Sept 15th and 16th, 2007
16th Sunday after Pentecost, year C
Texts: Psalm 139, Luke 15:1-10
David Hively
Sooner or later, you have to make that call. And much like the character in this morning's skit, you almost begin the call with a sigh. You dial customer support knowing that you are going to be on hold. The best thing that you can do is pay close attention as you are given the choices, “press 1 if you have a question about your account, press 2 if you require assistance in setting up your new Uni-glom gizmo,” because the last thing you want is to finally emerge from the nearly endless hold cycle and discover that you have directed yourself to the wrong department.
You may also have run into this frustration if you have filled out an application, for a job, for college, or a home loan. The application wants to know your credit score, your SAT score, and all sorts of other information. Yet when you get to the bottom of the last page, even with all the data that you painstakingly entered, they still have no idea who you really are. They don’t know about the person who gives up every Tuesday afternoon to lead the cub scout pack, or the teen who passes up a Friday night party, just to study and keep their grades up, or the person who earnestly prays every night for the safety of loved ones how have moved far away. The real you is lost in all of that, hidden in cheesy hold music and little bubbles filled out with a number 2 pencil. Yet you are identified by far more impersonal things: your social security number, your drivers’ license or student ID, and that ever so valuable customer rewards card number – the one that gets you 25 cents off of garbanzo beans. But you are more than just a number, aren’t you?
In the Gospel text for today, Jesus hears grumbling from the Pharisees and scribes. They are upset because Jesus was eating with sinners. Why would a holy man do such a thing? Why would someone who has such a good grasp of the Law defile himself by interacting socially with the outcasts? After all, birds of a feather flock together, right? Doesn’t one bad apple spoil the bunch?
To answer their questions Jesus tells two parables with one theme – restoration of the lost one. First, he tells them about the seemingly reckless shepherd. This shepherd had 100 sheep, but then realizes that one of the sheep is missing. So he leaves his 99 other sheep behind in the wilderness, not the safety of a pen, to go out and find that one lost sheep. Instead of waiting for that sheep to find its own way back, the shepherd actively searches for the sheep – leaving the others to fend for themselves. 99 was not enough, it wasn’t complete. The sheep was restored by the actions of the shepherd, he went out searching for the one.
His next parable is about an old widow. And just so that nobody gets the mistaken idea that these parables are about the lost finding their own way home, the lost item in this parable is a coin. She had 10, but now one of them is nowhere to be found, and unlike the sheep, the coin could not have wandered away. But still image is there, the woman tears her house apart searching for the missing coin. And finally, the coin is restored because the widow went searching for the one.
In each of these parables, the caretaker comes looking for the lost. The shepherd does not leave the sheep to fend for itself or expect it to find its own way back. Nor does the woman give up on the coin saying, “It will turn up.” In both of these parables there is an active searching for the lost.
With all of this talk about searching Jesus introduces the Pharisees and scribes to one of the most amazing aspects of our God: the pursuing God. Each one of God’s children matters and he will go out in pursuit of those who are lost. God doesn’t play numbers games when it comes to his children. And when any of these precious ones turn up missing, we are actively sought out – not asked to find our own way back. Just as the shepherd sought the one sheep and the woman sought the one coin, ------ so our God seeks the one.
In a world where we are increasingly identified by some number or card, our God offers something different. He knows you intimately; treats you as an individual, with a value all your own. God knows when you sit and when you rise. He discerns your thoughts from afar. He has searched out our path and knows all of your ways. Before a word is even on your tongue, God knows it completely. And this same God will come searching for you. When that person in your small group or triad reaches out to you – that’s the pursuing God at work. When you have that ‘chance’ encounter with someone who offers just the words that you needed to hear – God is pursuing you. When you have had an awful day and you are driving home, tired and discouraged, and that perfect song comes on the radio – God is searching for you. He does not stand far off, waiting for you to get your act together, to sort your life out and find our own way back. God is searching for the one, searching for you, longing to restore that complete relationship to you.
Let us pray: God we thank you that you treat us like more than a number, that you come recklessly searching for the one, searching for us. Give us the patience and strength to listen for you when you come searching. In Jesus name, Amen.
1 comment:
Nice work Dave, very nice work.
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