Is Your Belly Full?

 

“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.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’ He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’ He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 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.’ ”

Every now and then I go on mission. Sometimes these missions are for extended periods of time. They could be for as long as a month. No matter how long the mission time, I carry just one suitcase with me. And one day I realized that the contents of a single suitcase were all that I really needed to live. The only other things I required were food, a bed, and a bath, all of which could be contained in a little studio apartment with kitchen space, bed space, and bathroom space. Everything else was actually surplus. 

Now, this isn’t to say that we shouldn’t live in a two, or even three bedroom apartment, totally outfitted with every appliance needed to make life a little more comfortable for ourselves. And that includes a television set. But it IS to say that if my brother is starving and I am thinking of a larger fridge to store the food that I might end up throwing away because I have too much of it, I need to rethink my priorities.

If I have a surplus of anything—money, clothes, appliances—anything, and I know of those who do not have enough of these things, then, as a Christian, I am under an obligation to do something about it. Many of us could clear out a wardrobe and find items of clothing that we have not worn for years. We might even find clothes that we would no longer fit into! Why should we hoard, while others do not have the necessities?

Unlike the rich man in hell, we still have time to do something. When he had the time and the opportunity, he did nothing. There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. There is no scarcity of ideas. For those of us who want to, there is no scarcity of opportunities to help our less fortunate brothers and sisters. If the heart is right, the eyes will see and the ears will hear the cry of the poor. 

The rich man in hell was told that if his brothers did not heed the words of the prophets, they would not heed the word of someone risen from the dead. This was prophetic about what is happening today, when the word is spoken by one who was raised from the dead. “Happy are they who hear the word of God, and keep it”. The word of God must be acted on.

Let’s act upon it today.