Sermon preached by The Rev. Lance Wallace
In today’s reading of the Gospel, the Pharisees and scribes were upset because he was eating with sinners and allowing them to learn from him. (A sinner in their terms was person who worked for or the Romans like a tax collector, or a soldier, or a prostitute or someone like that.) In the Jewish community holy people were not to consort with sinners; in fact rabbis were not to even teach one who was a sinner. And this is exactly what Jesus was doing; he was not only allowing those in sinful occupations to listen and learn from him, he was encouraging them! The Jews had strict rules about keeping oneself clean and pure. The reason was good; they were trying to please God. After all, it was God who wanted the Jews to live in a manner that was different than the pagans around them. It was God who had mandated the dietary laws that separated them from their neighbors. It was God who mandated the liturgical laws that made certain things and people clean and sinners.
Remember what happened to the Israelites in 722 and 586 BC? Israel became like her neighbors and God punished her by having other nations invade and then deport them. Remember what happened during the time of Ezra? God became very unhappy with his people because they intermarried with their neighbors. So what is going on here? Jesus seems to be changing the rules. It is any wonder that the religious people were angry?
We need to note first that Jesus is not against keeping oneself pure and he is strongly against sin. In fact, remember he was on record as saying things like, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect”, and “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven.” Jesus himself had and certainly wants us to have a high standard of moral living. But, instead of pulling away and standing aloof from the rest of society, God through Jesus announces a new strategy. Now it is the strategy of infiltration and rescue. We are the little bit of yeast in the dough that slowly but surely permeate the whole lump of dough. We are the tiny mustard seed which gradually grows and grows until it becomes a tree. We are candle in the dark room that drives away the darkness. The kingdom of heaven is on the move. It is on the attack and Jesus promises us that even the gates of hell cannot stand against the Church of Jesus Christ. We are supposed to affect and reach out into the society around us.
In order to illustrate this new attitude of infiltration and rescue to the Pharisees and scribes Jesus tells three parables about lost things, the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost or prodigal son. In the first parable, the shepherd was a fairly wealthy man. One hundred sheep was a pretty good sized herd. Yet the shepherd values each sheep and he noticed when Fluffy-3-spots was missing. So he leaves the 99 sheep to go back and look for the one that was lost. Since the shepherd was a fairly wealthy man, he would probably have had some assistant shepherds. So why doesn’t he send one of them back to look for Fluffy-3-spots? The point of the story is that the Shepherd himself was concerned for Fluffy. When he finds him, the shepherd picks him up, lays him on his shoulders, and carries him.
Now Fluffy is not a lamb, he is a full-grown sheep. We are talking between 80 and 120 pounds or perhaps even more so carrying Fluffy is not like carrying a sack of potatoes. This is an effort; this is costing the shepherd a lot physically. But that doesn’t matter to the shepherd because his concern is for the sheep. And when he arrives home, look at his reaction. He doesn’t say, “Man, what a rotten day at work I had. Whew, Fluffy got lost and I had to find him and bring him back to the herd, dang, my neck hurts from carrying that stupid sheep for 3 miles.” No, quite the contrary— He has his friends and neighbors over and opens up the bar and they drink and celebrate and he says, “Rejoice with me for I found my sheep that was lost!”
And look at the next story. A woman loses a silver coin. Now this is not like these coins are in her pocketbook, these coins were part of her dowry and were worn as ornamental decorations on her headdress. It could be compared to a woman’s wedding ring today. So these are very significant to her. Not only important to her emotionally, but it is valuable. Her dowry, of which this is part, was her social security or her retirement or her insurance in case her husband dies. So what does she do? She carefully sweeps the house looking for her coin. The houses of the poor people did not have windows per se so the house would be quite dark even in the daytime. That is why she needs the lamp. When she finds the coin, she like the shepherd calls to her friends and neighbors. Some of us today would not be so quick to do this. We would be afraid to admit we had even lost the coin. We would be concerned our neighbors would make fun of us. Not this woman, she was so relieved and so happy to find her coin she calls her neighbors and friends together and says, “Rejoice with me for I have found the coin I had lost.”
In each case, when the lost is found there is great rejoicing. The attitude of the owner is truly remarkable because the owner represents God. Jesus shows in a vivid way how God Himself feels when sinners repent and come to Him. There were whispers of this in the Old Testament. But here we see with remarkable clarity all heaven celebrates when one sinner repents. They throw a party! God Almighty, unlike our usual vision of him all serious and angry, God and all the millions of mighty and powerful angels throw a party; they have balloons and high five each other and everything. Well, I am not really positive about the balloons and the high fives, but Jesus is very clear about the joy and celebration. This revelation about the attitude of God the Father is quite frankly, revolutionary. God seeks out and rescues the lost ones; God Almighty loves us and wants people to come to Him!
So what is the point Jesus makes to the Pharisees? The point to the Pharisees is about the attitude God the Father has towards those people they consider sinners. God values sinners. God wants them to repent and enter the kingdom of heaven. What is the point he want us to learn? To us, Jesus has given an example. We are to be like Him. We are not to pull away from those who are non-Christians. We are to always be ready, as St. Paul says, to talk about our faith. God values the lost, so should we. We are to shine the light of our Christianity to those around us.
We, the church of Jesus, are on the move. We are leaven in the lump of the dough, we are the small seed growing into a tree, and we are the little candle in a dark society. We are to care for those who are lost; we are to look for them and help them. We are to make a difference. We are to stand up and shed the light of the gospel in our community. We also share the joy of heaven when sinners repent and come home to God. May God give us the opportunities to share our faith to those who do not know Jesus and the courage and ability to share it clearly and may God continue to give us opportunities to help those around us.
Amen