Christ Cathedral

Old Testament - Amos 6:1-7
Psalm 146
New Testament - 1 Timothy 6:11-19
Gospel - Luke 16:19-31

"As for those who in the present age are rich, command them... to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share... so that they may take hold of the life that really is life."

Some years ago, Bill Murray was in a very funny movie called Groundhog Day. In the movie, Murray plays an egocentric TV weatherman named Phil who is sent to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover well known events surrounding Groundhog Day. From the opening moments of the movie, it is clear that Phil is a man who cares for nothing but himself.

In the very first scene, we see Phil whispering to a colleague in the most arrogant of tones that this will be his last Groundhog Day because he is expecting a better and more prestigious job very soon. When the TV crew arrives in Punxsutawney, Phil seems obsessed with demonstrating that he is vastly superior to everything around him. The TV crew stops in front of what is obviously a luxury hotel on the town square, and he immediately objects, "I’m not staying in that flea-bag hotel again." His producer notes that she has arranged for him to stay in his own special room at a local bed and breakfast. But even this is not enough to soften the edge of Phil’s enormous ego.

He goes to bed, wakes up at 6:00 a.m. and heads out to cover the big events of Groundhog Day, but not without many further displays of his own perceived greatness. On the way to work, he stops to insult nearly everyone he meets. He demeans a passer-by in the hallway for no crime other than an attempt at exchanging pleasantries. Phil then goes downstairs and rudely demands a cappuccino as he turns up his nose at the elegant breakfast already laid out on the marble sideboard. Later, he runs into a classmate from high school and pretends not to know him. At every step along the way, Phil’s life is full of unpleasantness, not because Punxsutawney is such a bad place but because Phil is himself such an unpleasant guy.

Phil’s firm belief that everything about Groundhog Day is beneath his dignity makes this February 2nd something of a living hell for him. He wants nothing more than to get back to Pittsburgh, but a blizzard strikes, and Phil’s worst nightmares come true. He is stuck in Punxsutawney. He returns to the bed and breakfast, goes to sleep, and wakes up at 6:00 a.m., only to discover himself reliving the exact events of the previous day. It is Groundhog Day, all over again. Due to some hiccup in the universe, he is stuck in what he imagines to be the worst place on earth, it seems that there is nothing he can do to escape his torment.

Today’s Gospel tells the story of an individual much like Phil, the egocentric TV weatherman: "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ’Father Abraham, have mercy on 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.’"

The careless rich man, who could think of nothing but his own feasting and good pleasure has a lot in common with Phil the TV weatherman. This rich man is clearly self-centered, and he can never have enough luxury to be happy. Everyday, he wore the sort of clothing that was available to only kings. He feasted sumptuously at every meal. The Greek phrase used to characterize his eating habits occurs elsewhere in descriptions of this sort of extreme gluttony; he may well have eaten himself sick three times a day. His life of conspicuous consumption was so complete that he never needed to notice anyone but himself. Even the man starving to death on his porch was not enough to awaken him to the world outside his own indulgence.

When this rich man, who is totally self-absorbed, dies, however, the luxury is gone, but the essential nature of his life doesn’t really change as much as it may seem. His money is gone, but he remains the same. The big change is that the futility of his earthly life gets more obvious in the afterlife.

The rich man is said to be in Hades, which is the common, everyday Greek word for the underworld. Hades was not the place of eternal punishment for the Greeks, it was simply a place where departed souls went and basically carried on as before. There was no getting out; there was no getting better or worse over time. A departed soul simply hung on to a shadowy existence in some generally appropriate state. For a man who had lived his life ignoring the humanity of those around him, it was perfectly fitting that he should be cut off from all human contact.

It’s a sobering parable, and true to form, Jesus simply tells the story and leaves it for us to figure out. What should the rich man have done differently? What could he have done differently in this life to get out of the miserable existence that he only fully grasped in death? Jesus doesn’t tell us, but thankfully, Bill Murray does have some useful spiritual insights.

When Phil the TV weatherman wakes up on Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney for the second time, and then a third time, and then a fourth time, his initial response is anger and disbelief. He can think of no reason why someone as talented as himself is stuck in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on the day of some corny folk festival. He continues to treat the locals with disdain, and his life remains cut off from the rest of reality. He is lonely, and his own existence is painful. And like the rich man, there seems to be nothing he can do to get out of it.

But as the movie progresses, Phil changes. When he realizes there is no lasting pleasure in duping all the people around him, he tries another path. Instead of serving himself, Phil decides to serve those around him. He races around town, fixing flat tires, catching children as they fall from trees, and even befriending an elderly beggar who lives in a cardboard box.

A remarkable thing happens when Phil starts taking care of other people-his life gets better. He wakes up on Groundhog Day, but it’s not hell anymore. It is his life, and he looks forward to it. He learns to play the piano, he brings coffee to his coworkers, and in the end he falls in love. When he shifts his focus from himself to those around him, Phil is still in the same place with all the same people, but it isn’t hell anymore, it’s a place that he can love, filled with people he has learned to care about, and it’s worth doing good things even if they last only for a day.

The parallels to our normal life in this story are easy enough to spot. Most days we wake up in the same place as the day before. We do the same things over and over again. We see the same people, and the problems all stay the same. But like Phil, we have choices to make. The place we are can either be heaven or it can be hell. It’s really a matter of perspective. The most striking thing about this change in perspective is that today’s Gospel seems to indicate that our current perspective and the behavior that it causes has direct consequences in the afterlife.

The nature of life after death has probably been the subject of more speculation than just about any other in the history of religion. Christians believe they will be resurrected on the last day, but what happens in the mean time? The parable of Lazarus and the rich man is one of a handful of places in the New Testament where the afterlife is addressed in any way at all. The picture is in actuality quite conventional. Lazarus is comforted, he is gathered to Abraham’s bosom, which is more or less a poetic way of saying that he has gone to Paradise, a place of comfort for the righteous dead.

Likewise, the egocentric rich man receives his reward. In Hades, the appropriate reward for the egocentric and indulgent life of the rich man was continual torment. He never kicked Lazarus, he never spat on him, he simply ignored him. For the rich man, the beggar at his gate simply did not merit notice as a human being. In the end, the rich man’s miserable choice to be aloof and alone in his robes and riches finally reached its logical conclusion in hell. His life was spent ignoring the needs of those around him, and it finally caught up with him. When he died and suddenly noticed that Lazarus might have had some connection to him as a human being, it was too late.

It’s a rather sobering parable if we pause to take it seriously. It suggests that there is a very close connection between the type of life we have now and the type of life we will have after we die. Just like Phil from Groundhog Day, our decision to be in heaven or in hell is really a matter of perspective and it starts right now. We wake up in the same place, with the same people, with the same things going on, almost everyday. Where we end up is determined by one thing: whether we trust in Jesus and treat others as he would treat them, or whether we trust in wealth and ignore the world around us. And so friends, let me council you to choose wisely, and as you choose, you might consider the advice of St. Paul to his dear friend Timothy:

"Do good, be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, and store up for yourselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that you may take hold of the life that really is life."