FINDING WAYS

September 12, 2010
Pentecost 16
Luke 15:1-32

(prayer)
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So Jesus told them parables ...
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That’s the biblical context that the gospel of Luke sets for us. Jesus told three parables (three teaching stories) as a response to the ‘grumblings’ of his opponents. They openly wondered: Why would Jesus think it was a good thing to welcome those classed as unworthy? Doesn’t he know that it makes him look bad?
The implied attitude of the scribes and Pharisees was that the ‘sinners’ (those who has transgressed the Levitical laws of proper faithful living) and the ‘tax collectors’ (those who had become complicit with the systems of the Roman Empire’s occupation of Judea and Galilee) were beyond compassion and not worthy of attention.
If Jesus truly desired to be a respected rabbi, he would have to be more careful about the company he kept.
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It turns out, however, that Jesus was being extremely careful about the company he kept. Jesus may have told some parables to try and explain his actions; but his actions themselves were a parable – the company Jesus kept was meant to send a message – it was an intentional lesson for anyone (including those scribes and Pharisees nearby) to see and respond to.
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Luke chapter 15 gives us these three related stories on the theme of “lost”: the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son/brother. For the most part, these stories are unique to the gospel of Luke, found only there in the Bible. Matthew’s gospel does have a very similar version of the lost sheep story, but the lost coins and son/brother only come to us in Luke. Matthew includes the sheep story in a discussion on greatness. You may remember the account of Jesus inviting a child on to his lap and telling his disciples that Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child, welcomes me. In Matthew, Jesus goes on to say that we are not to stand in the way of these ‘little ones’ as they seek faith and grow in their own discipleship. Using a child as the example, Jesus was playing on a common attitude where people feel justified to judge and ignore. In many times of history and in many cultures, children are ‘to be seen and not heard’. Did you see the story on the news of the restaurant in the US that has put up the sign that “screaming children will not be tolerated”; they proudly proclaim that they will kick out any families with noisy children.
Hey I get it, trust me. For many years, Patti and I avoided restaurants because the needs of young children do not often mesh with the needs of other diners, especially those who have not had children or who have short memories.
It must have manifested itself differently in Jesus’ day, but children would have not fit easily into many aspects of adult 1st century society. Jesus knew that people disliked children ‘out of their proper place’. Expanding the metaphor, we can see that Jesus was also saying that it might be easier for some to ignore or judge those who were still maturing in their faith, just as it would be to ignore or judge a child out of her/his place. But Jesus says Do not despise these little ones – and then Matthew relays the parable of the lost sheep. Jesus’ summary hook-line is: So it is not the will of God that one of these little ones should be lost.
What Luke does (that Matthew doesn’t) is to put the parable in the first person. Matthew speaks in the general third person, ‘if a person has a hundred sheep...’; Luke brings the crowd right into the parable: ‘which one of you, having one hundred sheep...’
Whichever way Jesus may have actually spoke the parable and in whatever context, we are invited to see ourselves in the story and to examine our initial assumptions about how we think the world should operate and to feel the challenge to those assumptions that the story brings to light.
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At first glance, in these three parables (lost sheep, lost coins, lost son), it may seem that Jesus is simply making the same point in three slightly different ways. And that is true at a base level. If something has value for you and it is lost, you do everything you can to find it. And when it is found, the response is ‘great gratitude’ and ‘celebration’.
The crowd listening to these parables would have no doubt got that point. In a way, the past actions of these ‘undesirables’ (in Luke) or the way children are to behave (in Matthew) have resulted in them being lost from God, and Jesus was doing all he could to find them and to celebrate their reunion with God. And further, Jesus was inviting those who felt comfortable in ignoring or judging to reconsider that aspect of how they live.
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And so an obvious sermon on Luke 15 is to encourage an inward examination and honestly discover how we may have focus in our faith lives.
ÿ Are we distracted?
ÿ Are we off track, putting our faith energy in directions that don’t serve us well or Jesus’ ministry well?
ÿ Are we struggling with what to believe?
When we hear these parables in that way, we are putting ourselves in the place of the scribes and Pharisees, relating to the ones who have lost something and need to find it.
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Good questions.
Good questions for us to bring to ourselves on a regular basis. I encourage all of us to consider these parables in that way. With the exception of the final parable, I think it is the only reasonable way to approach these lessons.
