God As Loser And Finder
Sermon
Topsy-Turvy: Living In The Biblical World
Gospel Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost (Middle Third) Cycle C
It happens now with increasing regularity. Maybe it's a six-year-old boy, who never came home for supper, and so the parents begin to go looking. After an hour of no success, they enlist their friends and neighbors, they call the police, and an intensive search is begun. And then on the 10 p.m. news we see them all looking, people moving across a field with flashlights, thoroughly investigating every bush and hiding place -- others out in boats dragging river bottoms -- all of them searching for a lost boy.
This morning Luke's Gospel passes on to us two stories that Jesus told about lost things: a lost sheep, a lost coin. Stories about lostness.
A man has a hundred sheep; he notices that one is missing; his concern for the lost one causes him to leave the 99 and to search until he finds it. When he does find it, he is so overjoyed, that he calls together his friends and neighbors to celebrate with him.
A woman has ten coins. When she loses one of them, she carefully sweeps out her entire house until she finds it. She, too, is so elated at her discovery that she shares her joy with others.
Stories about lostness. But did you notice? The emphasis in these stories is not upon the lost sheep, not upon the lost coin. The center of the stories is not the lost object, but rather it is the shepherd -- the woman -- the ones who are the losers and the finders.
In short, these stories are primarily about God, and not about us, or whether we are a part of the 99, or whether we are the lost ones. So this morning you and I are going to talk about God, God who is a loser and a finder.
To say that God is a loser, one who has lost something, implies first of all that God is an owner. God has bound himself to all of creation, to all of his people; we all belong to God. And so when even one is missing, our Shepherd God does not resign himself to the loss: "Well, I've still got 99." Or, "No matter, that one sheep was always kind of a problem anyway." No. When everyone is not within the circle, then someone cherished is missing.
The stories state it even more strongly than that. You've maybe heard the liberation theologians talk about God's preferential option for the poor; these stories tell us that God has a preferential option for the lost! We can tell that especially from the context: Luke tells us that the sinners and the tax collectors -- the lost ones -- had been hanging around Jesus, and that disjointed the noses of the Pharisees and scribes -- part of the 99. So Jesus tells these stories to underline the fact that he does have a preferential option for the sinners and the tax collectors.
So, whom do you suppose God has been seeking this past week? Has God been in Washington, D.C., sniffing around the corridors of the White House, looking for President Clinton?
Or has God been elsewhere in the world looking for Asama bin Laden, the millionaire who has supposedly been financing terrorist acts all over the world?
Or is God in Northern Ireland, snooping around for the leaders of the real IRA? Is that where God is, looking for bloody hands?
Or is God hunting around in our own backyards here in Aurora, looking for all the lost ones involved in the killing of six people this past week?
You see, that's the way to interpret the story, as Karl Barth reminded us, with the Bible in one hand and Newsweek in the other hand.
Or has God been looking for you, however you would describe yourself as being lost?
? Lost in hectic busyness, moving so fast from your family to your job to all your other obligations that you no longer know where you are?
? Or lost in meaninglessness, mired down by a depression you can't even name, but you just feel stuck?
? Or lost because you don't know who you are anymore; you've spent your life doing what everybody else wanted you to do, meeting all their expectations of you, so much so that you no longer know who you are.
? Or lost in power, controlling and dominating all those around you.
? Or lost in indifference, never giving a thought about anyone else, all wrapped up in yourself.
As many times as you have heard this story of the Lost Sheep, has it ever struck you as being odd that a shepherd would actually leave 99 sheep alone in the wilderness to go off in a risky search for one lost sheep? Jesus tells the story as if it were the most natural thing in the world: "Which one of you," Jesus asks, "if you were a shepherd, wouldn't do the same?" I don't think we would.
Leaving 99 sheep to look for one lost sheep makes no economic sense at all. Any shepherd could recoup the loss of one sheep, but the potential loss of 99 sheep, left to fend for themselves in the wilderness -- that would mean economic disaster for the shepherd.
What the story proposes is indeed bad economics. It is illogical, it is unprecedented, it is extravagant. And that is precisely the point! God's love for the lost ones is illogical, it is extravagant, it is unprecedented graciousness.
Jesus came to save the lost: lost sheep, lost coins, lost brothers, lost tax collectors, lost drug-dealers, lost politicians, lost terrorists. The very people you and I would want to dismiss, those whom we regard as inconsequential, the guy standing out on the corner of the intersection holding up the sign that reads, "Why lie? I need money for beer!" -- those are the ones that Jesus is looking for.
Isn't that the amazing word of grace to you and me, who are, of course, among the 100 percent of sinners in the world? Lost ones every single one of us!
Something equally gracious in these stories is the insistence upon the certainty of God's success at finding. The shepherd searches "until he finds it," Jesus says. If you lose a coin in a small, one-room house, you are bound to find it sooner or later. Very simple point here: God never writes anyone off!
