Given at the Lynnville (IL) UMC on September 26, 2004. The Scripture is from the 16th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, verses 19-31.

It is Important to NOTE that there are references and occurrences contained herein that correlate to That time!

       Any of you who have ever taken the driver’s test for driving any kind of truck may remember that the maximum weight limit on most roads in Illinois is 73,280 pounds. However, the federal limit is 80,000 lbs., and Illinois allows that on all interstates and certain designated secondary roads throughout the state, and they print-up a map every so often clearly delineating just what roads those are. Now obviously, if a trucker gets paid by the pound of load, he wants to be as close to that 80,000 lb limit as he can, but that means he really needs to pay attention to which route he takes so that he stays only on those roads that allow that much weight. For example, highway 54 through Pittsfield, IL, Atlas, and across the river through Louisiana, MO, allows 80,000 lbs, but the road from Atlas through Hardin and along the river to Alton, IL. does not!

       Some years ago I was told a story of a small trucking outfit who had a contract to haul a series of loads out of Mexico, MO into downtown Alton. Now, the shortest route is certainly crossing the Mississippi at Louisiana and coming down through Grafton and such, plus it avoids the big scales west of St. Louis along Interstate 70. So, even though they knew it was technically illegal, every driver opted to take that route with their loads.

As luck would have it, the Secretary of State Police had set up their portable scales that day near Pere Marquette State Park, and as each truck came to them and weighed in, each was pulled to the side and parked, and the driver arrested for being overweight and placed in a squad car! When the owner of the company came to bail everybody out and pay all of the fines, he asked some of the drivers why they hadn’t tried to warn off the ones behind them. He was told that each had been removed from their trucks and didn’t have access to their CB’s and there were no telephones nearby to report in. I’m sure that each must have been thinking something very similar to what verses 27 and 28 say this morning… “I beg you… send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’”

       I think most people know this story of Lazarus and the rich man. When each died, Lazarus stood by Abraham’s side in heaven while the rich man went to the flames of hell, “where he was in torment.” And when he asked for even a small bit of relief, Abraham reminded him, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” As the rich man comes to accept his lot, to his credit he asks if someone could be sent back to warn his brothers.

       In high school, I learned that any play or story with a happy ending is called a comedy while those with unhappy endings are considered tragedies… hence the two drama masks are always displayed with one joyous and one mournful countenance. Are any of you familiar with the Shakespearean tragedy, King Lear? I have a copy of it on three cassette tapes as performed and recorded as a radio play by the BBC. Each tape is about an hour-and-a-half long, so the entire production takes about four-and-a-half hours to listen to! Many years ago, while I was still driving a ‘big-truck’, I chanced to take it with me one time and work my way through it over the course of a two-day trip. Since it was produced in Britain, they remained very faithful to Shakespeare’s original words, and the native actors… many of them very well known… remained true to their native accents. So it was that I spent a fair amount of time, listening to the first tape, in deciphering just exactly what was being said and what was meant by it… but by the time I was listening to the third, I found myself thinking things like, “Wither is yon rest area? Me thinks my mind and body dost, indeed, need a rest!”

       The story of King Lear centers around the King’s having three daughters. Knowing he is aging and looking forward to what we might consider retirement, he asks each of his daughters how much they love him. The two eldest carry on with such prose and flattery as one might expect to hear from one’s offspring, and the king eats it up and gives each of them one third of his kingdom. The youngest daughter, however, states that she only loves her father an average amount… meaning the amount that might be average for one totally devoted to someone, as she was to her father… but the old king takes offense and banishes her from the kingdom. Over time, the two eldest daughters, with the aid of the depraved and decadent illegitimate son of the duke, seek to control their father and gain total control of the kingdom. In the end, the illegitimate son of the duke is dead, his father’s eyes have been put out, the younger daughter is murdered while imprisoned for trying to rescue her father, the two eldest daughters each take poison, most of the king’s friends and supporters are dead around him, and Lear, himself, dies of exposure and a broken heart! As I said, the epitome of a tragic story!

       When it was finished, and my mind dwelt upon the cruel injustices that had been unleashed in it, I was struck with some of the inhumanities mankind inflicts upon itself! Consider, if you will, some of the attempted genocides over the years… the mass graves discovered in Germany after WWII… in Sarajevo not so long ago… and in Iraq during the last few months. Consider how many families were affected by the deaths caused by the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma… the attacks of 9-11… and the recent school takeover in Russia. How many lives are destroyed everyday by drugs, alcohol, and AIDS, not to mention hunger, exposure, lack of clean water, or any number of unsafe and unhealthy conditions? How many people will die today from the action… or inaction… of another human being? A case could easily be made that the human race has deteriorated into a mass of cannibals… feeding on itself in a feeding frenzy of evil and decadence!

       I was pondering on these thoughts, and many others, while pushing my 18-wheeler through the wee hours of the morning, when out of the darkness shown a huge white symbol… a barn some ways off of the highway had a gigantic cross on it made out of white lights… and as I drove by with my thoughts of man’s inhumanity to man, it shown out of the darkness as an answer to all that I saw wrong with the world! And yet… I then considered the rest of today’s verses!

       When the rich man asked Abraham to send someone to warn his brothers, he replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’  Indeed, one could imagine Abraham saying to one of the first drivers sitting in the squad car, ‘those drivers know the law… they know the speed limit and weight restrictions! Let them obey them!’ We can then imagine that driver saying, as did the rich man, “’No, father Abraham… but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent and obey.’ But I ask you… would they? Isn’t true that they… like so many of us, on occasion… only considered what they are doing as wrong if they got caught at it?

And I thought of this… and King Lear… and the cannibalism of the human race… and I realized that Abraham’s next statement was just as true… “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'”  For I saw that one had indeed risen from the dead to warn us… our Lord, Christ Jesus… and yet so many of the world truly ignore, disown, or disavow Him… ‘they will not be convinced… even if someone rises from the dead!’

So… here we sit… surrounded by these walls we have built to honor God… in a service intended to Praise and Worship Him… and feeling very good about ourselves, our lives, and all that we perceive around us… but I put it to you… are you convinced? Do you know in your heart that Christ Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for your sins, and that He rose back to life three days later, and now sits at the right hand of God, the Father? Do you KNOW that?! And if you do… what are you doing about it?! What are you doing to convince your fellow travelers down this road that all is not well unless they heed the warning? What can we Christians do to make that warning come to life and have meaning for all those unbelievers? What are we… the arms and legs of Christ… doing to further His teachings and reach ALL of our brothers and sisters with the Gospel of His love… His peace… and His offer of salvation?

       Well… we start by praying. Praying for His help and guidance… and yes, praying for His protection, as well. We also start by giving! Giving of our money to go towards His ministries all over the world… and yes, lest we forget, our neighbors are a part of this world as well! We give of our time, and our energies, and our knowledge that ALL may come to know God as God… and Jesus as His Son, our Lord! In short, we start by giving our entire lives over to Christ and allowing Him to shape us and mold us and guide us in doing whatever He deems necessary!

       Do you know the story of Jesus? Does the person sitting next to you know it? How about your neighbor? How about the person you know across town, or the friend you work with everyday… do they know the story of Jesus? Because, people, that is what we are each called to do… spread His story to every man, woman and child across the face of the earth! For the only thing that will cure humanities hunger for devouring itself is a steady diet of the Gospel… and that can only be served up by the likes of you and me!