Scripture. Luke 15:1-10. CEB
All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose someone among you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them. Wouldn’t he leave the other ninety-nine in the pasture and search for the lost one until he finds it? And when he finds it, he is thrilled and places it on his shoulders. When he arrives home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who changes both heart and life than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to change their hearts and lives. “Or what woman, if she owns ten silver coins and loses one of them, won’t light a lamp and sweep the house, searching her home carefully until she finds it? When she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, joy breaks out in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who changes both heart and life.”
**********************************************
I wonder sometimes about the photos I find online. This one, for example. It’s a great illustration for the parable of the lost sheep. But how on earth did the person taking this photo get that shot? Where did they stand? And how did they find this sheep in a particularly precarious situation? I thought for a minute that maybe it was a mountain goat, which could just leap up and away, but when I enlarged the picture I realized it is definitely a sheep. So how on earth do you rescue a sheep in this situation? I wonder if it’s *gasp* photoshopped? Although, having had sheep, I know they are not the smartest creatures on God’s green earth. Even a blade of grass can startle them if it moves. So they can end up in places like this.
There are those who would chastise the shepherd for leaving the ninety-nine and going after the one. Spock, for example, who is famous for having said, “Logic dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few . . . or the one.” But the shepherd knows his flock, and that they are safe as long as they stay together. They have a leader who will keep them more or less together. And a dog, who will guard them from danger while the shepherd is away. But the one that has wandered off is vulnerable because she is alone. She has no one watching over her. Anything might happen and there would be no one to turn to. She could end up on a rock in a crevasse with no way to safety. Of course the shepherd will go looking for her.
This story is not really about sheep, of course, nor is the other really about a coin. They are about the lost. The missing. Sinners, maybe. Disaffected, maybe. Feeling alone, rejected, unwanted, probably.
United Methodist bishop Karen Oliveto tells a story about Todd, a 15 year old runaway who worshipped at a church she used to serve. Todd was regular in his attendance until one Sunday he wasn’t there. After a couple of weeks members of the church got worried and started looking for him. Some knew what it was like on the streets, and had reason to worry. One Sunday Todd showed up and Pastor Karen greeted him with a hug. “I missed you,” she said. “You missed me? No one ever noticed when I was gone, ever.” (Melissa Earley, Christian Century, Living by the Word, August 21, 2019).
In these two parables, the shepherd and the woman don’t stop looking. They don’t figure the sheep is probably dead, or write the coin off as a loss. They keep looking until the lost has been found. When we are lost, we want to know someone is looking for us. Some “experts” on church growth say that we should not worry about people who have wandered off, but focus instead on new people. And maybe that’s true. But when we’re the one who isn’t there, we want someone to notice. We want to know someone is looking for us.
Blogger Michelle Morris wrote that she had wondered aloud in her blog one week whether anyone would notice if she wasn’t at worship at her church. She didn’t say whether she heard from anyone in her congregation, but she did say she received one invitation to another congregation, from someone who knew she wasn’t close enough to attend, and knew she was an ordained minister in a different denomination, and knew that it was really unlikely she would accept the invitation - who nevertheless invited her because she is excited about her congregation, and believes that there is a place there for her friend, and that if she didn’t show up, she would be missed. And then Michelle said, “If we were excited about Jesus, and excited about our church, then we would talk about it! Not in a “You better come to church or you are going to hell” way, but in a “You can’t believe how incredible church was this Sunday!” or “I heard the best story that reminded me of how Jesus is changing my life too!” way. “ (https://grownupbible.org). And I wonder, on this Back To Church Sunday, how many people were invited because the person extending the invitation was excited about this church? Or because I kept bugging everyone to invite someone?
Jesus told these parables because, “All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. 2 The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” He wanted it to be very clear that he wasn’t focused on the righteous, on the people who were already doing what God desired from them, but for the sinners, the outsiders, the rejected, the ones who didn’t really belong. In Chapter 5 Luke reported that, “30 The Pharisees and their legal experts grumbled against his disciples. They said, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. 32 I didn’t come to call righteous people but sinners to change their hearts and lives.” And here, Jesus tells them twice, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who changes both heart and life than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to change their hearts and lives.”
Jesus is very clear that our mission and ministry is to open our arms, doors and hearts not only to people like ourselves, but also and especially to those who may not feel like they fit anywhere. To those who feel they have disappointed their church, their family, even God, because they are not just like everyone else. To those who know they need to change their lives and aren’t sure just how to do that. I had a conversation with a lady in the Dollar Tree yesterday who told me her kids say she is a lot nicer since she started going to church, that church has changed her. I said, “Good. That’s what it’s supposed to do.”
In the last week there have been two rather high profile suicides, Pastor Jarrid Wilson who was an outspoken mental health advocate and Gregory Eells, the head of counseling and psychological services at the University of Pennsylvania. Depression made them feel like that sheep - alone, with no way out of their predicament. Depression is like that. It lies. Even to mental health professionals. Even to ministers. We don’t like to talk about it. We don’t like to talk about any of those things that cause people to feel isolated and unacceptable. It’s almost like we think mental illness is contagious. Or that poverty is. Or addiction. Or any of the many other things that keep folks feeling unloved, unwanted, and unwelcome. It’s almost like we think that these things will cease to exist if we just don’t talk about it or if we pray hard enough.
Jesus welcomed all of the people that the Temple rejected. He taught all of the people who could not go and hear God’s word in the Temple, because they were considered unclean or otherwise unworthy. He ate with the people that the Law said he must not associate with. He welcomed the least, the last and the lost.
And that is what we are supposed to do.
So let us reach out to the people no one else welcomes.
Let us go and find the ones standing on that rock, those lost sheep with no earthly idea how to get out of there, and help them find a way.
Let us welcome them into this house, as special guests
for this is the house where all means ALL,
where all are acceptable and accepted in God’s family,
where all have value, like the silver coin the woman had lost.
Let us accept each other, no matter how different we may be, just as God has accepted us.
No comments:
Post a Comment