WEBVTT 00:00.500 --> 00:07.400 In Jesus name. Amen. About a month ago, I was watching the movie "Cars" 00:07.400 --> 00:12.900 with my kids on a rare free evening that I didn't have a meeting, or a 00:12.900 --> 00:15.100 visit scheduled in the congregation. 00:15.700 --> 00:20.100 And in the movie "Cars", there's a somewhat minor character that has a 00:20.100 --> 00:21.200 recurring role, 00:21.300 --> 00:29.900 his name is Fred. And Fred is an old clunker of a car, rusty pieces 00:29.900 --> 00:30.200 falling 00:30.400 --> 00:31.000 off. 00:31.700 --> 00:36.100 And we know his name is Fred because his license plate says Fred. 00:37.100 --> 00:41.000 The first time we meet Fred is after what was supposed to be the final 00:41.000 --> 00:45.300 race of the season in "Cars", but it ends in a three-way tie with 00:45.300 --> 00:49.900 Lightning McQueen just barely getting across the finish line to tie. 00:51.200 --> 00:53.600 And he has to go to California for another race. 00:53.600 --> 00:57.900 But before he can get there, he has to go to the Rusty's tent because 00:57.900 --> 01:01.700 Rusty's is his sponsor, and he has to do a little meet and greet and 01:01.700 --> 01:03.600 give a spiel at Rusty's. 01:03.800 --> 01:08.000 So he's surrounded by these rusty cars including Fred, who wants to 01:08.000 --> 01:09.900 strike a conversation with him. 01:11.300 --> 01:13.700 And Lightning McQueen in order to get out of it looks at the license 01:13.700 --> 01:16.900 plate and greet somebody and says, Hi, Fred and quickly moves on, but 01:16.900 --> 01:18.900 Fred is ecstatic. 01:19.100 --> 01:25.100 He says, he knows my name, he knows my name. 01:26.400 --> 01:28.800 Well Fred comes back again at the end of the movie. 01:29.300 --> 01:33.200 He's trying to get into the final race in California and he's trying 01:33.200 --> 01:34.800 to get admission into the race. 01:35.800 --> 01:39.400 Mario Andretti drives up and again, looks at his license plate and 01:39.400 --> 01:41.200 says, Hi Fred. 01:41.400 --> 01:43.100 And again, Fred is ecstatic. 01:43.200 --> 01:45.600 He knows my name. 01:47.100 --> 01:50.700 There's a tie in there to something unique about our Parable for 01:50.700 --> 01:56.100 today. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus and already in the 01:56.100 --> 02:02.600 title of the parable, we see what's unique or special about this 02:02.600 --> 02:03.000 Parable. 02:03.000 --> 02:08.800 This is the only Parable where we know the name of one of the 02:08.800 --> 02:14.000 characters. In every other Parable that Jesus tells we just have titles 02:14.000 --> 02:16.200 or descriptions, we have the sower. 02:17.300 --> 02:22.500 We have the Prodigal Son and the father, we have a debtor and a 02:22.500 --> 02:23.200 master. 02:23.900 --> 02:25.900 We have wise and foolish virgins. 02:27.000 --> 02:27.700 And our Parables today 02:27.700 --> 02:33.900 we have the rich man, and then there's Lazarus. 02:35.200 --> 02:44.600 And what's unique about Lazarus is we know his name. During the rich 02:44.600 --> 02:48.400 man and Lazarus is lifetime, it would have been very significant to 02:48.400 --> 02:51.000 know the rich man's name. 02:51.600 --> 02:55.300 I would bet virtually everybody in the community, knew the rich man's 02:55.300 --> 02:55.800 name. 02:57.700 --> 02:58.700 Think about today. 03:00.200 --> 03:02.800 How many of you recognize the name of Elon Musk? 03:04.400 --> 03:04.800 Okay. 03:05.200 --> 03:06.500 How about Jeff Bezos? 03:08.600 --> 03:09.500 Mark Zuckerberg. 03:10.700 --> 03:16.600 Bill Gates. We know their names because they're rich and famous and 03:16.600 --> 03:17.800 that's what the world does. 03:17.800 --> 03:21.100 The world knows the names of those who are rich and famous those who 03:21.100 --> 03:23.100 were influential those who are powerful. 03:23.300 --> 03:24.400 Let me give you another name. 03:25.600 --> 03:26.600 Romain F. Meyer. 03:28.200 --> 03:28.700 Anybody. 03:30.900 --> 03:34.400 Nobody knows the name of Romaine F. Meyer. 03:35.400 --> 03:37.100 My maternal grandfather. 