Ryland Epworth United Methodist Church

Thought for the Week:

Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.
                                                                                                Psalm 25:4

Instrumental Selections

• Organ Prelude:

His Eye Is On the Sparrow                                                                                                             Gabriel
 
• Postlude:

Procession of the Priests                                                                                                                   Rossini

Sermon Title:    Miserable Lazarus

Scripture Lessons: Psalm 91; I Timothy 6:6-19; St. Luke 16:19-31

Sermon Notes:   Our Lord's parable of the rich man and Lazarus addresses not only the continuing economic poverty  that is a sign of society's resistance to the provident God's desire for harmonious community (Deuteronomy 15:4-5); this story tells also of another Lazarus, as Karl Barth shows, who is poor in principles: the successful, prosperous Lazarus who sits on the doorstep of those who abundantly possess what he lacks, waiting for crumbs to fall from their table of virtue.
    The rich man never knew Lazarus as a brother, but merely as a bothersome nobody, a faceless beggar, dumped on his doorstep.  But again,  Lazarus may be a prodigal, sophisticated but shallow, ambitious but morally aimless. "Am I my brother's keeper?" (Genesis 4:9)
    Lazarus means "one who needs the help of God."  One may be strong, and another weak,  but who can claim exemption from the help of the Lord?  "It's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer."

Choral Selections

• Anthem:

Wondrous Love                                                                                                              Southern Folk Hymn
 
• Offertory Solo:

It Is No Secret What God Can Do                                                                                                   Hamblen