Monday, September 16, 2019

Until all are found. September 15, 2019 The Rev. Kathleen M. Sturges



Luke 15:1-10

It probably doesn’t come as a surprise to you that I am no shepherd. And I don’t even know anyone who is a shepherd. So call me crazy, but I’m still pretty sure that I know the answer to the question that Jesus poses today. “Which one of you,” he asks, “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?” My answer? No one. No one that is because who in their right mind would put at risk 99 of something that they already have for the sake of one that they may or may not recover?  No one. In that situation you just move on.

But that’s not the only question for today. “What woman,” Jesus wonders, “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?” Now Jesus is talking about a world I totally get given that I am a regular loser of inanimate objects - keys, glasses, cell phones, remotes regularly go missing around my house. And when they do the hunt begins. The more valuable the item is to me the more desperately I will search for it. However, there comes a point where if the lost item is seemingly nowhere to be found, no matter how precious, I give up. I stop looking, cut my losses and move on.

Because that’s the way the world works. But that is not the way that God works. Jesus isn’t asking these questions today to poll us for our answers but to reveal to us the wonder of how God works in the world. Even more than the shepherd who single mindedly sets out to find the one sheep or the woman who thoroughly scours her home for the valuable coin, God is absolutely committed to searching and searching and searching until all who are lost are found. Found not in order to be judged, punished, and condemn, but found so that they may be nourished, healed, and restored. 

That is what makes the Gospel message such Good News for all of us. Because who among us hasn’t known what it is to be lost - lost in the wilderness of worry, grief, fear, anger, sickness, pain? We’ve all been there. And if that is where you find yourself today, lost in one way or another, know that there is hope. God is seeking you even now and will find you, guaranteed. And the same goes for those whom we love and care about, the ones for whom we pray, who are struggling, who are suffering, who are living in the dark. God will not fail them. God will relentlessly pursue them with love all who are lost until they are found.  

But as comforting as that message is I can’t help but notice that Jesus isn’t telling the story of the lost sheep and coin primarily to the tax collectors and the sinners of his day - those who would have clearly identified with being lost and have taken great comfort in these parables. Rather Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and the scribes, the religious insiders of his day, people like us. People who have a beef with Jesus because he is welcoming to sinners and not only that, but he’s eating with them, too. Meaning that he isn’t just being nice and polite to the riffraff of society, maybe offering some kind of generous handout or donation. No, he’s going further than that, much further. He’s hanging out with these people like they’re friends. He’s connecting with them, even accepting them. And that is just too much.

We get that, don’t we? I mean, we love it when the Good News is about how much God loves us and those whom we love. But when Jesus tells us that that same love and mercy extends to people we don’t love. People we don’t approve of. People that may even threaten or hurt us. Then the news of God pursuing and welcoming and even rejoicing over people like that sounds rather offensive. 

Likely that is the reason that Jesus is talking to folks like us because it turns out that we, along with the Pharisees and the scribes, who identify as being relatively good people need to be challenged. Challenged because we - good people like us - have a tendency to judge. I know I do. I don’t mean too. I know I shouldn’t but I still catch my mind thinking things along the lines of, “Well, if she just did it my way she’d be a lot better off,” or “Sure, he’s in that mess because he made bad choices.” When we think that way, good people, it’s all too easy to completely miss the fact that we are actually just as lost as everyone else and in equal need of being found and repenting. Just like the one sinner that Jesus speaks of who repents, sparking joy in the heavenly realm. But when I speak of repenting, I don’t mean flaying ourselves with regret or guilt or shame. What I mean is repenting in the original sense of the word. The Greek is metanoia which means to change one’s mind, to turn in a new direction. For when God’s love finds us we repent by turning towards that love, that grace, that mercy, that forgiveness, letting it transform us so that we are no longer lost in the wilderness or stuck in a false sense of righteousness. Instead we are restored to wholeness.

For the truth is that we are all sheep - lost and found. All coins - lost and found, too. All of us beloved and belonging to God. The God of the lost who welcomes sinners and even eats with them. The One who will never call off the search until we are all fully found and able to join in the extravagant and abundant joy of heaven rejoicing.

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