03:39.000 --> 03:45.900 My mother's dad, he was born 122 years ago, tomorrow September 29, 03:45.900 --> 03:49.400 1900. And my grand father 03:50.700 --> 03:52.300 was one of the most gentle, 03:53.500 --> 03:54.300 reliable, 03:55.700 --> 04:00.300 trustworthy solid Christian men that you could ever meet. 04:01.100 --> 04:05.600 When he retired, his office staff as a retirement present gave him a 04:05.600 --> 04:07.900 trophy that simply read on the plaque. 04:09.100 --> 04:09.600 A gentleman. 04:11.000 --> 04:14.400 It was a perfect description of my grandfather. 04:14.400 --> 04:20.000 And yet now little under 30 years after his death, he died in March of 04:20.000 --> 04:25.700 1995, just before I graduated from college. Outside of my family 04:26.700 --> 04:30.700 probably nobody remembers his name. 04:32.200 --> 04:35.600 That's the way the world works. 04:36.200 --> 04:37.800 If you're rich and powerful and famous 04:38.000 --> 04:39.400 everybody knows your name. 04:40.600 --> 04:44.600 If you're not, you fade Into anonymity. 04:46.700 --> 04:47.600 In the rich man's time 04:47.600 --> 04:50.100 in our Parable, everybody would have known his name. 04:53.300 --> 04:54.300 But we don't know his name. 04:57.500 --> 04:58.200 The rich man 04:59.400 --> 05:00.500 was lost. 05:01.500 --> 05:02.800 He was lost eternally. 05:04.100 --> 05:05.900 And his name has been lost. 05:07.200 --> 05:08.400 We don't know his name 05:09.600 --> 05:12.800 because his name was not written in the Lamb's Book of Life. 05:15.400 --> 05:18.900 But now contrast that with Lazarus. 05:20.800 --> 05:21.600 During his own time 05:21.600 --> 05:24.900 very few people probably knew Lazarus's name, he was a stumbling block 05:24.900 --> 05:27.500 to step over to get into the rich man's house. 05:29.100 --> 05:30.600 But we know his name. 05:32.200 --> 05:36.900 What's even more important than the fact that we know his name is that 05:37.500 --> 05:42.300 God knows Lazarus's name. 05:43.800 --> 05:51.500 Lazarus's name is written in the Book of Life. See status in this 05:51.500 --> 05:53.600 life, doesn't matter. 05:54.600 --> 05:57.900 It doesn't matter if you're rich and famous or popular, or if you're 05:57.900 --> 05:59.500 poor and covered with sores. 06:00.500 --> 06:08.100 What matters is does God know your name. 06:10.300 --> 06:13.500 Now that's not often the way it feels it often feels much more like 06:13.700 --> 06:16.500 it's very important that people know our names. 06:16.500 --> 06:20.200 We want people to know our names and just think about the urge of 06:20.200 --> 06:22.300 people who are famous just for being famous. 06:22.300 --> 06:26.600 And how much we look up to people who have a million or more followers 06:26.600 --> 06:29.900 on YouTube or they post something on Facebook and they get 100,000 06:29.900 --> 06:30.200 likes, 06:30.200 --> 06:35.300 10,000 likes a million likes, we think they're really important. 06:35.500 --> 06:38.700 They're really special think about the way we look up to thought 06:38.700 --> 06:39.000 leaders and 06:39.400 --> 06:40.400 Influencers. 06:40.400 --> 06:44.200 And then we realized we don't have that. 06:46.600 --> 06:49.900 We think it's really important to be rich and famous, and most of us 06:50.800 --> 06:57.200 aren't. I remember a couple of times in college, Seminary where I went 06:57.200 --> 07:02.500 to visit various professors, maybe it was because I had a question on 07:02.500 --> 07:06.000 an assignment or maybe I'd gotten an exam back and had a question 07:06.000 --> 07:09.200 about why I had gotten something marked wrong. And I knocked on the 07:09.200 --> 07:16.000 professor's door and the professor opened and said okay who are you? I 07:16.000 --> 07:19.100 thought well, this isn't going to go well. 07:20.600 --> 07:21.400 And it didn't. 07:23.500 --> 07:25.800 Because I wasn't person. 07:26.400 --> 07:27.500 I didn't have a name. 07:28.100 --> 07:33.100 I was just a face in a lot of other faces in class. 07:35.100 --> 07:42.800 And that's often how we feel just like, a small cog in a large wheel. 07:44.900 --> 07:50.200 A tiny cipher in a huge crushing bureaucracy. 