September 16, 2007 – Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 15:1-10
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Grace and peace to you from God the Creator and the Lord Jesus. Amen.
I was interested to discover recently that there is a website, lostandfound.com, that tracks lost “stuff” all over the United States. Actually, they keep track of stuff all over the world. If you’ve lost something, you just log onto the site and describe the item; if you’ve found something, same thing. Somehow, they get you connected. According to the statistics on the website, though, we find just about half the stuff we lose. I’m not sure if that’s a comment on the quality of our stuff, our affection for it, or maybe our attention span. But it’s clear that once we lose our stuff, we also lose at least some interest in getting it back.
Our Gospel lesson this morning is about being lost and found. One sheep, one coin. But so precious to their owners that when they’re found there’s only one response: Joy. Outrageous, extravagant, over-the-top joy. It’s that same kind of over-the-top joy that floods heaven, Jesus says, when one soul that has wandered away from God comes back.
Jesus actually tells these two simple, straightforward stories in response to some complaining from a group we might call “the good people.” They’re the scribes and Pharisees, two groups that come up routinely in Scripture. Religious scholars and leaders. They’re upset because through his preaching and teaching Jesus has been attracting a group of what we might call “the bad people”: Tax collectors, notorious profiteers who gouge the tax-paying public; and an array of other folks whose immoral and unethical behavior has earned them the title “sinners.”
It’s bad enough that these sinners are showing up to listen to Jesus. Jesus can’t help that; but he actually takes the initiative and invites them into fellowship with him, even to the point of sharing meals with them. This is significant, because in Jesus’ day you only shared table fellowship with people you considered “family.”
And Jesus says, “Exactly! I have come precisely to find the lost and restore them to God. And when that mission is accomplished, all of heaven resounds with joy!”
There are a couple of elements in this story that should catch our attention.
One has to do with a word that we hear often in Scripture. It’s “repentance.” It means to stop, turn around and go in the opposite direction. It’s not a passive word at all, but active. Sometimes in Scripture, repentance is portrayed as a command. “Change direction! Stop doing what you know you’re not supposed to be doing, change your life and start living a life of virtue and integrity, a life that honors God and benefits other people. If you don’t do that, you’ll burn.” John the Baptist had a particular gift at delivering that sort of message. Informally, we call it “turn or burn theology.”
But sometimes in Scripture, repentance is characterized as a gift. That’s how Jesus describes it when he talks about his own mission in the early chapters of Luke’s gospel, and he says, “I have come to invite not the righteous but sinners to repentance.” First comes the invitation, then comes the action of repentance. Repentance is not a pre-condition for receiving the love of God; repentance is the response of a grateful heart that knows its own need.
Our second lesson this morning, Paul’s first letter to Timothy, is a strong example. Paul refers to himself as “the foremost” among sinners; but that Jesus had mercy on him, and as a result of that mercy Paul amended his life. But it was Jesus who took the initiative.
And that’s what we see in this Gospel lesson. We see a shepherd who searches until he finds the lost sheep; we see a woman who seeks until she finds the lost coin. This sheep and this coin can do nothing to assist in their own discovery, can do nothing to change their circumstance. The shepherd and the woman must do for the sheep and the coin what they cannot do for themselves: find them, reclaim them and restore them.
Jesus came to do for humanity what humanity could not and cannot do for itself: Restore them to God. How people respond to that activity of Jesus is either repentance or rejection. Jesus and his invitation were available equally to both groups, the sinners and the Pharisees; the only difference was in how each group responded to him. The sinners drew near and embraced him; the Pharisees rejected him. Yes indeed, there are lost people in this lesson, but it turns out that they aren’t the sinners.
The second issue that should catch our attention is the role you and I are supposed to play if we are to truly be God’s hands and feet and voice in this world now. The temptation in this lesson is to assume that the “lost” refers to the unchurched. We hear this from religious talk radio, especially in this area, because religious talk radio is so extremely conservative here. We hear that people who find the golf course, soccer field or living room sofa more attractive alternatives to Sunday morning worship are “the lost.” Those are the people Jesus came to find, so, therefore, those are the people the church is to evangelize, to find and restore to God. There are the lost people, “out there.”
But if you and I are honest about our own spiritual lives, we know it isn’t that simple, that absolute.
I recently attended a meeting of a group of colleagues. As we were talking one of my friends said, “You know, something bizarre happened to me the other day, and I can’t get over it. I was visiting a friend, who is also a pastor, and I was a little early for our appointment. He suggested I take a tour of the church since I hadn’t seen it before, and he said he’d get one of the church leaders, Elmer, to show me around and talk to me a bit about that church’s ministry.
So off we went, Elmer and I. As we walked along we traded small talk about what was going on the news, that sort of thing. But as I listened to Elmer I just couldn’t believe it. Every racial slur you’ve ever heard came out of Elmer’s mouth. He didn’t like anybody! And he had names for every group of people, and some groups I’d never heard of. But here he was, a leader in the church, and talking like that! It was outrageous!”
And that prompted a question from me. I asked, “Well, just how big is this Christian umbrella of ours? Is it big enough to include Elmer?” Which inspired an interesting conversation among my colleagues. When it comes to attitudes and behavior, what is acceptable, and what is not; and who decides? We finally figured that yes, the umbrella was big enough to keep Elmer dry, but he probably shouldn’t be the one holding the handle.
It’s a messy business, this life of faith that we share. The paradox of the Christian life is that we are both lost and found. At one point or another we all get lost in the wilderness, even while we’re still part of the fold. It’s simply a fact of the ebb and flow of the spiritual life that at times we feel distant from God, cut off, wondering how in the world we got so stuck and without a clue how to get ourselves unstuck, and overwhelmed most of all by God’s silence.
The recent revelations about Mother Teresa have been so poignant. It’s not simply because she had doubts; it was the duration and the depth of her dark night of the soul, when she felt abandoned by God, at times even doubting God’s existence. What is so compelling about her story is that even then, in the midst of her despair, she continued to function as God’s hands and feet and voice in this world, a living invitation into the love of God, even as she was waiting to experience that love herself.
We are blessed – each of us – to be in Christian fellowship together. The love of God continues to pulse at the center of this community, calling us to be at our very best for each other. As we continue to work in this world as God’s hands and feet and voice, we also and at the same time are to be God’s loving presence for each other, living reminders of God’s call to repentance, and new life.
This life that we share is a continual seeking and finding, of shouldering each other, walking each other toward home, toward wholeness, toward being included in the love of God.. A sheep, a coin, us, whomever God chooses. May you be blessed – and found – in that mission. Amen.
