November 23, 2025 · Rev. Mike Duda · Isaiah 58:6-9; Luke 16:19-31
Thanksgiving is about sharing a meal, and so was much of Jesus' ministry, from the agape feasts of the first Christians to the feeding of the five thousand. Rev. Mike Duda reads the parable of the rich man and Lazarus as a word for today, when food aid is being cut at home and abroad, and calls the community to gather, eat together and stand up for those at the gate.
Transcript
Well, this is the time of the year. It's finally here when we all start thinking about food. Now, some of us think about food all the time. Doesn't matter what time of the year. And I admit I'm one of those. I love a good meal, especially when it's shared with family and good friends. But Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a time when we go all out on food, turkeys. All the fixins. Market basket shores. Stop and shop. It's going to be long lines this week. And then at the airports, same thing. Long lines of people getting flights to be home, to have that special meal with the family and friends that they care about, or driving on crowded highways. And it's a special time. And, you know, to be honest, I like it much more than Christmas. You know, it's so much easier to eat a turkey than go out and figure out what you're going to buy for somebody for Christmas, especially, most of us have everything we need anyway. Do we need another pair of slippers? But there's always room for turkey and stuffing and mash. Oh, sorry. I won't get carried away here.
Over the years, most of us have also come to be able to separate the old myth of the pilgrims getting along with the Native Americans. We know that that only lasted for a short time, But still, Thanksgiving is really about being together and sharing that meal. But it's not just Thanksgiving where we share meals. So many of our our traditions involve sharing meals together, sharing food with family and friends, special occasions, weddings. There's almost always a meal after a wedding. And even funerals usually involve some sort of a meal after the service.
Food. Food is inextricably bound to community. When we gather, it almost always involves food. Pretty much every Sunday, as you file out here, you know there's coffee and cookies and gather around and share food together as we gather and share with one another. It's a tradition in most churches and in fact, in most faith traditions. Many of them enjoy some kind of communal meal. I mean, of course, there's Holy Communion, the Eucharist, the Catholic Mass, but that's become more of an institution and symbolic rather than a meal.
You know, originally in the early days of Christianity, when they were gathering following Jesus death and resurrection, before there was an institutionalized church, before there was communion or the Eucharist, when they were just called the people of the way, they would gather and they would gather for these meals, and they were called agape meals. And there's actually six words in Greek for love. But agape is the highest form of love, the purest form of love. And they would have these love feasts together. And it wasn't solemn or symbolic. It was a gathering of the community which had come to follow the teachings of this rabbi, to celebrate the gift of new life that he was offering them.
And Jesus, much of his ministry, in fact, most of his ministry was around meals. You know, a lot of times we don't notice it. But when you're reading a Scripture story, it's usually when he's gathering with someone around a meal and then he begins to teach. And of course, there's Rich symbolism in the. In the words of Jesus, and in effect, they are spiritual food. But even Jesus recognized the importance of physical food when he shared his words with the crowds on the shores of that lake that we know as the Sea of Galilee. He made sure there was enough fish and bread to feed the crowds in the famous feeding of the five thousand.
The traditions of sharing faith along with food, go even beyond Christianity. Long before the followers of Jesus broke with Judaism, the Jews had festivals. Passover is the best known where this special meal represents their deliverance from slavery and In bondage in Egypt and their long journey to freedom. Every culture, every religion has food as some part of its tradition, and particularly every major religion has food as part of hospitality. The first thing that people do in in the Hebrew scriptures, in the New Testament, in the Koran, in every faith is when they welcome strangers into their house, what do they do? They invite them to a meal. And conversely, withholding food from the hungry. That was considered a sin in every religion.
We heard the greatest of the Jewish prophets, Isaiah, today in this Old Testament reading that Barbara just read if you open your heart to the hungry, he connects it. He connects the opening of the heart to feeding the hungry. And you provide abundantly for those who are afflicted. Your light will shine in the darkness, and your gloom will be like noon. I'll also save any comments about the finger pointing and wicked speech for another sermon. I don't want to keep you here for two sermons today.
But you know, Jesus followed that prophetic tradition of Isaiah, and it was clear in so much of his teaching, and certainly in this story we heard today of the rich man and Lazarus. Now, Lazarus in the story is not to be confused with Lazarus, who was the brother of Mary and Martha and died. And Jesus called him out of the tomb. This is a whole different story, and it's actually a parable. And it was meant, as in all parables, to make a point. And this parable is interesting because it's only found in Luke, and it includes that ending about, gee, even if somebody came back from the dead, they still wouldn't listen. And it's actually the only parable in the entire New Testament that actually has a name for one of its characters. You know, most of the time, you know, there was a man and he had two sons and one son did this and the other son. You know, it's always just a description. But in in this parable, he actually uses the name Lazarus, and Lazarus comes from the Hebrew elazar. And literally it means the one whom God has helped. Now the common people, when they gathered around, when they were listening to the teachings of Jesus, they would have picked up on that right away. They knew what Lazarus meant in Hebrew. They would relate to poor Lazarus, and they wanted to be helped by God, just as Lazarus did.