07:51.800 --> 07:54.100 Just a number not a name. 07:57.000 --> 07:58.100 We sometimes wonder 07:59.800 --> 08:01.200 does anybody know our name? 08:01.700 --> 08:04.600 Will anybody remember our name? 08:07.000 --> 08:13.400 But this Parable, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, teaches us 08:13.900 --> 08:17.800 that it doesn't matter if the world knows and remembers your name. 08:19.100 --> 08:26.300 What matters is that God does know your name. 08:28.700 --> 08:29.800 The Pastoral Ministry 08:30.900 --> 08:33.400 being able to perform a baptism. 08:34.200 --> 08:42.700 It's one of the greatest joys as a child or baby or an adult comes 08:42.700 --> 08:49.000 forward for baptism and the pastor has the opportunity as God's servant 08:49.000 --> 08:55.800 to bring that child into God's family. And early on in the baptismal, 08:55.800 --> 08:56.400 rite 08:56.500 --> 08:59.300 you asked the question, how are you 09:00.300 --> 09:01.200 named? 09:03.200 --> 09:06.200 Naming is very important in the baptismal rite. 09:06.200 --> 09:12.000 And just after hearing the name, you make the sign of the cross on the 09:12.000 --> 09:17.700 person's head and on their heart, placing that cross on them in their 09:17.900 --> 09:18.600 name. 09:20.000 --> 09:26.200 And then at the baptism itself, you use the person's name as you wash 09:26.200 --> 09:29.400 them with water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 09:30.400 --> 09:35.000 Elijah, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son of the 09:35.000 --> 09:40.500 Holy Spirit. Ava, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the 09:40.500 --> 09:42.300 Son and of the Holy Spirit. 09:42.300 --> 09:47.000 Emma, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of 09:47.000 --> 09:48.200 the Holy Spirit. 09:48.900 --> 09:50.200 Romain F. Meyer. 09:53.100 --> 09:58.000 Was said about 100 years ago, next month. Pastor said, Romain F. Meyer 09:58.000 --> 10:03.300 I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy 10:03.300 --> 10:04.000 Spirit. 10:04.000 --> 10:09.400 And from that moment on God, never forgot 10:10.500 --> 10:12.000 my grandfather's name. 10:15.100 --> 10:18.900 A year ago, five years ago, 25 years ago. 10:20.400 --> 10:21.800 75 years ago, 10:21.800 --> 10:23.100 85 years ago. 10:24.800 --> 10:30.800 A pastor spoke, your name called out your name and said, I baptize 10:30.800 --> 10:31.400 you. 10:32.800 --> 10:37.600 In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 10:39.600 --> 10:48.200 And from that moment on, God will never forget your name. 10:51.400 --> 10:54.800 It seems in this life that it's important that people in the world 10:55.700 --> 11:01.500 know our names. We think it's important for people who are rich and 11:01.500 --> 11:02.200 famous. 11:04.200 --> 11:08.800 But what's really important is, does God know your name. 11:10.500 --> 11:11.600 In our Parable for today 11:13.200 --> 11:16.000 everybody in the community would have thought it very significant to 11:16.000 --> 11:18.800 know the rich man's name. 11:21.600 --> 11:23.100 We don't know the rich man's name. 11:24.600 --> 11:25.800 Utterly insignificant. 11:28.500 --> 11:32.800 We do know, Lazarus's name. 11:34.500 --> 11:35.700 And that's significant. 11:37.700 --> 11:42.900 It's even more significant that God knows Lazarus's name. 11:45.200 --> 11:47.400 Significantly God knows Lazarus's name. 11:48.900 --> 11:56.400 But it's even more significant that God knows your name. 11:59.100 --> 11:59.800 Now, oftentimes 12:00.300 --> 12:05.500 we may just feel like rusty old clunkers like Fred from the movie 12:05.500 --> 12:06.200 "Cars". 12:08.400 --> 12:15.000 But remember how excited Fred was when Lightning McQueen knew his name. 12:15.000 --> 12:16.200 When Mario Andretti 12:16.400 --> 12:17.500 knew his name. 12:18.000 --> 12:20.400 Mario Andretti knows my name. 12:22.200 --> 12:27.200 We have even better news. Think how excited we can be 12:29.100 --> 12:33.400 because God knows our name. 12:35.400 --> 12:40.200 God knows our name. 12:41.400 --> 12:42.600 In Jesus name. 12:43.200 --> 12:43.700 Amen. 12:44.900 --> 12:45.700 The peace of God 12:45.700 --> 12:47.200 which passes all understanding 12:47.200 --> 12:51.100 keep your hearts and minds in true faith through Christ Jesus, our 12:51.100 --> 12:52.700 Lord. Amen.