Sermon for September 26

Pentecost 17-C 9/26/04

I like to switch things up once in a while so here’s a song by Hank Williams about today’s gospel reading.

THE TRAMP ON THE STREET Lyrics

Only a tramp was Lazarus’ sad fate.
He who lay down by the rich man’s gate.
He begged for some crumbs from the rich man to eat.
But they left him to die like a tramp on the street.

Chorus: He was some mother’s darlin’, he was some mother’s son
Once he was fair and once he was young
Some mother once rocked him, her darlin’ to sleep.
But they left him to die like a tramp on the street.

And as you know from last week, one of the ways I like to try to make sense out of Jesus parables is to think about ways we can see ourselves in it.

For example, do we see ourselves as Lazarus? Well, my thought is that pretty clearly, for most of us that’s not a great fit. We may be hurting to different degrees today’s economy, but we certainly not to the point where we have other people’s garbage, sleep on the street, sores licked by dogs. A pretty graphic description of a destitute man. At least I hope none of us is. There are people in our society in that situation, to society’s shame, and for those folks, the point of this parable may be that someday God will bless them, even if it is in the next life. In the parable when Lazarus dies he goes straight to heaven.

Well, the other main character, the rich man, dresses always in the finest clothes, purple the color of royalty, and linen, a rare commodity in Jesus’ time. This man feasts sumptuously every day, lives in a gated home. He’s a hard-hearted man, who is deaf to the cries of the needy.

Moreover, not only does this rich man goes to the bad place when he dies, in Jesus’ story, he goes there permanently. There’s no salvation for him. Surely an exaggeration for effect by Jesus. We believe that we have the promise of salvation, the forgiveness of our sins. The rich man is a very broadly drawn character who serves a purpose in the parable that is certainly not much like us.

In this song about the parable Hank Williams doesn’t pay too much attention to the rich man; he doesn’t really even blame the rich man for Lazarus’ fate, he says “they left him to die. His take on this parable is that the responsibility for Lazarus’ death is shared by all who walked by him, every person who didn’t reach out to him, feed him, care for him. And of course, Hank Williams sees Jesus in this tramp.

Jesus, He died on Calvary’s tree
Shed His life’s blood for you and for me
They pierced His side, His hands and His feet
And they left Him to die like a tramp on the street.

He was Mary’s own darlin’; he was God’s chosen Son
Once He was fair and once He was young
Mary, she rocked Him, her darlin’ to sleep
But they left Him to die like a tramp on the street.

Williams wrote this song in when he was a young man, before he became famous. He been a musician since he was a kid, hung around with Black street musicians in his hometown in Alabama. He quit school and became a full-time musician when he was 16, worked in honkytonks and clubs. He had been kind of a sickly child, he had spina bifida which caused him. pain all his life from what we know. He struggled all his life with alcohol and some morphine that he took for his back problems.

Williams had probably known a few tramps on the street in his time and maybe wasn’t too far from being one himself. But he grew up in the faith and he wrote and performed dozens of songs Christians songs all his life..

In Tramp on the Street, he compares Lazarus to Jesus, and I think his song points out to us Jesus own teaching “as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.”

If Jesus should come and knock on your door
For a place to come in, or bread from your store.
Would you welcome Him in, or turn Him away?
You must answer to God on the Great Judgement Day.

He’s some mother’s darlin’, he’s some mother’s son
Once he was fair and once he was young
Some mother once rocked him, her darlin’ to sleep
Will we leave him to die like a tramp on the street.
Well, the only characters left in the parable are the rich man’s five brothers, and actually I think that might not be a bad fit for us, at least I’ll take it. Still alive, still doing the best they can and still with the chance to do the right thing for the next tramp on the street. With hope they might learn from the voices of the prophets, and from Lazarus, certainly from Jesus, and maybe even from poets, like Hank Williams.

He’s some mother’s darlin’, he’s some mother’s son
Once he was fair and once he was young
Some mother once rocked him, her darlin’ to sleep
But they left him to die like a tramp on the street.