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While it is a biblical image to view ourselves as sheep and Jesus as our shepherd, it is important to see that this metaphor is limited. It has its strength in the image of being guided, of following and trusting. It brings to mind the beloved 23rd Psalm:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his names sake.
4(I am often told when I read this psalm in a modern English translation that it loses some of its value for some of you – so there you go – the good old King James Version.)
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In any language, regardless of our direct experience with livestock or not, there is power in the image of us being sheep of Jesus’ flock. It’s a good one.
I’m just not sure that Luke 15 is one of those places where it works that well to see ourselves as the sheep. When a sheep gets lost, is it really not the sheep’s fault. Sheep are motivated by green pastures. If a sheep goes astray, it is not likely doing that intentionally. The sheep is not saying, ‘I am turning my back on the flock and setting out on my own’. In fact, its instincts are probably to do the opposite. The sheep just looks up after having munched on some tasty grass and realizes that it is alone. It was mislaid by the very one who was charged with caring for it. It’s not the sheep’s fault that it is lost.
The point is even more obvious with the second parable. The lost coin can’t think at all. It is not the coin’s fault that it is lost.
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As I have looked closely at Luke 15, I do see the subtle differences in the three parables. And the difference seems to be with how things get lost – and in two of three the fact that the thing is lost is not the fault of what is lost.
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There are different ways of loosing.
The sheep is lost, very likely because the shepherd is overwhelmed. When they are all together, a group of 99 sheep looks exactly like a group of 100 sheep. How can you possibly tell one is missing, until you count them at the end of the day.
I hear this parable saying that the busyness of our lives is definitely a factor in how we nurture and live out our faith; the overwhelming-ness of the things that fill our days (and nights) can distract us from our connection to God.
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With the coins, there’s only ten, so the loss of one is not a result of being overwhelmed, it may be the result of a lack of attention: or to spin it more negatively: neglect. Some biblical scholars have speculated that the coins represent a valued heirloom or gift that the woman has. The coin may have had value beyond its monetary worth.
Maybe Jesus was trying to get us to examine the areas of complacency in our lives. Have we let the dust gather on what we should value more deeply?
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Both the shepherd and the woman react the same way when the loss is realized. They intensely look for what is lost. The value come back to them quickly and they are not whole while the sheep or coin is missing.
[quick aside - With the first parable, it seems odd that the shepherd would risk leaving the 99 to go find the one: kind of counterproductive. Again, parables and metaphors have their limits. I have to assume that the shepherd had a sheep pen to keep other sheep from wandering or an assistant to help to watch the main flock while the lost sheep is looked for.]
As the darkness of night enveloped the land, the shepherd back-tracked the day until the sheep was found. The woman fought the darkness with a lamp and cleaned and searched every corner of the house until the coin was found. In both cases they were devastated that the item was lost. I imagine that they had pretty much come to the conclusion that it was lost for good. And so the emotional slingshot that must have been intense. When the sheep’s bleat was heard, leading the shepherd to it and when a glimmer of reflected light excited the woman’s fingers to grab the elusive coin: wow!
I imagine it was one of those moments that you are so relieved and happy at the same time, that you cry tears of joy. Crying for joy is one of those times when there is so much joy in you that it has to leak out. You can’t contain it; you can’t control it. This shepherd and this woman may have looked long into the night and yet the joy of finding what was lost was so explosive that they were knocking on their neighbours’ doors: “rejoice with me!”
Rejoice with me: joy-so-full that it begs to be shared!
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While he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; the father ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.
“Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.”
Joy-so-full that it begs to be shared!
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The parable of the prodigal son is longer and is inherently more complex than the other two parables. Because the central characters are all human, we can see ourselves in each of them, not just the one who has lost something (in this case, the father). In fact, the father is sometimes the least related to character because his compassion is so obviously a metaphor for God’s compassion: ‘Oh, the father is God, so we must be one of the sons’. We are more easily drawn to seeing ourselves within the lost son and/or the older brother.
And that can be good. There is lots to learn in those two guys.
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I love the last part of this story: the reaction of dutiful, good son.
“I have worked like a slave for you and I never get anything; this little sh** of a brother can’t wait for you to die to get his inheritance and so he demands it up front; but that’s not bad enough, he just leaves (more work for me) and he wastes it all. And you still welcome him back. I see right through him why can’t you?”