It's also important when we're reading a parable, to understand that there's images that are used. And in this parable, the description of the afterlife and the bosom of Abraham with the large chasm is not to be taken literally. It's using an image that was familiar to the people of the day and carried across the point that Jesus was making. And this parable clearly, clearly not only meant a lot to the poor who heard it, but it hit home with the rich. In fact, it follows right after verse thirteen where Jesus says the famous words, no servant can serve two masters, for either the servant will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. The old word for money. Money.
This is one of the reasons, probably one of the primary reasons that Jesus was so hated by the wealthy ruling class of the day, and why they plotted to get him out of the way. The disparity between the rich man and the poor man was not just comforting to the poor, it was disturbing to the rich. And I think it still is. People hearing this parable would have associated the rich who were wearing purple with the ruling priestly class. They became wealthy by collaborating with the Roman oppressors who were in charge of Judea and Israel at the time. He meant Jesus meant to get the rich riled up. He intended to point the finger at them for their total disregard for the poor, for their lack of empathy and compassion for the injustice that was just obvious every day. That's the point of this parable. It's the point of the story, and it's the point now.
So the question we're left with. Sounds like something's going on here. Is it that one? No. You should use it. Oh, okay. Okay. Oh, man. What would we do without Jim? Thanks, Jim.
So the question is, who are the rich ones today? Who are the ones wearing the fine purple clothes and eating the good food today? Who are the ones who are not sharing food with the hungry and the poor today. Now, you know, often people see this as an admonition to us, you know, who are fairly well off, who have enough food and who have our homes. And yes, it is certainly personal. We need to share our abundance with those in need. But the prophetic mission of Jesus goes well beyond that. Jesus had a broader vision, a God's eye point of view, so to speak. He saw the incredible injustice of the social order of the time, the wealthy priestly class, the ones wearing the purple, the ones who supported, were supported by the Roman government, and they were getting rich on it.
So understanding what this parable meant then and there. We have to ask ourselves, what does it mean to us here, now, today? That's always the importance of taking the time to understand the context in the situation. When that scripture was written and when Jesus was actually speaking these words.
Cutting off food and health care to poor countries through USAID is injustice. It's injustice. The money that goes to the poor and the hungry and the sick in those nations is a pittance. It's a pittance to the richest nation in the world and the poor in the countries who are dependent on those scraps from our tables are now starving and dying. And as we saw in the government shutdown, cutting off food support for the poor through Snap affects millions of our own citizens. I read in the Gloucester Daily Times this week that that number is forty one million. Forty one million and thirty nine percent of those are children, children, and another twenty percent are people over sixty. So much for the myth of the welfare queen, huh? And it appears that health care, health care will be next on the chopping block.
Now, this is not conservative versus liberal politics. This is not Democratic versus Republican. It's just a question of what's right and what's wrong. It's as wrong as that rich man turning his back on Lazarus.
The leaders of our country, many of them claim to be Bible believing Christians. Many claim to be making America a Christian nation. But somehow I think they missed the story in their Bible studies and in their Scripture readings. And what they're doing. They are that rich man. They deserve to be on the other side of that chasm. And this is not my opinion. This is not Mike Duda making this up. This is what we find when we look at the scriptures and we think about what Jesus would be saying to us today. If Jesus were here in this church preaching. It's important to know that what's happening in this country is not Christian in any sense of the word. And it's not making our country great. It's not even making our country good. It's making our country wrong and unjust and sinful, if you will.
In many ways, we are no different than those people who were listening to Jesus in the first country. The Roman Empire was too powerful and it was too cruel to take on. But Jesus showed them a different kind of power, a new kind of power another way. That's why they called it originally The way. Right now, the people running our government are also powerful and cruel. But that doesn't mean we can't speak out and stand up and take action when the opportunities arise. For those early followers, much of that power came through those agape meals, feeding one another and building community right in the midst of that injustice and oppression. In four seventy six, Rome fell, but people were still eating those agape meals. The followers of Jesus continued to meet. And we're still here meeting, trying our best to follow him.
So the question is, what can we do? Just because there's injustice doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy our Thanksgiving meals together, doesn't mean we should somehow skip having that turkey this Thursday. In fact, it's the opposite. It's the opposite. We need to gather together. We need to build community. We need to be strong so that we can do the work that needs to be done to fight these injustices. We need to sustain ourselves both physically and spiritually. And gathering in community does those things. Something amazing happens when we gather like that, when we share food together, and we do so much more than fill our bellies. We build bonds, we strengthen the connections between us and between God. And ultimately, ultimately, that makes us more connected to those who are poor and hungry and suffering. To the lazaruses at the gate.
So even today, following this service, when we gather for coffee, please look at those who are eating a cookie. And oh, those cookies look good. Look at those who are sharing a cookie and a cup of coffee with you. This is your community. This is your community. And when you sit down to eat the turkey this week with your family and friends, know that you are not alone. You are not alone. This is your community. A community committed. Dedicated to justice. Committed to a time when those who hunger will be filled. And those who are suffering will find solace. The time is coming when right actions will become clear, whatever those actions may be. It will take courage and community for us, just as it did for those early followers of Jesus.
So my friends, may God bless you this Thanksgiving. May we all enjoy our food with gratitude, and may we be strengthened to walk in justice in the days ahead. Amen. And God bless.