Sermon as preached 9/15/13 at Lambs and Evington UMC
Today in our scripture
from Luke we get two very short, and yet very well know parables from Jesus.
They are of course the parable of the Lost sheep and the parable of the Lost
coin. Though they are probably some of the shorter parables that Jesus told,
these parables seem to speak to us, they seem to capture us and hold us
captive. They are most likely some of the first parables that we learned as
children, and still today we love to hear them told to us. The message of the
parable has even leaked into our mainstream media. I was watching TV the other
day and a commercial came on that made me do a double take, because I knew that
this scripture was coming up for this week. It was a Chevy Silverado
commercial, and in the commercial we see farmer out in the rain fixing a broken
barbered wire fence. Then getting into his truck and searching all around for a
missing calf. Goes over bridges and into ravines with his truck, he gets out
and shines his flashlight all around looking for this little calf, and finally
at the end we see the farmer, carrying this calf in his arms, in the pouring
rain back to his truck to take it back home. When I saw this commercial, I was
like, “wow, this is the parable of the lost sheep.” A friend quickly reminded
me however that if this were the parable of the lost sheep, it would have been
a dodge Ram commercial.
All kidding aside, These two parables are ones that
usually speak to us. And why not? There is a truly beautiful message in these
parables. A message that we have such a loving God that though there are plenty
of people who already follow, who already believe, and yet God is willing to
leave those be to find those who have fallen away. That in a flock where there
are still 99 good and useful sheep, that the Lord, our shepherd is willing to
go out and search for that one missing sheep. That like a woman who lost a coin
but has several others, the Lord will still tear the house up searching high
and low for that lost coin until it is found.
It truly is a message of God’s love, of God mercy, and of God’s grace.
So often this parable
speaks deep into our souls as well; it may have even been a message similar to
this that has helped to bring us to Christ. It may have been this message of
God’s grace that has helped us through
difficult times, knowing that God is there looking for us, desperately seeking
to bring us back. It probably why we find the hymn Amazing Grace so powerful, because
it speaks to this emotion of being lost and now found. It reminds us of God’s
grace for us. We all know these parables
pretty well, in fact most of you could come up and give a good sermon all about
this love and grace. Many could give testimonies of how they once were lost and
now are found through the grace of God. It would be hard for me to get up here
and to tell you something about these parables and your life that you don’t
already know.
But what if I told you this morning that these parables
are most likely not about you, or at least not about you today? Think about it these parables are about the
sheep that have wandered away, or the lone coin that is lost, and yet we are
all here this morning, gathered to praise and worship our God. And the truth of
the matter is that most of us here have been coming for quite some time now,
that most of us have been faithful followers for much of our lives. Now sure
all of us have gone through times of trials and tribulations throughout out our
lives, some maybe be even facing them today, but you are here, seeking the Lord
not running away. There may be some here this morning that feel lost, and if
that is the case then I hope that this message of grace and mercy does speak to
you today, but know that the simple fact that you are here in the midst of
feeling lost speaks to your faith and your love of God. It is also important to note that we are all
indeed lost in some way since we have all fallen short of the glory of God.
That yes we all need God’s grace to lead us and guide us; but let’s be quite
honest with ourselves this morning. When we read about the 99 sheep and the one
lost sheep, or the 9 coins and the one lost coin, we love to picture ourselves
as the lost sheep or the lost coin, but in all honesty most of us here are more
like the 99 and 9, not the lone one. This may be a difficult truth to handle,
but once we are able to wrap our minds around this concept, we may start to
understand these parables in brand new ways.
As I have been saying, far too often we have
sentimentalized these parables to be personal stories about us, and at some
point in our life maybe we needed that. We read these words as kind words,
words of joy, which don’t get me wrong they are, but we forget the point of the
parables being told; we lose sight of the fact that these parables also carried
a rather harsh and prophetic message as well. When we step outside of the
parables themselves, and see the context that they were spoken in, then we may
start to see what I mean by this.
So what was the context for this parable? Well scripture tells us quite clearly what it
was. In the previous chapter, chapter 14,
Jesus is invited to dinner with some of the Pharisees. While at dinner
Jesus begins to talk about inviting others to the feast as well; I believe that
Jesus was being both literal and figurative in this instance. After telling them
a parable of the a great banquet in which none of the nobles decide to attend
and so it is opened to everyone on the streets, we can imagine that Jesus began
to upset many of the Pharisees. Jesus was talking about not only eating and
congregating with those who were viewed as moral deviators, he was also talking
about being with those who were ritually and societally unclean. I don’t think
Jesus made many friends with the Pharisee that evening.
