Finding the Lost - Luke 15:1-10 (Pentecost 14C)

 I was a little lost while I was writing this sermon this week... couldn't seem to put together the right words. Maybe that's why it seemed so easy to put off... out of sight, out of mind.

Anyway - so here we are in the second week in our series of "Having Words with Jesus", taking difficult parables and maybe looking at them with fresh eyes to see how they can help us understand what Jesus is talking about. The second we have here in Luke 15 is actually a series of three parables, the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son. The lectionary breaks it up to put the last story at a different time in the rotation, and I suppose it deserves its own commentary. We are left with finding the lost. 

It's interesting how Luke begins the chapter, pitting two groups kind of against each other. He starts with the tax collectors and sinners were gathering to hear Jesus speak. The pharisees and the other teachers of the law were somewhere close as well, but they are seething at the idea that Jesus would dare associate with such people. Depending on translation, it says they muttered, complained, grumbled - this was not a happy bunch. 

Jesus was getting this following, and I'm pretty sure that the pharisees may have been jealous of the growing size and devotion, but just the disdain that the teachers have for the crowd themselves is telling. "He even eats with them!" Now, again, eating is a big deal in this time, because not only of scarcity of the food, but that invitations in their culture were badges of honor. Having company was akin to throwing a party! So, no wonder they were upset. They may have been put off by the manners of this man they were starting to call their King. 

But then Jesus gets up and begins to tell the story of the lost sheep. I'm sure you've heard this story before. But lets take a deeper look at it - as we know, shepherds are not at the high end of the social stratosphere at this time, but at the same time, having 100 sheep I would imagine would be a good sized flock. So this shepherd is not doing poorly and has some (relative) wealth compared to the other shepherds (possibly?). Or maybe it's a collective of shepherds who are working together, because there might be better safety in numbers? The story doesn't say that but who knows. We'll assume it's one shepherd because that's what Jesus talks about. 

But it's time to count the sheep to make sure the investment is being taken care of, and behold - there's one missing, or maybe even the shepherd sees the sheep wander off from the rest. We have to protect the sheep, that's the crux of his job, right? If you can't protect the sheep, what is everyone in town going to say? He can't even handle the responsibility of looking after these simple grass-eating animals! 

This sheep though, it's not like he has a plot of escape. Sheep are curious, yet tame, animals, and so maybe he was following a butterfly or something. It's not like the sheep decided he's had enough of the flock life, let's see how I can spice things up! No - the sheep may not even know he's lost! At least in the way that Jesus is telling it, his focus is on the shepherd. In response to the sheep doing what some sheep do, how is the shepherd going to respond? Jesus says that the shepherd jumps into action, hunting the sheep down with all his might. Even at the time, I bet some of the people were thinking, but there's so many sheep he's abandoning to the wolves, or other predators! How could this shepherd be so reckless? There's 99 other sheep, why care about just the one? My answer would be, because every sheep matters to the shepherd. 

This shepherd loves his flock so much that he will abandon the rest of the herd so to make sure that every single one is safe. And once that 100th sheep is found, he will hoist the sheep up on his shoulders and carry it back REJOICING! Not cursing the sheep for wandering off, which they're prone to do, not saying that the sheep had made baaaaaad choices that he's going to have to make right. None of that. 

Then Jesus hits the crowd with the line that probably blows everyone's mind. IN THE SAME WAY, there is more happiness in heaven over one sinner repenting than 99 good people who don't need to. 

Woah. There's more JOY in the angels in the realms of glory in one sinner's repentance than in 99 righteous folks being righteous. But Jesus, what does it mean? It means that God is like the shepherd, actively searching for us, NOT TO PUNISH, but to reconcile the relationship. God wants to CELEBRATE the connection with his creation! God is rejoicing when sinners decide to repent and turn from their harmful ways. God doesn't sneer, and say, "Oh - you again... is it going to stick this time?" He is HAPPY that you are amazed by His love that you want to repent of all of the bad things we do and turn to love and comfort in his eternal life. 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That seems reckless and insignificant... for every person who gives their life to follow God's word and pledges to be faithful, there's rejoicing in heaven? If Jesus says it, I definitely want to believe it. 

This was a radical shift in my life. As most of you know, I grew up in the church, heard the stories, but didn't connect with them maybe as fully as I should have. It kind of goes along with feeling invincible, or at least, not vulnerable to the world's doing yet. But as I came back to church when I was in my early 30s, the idea of God seeking after me, despite all I had done, with JOY that I wanted to be connected with him, truly floored me. Like... my brain knew what had happened - I walked away from my community like that sheep, but Jesus was right behind me, whether I acknowledged him or not. To be frank - most of the time I didn't. But coming around and getting back with my flock, Jesus and the Father took JOY. Thank you Father, for welcoming me back with open arms, carrying me on your shoulders.  

What else is extraordinary about this story? The shepherd finds his flock lacking, and needs to make it whole. The flock is incomplete without this one seemingly-ordinary sheep. The shepherd takes full responsibility to find the sheep. Again, the shepherd is not out to berate the sheep into performing better, or belittle the sheep for not knowing better. He raises the sheep in his arms and comforts the sheep all the way back to the community of those who stayed. 

We have our second story, which has a very similar structure. Something is lost, there is a bunch of work to find it, and then in the end, spoiler alert - there is rejoicing again once the thing is found. Again - the focus is on the searcher, not the lost object. 

Author Julie Perry writes, “God's message to us, through these parables, is this: "You are mine. You have always been mine. You were created in my image and are therefore connected to me. And because you are mine, I will seek you out wherever you are and try to bring you back home—because I love you so much!" Can we be open to that kind of amazing love? Can we let down our defenses and self-doubts long enough simply to receive it, to be engulfed and swept away by this love?“

Let's go back to that weird beginning then too - so Jesus is telling this to a big crowd of sinners, and some learned people of the Jewish laws. On its face, this could be interpreted as a story of God seeking each of us out, and then rejoicing when we are brought to faith, hope, and ultimately salvation? 

But couldn't he also be condemning the Pharisees for their failure to look for those coins and sheep? Because as much as we repent, we also sometimes lose our sheep or our coins, not bothering to look. It's in the FINDING that we find the repentance and salvation. The effort that the shepherd goes to, and the rejoicing over the lost coin seem to be excessive by some accounts, but this is Jesus' account of God's JOY over sinners, the ones who everyone else has rejected. 

You see - it seems as though the righteous teachers may be the lost ones, and the sinners are the ones who have found Jesus. What can this say to us now?