Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Sermon - 14th Sunday after Pentecost - Luke 15:1-10


Luke 15:1-10
“Lost and Found”


Luke 15 is sometimes called “The Lost Chapter”, not because it has ever been lost, but because it famously contains the story of the Prodigal Son or the Lost Son, and also these two parables in the first part of the chapter – the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin.

Jesus tells these parables, Luke tells us, as “tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.”  And while that means they were starting to follow him, and they were drawing around him in proximity, there’s also a spiritual reality here, too.  They were coming to faith in him.  They were repenting and believing.

Now perhaps a word against some popular preaching today – who draw the wrong conclusion here.  The fact that Sinners and Tax Collectors were drawing near to Jesus doesn’t mean that Jesus is just fine and ok with all manner of sin.  It doesn’t mean that you can come to Jesus today and remain in your sinful life, clinging to your sinful actions, with no change or modification to your way of life.  But rather, as Jesus receives sinners, he changes them.  They are brought to repentance.  Turned around.   And I should really say WE are brought to repentance, because this is all of us who believe.  Luke mentions that repentance in just a few verses.

But nonetheless, these sinners and tax collectors stand in contrast to the Pharisees and Scribes, who grumbled.  They grumbled that Jesus would receive such filthy vagabonds, which is telling in itself about their own spiritual condition.  Grumbling, like the children of Israel in the wilderness, unappreciative, unfaithful.  They, in their spiritual hubris, who didn’t want to be polluted by these obvious sinners.  They, who thought it inappropriate or unbecoming of Jesus to slum it up with the ne’er do-wells, rather, he should be cozying up to us, the good people, the righteous folk.

“This man welcomes sinners” they complain, and in doing so they unwittingly confess exactly what it is that makes this Jesus so wonderful.  That which is mockery on their lips is praise from all Christians.  Jesus sinners doth receive!

They’ve got it backwards, as people so often do when it comes to Jesus.  And so he tells them these two parables of that which is lost, and that which is found.  And the application is fairly straightforward.

First there is the Lost Sheep.  Jesus asks, “which of you would…?” and the implied answer is, “anyone would” go looking for that lost sheep.  While on the one hand, 1 out of 100 isn’t all that much – 1 % - you might lose that much in the stock market in a day.  But on the other hand, this sheep is his – and it matters to the shepherd. And he’s going to go looking for it. 

Then you have the woman who loses a silver coin – this time 1 out of 10 – and she turns her house upside down looking for it.  Another perspective from everyday life, but something all his hearers could relate to.

A modern day version of these stories might be when you misplace your wallet or keys – and you go retracing your steps until you find them.  If that doesn’t work quick enough, you enlist the aid of your family, and start checking ever more places – the car, under the couch cushions, maybe I left them at work?  Maybe it keeps you awake at night.  Roman Catholics even call on St. Anthony to help him find what was lost. 

And so losing something important to you is a common enough earthly story.  But what is the heavenly meaning here?  What is Jesus teaching us?

For one, that we are lost in sin. And not just the outwardly, obviously sinful people, but all of us.  Not just the tax collectors and women of ill repute, but the Pharisees and Scribes, too.  You and I are the lost sheep.  You and I are the lost coin. 

But in any case, Jesus is all about seeking and saving the lost.  Sure, he’s the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep, a shepherd unlike any other.  But here, too, he is just like a regular shepherd who would go looking for a sheep that is lost.  He doesn’t wait for the sheep to come wandering back, to pull itself out of whatever ditch the sheep has gotten bogged down in.  He doesn’t stand there with arms folded until the sheep gets his act together.  He goes.  He seeks.  He finds.  He saves.

Our Good Shepherd comes down to the ditch to pull that lost sheep out of the mud.  He fends off the slobbering beasts who would have that sheep for lunch.  He brings that lost sheep back into the fold, washes him clean, gives him rest, leads him to still waters and green pastures.

And is Jesus comparing himself to a woman?  Well, he’s compared himself elsewhere to a mother hen gathering up her chicks.  But the point of comparison is what’s important.  Jesus seeks the lost.  He goes to great trouble to do so.  Oh, you Pharisees think these sinners are lost?  Well, I’m going to find them.  I’m not a savior who cuts his losses, and just leaves the lost to wander.  I seek and save the lost.  I go after the sinner.  And I will find him.

He cleans and clears the house, turns everything upside down in his zeal to purify and his fervor to find.  He goes to great lengths, any lengths, even a cross to get the job done, if that’s what it takes!  And that’s what it took.

What the Pharisees and Scribes couldn’t see, is that they too were lost.  What they couldn’t get past was their own self-righteousness.  They counted themselves among the 99 righteous who needed no finding.  But if they could admit their own lost-ness, they’d be glad for a savior that seeks the lost.  And so should we.  And speaking of gladness…

In both parables, when the lost is found, there is great rejoicing.  The shepherd and the woman each throw a party for their friends and neighbors, and express their joy at the lost being found.  Jesus makes the point that the same happens in heaven – the angels throw a party – when even one sinner repents.

Well they must party a lot up there.  Because repentance doesn’t just happen on a one and done basis.  We lost and found sinners get lost and found over and over.  We daily bring our sins to Jesus.  We drown the old Adam in baptism daily, by repentance and faith.  But it’s really the Spirit working in us, and on us.  It’s him who has begun a good work within us and bringing it toward its completion at the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We are constantly being found by Christ, saved by Christ, sanctified by the Spirit of Christ. 

Oh what joy there must be in heaven, oh what an angelic grand gala every time sinners confess and are absolved, every time the water and word of baptism do their thing, and every time repentant sinners come to the one who meets them at the table – as both the host and as the feast, himself.  No wonder we couch our liturgy of Holy Communion with the Preface, “therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify..” the holy name of God. 
With Jesus it’s never what the world expects.  The poor are made rich and the rich made poor.  The humble are lifted up and the exalted are made low.  The last are first, the lowly are exalted and vice versa. 

Here, too, those that think they’ve got it all together, who trust their own way, who seek to find themselves - are really the ones that are lost.  And the ones who seem so lost in sin – who despair of themselves and humbly confess their wandering ways – they are sought out and found, by Jesus, through his Gospel. 

May you ever be so lost – and may you always be found, in him.  In Jesus Name.

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