Proper 19 C
Transcribed from a
sermon given
On September 12, 2010
By Rev. Valerie Ann
Hart
At St Barnabas
Episcopal Church
Luke 15: 1-10
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Let’s try and get a clear picture
of exactly what is going on in this Gospel reading. Jesus has become quite an
item, and people are coming to him to listen to what he has to say. In the
Gospel it says that there were two groups of people. One group was the scribes
and the Pharisees and they represent the “good” people. They are the kind of
people you want your child to grow up and be, the doctors and lawyers, the ones
who have respect, the ones who are educated, the ones who are appropriate in
all that they do.
Then there were all of these tax
collectors and sinners. Tax collectors are a particular kind of sinner at that
time. Remember at that time Israel was an occupied territory and the tax
collectors were collecting the Roman tax. Unlike our taxes where there is a
clear definition of how much you are supposed to pay, back then the tax
collectors got whatever they could and they kept a part of it. So a tax
collector was out for his own wealth and helping the occupiers. Not somebody
anybody really likes. Think about how we
feel about the IRS right now and then magnify that by about 100 times. Imagine IRS
agents that came to your house and negotiated with you how much you were going
to give and then took a cut of it themselves. So tax collectors were considered
traitors as well as sinners.
Then there are the sinners. That’s
a pretty broad kind of term, but back then it basically meant people who were
unclean. People who were outside. People who were marginalized. So among the
sinners you would have the people who were too poor to follow all the rules.
You would have the people who did jobs that were unclean. You would have the people
who for one reason or another had done something in their lives that put them
over the edge, away from the “good” people.
So you have these two groups or
people who are standing there to hear what Jesus has to stay. Then he tells the
story of the lost sheep. He starts by saying, “If you had a hundred sheep.” This
means you would be a very rich person, if you had a hundred sheep, so he is
speaking to the rich and the wealthy, the scribes and Pharisees type, so their ears
pick up. Ah, he’s speaking to me. Jesus continues that if you had a hundred
sheep and one became lost you would leave the 99 and go off and seek the one
that was lost and bring it home on your shoulder rejoicing. And that kind of
joy and rejoicing is what the angels do any time one person who is lost returns
to God.
Now how do you think these two
groups would respond to that story? Like I said the rich ones are going to say
100 sheep, oh this is about me, but wait a minute he’s saying that heaven
rejoices when a sinner returns, more than when someone has been good all their
lives. And of course the scribes and the Pharisees see themselves as people who
have been good all their lives. So God doesn’t rejoice in me? God rejoices in
them? Not too crazy about this story.
But for those tax collectors and
sinners imagine how it felt to them. To that group that was not allowed to come
close, to that group that was seen as unclean, to that group that wasn’t even
suppose to approach the temple and get too close to it. How did it sound to that
group who had overheard the scribes and Pharisees making comments to each other
about who they were? That group that was never accepted. Imagine you are
sitting there and you are one of them. Imagine as you are sitting here today
and that you are someone who is not in right relationship with God. Imagine
that you are siting here right now and there are other people who are looking
at you and are saying that you dress funny, you don’t belong here, there is
something wrong with you. And then you heard those words, “There is more joy in
heaven over the return of one sinner than over ninety-nine righteous people.”
Imagine standing there and
listening to Jesus say this. He is talking right to you and he is saying God is
that shepherd. God is out there searching for you. Wanting to take you home. And
if you will let God take you home there will be rejoicing in heaven. Imagine what
that would feel like. Imagine. Imagine if you today were someone who walked
into this church with fear and trepidation because you didn’t know if you would
be accepted or not. Imagine that you were feeling lost, that you didn’t know
what to do in life. That you didn’t have a relationship with God or your
relationship with God was tenuous at the best. You may not even know for sure
whether God exists, but you know that there has to be something more in life. And
something drew you here today and you hear the words, “God loves you.” And you
hear the words that Paul wrote, “Christ came into the world to save sinners.”
Christ came for sinners. For you. Christ came for you who are feeling lost in
your life right now. That’s why he came. That’s why he came to earth. That’s
why he taught. That’s why he let himself be crucified. And that’s why he was
resurrected. For you. For you who are lost.
Paul writes about how he was lost.
He describes having been the worst of sinners. That he was violent, that he
persecuted Christians, that he was hypocritical. You name it, he was it. He
feels that he is the worst of sinners, and yet Christ came to him and gave him
mercy and forgiveness. Paul knew the wonder of the grace of God. The incredible
gift of knowing that he was welcomed home. Of knowing that he had been lost and
that Christ had come to him, to grab him and to pick him up and to bring him
home. And Paul is eternally grateful for that. So grateful for that that all he
can do for the rest of his life is tell others about the amazing wonder of Gods’
grace and God’s mercy.
Perhaps there are some of you here
today who had a time in your life when you felt lost, separated from God, caught
up in addiction, confused, wondering what was right, not knowing what to
believe. living a life that you knew you didn’t want to live any more. Then
Christ came to you, and grabbed you and brought you home. How can you be but
grateful and give thanks to the wonder of God’s grace?
Perhaps there are some who are
gathered here today who have always had a good and wonderful relationship with
God, who have never felt alienated, never felt lost, always felt that you were
able to follow the rules, always felt that you were able to live a good life, always
had a life of integrity and peace and right relationship with God and all the
people in your world. That’s an amazing gift of grace to have a life like that.
Congratulations. And yet, if you’ve never felt lost you’ve never had the
incredible opportunity of the celebration when you came home. If you’ve never
been lost you don’t know the incredible mercy and grace of God that welcomes
you home. You haven’t heard the angels sing and you don’t really know just how
much you are loved.
Children really don’t know how
much they are loved by their parents until they test them. If a child is always
well behaved and they always get smiles from their parent, they never know for
sure that their parent loves them for who they are or for what they do. And so
almost all of us at some point in our lives test our parents. Will you still
love me if I… (talk back). Will you still love me if I… (don’t get A’s in
school). Will you still love me if I do X, Y or Z. And the gift that the child
receives from doing this is to learn that the parent’s love is still there. And
the parent’s mercy is still there and they realize that even if they try to
break their relationship with their parent the parent still loves them.
God loves us. God loves us so much
that he sent Christ into the world to save sinners. Many of you here have known
what that feels like. Those of us who know what it is like to be lost and to be
found again, Paul invites to live a life like his, dedicated to bringing the
lost home, to finding the lost sheep and telling them of the mercy of God. It
is a wonderful gift that we have all received and one that we cannot help but want
to share with others.
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