These stories are about God's shocking grace -- about God's gift of salvation which God persistently seeks to give to us and also about repentance. Remember Jesus' conclusion for each parable? "Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance."
But these stories explode our common notion of what repentance is all about. Don't we tend to think of it as being pretty much our work? Repentance, we think, is when I seclude myself, take inventory of my life, realizing how I have gone astray, and then I turn to Jesus Christ for forgiveness.
These stories, however, show us a God who does not simply wait passively for the lost ones to repent, but rather a God who actually goes out after them. God is a part of the repentance; God's gracious love, God's gracious seeking, brings the repentance about.
Now in that context repentance becomes something quite different from the way we have imagined it. Repentance takes on new meaning. It is no longer something dismal and bitter and painful. Rather, repentance becomes festive. It is shot through and through with the love and joy of God.
Joy! The shepherd rejoices when he finds the lost sheep. He says to his neighbors, "Rejoice with me!" The woman finds the lost coin and asks her neighbors to rejoice with her.
Joy! Now that is the bottom line conclusion to these stories: finding creates boundless, extravagant joy! And what is more, these stories tell us, that joy is not private, but it is meant to be shared. It is the kind of joy that throws a party.
William Willimon, Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, tells a story about a retreat he once held called "Exploring the Christian Faith." It was especially for young people who may know something about Jesus and the Church, but aren't ready to commit to it.
The first night of the retreat he showed a two-hour video which consisted simply of an actor reading the Gospel of Luke. When it was over, the dozen students sat there in stunned silence. Then one said, "It is a great story, a really great story." Another said, "I just can't figure out why all the Christians I know are so boring."
But it was that young man who, at the end of the retreat, came forward for baptism. After a month of instruction, Will baptized him. On the day of the baptism, one of the other members of the retreat group called Will and said, "Dr. Willimon, just to put your mind at ease, I want you to know that I have already gotten a keg of beer for the postbaptismal party."
"A keg of beer?" Will replied. "It never occurred to me to get beer for a baptism."
The student responded, "Why are you always calling us irresponsible? See? You didn't even think about the beer."
Will concluded that that was probably the first baptismal keg party in the history of the Christian church!1 But it is exactly what our Gospel story calls for when someone lost has been found: a party!
And at lease once a week our God throws a party of grace and joy, to which we are all invited. See? The festive meal has already been prepared for us. And yes, we do come to this meal repentantly, but not with long, dismal faces. But rather we come in joy, assured that God's grace has found us, assured that we belong to God.
____________
1. William H. Willimon, Pulpit Resource, July--September, 1998, p. 44. Used by permission.
This morning Luke's Gospel passes on to us two stories that Jesus told about lost things: a lost sheep, a lost coin. Stories about lostness.
A man has a hundred sheep; he notices that one is missing; his concern for the lost one causes him to leave the 99 and to search until he finds it. When he does find it, he is so overjoyed, that he calls together his friends and neighbors to celebrate with him.
A woman has ten coins. When she loses one of them, she carefully sweeps out her entire house until she finds it. She, too, is so elated at her discovery that she shares her joy with others.
Stories about lostness. But did you notice? The emphasis in these stories is not upon the lost sheep, not upon the lost coin. The center of the stories is not the lost object, but rather it is the shepherd -- the woman -- the ones who are the losers and the finders.
In short, these stories are primarily about God, and not about us, or whether we are a part of the 99, or whether we are the lost ones. So this morning you and I are going to talk about God, God who is a loser and a finder.
To say that God is a loser, one who has lost something, implies first of all that God is an owner. God has bound himself to all of creation, to all of his people; we all belong to God. And so when even one is missing, our Shepherd God does not resign himself to the loss: "Well, I've still got 99." Or, "No matter, that one sheep was always kind of a problem anyway." No. When everyone is not within the circle, then someone cherished is missing.
The stories state it even more strongly than that. You've maybe heard the liberation theologians talk about God's preferential option for the poor; these stories tell us that God has a preferential option for the lost! We can tell that especially from the context: Luke tells us that the sinners and the tax collectors -- the lost ones -- had been hanging around Jesus, and that disjointed the noses of the Pharisees and scribes -- part of the 99. So Jesus tells these stories to underline the fact that he does have a preferential option for the sinners and the tax collectors.
So, whom do you suppose God has been seeking this past week? Has God been in Washington, D.C., sniffing around the corridors of the White House, looking for President Clinton?
Or has God been elsewhere in the world looking for Asama bin Laden, the millionaire who has supposedly been financing terrorist acts all over the world?
Or is God in Northern Ireland, snooping around for the leaders of the real IRA? Is that where God is, looking for bloody hands?
Or is God hunting around in our own backyards here in Aurora, looking for all the lost ones involved in the killing of six people this past week?
