My friends, we are challenged once again this week to see beyond the “black and white” story as presented in Luke’s gospel today about the poor, sick man, Lazarus, at the gates of the rich man, hoping only for the scraps falling from an abundant table. The story might be seen simply as one selfish man refusing to share with an unfortunate neighbor. 

   But actually, as is always the case with our brother Jesus, he is asking us to see more.  The actual “sin” here is not the selfishness of one human to another, but the sin of being “complacent” which the prophet Amos is railing about to his Israelite neighbors in the 1^st reading today.  He says, “Woe to [you who are] complacent!” 

   When we become complacent, we don’t recognize evil when it is right in front of us, or we can’t be bothered, and eventually this attitude blocks us from being our best selves, which is really what following Jesus is all about. 

   Again, looking deeper at the gospel story, you may have noticed that the poor man is named while the rich man is not.  We are told that this lack of naming the rich man is a way to downplay his actions while uplifting, through naming, the plight of Lazarus. 

   By uplifting the poor man Lazarus, Jesus calls our attention to him, the good he embodies, and the need to recognize him, and others like him – or in other words, not be complacent.  As we spoke of last week, we may not be able to totally fix every problem that we encounter in our world, but we must have eyes that see, ears that hear, and hearts that engage with those in need, doing what we can. 

   I recently, through one of you, was introduced to a really wonderful book, entitled,  Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, by Reza Aslan.  In the first chapters, I was a bit concerned as he seemed to be down-playing so many of the events and places connected to Jesus as historically not possible – events that we remember in our yearly liturgical calendar, such as Jesus being born in Bethlehem and his parents traveling to Egypt to escape King Herod. 

   Now, Aslan isn’t the first to write in this fashion about the historical Jesus of Nazareth who did live, teach and preach, and die as a result of how he had lived, and he won’t be the last, no doubt, but his book in its entirety has led me to believe even more so than before in all that Jesus did and has meant to our world.  Let me tell you why. 

   As with everything that we read in the Bible, we must go to the heart of the message.  Our God did send our brother Jesus to be one of us, encouraging each of us through his own life to live, as we heard today in Paul’s letter to Timothy, “as one dedicated to God, [striving] to be a person of integrity, [one who can reverence all of creation] filled with faith  and love, [one who is] patient and gentle. 

   Aslan, in his book, relates the message of Jesus of Nazareth as those first followers knew him and believed him to be the Messiah, alongside Saul of Tarsus, who later would become Paul, who gave the world Jesus, the Christ.

   We must remember two things here – Jesus’ 1^st followers didn’t necessarily think of him as both human and God, whereas Paul, who never knew Jesus in the flesh, proclaimed him, in his belief, as the Christ, a God big enough for all believers – not just Jews.  Writers like Franciscans, Sister Ilia Delio and Father Richard Rohr speak of Jesus as the “Cosmic Christ” in this regard – again, a God big enough for all of us. 

   Aslan, in Zealot, lays out the real struggles between the church in Jerusalem headed by James the Just, most likely Jesus’ brother, and not his “cousin,” as we Catholics were told through the years,  and the church of Paul who took Jesus’ message to the Gentiles. 

   Over time, the two belief systems would be melded, and in Aslan’s words, [the person, Jesus of Nazareth] “would be almost lost to history.”  Personally, I always wondered why I very seldom, if at all heard the message, the words and actions of Jesus lifted up in my brother priests’ homilies.  Aslan helped me see perhaps a bit of the answer. 

   Believing in mysteries such as God coming among us in human form, [however that may have happened] living a time, dying, rising, and ascending into heaven – actions that we humans are really not capable of, make the belief in such a God/human in some ways more palatable then believing in a human/God who journeyed through life as we do – trying and succeeding at doing his best – encouraging us to do the same – in fact, expecting us to!  Aslan says that “this is a shame, because the one thing any comprehensive study of the historical Jesus should reveal is that Jesus of Nazareth – Jesus the man, is every bit as compelling, charismatic, and praiseworthy as Jesus, the Christ. He is in short, someone worth believing in.”  And I would add, modeling in our own lives. 

   So, my friends, what is the author of Zealot  saying here?  That Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus, the Christ are two different beings?  No.  What I think he is saying is that the two are one, but that we must take the whole package and especially, “not be complacent” in following our brother Jesus who spoke truth-to-power when needed, even if those who needed to be challenged were so-called leaders in Church or State.  To be a Christian, not to be confused with those who today tie this title to “nationalism,” means that we will “have to be bothered,” we can’t look away, we must respond as Jesus did, because “not responding” seems to be the true sin spoken of in today’s gospel.  Let’s not be guilty of that sin – complacency.  Amen? Amen!