s table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.”
Can any of us here in our wildest dreams imagine how humiliating it must have been for this poor man to base his hope for survival upon the generosity of another? In the Judea of Jesus’ time, there were no welfare programs, homeless shelters or soup kitchens for the homeless to seek help. Instead, beggars were seen as the outcasts of society and cursed by the Lord. Their only hope for sustenance was the mercy of others.
We are also told that this poor man, named Lazarus, did his begging at the rich man’s gate or door. This means that whenever the rich man left his house or returned home, he had to pass by Lazarus the beggar. So it is not as though the rich man did not know of Lazarus’ condition. In fact, the rich man probably was upset that it was his doorstep where the poor man did his begging. In the rich man’s eyes, Lazarus was an unsightly nuisance.
We are also not informed of any abuse from the rich man towards Lazarus other than choosing to ignore him. Yet, it is this sin of omission which caused the soul of the rich man to be sent to hell. Even in hell, the rich man who sees that Lazarus’ soul is in Paradise, continues to look down upon Lazarus. Although the rich man has been stripped of his earthly comforts and placed in eternal torment, through his arrogance he still sees Lazarus at best as a servant to tend to his own personal needs.
First the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to him with a drop of cooling water to quench his burning tongue. When Abraham informs him of the impossibility of that happening, then the rich man persists in asking Abraham to send Lazarus to warn the rich man’s five brothers of their similar fate. Abraham’s reply is prophetic, “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
In telling this story, Jesus is warning the people that even after He rises from the dead, there will be many who will still not believe in Him as the Messiah. Jesus is also warning those of us who claim to follow His teachings on the importance of being obedient to His words. For even if we are blessed with riches in this life, there is no guarantee that we will receive blessings in the afterlife. In fact, the more we are blessed in this life, the more is expected from us.
In chapter twelve of Luke, we read these words, “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.” When we read this verse, many of us may interpret it as referring to only wealth, yet it comes at the end of Jesus’ parable concerning the watchful slave. In this parable, Jesus warns His followers to be obedient in doing the work that He has commanded us to do. At all times, we are to be ready to face the Lord, because we do not know when He will return or when we will die.
This is why we confess our sins of omission, because there are many missed opportunities in our lives where we can share the love of Christ. Some of them might be happening right under our noses like the rich man passing by Lazarus and choosing to ignore his plight. Each and every day we are given choices in which to serve Christ by helping others. The decisions we make have eternal consequences. May we choose wisely.
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