[aside – some day, I would like to dedicate a whole sermon just to the parallels and contrasts between these two brothers – it is rich material]
But for today, I will just say that one of the things that intrigues me about the end of this parable is that ... it doesn’t really end. When Luke stops the narrative, the father has sought out the older brother (whom he had noticed was not ‘enjoying’ the party); the older brother had expressed his frustrations; the father had offered his explanation. But that’s it.
So what did the older brother do? Did he hug his father and go in to reconnect with his brother? Did he stay outside unable to accept the unreasonable compassion of his father?
That’s why we easily see ourselves in the older brother. We are left to finish the story.
So what would we do? Can we believe in grace? Can we believe that God loves what we might wish to remain labelled unloveable? Wasn’t that the question that Jesus wanted the Pharisees and scribes to be thinking about as they criticized Jesus treating the so-called sinners with respect?
Can we believe that God is motivated to find ways for us to be found?
Something to think about.
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When we see ourselves within the younger son, we may be inspired to ask: How have we taken advantage of others for our own gain and pleasure? How is it that this seems ‘right’ to us at the time?
And what might bring about a change in heart? We can imagine how one might have a ‘moment of clarity’ after hitting rock bottom and being left with no option but to slink back to those whose generosity we have abused in the hopes that they might have a bit more to give us. Remember that the son did not return because he loved his family or because he desired to reconcile. He was willing to accept the status of a well-cared-for servant or slave. He went for the food. If the first bite was some humble pie, he was prepared to do that.
What he wasn’t prepared for, was his father running to meet him with open arms. That completely messed up his plans. He even forgot part of his well-rehearsed speech. He can’t bring himself to ask to be treated like a servant, when he was so obviously being loved as a son.
Hearing this story from the perspective of the younger son, invites us examine our own selfishness ... and ... to explore our reaction to grace. Are we able to accept that we are worthy of God’s gift of love and compassion? Can we get those criticisms of the scribes and Pharisees out of the equation (whether they come from the outside or from within our own expectations)?
Can we believe that God is motivated to find ways for us to be found?
Something to think about.
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The final story is most commonly known as the parable of the prodigal son. Prodigal means ‘lavish’, ‘extravagant’, even ‘wasteful’. The last one is certainly applicable to the younger son, who had a pocketful of riches and (as Luke says), ‘squandered’ his money. But the younger son is not the only prodigal in the story. Another way to examine this story of Jesus is to call it “the parable of the prodigal father”.
In the eyes of some (like the older brother), the father was wasting his love and resources on this wayward son.
We let ourselves off the hook if we limit the character of the father in this story to representing God. I think that Jesus wants us to examine our own ability to embody grace. And so, can we become the father in the story?
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Yesterday was the ninth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. Almost a decade later, we are seeing so much deeper divisions and hatred than existed on September 10th, 2001.
A small time pastor in Florida fanned the flames of hatred by threatening to burn Qu’rans with the sole purpose of insulting muslins and attacking the words they hold dear and connect them to God.
And in Manhattan and in the Midwest and small communities of the US south, people profess the value of the ‘right to religious freedom’ as long as it doesn’t mean that a mosque is built or expanded where it bothers me. And almost always, these words and actions are being expressed in the name of Jesus.
I must admit that I have literally yelled at the TV and the computer this week:
WHERE IS THE GRACE!?!
Where is the grace?
I know it’s out there in pockets. But when times get tough, I see so much selfishness and judgement and an ability to ignore others. I fear we are living in a world where grace is being lost.
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So what are we going to do?
Click to another channel;
Sing ‘Jesus loves me’ and pretend that the problems do not exist.
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Or will we light a lamp and sweep and sweep and sweep until grace is unearthed enough for us to grab hold of it?
But even that is not the end of our calling (according to Luke 15), when we have found what was lost, we are to be open to God’s overwhelming joy and share that with others.
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I doubt very much that Jesus would have been happy if the scribes’ reaction to his parables was for them to say: ‘okay Jesus, I guess if this works for you, go ahead’.
He wanted them to have that moment of clarity that they needed to embody God’s grace as well.
They (and we) are the ‘father in the story’.
We are to be ...
ÿ lavishly ...
ÿ wastefully ...
ÿ spilling over ... with grace and compassion.
Let’s find a way to do that. Let us pray,
Over-fill us with your grace, O God, so that we can spill it out into the world. AMEN.

#112VU “O God, How We Have Wandered”