Sunday Sermon

Sermon #1007
Luke 15:1-10
Dr. Ed Pettus

"Lost and Found"

Imagine Jesus in a setting where anyone could come to hear what he had to say, anyone could gather with anyone else…no questions about who you are or what you believe. One of the commentators lifted up a New York Times travel article about pubs in Oxford… “a good pub is a ready made party, a home away from home, a club anyone can join” (Feasting on the Word, Yr. C, vol. 4, p. 68). This is the kind of setting we find in Luke 15, a place where anyone could come and listen to Jesus. And just as someone might get upset to imagine Jesus in a pub, so too the Pharisees and scribes were upset to see Jesus welcoming sinners into his dinner party.
Luke 15 is made up of two parts, the setting and the parables Jesus tells. The setting is not noted for its place but for those who are gathered:
Luke 15:1-2 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."
There are the tax collectors; we still don't feel too good about that group, especially around April 15th. You have the sinners, those who don’t believe what they should!
The Pharisees – these are the religious leaders of the day who are out to find fault with Jesus because, to them, he has become a threat to the faith.
The scribes – this is the group known as teachers of the law. They taught the scriptures, sort of like a modern day Sunday school teacher!
One collective group, the tax collectors and sinners, cause the other group, the Pharisees and the scribes, to grumble and comment among themselves that Jesus is welcoming sinners and eating with them. This was a violation of the laws of the Jewish tradition. This was no way to act for someone who preached the word of God. So, the setting – of people, of those welcomed and those not – becomes the catalyst for the parables that follow.

We are going to look at two of those parables this morning.
Luke 15:4-7 ‘Which one 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? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And 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.” Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

The ninety-nine sheep left behind are not left in a secured, risk free area. They are left behind in the open country, susceptible to danger. We find this shepherd going off to find one when the ninety-nine are still safe and sound under his care. It does not make much sense to us today to risk ninety-nine for the sake of one. We live in a society today that does not consider one individual to be of much importance compared to the vast numbers around us. We are more invested in statistics than individuals. If only 1% is lost, that’s insignificant to the notion that 99% are safe. In the modern mind, we do not even think twice about 1%, whether it is 1% of sheep, money, or people. But what of the 1% if that 1% is you? When we become the statistic, we think a great deal differently about percentages. God thinks in terms of ones, of names, of particulars. One sheep, one person, one soul, one significant – one.

Luke 15:8-10 ‘Or what woman 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.’

Everything stops when I lose my keys or my wallet. I cannot go far without my keys, cannot get anything much without my wallet, so the world stops for me until I turn the house and car upside down to find what I have lost. I begin to wonder how I will replace those keys, how I might need to call to cancel credit cards and worst of all, I'll have to visit the DMV for a new driver's license!
What great joy when I find that item, for some strange reason, I left my keys on top of the toolbox. I find my wallet that has been in a coat pocket since church Sunday. What a relief, what a celebration even if it is just a celebration in my heart and mind.
One message of these parables is that God celebrates and rejoices when one that was lost is found. The greatest celebration in heaven is not over what the righteous are doing, but over the one sinner who repents. The rejoicing of heaven is when one who was dead is alive.


Most of us sitting here today do not feel like we are lost, at least not in the sense of salvation. We may feel like we need a kick start or we might wonder if we are on the narrow path, but for the most part we feel found by God. So we might say there is not a lot of rejoicing in heaven over us, not a cheering section of angels celebrating our every move. But there are times when we feel lost or we have lost something…something of our faith, something of trust, something of hope, something of friendship, something lost. We search for what is lost, but more important, the message of these parables is that someone is searching for us. God is searching for us. If we lose faith or trust or hope, God is sweeping away the dust of doubt or worry, to find us and to help us get back.

According to the parables, that rejoicing requires something found or repentant sinners. If you have never had an opportunity to lead a sinner to repent, or been with someone who just gave him or herself to Christ, it is one of the most moving experiences you will ever have, certainly a great reason for rejoicing.
Perhaps you have had such an experience yourself, perhaps you remember a time in your life when Christ became a reality to you and your life was filled with joy. I hope you have or will, because it is the most joyous experience there is to be filled with the joy of the Lord and I think that that joy is often missing from our lives. Joy is sometimes lost.
We get so caught up in the busy world that the missing “sheep” of our lives are hardly noticed or the coin doesn't bother us because we have a lot more coins, more than we can count...but we count the things of faith like pennies, of little worth. What is 1 percent or 10 percent even? We have such abundance anyway? What is one person? Well, if that person is your son or your daughter, it means everything! If that person is your best friend, if that person is your sister or brother…well, finding those who are lost is cause for great rejoicing.

This is a most unusual conclusion to these parables. A shepherd who is determined to return with one sheep out of a hundred, a woman who spends all night sweeping and cleaning and searching for one coin, it is not even worth the time and effort to go after either…or so we reason. We do not take the time to notice the lost sheep in our lives; we don't bother with the lost coin.

That’s probably how the Pharisees and scribes thought as well. What’s one Gentile worth? One sheep? One coin? One of anything?
Why do these parables matter? Why did Jesus tell them?

These parables are told to help us imagine a world where lost sheep and lost coins and lost people (or lost hope, lost faith, lost love) are valued above all else. Because the parables point us to the stunning reality that one sheep and one coin are like one sinner who is lost or wandering without a shepherd. They are the ones hoping to be found in the corner of a dirty, dusty life. They are the sons and daughters who have absolutely made a mess of things, but they are the very ones whom the Lord seeks, the very ones for which we celebrate when they are found.

Imagine for a moment that you are one – the one that matters because you are lost! Not necessarily lost in the sense of salvation, but lost in your theology, identity, hope, or priorities. Lost in a particular ideology, lost in my way or the highway kind of thinking, lost in self with a sense of entitlement, me first perspective.
Lost in things or balance or lost in the ways of the world. How might we be wandering away from the shepherd? What part of our life is hiding in the dark corner like a coin?
These are parables about life and being lost and being found and rejoicing, parables that evoke a new way of life for all of us – a way of imagining a world that takes the time for the particulars of life. One sheep, one coin, one life, one moment, one encounter, one day, one particular in a world of many, of much, of more, of percentages. Just a particular shepherd, a particular woman, because we have this particular God who is immersed in the particulars of our life, a God who notices the details, the one thing on our minds, the one crisis of our day, the one haunting sin of which we seek to rid ourselves, the one painful word we wish we could take back. The particular God for a particular people who calls us to notice the particulars around us and to act with great compassion to find the lost and to rejoice at their being found. This is the God who seeks to find us when we stray, even to find any part of our life that has been lost. And in this God we rejoice today, for we have all been lost at one time or another, and there are times when we will be lost again. The good news is this: God will search for us and find us every time! Amen.