The
holy gospel according to Luke (15:1-10)
Now
all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus.
2And
the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying,
“This
fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3So
Jesus told them this parable:
4“Which
man of you,
having
a hundred sheep and losing one of them,
does
not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness
and
go after the one that is lost until he finds it?
5When
he has found it,
he
lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.
6And
when he comes home,
he
calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them,
‘Rejoice
with me,
for
I have found my sheep that was lost.’
7Just
so, I tell you,
there
will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than
over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
8“Or
what woman of you having ten silver coins,
if
she loses one of them,
does
not light a lamp,
sweep
the house,
and
search carefully until she finds it?
9When
she has found it,
she
calls together her friends and neighbors, saying,
‘Rejoice
with me,
for
I have found the coin that I had lost.’
10Just
so, I tell you,
there
is joy in the presence of the angels of God
over
one sinner who repents.”
The
gospel of the Lord.
-----
How
many of you have sheep? Have ever
had or interacted with sheep? What
are they like?
Shepherding
is still an important part of Slovak culture, so while I was living in
Slovakia, I would see sheep similarly to how we see cows in this neck of the
woods. Cartoon sheep were even
part of Slovak tourism!
But
here’s the kicker—and I think about this every time Good Shepherd Sunday rolls
around or Jesus decides to bring up sheep again—sheep are not smart animals! And
they’re not well-behaved either!
They don’t know not to wander off!
They just wander!
Not
to mention, have you ever tried counting 100 sheep—or even 100 cows or 100 of
anything—at one time? Let’s be
honest, how does this shepherd even know that he didn’t just miscount and there
really are all 100 sheep still with him?
It takes a lot to make sure one sheep out of a hundred is actually
missing, or to even notice anything is amiss in the first place!
Then,
once you figure it out, are you really going to leave the 99 to wander off
themselves? Because you know
that the second you head off after that one, all the other 99 will spot
butterflies or greener fields or something and head off on their own.
You
may get that one that you’d lost back, but to do that, you’ve now lost the
other 99. But say the 99
miraculously stay put, then you go throw a party celebrating the one you lost
and then found again. And what do
you serve? Mutton! So you kill that sheep, and probably
more, to feed your party guests!
This all seems pretty pointless and nonsensical to me.
But
perhaps it makes more sense with the woman and her coins.
How
many of you have ever made stacks of coins to count them more easily? How easy is it to tell if a stack has
one coin or two? How about 5 coins
or 6? 9 or 10? Once they get that high, unless they’re
two stacks right next to each, it’s hard to tell that one is missing, so kudos
once again to the woman, who actually noticed that a coin was even missing in
the first place.
As
for the coins themselves, these were not just nickels or dimes or even silver
dollars. Though our translation
calls them “silver coins,” the Greek identifies them as drachma. A drachma would’ve been about or just
below a day’s worth of wages. So,
the idea of having two weeks’ wages lying around, like the idea of having 100
sheep just hanging out with you, is a bit extravagant for us and the folks
Jesus is talking to, and probably means that losing one would not be quite as
big a deal as losing a day’s wages might be to many.
But
the woman sets out on a search for the missing coin anyway. And while I would tear my house apart, making a huge mess, in my search for
something I lost, she seems much more orderly in her endeavor. She even manages the bonus of getting
the house all swept while she looks!
Once
she finds the coin, what does she do?
She spends it—and probably more—celebrating with her friends! More nonsense! Over the top, extravagant celebration
with all the neighbors and friends!
The
last part to make sense of is that after each parable, Luke throws in the line
about sinners repenting, but it doesn’t really fit. The shepherd’s the one who lost track of the sheep and the
woman’s the one who lost the coin.
The sheep and the coin don’t do any repenting. So maybe the stories aren’t actually
about repentance. Maybe they’re
really about this nonsensical, extravagant celebration.
15
years ago, terrorists took over planes and attacked, or tried to attack, some
of the more prominent and symbolic buildings of this country. I’m going to date myself here a little:
15 years ago today, in my first year of high school, I spent almost every class
period watching and rewatching the same short amount of footage of the attacks
and their after-effects.
I
saw the same horrific images over and over and over again, so that by the time
I went home from school, I was numb and felt as traumatized as if I had
actually known someone in New York, even though I was thousands of miles away
in Colorado and had only been to New York once in my life.
In
the past 15 years we have experienced tragedy after tragedy in this country and
around the world,
sometimes, because of the attacks 15 years ago and our country’s response to
them. Each time a mass tragedy
strikes, especially if it happens in this country, we get the same
oversaturation from news shows, showing the same 30 seconds of video and going
over the same limited facts until again we are too numb and traumatized to do
anything.
We
lose our ability to respond at all, let alone responding with love. We lose our sense of joy and wonder at
the world. We lose our sense of
safety.
For
perhaps the first time in my life, this summer I had to turn off NPR. I just couldn’t handle the constant
news coverage after the attack at Pulse, the gay night club in Orlando. I was losing my hope and I needed to
plug into a deeper source of hope.
I needed to keep myself from spiraling into yet another cycle of
numbness.
So,
I prayed. A lot. And I spent time with friends and we went
to Pride in the Twin Cities and we celebrated the gift of each other and of God’s
fabulous love in our lives. We
celebrated the joy of who and how God made and continues to make each of
us. Pride’s extravagance is a
celebration on par with the woman and the shepherd’s celebrations upon finding
what they’d lost.
Celebration. Not repentance. Is at the heart of today’s
parables. That is the witness we have for the world. That
is what we practice, as church, each week. In the face of every excuse to despair, to become numb, to
sink into depression, we silence our phones and focus on God and each
other.
We
gather to sing praises to God, to receive and celebrate God’s forgiveness in
our lives, to share in holy communion, being fed by Jesus who is the Bread of
Life. We gather to share not only
our concerns and real tears and fears, but our joys as well, sharing in brief
signs of God’s peace with each other, and then being sent out for joyful
service to the world.
The
Gospel is celebration. It is joy
in the face of a million reasons to despair, to be sad and numb, and to give up
hope. It is God’s love for each of
us and for all of creation, poured out with extravagant joy. Because God is extravagant and the
celebration, the feast awaiting us all will be fabulously, over the top, nonsensically
extravagant to match God’s joy at being with us all.
Thanks
be to God.
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