“The Original Lost”                                                                                          

Luke 15: 1 – 10                                                                                      

Makemie Presbyterian Church                                                               

September 12, 2010

                          Now 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 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 loss 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.”  This ends the reading.

          “I’m searching for something in my life.” That’s how the young man explained his presence at our church. He had stopped by towards the end of last week. He was searching for something. A recent book calls us Americans a “nation of seekers.” In fact, some of churches have a “seekers service” in which they open the church up for people who are looking for something. We all look for a more meaningful life. Don’t we? We search for lives filled with meaning.

And so the Pharisees asked Jesus, “What is God like?” And as he so often did, Jesus responded by telling a series of stories:

“Which one of you shepherds,” Jesus asked, “has a lost sheep? Would you not leave the ninety-nine sheep in the wilderness & go beat the bushes for that one lost sheep? And when you find that lost sheep, which one of you would not put that sheep on your shoulders & take the sheep back to your friends & say, ‘Come party with me. I found my lost sheep!’”

“Which one of you women, if you lose your purse, would you not rip the house apart & move all the heavy appliances out into the yard, move all the furniture out on the porch? And when you have found that lost purse, wouldn’t you run out into the street & say to your neighbors, ‘Come party with me. I found my lost purse!’ Now, which one of you would not do that?”

“Which one of you fathers has a younger rebellious son? The son says, ‘Dad, drop dead! Put the will into effect. Give me the money that will come to me in my inheritance & I’m out of here!’ Which one of you would not do just that? Give everything you had to your rebellious son. He leaves, he goes, he squanders all of the money & he comes back home in rags. Which one of you would say to him, “Brandon, you wanted a party, I’ll show you a party!” Now, which one of us would do that?”

        Well, of course, the answer is none of us would do that! That’s crazy! And then Jesus, the teller of these stories says, “Excuse me, these are not stories about the way you behave. These are stories about the way God behaves. Because to find us when we are lost is the nature of God. Because God is the seeking shepherd; the searching woman; the waiting, inviting father.

Maybe this definition of God collides with our contemporary understandings of God. What is God like? Oh, God is large, distant—very, very distant—up there, out there somewhere. Or it seems God is always out  getting a manicure, because I have this prayer, going on, 2 – 3 years, God still hasn’t answered. Or God is the one that got the world started & set up certain natural laws. The world was functioning just fine, thank you & then God retired. So now Jesus is telling the people, that God is a God who seeks & searches & finds. No matter how lost we are, we are never lost to God.

So what of these stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin, & the lost boy. The religious leaders of Jesus day said to him, “Why do you always hang out with sinners? You’re always eating & getting drunk with sinners. What kind of religious person are you? After all, Jesus, what’s the point of religion if it isn’t to separate out people: the sinful from the righteous? The good from the bad? The found from the lost? So, we ask you, `What are you doing with these sinners?’”

Our Savior says, “I came to seek & to save the lost.” Now, that was a very different view of God back then & even now, and it’s a very different view of ourselves; who say things like, “Well, you see, I’m searching for something,” or “I’m here because I’m looking for God.”

But that’s not the way the Bible tells it. In the Bible we’re usually looking for any way to get away from God & it’s God who is looking for a way to get to us. Jesus Christ, is God’s supreme act of coming close to us, of seeking & searching us out until God finds us.

Annie Dillard, a Pulitzer prize winning writer, tells in her book about her life growing up in Pittsburgh, titled, “An American Childhood. Annie was a smart young woman. By the age of fifteen she’d read through most all the books in the Carnegie Branch of the Pittsburgh Library near her home. And reading those books she decided that all this religion stuff is bunk & more bunk. God doesn’t really exist. So she took it upon herself at age fifteen to show up at Shadyside Presbyterian Church & she said to her life-long pastor, “I want my name off the roll. I don’t believe in God anymore.”

The pastor said, “Okay.”

Annie Dillard said, “You’re not going to try to argue me out of it?”

And he said, “No, no, no. You’re too smart for me. There’s no way I could argue you back in.”

So she said, “take my name off the roll.”

He said, “It’s off the roll.”

She said, “Okay.”

She walked out of the minister’s office and on her way down the hall she heard him mutter to himself, “She’ll be back!”

She wheeled around, went back into the office & said, “What did I hear you say?”

He said, “Oh, that you’ll be back.”

Climbing on her high horse, Annie said, “Look, this is my life. I live my life like I want to live my life. I’m not coming back!”

And years later, Annie Dillard in her autobiography writes, “I’m back.”

You see, when we’re telling the story of us & God, an important part of the conversation is to talk about the God that came to us in Jesus Christ, the one that doesn’t leave it all up to us. It’s not over between us & God until God says it’s over. And God never gives up on us. God never says its over. God isn’t the one who sets up the rules & puts out the standards & says, “Now here’s the bar. Chin up to it if you can.”

No, God is the one that seeks & searches & finds. As Jim read to us Jesus says in Luke 15 that if just one of these sinners gets caught in the great dragnet of God’s grace, heaven just goes crazy.

Thank God our relationship with God is not all up to us. Thank God that we not only have a God that loves us as we are, but seeks us out where ever we are.

Now, what this says to me based on Luke 15 & the stories of the seeking shepherd & the searching woman & the waiting father, is maybe if we’re trying to get away from God, we’d better keep looking over our shoulder. Because we are never so lost that God can’t find us.

 Because these parables of the lost sheep & the lost coin, & ending with Luke’s story about the prodigal son, well it’s good news all the way. Everything that was lost is found. The lost sheep is returned to the flock, the lost coin is recovered by its owner, the lost son is restored to his father, & the parties go on all night long. Because God’s talent for finding us proves greater than our talent for getting lost, & there is joy in heaven as well as on earth.

          Why do we love these stories? Of the lost being found? Well, I think we love these stories because we imagine ourselves on the receiving end of them. I listen to the parable of the lost sheep and it is about me. I am the poor, tuckered out lamb, draped across my dear redeemer’s shoulders so full of gratitude & relief that I vow never to wander away from him again. Or I am the silver coin, lying in some dark corner of the universe until the good woman who will not give up on me sweeps me into the light. They are stories about me, and I treasure them, but in their original context they sounded like anything but good news to their hearers.

          At the beginning of our reading this morning, Jesus is being criticized for the third time by the Pharisees for spending his days with sinners – lepers, tax collectors, women of the night – and not only for talking with them, but for eating with them as well, in open defiance of Jewish dietary laws. Now, not content with dining in their unclean homes, Jesus has gone beyond the pale by “receiving” them – returning their hospitality and receiving them as any host would receive a guest. The sinners, needless to say, are fascinated by his treatment of them. Whatever this man has to say, they want to hear more. They draw near to him, while the scribes and Pharisees choke on their rage.

          From a modern perspective, maybe it’s hard for us to see what the fuss is all about. Jesus the good shepherd is just doing his job. Jesus the good housekeeper is just making sure every corner has been swept, and my heart goes out to all the unfortunate souls whose lives he touches.

And then I remember, I’m an unfortunate soul, whose live he has touched. As you are. As we are. Thanks be to God. Amen.