You see, that's the way to interpret the story, as Karl Barth reminded us, with the Bible in one hand and Newsweek in the other hand.
Or has God been looking for you, however you would describe yourself as being lost?
? Lost in hectic busyness, moving so fast from your family to your job to all your other obligations that you no longer know where you are?
? Or lost in meaninglessness, mired down by a depression you can't even name, but you just feel stuck?
? Or lost because you don't know who you are anymore; you've spent your life doing what everybody else wanted you to do, meeting all their expectations of you, so much so that you no longer know who you are.
? Or lost in power, controlling and dominating all those around you.
? Or lost in indifference, never giving a thought about anyone else, all wrapped up in yourself.
As many times as you have heard this story of the Lost Sheep, has it ever struck you as being odd that a shepherd would actually leave 99 sheep alone in the wilderness to go off in a risky search for one lost sheep? Jesus tells the story as if it were the most natural thing in the world: "Which one of you," Jesus asks, "if you were a shepherd, wouldn't do the same?" I don't think we would.
Leaving 99 sheep to look for one lost sheep makes no economic sense at all. Any shepherd could recoup the loss of one sheep, but the potential loss of 99 sheep, left to fend for themselves in the wilderness -- that would mean economic disaster for the shepherd.
What the story proposes is indeed bad economics. It is illogical, it is unprecedented, it is extravagant. And that is precisely the point! God's love for the lost ones is illogical, it is extravagant, it is unprecedented graciousness.
Jesus came to save the lost: lost sheep, lost coins, lost brothers, lost tax collectors, lost drug-dealers, lost politicians, lost terrorists. The very people you and I would want to dismiss, those whom we regard as inconsequential, the guy standing out on the corner of the intersection holding up the sign that reads, "Why lie? I need money for beer!" -- those are the ones that Jesus is looking for.
Isn't that the amazing word of grace to you and me, who are, of course, among the 100 percent of sinners in the world? Lost ones every single one of us!
Something equally gracious in these stories is the insistence upon the certainty of God's success at finding. The shepherd searches "until he finds it," Jesus says. If you lose a coin in a small, one-room house, you are bound to find it sooner or later. Very simple point here: God never writes anyone off!
These stories are about God's shocking grace -- about God's gift of salvation which God persistently seeks to give to us and also about repentance. Remember Jesus' conclusion for each parable? "Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance."
But these stories explode our common notion of what repentance is all about. Don't we tend to think of it as being pretty much our work? Repentance, we think, is when I seclude myself, take inventory of my life, realizing how I have gone astray, and then I turn to Jesus Christ for forgiveness.
These stories, however, show us a God who does not simply wait passively for the lost ones to repent, but rather a God who actually goes out after them. God is a part of the repentance; God's gracious love, God's gracious seeking, brings the repentance about.
Now in that context repentance becomes something quite different from the way we have imagined it. Repentance takes on new meaning. It is no longer something dismal and bitter and painful. Rather, repentance becomes festive. It is shot through and through with the love and joy of God.
Joy! The shepherd rejoices when he finds the lost sheep. He says to his neighbors, "Rejoice with me!" The woman finds the lost coin and asks her neighbors to rejoice with her.
Joy! Now that is the bottom line conclusion to these stories: finding creates boundless, extravagant joy! And what is more, these stories tell us, that joy is not private, but it is meant to be shared. It is the kind of joy that throws a party.
William Willimon, Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, tells a story about a retreat he once held called "Exploring the Christian Faith." It was especially for young people who may know something about Jesus and the Church, but aren't ready to commit to it.
The first night of the retreat he showed a two-hour video which consisted simply of an actor reading the Gospel of Luke. When it was over, the dozen students sat there in stunned silence. Then one said, "It is a great story, a really great story." Another said, "I just can't figure out why all the Christians I know are so boring."
But it was that young man who, at the end of the retreat, came forward for baptism. After a month of instruction, Will baptized him. On the day of the baptism, one of the other members of the retreat group called Will and said, "Dr. Willimon, just to put your mind at ease, I want you to know that I have already gotten a keg of beer for the postbaptismal party."
"A keg of beer?" Will replied. "It never occurred to me to get beer for a baptism."
The student responded, "Why are you always calling us irresponsible? See? You didn't even think about the beer."
Will concluded that that was probably the first baptismal keg party in the history of the Christian church!1 But it is exactly what our Gospel story calls for when someone lost has been found: a party!
And at lease once a week our God throws a party of grace and joy, to which we are all invited. See? The festive meal has already been prepared for us. And yes, we do come to this meal repentantly, but not with long, dismal faces. But rather we come in joy, assured that God's grace has found us, assured that we belong to God.
____________
1. William H. Willimon, Pulpit Resource, July--September, 1998, p. 44. Used by permission.