Our second lesson holds the key to today's scriptures. Paul writes to Timothy saying, "I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief... but... in me, Jesus Christ displayed the upmost patience, making me an example... to others." If we look at our lessons as a whole, they give us a glimpse into the heart of God - they vividly illustrate God's concern for those who lack the ability to recognize God in their life.
From our first lesson, we find God ready to destroy the Israelites in the desert, because they got worried and made a golden calf to worship - they had no patience to wait for Moses to come back down the mountain. The people acted ignorantly in unbelief... And Moses presumes to argue with God - to tell God he is wrong - and "God repented of the evil which he was about to do to his people."
When I was a lay vicar in Rockdale and was talking about prayer, I had a parishioner named Penny who said, "Why should I pray. God's not going to change his mind about anything.". This scripture tells us that he does change his mind. Do you remember in last week's lesson from Jeremiah when God said, I will change my mind about the disaster I intend to bring? Or when Jonah preached to the Ninevites and they repented and God forgave them? Even the Old Testament tells us that our God is a God of forgiveness.
Today gospel lesson starts off with the Pharisees and Scribes complaining because Jesus is consorting with sinners and tax collectors. These two parables that Jesus tells actually reinforces that our God is a compassionate God and it explains why Jesus is allowing sinners and tax collectors to follow him.
These two parables - familiar parables - are about the lost sheep and the lost coin. But if we were to read on in Luke's gospel, we would find a third parable in this sequence - that of the Prodigal Son. It's interesting that the lectionary divides this unit into parts. You heard part of it on the fourth Sunday in Lent - that part about the Prodigal Son. The three parables taken together provide a real insight into one nature of God.
If we set the scene, Jesus is on his journey to Jerusalem. - everywhere he goes people gather - the crowd that is following Jesus is a rag-tag b\and - fishermen, zealots, tax collectors, sinners, - not the kind of people that most ordinary folk would invite to their homes for dinner. And as Jesus talks, these tax collectors and sinners keep edging to the front of the crowd. Jesus doesn't condemn the tax collectors, he doesn't tell them (in most cases) to quit their job - he simply tells them not to cheat anyone - to collect no more than they are supposed to collect. Jesus doesn't condemn the sinners - he tells them to "go and sin no more."
The Pharisees may have thought that Jesus was one of them. After all he preached resurrection which was a Pharisaic belief. And they may have been testing Jesus to see if his beliefs and teachings were orthodox enough for him to be considered a Pharisee... This group may have come from Jerusalem at the request of the local synagogue for the express purpose of examining Jesus teachings and to pass judgment on him.
Here's the thing - Pharisees are the righteous - they are living their lives for God, they are doing the best they can to be acceptable to God. They don't associate with sinners because they don't want to become tainted. (How many of you encourage your children to hang out with good kids rather than the bad kids who are going to get them in trouble?)
The problem with the Pharisees is not that they are wrong about the people who they consider to be sinners... The Pharisees are wrong about the nature of God. And they don't understand God's desire for communion with all people. They underestimate his compassion for all people. As our psalmist says -- Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness.)
So these stories are about loss. A lost sheep, a lost coin, and if we read the third parable, a lost son. There are many different ways for something (or someone) to become lost. Ever misplaced your keys?
I want to tell you a story about my daughter. One summer, Sam's sister-in-law decided that she wanted to take Cyndy to spend a few days with her in the big city (Houston). They did lots of fun things - and one of the things they did was to go up to the top of one of the tall buildings downtown. On the way up in the elevator, the elevator stopped at one floor and the door opened and somehow Cyndy stepped out and was on the wrong side of the doors when they closed and to Jane’s horror the elevator started up again with Jane on the inside and Cyndy left behind in the hallway.
Jane had always been a praying woman and she prayed and went up and came back down - stopping at the same floor - and there was Cyndy - even at 6 years old, standing there waiting to be found, Cyndy got lost not because she was defiant, or because she wanted to - she just sort of ended up on the wrong side of the door and it was purely an accident.
In our gospel lesson, Jesus talks about people being lost -- ... - he often referred to "the lost sheep of Israel" -- he said, "They are like sheep without a shepherd." If we look at these three parables - they address the issues of how people get lost -- and how God responds to them.
People get lost like the sheep in the first parable - not from viciousness or deliberate choice - but from weakness or heedlessness -- from not knowing any better – wandering off to look for greener grass, or chasing a butterfly, (or as one of my favorite stories goes, to play with a frog.)
2) People get lost like the coin in the second parable - not from one's own guilt, but from another's fault or the mischances of life -- the circumstances of the time. I had a cat named Gracie - Gracie loved to climb up on a chair and look over a table, especially when I was working a jigsaw puzzle. She would reach out with a paw and find a piece and pull it off the table. Or a coin, or a pencil, anything you left on the table within reach would eventually end up on the floor.
3) And people get lost like the prodigal son - through calculated self-will - a desire to have things one's own way – a desire to be one’s own god even - regardless of the cost.
We can see all kinds of reasons how or why one might be "lost". And Jesus addresses God's reaction - he doesn't tell the people that this is a parable - and he doesn't use the common formula, "The kingdom of heaven is like...." He simply starts out saying, "Which of you...."
Have you ever noticed how Jesus' parables are about ordinary everyday things for people of that time? The idea of a shepherd is very familiar - and the lost sheep is something else that happens not infrequently... But then Jesus puts a twist on this story... which of you would not leave the ninety-nine and go search for the one lost... Well, the truth is that not very many of them would... I mean think about it... you have one hundred sheep - ninety-nine are where you can see them, but one has gotten lost, you have no idea where or when this sheep wandered off.
A lot of the places where sheep graze you can see quite a distance and you might go looking – but always staying where you can see the sheep you’ve left. But you're not going to leave ninety-nine sheep unattended on an open hillside while you go look for one -- when you come back you're most likely going to be missing a bunch more...
One minister did some research and found that the average price of a sheep today was $250 - so you're going to leave $25,000 worth of sheep to their own devices without protection (in an unfenced pasture where wild animals roam) while you go away and look for $250 worth of sheep. So if we're perfectly honest, in the world of Jesus, one sheep would probably be considered an acceptable loss.
The the world economy 1% is an acceptable loss for most us in this day and age also. That really is obvious in this digital day and age - If you have a smart phone or tablet, you know that when you go to the App Store - or if you buy a song for your iPod, the cost is 99 cents. 1% is an acceptable loss.
But not for our God - God never gives up on us - regardless of why or how we got lost, God never gives up - he continually reaches out to us inviting us to come in - in more ways than we can imagine. It is God's desire that no one feel left out of a relationship with God. Whether or not we know or understand this, God keeps searching for ways to bring us in, never giving up.
This is why Jesus had come to earth - to seek out the lost and provide them an avenue to return to the Lord; the redemption for the sinner who has lost his way. Like the shepherd and the woman in our parables, God seeks us out and doesn't give up until he finds us.
God is always willing to listen to a plea from us, just as he listened to Moses' plea for the Israelite children. God is always ready to give us that second chance when we stray. Can we do any less with the people around us? Shouldn't we be willing to give others a second chance? Shouldn't we be willing to listen to a plea on behalf of another? Shouldn't we be willing to seek out a relationship with people from whom we've drifted apart?
God never cuts us off - He never washes his hands of us -- God never turns his back on us. And God is always ready to gather us in and take us home when we have been found. Shouldn’t we be willing to do the same for others? Shouldn't we give them the same kind of chance that God gives us?
Amen.
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