Exodus 32:7-14 and Psalm 51:1-10
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10
I quote a story told by a Biblical scholar, Sarah Dylan Breuer[1]:
Once there was a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them went astray.
The shepherd's colleagues figured this was probably due to some carelessness on the shepherd's part -- after all, when he had been a farmer, he had repeatedly been seen tossing seed in the middle of parking lots and places where birds would eat them without much thought as to whether anything would actually grow there. The farmer turned shepherd had in fact acquired a reputation for being a little loopy.
The ninety-nine sheep left behind, wanting to be helpful to the shepherd, immediately sprang into action... or discussion, anyway.
One loudly announced that historically the flock had never included more than ninety-nine sheep, and therefore that the stray was probably a goat, or perhaps an alpaca, and should not be bothered with.
If a wolf got it, they argued, that's what it deserved for straying from the flock, or for being an alpaca, or whatever its problem was.
Factions gathered in response to that announcement, some suggesting that perhaps a message could be sent to the stray that if she were to stop being an alpaca and instead become a sheep, or at least learn to bleat like one, or perhaps if she stopped making... what noise is it that alpaca’s make she could rejoin the flock.
Cries immediately went up for a subcommittee to be formed to study the issue of whether alpaca’s could learn to bleat like sheep. A website and glossy magazine ads were put in place to further this effort, as were a series of dialogues, in which each member of a panel of three sheep would present its view of what species the strays were, followed by discussion and concluding with a very nice and moving prayer meeting.
* * *
When rumours arose that the stray sheep was being attacked by wolves and a voice in the flock suggested that perhaps something ought to be done… another of the ninety-nine sheep produced a marvellous PowerPoint presentation documenting the decline in wolf attacks by well over 30% over the last fifteen years. "And there used to be 78 strays per year," she noted, "that we've got it down to one is most impressive!"
The faction responded with a loud cheer and rumbled off to a celebratory ball and fundraiser to cover the cost of a digital camera to supply graphics for future presentations.
* * *
All of this clever argument and talk greatly annoyed the planners of the campaign to convince the stray to return to being a sheep, and the sheep who didn't want the stray back in the flock at all were furious, threatening to leave the flock if they were allowed to rejoin.
Much hubbub ensued, and hours later, if you could somehow manage to listen beyond all of the loud bleating and blaring loudspeakers and committee deliberations and rousing choruses of "Bringing In the Sheep" and a new hymn, "Goading Out the Goats," you might have heard a few sheep quietly noting the shepherd's absence,
and wondering where the shepherd had gone,
as one silhouetted figure made its way toward the horizon and the stray ... and some wolf howls echoed in the distance.
* * *
The gospel parables that we read from Luke’s gospel today speak about Jesus passion for bringing people into community and into relationship with God, about how God reaches out to those often rejected and ignored by ourselves.
* * *
Jesus tells these parables in response to the Pharisees’ and scribes’ grumbling about the sort of company which Jesus keeps saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Trying to correct their idea of what God is like, Jesus tells them parables from common occurrences about things that humans would do:
What shepherd wouldn’t go looking for a lost sheep (a sheep is valuable and it would be cruel to let it be eaten by wolves)?
Who wouldn’t search for a valuable lost coin (a whole day’s wages)?
And in the third parable Jesus tells - the parable of the prodigal son (which we didn’t read now): What father in his right mind would not welcome their son back home no matter what he had done wrong?
* * *
The Pharisees complained about Jesus because he reached out to people who were counted by the religious community of their day as sinners…
Jesus points out to them that doing so is actually what God wants people to do - it pleases God - leading to parties up in heaven…
* * *
This doesn’t make sense to the Pharisees and scribes because if someone was known to be a sinner people considered them to be unacceptable to God, and therefore unacceptable to the entire religious community… they would therefore avoid them - considering it dangerous - even unlucky to be associated with them… worried that they might be contaminated by sin.
Jesus, against the rules and accepted standards of the day reaches across the established boundaries showing people that God does not simply turn his back on those who might have turned their backs on him, God loves them so much that he actively reaches out to them... Jesus risks his own dignity and comfort in doing so…
Jesus, the Son of God - the true representation of what God was like on earth reaches out to those counted as sinners and brings them back to the community and to himself…
In so doing he reminds them, shows them, that God is just like a loving parent who will forgive his children and welcome them back whenever they return to him; God is like a shepherd who cares for every single shepherd in his flock even the ones that stray. That God is like a woman with 10 coins and each of those coins is worth the effort of turning the house upside down for if they get lost...
Jesus by getting involved in the lives of people, by making himself available to them to show them what God is like convinces them (no matter how sinful they may seem to be) to return to God.
* * *
Let’s not forget who Jesus was talking to when he told these parables.
He wasn’t talking to sinners and outcasts - at this stage he was talking to the religiously alright and acceptable. To those who already followed Yahweh (the God of the Israelites) and did their best to keep his laws.
Jesus, in these parables was talking to people like you and me - those already in church… those already convinced that God loves them is interested in their lives.
To people like you and me Jesus says - God doesn’t just care about you - but he also cares about the people out there who don’t already know that they can be loved by him, and that in turn they can be loved by us and accepted into our community no matter who they are or what they’ve done… because they are God’s beloved.
Jesus reminds us to go out to those who don’t know about him - who don’t know what God is like - and show them, tell them the good news.
The Good news that God is good, God is like Jesus and wants them to follow him, to be with him, to know that he loves them.
* * *
The story that Sarah Dylan Breuer tells, the one about the sheep having meetings and never actually going out to find the lost sheep remind me of the way the church so often is…
We have prayer meetings, worship meetings, Sunday School and Sunday worship, Bible Studies and meetings about meetings, but we seldom actually do what Jesus did in the beginning…
And that simple ministry is one of going out, getting involved in the lives of those outside of the church and telling them, showing them the good news about what God is really like; showing them that God loves them for who they are and where they are…
At the end of her story the author asks:
1. Where is the shepherd?
2. Where are the ninety-nine?
3. If one sheep is with the shepherd and ninety-nine aren't, who's really the stray?
* * *
I believe the gospels for today remind us of two truths…
First they remind us that no matter where we are in our life’s journey - in our walk with God perhaps - no matter how far away - how ‘lost’ we may feel, we serve a God who comes looking for us - even in the places of our darkest despair, our deepest fear and greatest doubt… a God who meets us in those places and begins a sometimes slow sometimes quite quick process of transformation.
Second they remind us - to walk with Jesus means to be people who go to other people - wherever they may be and whoever they may be - and show them the kind of unconditional servant love which Jesus has shown us.
Then I believe we will begin to see the
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