Sunday after Trinity

Text: Lk 16:19-31

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Father Abraham! Abraham, the great figure of the Old Testament. Abraham, friend of God. Abraham, inheritor of promise. But who can claim Abraham as his Father? Who can claim to enjoy the same blessings and inherit the same promises ? Who is a true son of Abraham?

I

None who boast in the flesh. Take the rich man. Outwardly, he might have seemed like a son of Abraham. He was after all a Jew. No doubt he sat in a prominent seat in the synagogue every sabbath. No doubt he went up to Jerusalem year by year for the appointed feasts. No doubt he gave money for the upkeep of the temple. He probably assumed that since he was an Israelite, a child of Abraham circumcised the eighth day, and because he went through the motions, when all was said and done, God would welcome him into glory. But his fate after death reveals the truth. He ends up in hell. He is far from God and far away from Abraham. His conversation with Abraham when he appears with Lazarus is telling. He calls Abraham, “Father Abraham.” And of course, in a sense, Abraham is his father—according to the flesh. But Abraham is not his spiritual father. Abraham, as our reading from Genesis says, “Believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness.” That’s what sets Abraham apart. That’s what makes him special. His faith in God, in God’s word. But the rich man does not believe God’s word, even when suffering in hell. When Abraham refuses to send Lazarus to spook his brothers into repentance because, he says, “They have Moses and the Prophets,” they have the word of God. But the rich man says, “No. No Father Abraham.” God’s word will not do. By this confession, the rich man reveals that he is no true son of Abraham. He doesn’t care about God’s word—the one thing Abraham cared most about.

Like the rich man, no can who boasts in the flesh can claim Abraham as his father and imagine that he is a son of Abraham, someone who is like Abraham and so will receive the inheritance and enjoy the blessing. A modern-day Jew descended from Abraham might have the purest lineage and can boast that his family goes all the way back to the patriarch, but God doesn’t care. You might be able to boast that your family has been Lutheran since the reformation itself, but God doesn’t care. You might boast that for unbroken generations your family is all buried in the same church cemetery, but God doesn’t care. You might boast that you have in your possession an original King James Bible passed down from father to son, but God doesn’t care. He doesn’t care about any boast of the flesh. He not impressed by any appeal to outward associations, to your connection to people of the past, or to anything people wave their hands at as proof that they too have God’s blessing and will be welcomed by Him into the next life.

Being a blood descendant of Abraham or from a family that joined the Reformation or something like that is indeed a gift from God. But for this reason—you have example to imitate. If you are descended from Abraham but don’t have the faith of Abraham, then he stands as a witness against you, not for you. If your family has been Lutheran for generations and do not yourself share the same faith, their faith condemns you. If you cherish the graves of your parents and grandparents but aren’t at peace with God, then the verses on their tombstones cry out against you. If an original King James Bible sits on your shelf but you don’t take its words to heart, then it will do you no good.

And why is that? Because faith is what matters before God.

II

A true son of Abraham has the faith of Abraham. As Paul says in Galatians chapter three verses seven, “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.”

Take Lazarus. Like the rich man, he was a descendant of Abraham according to the flesh, but that’s not why he is at Abraham’s side after death. He’s with Abraham in heaven because on earth he had faith as Abraham had faith. Look at our Old Testament reading. God did not receive Abraham because of his lineage, because of what his parents believed, because of something he’d done, or anything like that. But what does it say? “Abraham believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” So too with all who would be sons of Abraham. Like Abraham, Lazarus also believed in the Lord and God counted, He considered, He regarded, that faith as Lazarus’ righteousness before Him. Therefore, Lazarus, though sick and alone, could truly be called a son of Abraham, a friend of God, an inheritor of eternal promise, an enjoyer of God’s blessing.

It’s not as though God counted Abraham or Lazarus’ faith as righteousness because faith of itself is some sort of work or virtue—better than loving your neighbor or receiving circumcision or something like that. No. God doesn’t count faith as righteousness because faith is a great work, or the best work, or anything like that. Quite the opposite. The bible always places works and faith in total distinction. As great the distance of that chasm separating Lazarus and the rich man, so great is the difference between works and faith. As sharp a contrast between black and white, so sharp is contrast the Scripture makes between works and faith. As different as heaven is from hell, so different are works and faith according to the witness of Scripture. God counted Abraham’s faith for righteousness, He reckoned Lazarus’ faith for righteousness, not because of what faith is, but because of what faith believes. Abraham believed in the Lord. He believed the Lord when He spoke—He believed God’s word. More specifically, he believed the word of promise. Most specifically, he believed God’s word about the promised seed.

Abraham is called the father of the faithful because he believed in the promised seed—in the promise of the Messiah. He believed the promise of the Gospel. That’s the promise Lazarus believed, too. That is the promise all the faithful of the Old Testament believed, if they were true believers. When you read the Old Testament, you realize that many, indeed most, weren’t true believers. They didn’t believe God’s word of promise. They despised it. They did whatever they wanted and just told themselves that because they were descended from Abraham and because God did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, God would of course give them a free pass into eternity. And sadly, today not everyone who claims association with the church is a believer, either.

But only he is a true believer who has the faith of Abraham. Abraham believed what God told Him, that through his one descendant (the promised seed, the Messiah) all the nations on the earth should be blessed. As Jesus says in John chapter 8, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day.” Abraham believed in the promised seed to come. You believe that this promised seed has come—even Jesus Christ. He has secured God’s eternal blessing for all peoples by sacrificing Himself on the altar of the cross once for all in payment for sin. Through the shedding of His holy blood He has secured the blessings of an eternal covenant in which the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life are yours. This covenant is proclaimed in the word you believe and sealed to you in the holy meal you eat.

Those who have faith are true sons of Abraham—friends of God, inheritors of promise, blessed of the Lord. When you despair of yourself, when you cease boasting about whatever it is you think sets you apart from other sinners and makes God take notice of you, when you stop scrabbling about for some reason, any reason, why God should approve of you, when you stop making excuses for your sins before your own conscience and other people and just confess them before God and men, and when you believe the word spoken to you, a sinner, that Jesus Christ is your righteousness and your sins are forgiven you for His sake, God counts your faith for righteousness. He is pleased with you, He approves of you, He accepts you, for no other reason than that you believe that His Son from eternity, and Abraham’s son according to the flesh, is your Savior from your sins.

And though you pass through fire and water in life, though the boast of your life is only labor and sorrow, though you have no home and the dogs lick your sores, if you have faith then at the last you will your good things. God’s angels will carry you home, and you will enter the eternal promised rest that Lazarus and all true sons of Abraham enjoy.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.