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The Rev. Richard Floyd Ridgefield-Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church Ordinary 24C Luke 15:1-10 September 12, 2004 (*first Sunday) I'm thankful that on this, my first Sunday with you as your pastor, we are able to share a scripture reading that's so full of good news. These stories of shepherds searching for sheep and women sweeping for coins bring us great comfort. No matter how lost we get- and some of us are good at getting lost- but no matter how lost we get, God will find us. Maybe we're a sheep that wanders away from the fold in search of greener grass. Maybe we're a sheep that runs away from the fold as fast as we can. But the shepherd will chase us down and will not stop until we're found. Maybe we're like a coin that's fallen through the cracks of life. Maybe we're lying in some lonely, dusty corner of the universe, thinking we've been forgotten. But the woman has her broom, and she will tear the house upside down looking for us, and she will not stop until we're found. These stories are full of good news, and I hope you hear it and you remember it and you give thanks for it every day. But if you spend much time reading the gospels, you see that Jesus' words often have more than one side to them. They are always good news, but they are also always challenging, and these words are no exception. Remember: Jesus told these stories because he was being harassed by the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the religious leaders of the day. If you grew up in church, you probably thought of the Pharisees as the bad guys, the self-righteous hypocrites who opposed Jesus at every turn. The truth is, most Pharisees were sincerely religious people. They were the good guys in their communities, the churchgoers of the day, the people who tried to play by all the rules, who did everything they could to be right with God. So maybe you can understand their surprise, their frustration, when Jesus came along and instead of eating and drinking with the Pharisees- the good churchgoing people- he throws parties with sinners, with tax collectors and prostitutes and people with dubious reputations. If Jesus was such a holy prophet, if Jesus was truly a man of God, then he should be hanging around the holy people, the righteous people- not dirty-rotten sinners. Maybe we can understand how the Pharisees felt. If Jesus were walking around right now, where do you think he would be this morning? Would he be here with us, the good, faithful, churchgoing people? Or would he be in south-side Chicago having breakfast with the pimps and prostitutes and pushers? And how would we feel about that? Well the Pharisees didn't like it one bit. They thought Jesus should pay more attention to the good people, the righteous people- and spend less time with all those lost sheep and lost coins. Of course, the truth is, we all get lost, in one way or another. The Pharisees were just as lost as the tax collectors and prostitutes, it's just that they didn't know it or couldn't admit it. But we all get lost. We get lost in dead-end jobs that take away our lives day by day. Or we get lost with no job at all. We get lost in cold and abusive relationships. We get lost as families fall apart. We get lost with bodies that seem to get weaker everyday. We get lost when we lose a loved one. We get lost trying to play by all the rules, trying to prove to anyone who will listen that we're worth something. We get lost trying to buy our way to happiness, trying to eat our way to contentment, trying to kill our way to security. We get lost with drugs or alcohol or a thousand other addictions that we think might take the pain away. We get lost in fear, lost in sadness, lost in depression, lost in despair. We all get lost. We all lose our way. And the good news is that God is like a shepherd who will not stop looking for us, God is like a woman who will turn her house upside down until we're found. God will not rest until all God's children are brought safely home. And here's the challenge: God wants us to do the same thing! Look at how Jesus begins the story. He says: [suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one] [which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them...] Do you see that? As Jesus tells the story, we're not the sheep- we're the shepherd! And so he's telling us to be good shepherds, like God. God will risk everything to find every last lost sheep, to find every last lost coin lying in a some dusty corner of the universe. And so should we. To be honest, it doesn't really make much sense. Who puts 99 sheep at risk to chase after one that has wandered away? Who sweeps the floor all night and turns the house upside down trying to find a single coin, and then spends more than the coin's worth throwing a party to celebrate? It doesn't really make sense. It's bad business. But it's God's business, and that means it's our business, too. Every sheep, every coin is of infinite value, and so God risks everything to bring them home, and, Jesus says, so should we. I guess this is a good scripture for us as we begin our ministry together. It raises a challenging question: what kind of shepherds- what kind of church- will we be? Many churches, maybe most churches, spend most of their time tending to the 99- the good and faithful sheep who stay put, happily munching away on the grass, who maybe never even thought about wandering away. Of course these are the people who hold the church together. These are the people who keep the doors open through good times and not so good times. And in a church that's been around for 165 years you can bet there've been a bunch of faithful sheep who have stayed put and done the hard work that needed to be done. And we should celebrate that and be thankful for that. But maybe we're also called to be like the shepherd in the story, willing to risk the comfort of the 99 for the sake of the one lost sheep. Maybe we're called to be like the woman in the story, willing to kick up all the dust and move all the furniture around to find the one tiny little coin which desperately needs someone to find it, pick it up, dust it off, and bring it home. To some people this may sound a little unsettling, but don't forget what this is all about. There's a party going on here. Every time somebody gets lost, and then gets found again, the angels cut loose and begin singing and dancing. All of us have been lost and found, and then lost and found again, so we've been the cause of many a heavenly party. So maybe we should take our cue from the angels and start signing and dancing- not just because we've found our way, but even more- because we've risked it all to help others find their way. That's when the party really gets going. In the coming years, as we find our way together and as we risk everything to help others find their way, I look forward to some great parties. Thanks be to God. |