And so now we find Jesus here in chapter 15 taking it one
step further. No longer is Jesus talking about eating and congregating with the
morally and ritually unclean; Jesus is actually doing it. The Pharisees were
not too happy about this fact either. Our passage tells us, “And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying,
"This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." The
Pharisees were grumbling, how dare he
associate with those types of people. You see, it is to this protest by the
Pharisees, it was to this disgust that Jesus responded with these parables. If
you had 100 sheep and one of them was lost would you not leave the 99 behind
and go looking for that one lost sheep?
Or if you had 10 coins and lost one would you not search high and low
until that coin was found? Jesus’ words
are words of hope and grace to the lost, to sinners whom Jesus eats with; but
we cannot miss that they are also tough, harsh, pointed questions back at the
Pharisees for them to answer. In essence
Jesus is saying, I am looking after and reaching out to those who are
neglected, who are troubled, who need my love the most; should you be doing the
same? So why then do you sit there and grumble instead of celebrating with me
that these people are listening to my words. “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. “
This passage may be speaking a word of hope and truth to
you this morning if you truly are the lost sheep or the lost coin, but if you
are like me than these words may feel more like daggers in the heart. If you
are like me then you may be realizing, I’m not the lost sheep or the lost coin,
I’m the 99 & 9, or maybe even worse, I’m the Pharisee grumbling about who
we choose to associate with. It is hard to hear, but sometimes we need to hear these harsh words, that far too
often we are more like the Pharisees than we are like Christ, whether we mean
to be or not.
It reminds me of a meeting that I was attending about the
Vital Congregations program that the Methodist Church is doing to try to
revitalize churches so that they may become more faithful and fruitful
congregations. You have probably heard something about it already, but each
church is asked to measure 5 categories that are believed to be indicators of a
vital congregation and to use the statistics to see for themselves where
improvement may be needed. These five categories are Worship attendance, Number
of small groups, Number of people involved in hands on mission, Amount of money
given for mission, and number of professions of faith. Many of these categories probably make sense
to you for why they would be good indicators of a vital congregation, but you
may be wondering about why professions of faith. Why not member? While member
is extremely important as it is a commitment to the local church and the church
to that person (as we will see later in the service) professions of faith are those who have never
professed before. Membership can transfer, but someone coming on profession of
faith is representative of the lost sheep and the lost coin being found. Professions
of faith are the celebrations that Christ talks about. So getting back to my
story about the meeting, we were talking about this category of professions of
faith, and how most churches are struggling with it, and that even many of our
professions of faith are from the children who have grown up in the church. We
were debating about why this is the case, many people mentioned that the
members were even really good about inviting people to church and yet there are
so few professions of faith, when finally someone boldly spoke up and said,
“maybe it’s because we don’t know that many people who aren’t already
Christians.”
That should make
us think, do we really know that many people who aren’t Christians, who aren’t
baptized? We may think that there just
aren’t that many around us, but trust me there are. So then when must ask
ourselves, Are we eating with the sinners and tax collectors. Are we following
the example of Jesus Christ and associating with the poor, the dirty, those who
language could make a sailor blush, those who see violence instead of peace as
the answer, are we associating with those who are different ages, races, even
nationalities than us? Or are we inadvertently being like the Pharisees and
sitting back grumbling, judging others for not being as holy as us?
As the passage says.
“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.” The
overarching message of this parable of grace is joy. It is a celebration that
God will seek after those who are lost, those who are weary. Yes, repentance is part of the story too, but
how can someone find the truth in their hearts of their need to repent if we
are far off grumbling instead of out searching, out eating with those who need
God’s grace the most. We are to follow the example of Christ. Not hiding behind
our thoughts and beliefs like the Pharisees, but actively reaching out and
engaging with others; not judging but rather offering love. For we may not all
be the lost sheep or the lost coin, but through these parables we can see how
much God cares for all of his people. Are we going to share in this love or are
we going to mock and judge those who do?
God’s preference is evident, let us rejoice with the one sinner who
repents, let us celebrate that God’s grace extends to all mankind.
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