'All the tax collectors and sinners
were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were
grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with
them."
So he told them this parable:
"Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not
leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until
he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.
And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to
them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I
tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than
over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
"Or what woman
having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep
the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she
calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have
found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the
presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."'
--Luke 15: 1-10
This week we find ourselves in the 15th chapter
of the Gospel of Luke, which for me is one of the richest, most unique chapters
in all the Gospels. In response to the
grumblings of the religious elites, who are upset that he offers hospitality to
notorious sinners and eats with them, Jesus gives three memorable stories of
divine love, parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost or
prodigal child. That last one is not
included in our reading this week because we already heard it on the Fourth Sunday
in Lent, but it helps if we keep it in the back of our minds, knowing that it
comes immediately after the two parables we read about in the above citation. If you would like to read more about my thoughts on the parable of the prodigal child, click here for my blog post from 2016.
What makes Luke, chapter 15 so rich, so unique is that these
three parables constitute the entire chapter.
It’s almost as if the Gospel writer really wants to tell us something,
really wants us to understand something about who God is and the nature of our
relationship to God and one another.
An artist's depiction of the parables of the lost sheep and lost coin.
When Jesus told his parables the people were meant to find
themselves in the story. Who are
they? And who is God? With all due respect to Jesus, these parables
today aren’t that hard to understand, are they?
God is like a shepherd—a Good Shepherd, if you will—who recklessly leaves a flock
of 99 to go searching for a single sheep that is lost. God is also like a poor woman searching a house,
looking for a single coin—one that likely is the difference between being fed
or going hungry for the day. In both stories, when the sheep and coin are
found, the shepherd and woman rejoice and celebrate, even throwing parties
that are probably more expensive than either the sheep or coin are worth. Still, that doesn’t detract them from basking in their joy because the object of their deepest longest has been found. If God is the shepherd and the woman in these two parables, then that means that the people of God (even you and me!) are the sheep and the coin. We, every single one of us, is the object of God’s deepest longing and desire, and whenever God finds us, God cannot help but celebrate.
This is a message that is sometimes tough for us to really
understand. Certainly those religious elites had a hard time with it; after all, God's love must know some kind of limit. What's more, sinners should go searching for God, not the other way around! And for our modern ears such a parable is equally difficult, mostly, I suspect, because we cannot possibly believe that it applies to us. I don't know about you, but I'm really good at telling others that God loves them in such a crazy manner as depicted in these parables, but I struggle mightily with believing it for myself. Perhaps you are the same way. Not me, we say? If God only knew the things that I have done,
thought and said. Trust me, God
knows. And yet, God’s love is so great that God still searches for us, and like the shepherd and the woman, God does
not give up on us until we are found. Along with the two parables from Luke, this past Sunday we also heard from Exodus 32: 7-14. In that text, even when the children of Israel turned their backs on God in the wilderness, resorting to desperations tactics and building a golden calf in the hopes that it could save them when God seemed to have failed, God still does not give in to anger, however righteous and sensical it may have seemed. God never gives up on God's people, always coming to find us when we are at our lowest point, always finding ways to remind us of that relentless, reckless, and remarkable love.
That is because ours is a God who is active, who cares about humanity. Patty Griffin has a song, When It Don't Come Easy. In that song she sings: "If you break down, I'll drive out and find you. If you forget my love, I'll try to remind you. Stay by you when it don't come easy." That, brothers and sisters, is God. My wife Kristen and I love this song, not only because we would like to think that it sums up our relationship (I did literally drive out and find her when her car broke down one night), but also because we know that this song encapsulates God's love. God is the one who drives out and finds us when we are at our lowest point, when we, like the children of Israel, resort to desperation tactics. God is the one who manages to remind us of God's love, through the Sacraments, through a conversation with a stranger, through a sunset, or through any number of ways.
Patty Griffin's When It Don't Come Easy.
That is a pretty crazy God. To be sure, folks like the Scribes and Pharisees could not really handle a message about such a reckless deity, who would turn the whole world upside-down to find just one person, but Jesus even does them one better. The fact that he uses a shepherd and poor woman as characters to stand in for God in his parables is no accident. He’s speaking to the religious elite, remember? He chooses a shepherd, a person who was something of a social outcast, someone who was dirty, effectively homeless, and held in very little regard in society, and he chooses a poor woman, a second-class citizen, who likewise has little to not status as a person within the community. The religious elites would have been shook to their core that a rabbi would use such figures to stand in for God. They’ve been huffing and puffing about Jesus hanging out with sinners, but here is a story where not only are sinners sought out, but they are done so by a God who takes the form of two figures on the underside of society, the very kinds of people about whom they are grumbling at Jesus for welcoming and eating with.
There are two invitations here that, it seems to me, Jesus is making to the religious elites. The first is the invitation to looks past the labels that they and others in society have placed on people, calling them "sinners" and "unclean." If God can be compared to two such people, then perhaps those in positions of religious authority could tear through those labels. The second invitation is for the religious elites to be like the shepherd, like the woman, and like God, and to relentlessly pursue those on the margins of society, to show them that same kind of love that God has for them, and to welcome them in and throw them a party. What might their religious communities look like if they modeled God's own behavior in the parable, recklessly and relentlessly pursuing those who so desperately need to know that they are loved by God?
We are treasured and significant because we are not left for lost, but all are made objects of love divine, all love’s excelling. Everyone needs to be reminded of that. Imagine the folks out there that you know who need to hear that they too are treasured and loved by God. When you find them, be sure to throw a party!
