Joy in Heaven

Sermon for September 11, 2016

Proper 19C – RCL Track 1

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28


Psalm 14
1 

Timothy 1:12-17


Luke 15:1-10

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."

So he told them this parable: "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 persons who need no repentance.

"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? When 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.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

The Gospel of Luke that we just heard can be referred to the “lost chapter”!  It contains three parables – two of which we read today – that all seem to focus on the lost.  We have the lost sheep, the lost coin – and the parable we don’t read this Sunday – the lost son, usually referred to as story of the prodigal son.  But perhaps we lose something if we focus on what is lost.  Perhaps we need to focus on the actions here.  The actions of seeking, finding and rejoicing!

The story starts out with the good, righteous people – the scribes and the Pharisees grumbling that Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners.  When clearly if Jesus himself is righteous and holy he should be keeping himself ritually clean and eating with the likes of the Pharisees.  

Another preacher I follow – David Lose said “It’s not that there’s anything inherently wrong with being righteous. Working hard, doing your best, showing up for church on time, these are all good things. But ultimately they only scratch the surface of who we are and what we need and hope for.”

And this isn’t Jesus sharing a croissant and coffee and the local coffee joint – or sharing an adult beverage at the local watering hole and chatting about theological niceties.  

The fellowship the Pharisees are grumbling about is the table fellowship that you do with your fellow righteous people.  The kind of fellowship where you gather your friends – those who look and think like you for deep and abiding fellowship.  Jesus is signaling that the tax collectors and those who are seen as sinners are friends.  They are just as important as any other person in this story

Think about it.  Who do most people invite over for a long meal at their homes.   How do we select our guest lists?  I can bet most if not all of the people we know invite their friends.  People who look, talk, and believe just like them to their dinner parties.  We don’t go down to the local shelter and invite in those who might not be sober and who  have addictions and to our dinner parties.  We don’t go to the jails and invite the inmates to our parties.  But this is precisely what Jesus is doing.  

No wonder the Pharisees are grumbling.  Although I have to say the good people of St. Matthews probably get this idea of radical invitation better than many a congregation!  This congregation hungers to reach out into this community and provide meals, social time and show the abundance of God’s love more than many places in our society.  

In response to the grumbling Jesus tells a couple of stories.  And he starts each one the same way.  “Which of you..” Which of you having lost a sheep leave the 99 and search for the one?  Which of you having lost a coin will search the house until you find it????  Well searching for a coin that represents 10% of our money would cause most of us to tear our houses apart to find it.  But when it is found would we throw a party that cost more than the found money?  

Come on Jesus – the answer is none of us would do these crazy things!  We would not leave 99 sheep unprotected in the wilderness and go off searching for one wayward sheep.  We might go searching but only after we secured the 99 in a pen or asked our neighboring shepherd to come over and keep watch over our flocks.

We might search for misplaced money and rejoice when we find it.  And then put it in the safe place with the other money so we know where it is!  We would not call in all of the neighbors and throw a party.  A party that could easily cost more that the lost coin.  

But his is how God functions.  This is God’s economy.  God will search for the one who is lost.  And when the lost is found there will be great joy in heaven.  The focus of these stories is not on the lost.  It is on the joy of being found.  It is about God’s relentless pursuit of us and the rejoicing in heaven when we are found.  The stories are not about the lost but who is searching.  The action is not focused on the lost sheep or the lost coin.  The action is on the one searching.  The action is on being found.  And the result is incredible Joy.  The result is one that most of the time we cannot even imagine.

David Lose says, “when we focus on lostness, for lack of a better word, we miss the joyful character of these stories and of God. But we also might miss that in both stories, there’s far less attention on what’s been lost than on the one who is searching. I mean, these stories aren’t about a lost sheep or coin, not really. They’re about a shepherd who risks everything to go look, and about a woman who sweeps all night long to find. These stories are about a God who will always go looking for God’s lost children.”

And the surrogates for God doing the searching in these stories are normal people.  They are not extraordinary people.  They are a shepherd – near the lowest in social circles and a poor woman.  God is calling ordinary people – people who don’t seem to have much in their society to search for the lost and bring them to God with rejoicing.  God is calling each of us – no matter how insignificant we think we are – to search for the lost and to be filled with joy when the lost is found.  God is calling each of us to act as radically as the shepherd or the women and to search among the many until we find the one  - and then to throw a party.  

The reality here is that we can all be both the searcher and the lost.  We can all have moments when in the midst of many we feel lost.  We all have moments when we have doubts and troubles and perhaps even doubt the existence of God.  And it is in those moments that the rest of us are called to be here.  To help with the sense of loss.  To help bring again and again that love of God into each of our lives.

Today is the 15th anniversary of the destruction of the twin towers in New York, the attack on the Pentagon and the amazingly brave people who thwarted the terrorist in the fourth plain that crashed into a field instead of striking whatever target the terrorists had planned.  Today, for many of us, changed the world we knew in profound ways.  Before the attacks many of us saw pictures of terror around the world on the news and thought that was something that only happened in other places.  

And on this anniversary we can focus on the loss.  The lost sense of domestic peace.  The loss of lives and the loss of a way of life for many of us.  Traveling will never be the same.  We will likely never be able to just walk up to the terminal and get on a plane with as much liquid as we want in our carry-on baggage.  

But we can also focus on the amazing stories of the hero’s of that day.

There are many stories of people who – having escaped the burning towers went in again and again to bring people out – only to die themselves.  There are stories of first responders who bravely ran towards the danger and sacrificed everything.  For every story of intentional harm there are many more of people who went after the lost.  So there is also joy this day.  Joy that ordinary people responded with no regard to their own safety.  There is joy in the opening up of churches and other spaces to shelter people after the attacks.  

Today we can remember those who died on 9/11 – and we should.  We can also look to see the shepherds who searched and brought people to safety on that day.  We can give thanks that God called us not to respond with hate and fear after the attacks but to radically go out and support all people.

Today’s gospel calls us not to focus on the lost but to focus on Gods radically searching and the countercultural rejoicing in being found.  To look and see that each and every one of us is called – no matter who we are – to seek, to find, and to rejoice!