Luke 15:1-10
“Let’s
get ice cream!”
I was really
excited when Brock told me that the gathering we were going to have the night
before my trial sermon was an ice cream social. I was excited because I knew it
would be a fun and laid back way to start getting to know one another, and two,
because the phrase, “Let’s get ice cream!” is often how celebrations begin in
our family. It can also be the start of Tuesday night in our family, but that’s
another sermon.
Often whenever an
accomplishment has occurred, an achievement has been achieved, someone will suggest,
“Let’s get ice cream.” So off we go. After band concerts and choir concerts,
one act play competitions, band competitions, exams passed – if some success
has been attained, we go for ice cream. That’s one way that we rejoice.
Rejoicing
is big in the parables before us today. I would say there seems to be a lot of
rejoicing going on in these two parables in Luke’s gospel. And if we were to
read the third parable about a father and two sons, we would hear the sounds of
even more rejoicing.
A sheep is lost,
Jesus said. One sheep out of 99, but the shepherd drops everything and leaves
the other sheep alone to go and find the one lost sheep. When he finds the sheep,
he is so glad and grateful to have found the one that he calls together his
friends and neighbors saying,
“Rejoice
with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.”
And if that tale
of lost, found and rejoicing wasn’t enough, how about the second parable about
a woman who lost her coin?
What woman, having
ten coins and losing one, does not light the lamp and sweep the house until she
finds the lost coin? And when she finds it, she calls together her friends and
neighbors and says,
“Rejoice with me,
for I have found the coin that I had lost.”
But the rejoicing
wasn’t just happening amongst these people, Jesus said. After each parable,
Jesus reminds those who were listening that if they think the shepherd’s
rejoicing was raucous and the woman’s rejoicing rollicking, than the rejoicing
in heaven was even rowdier. If a party could be thrown over one lost sheep,
then think about the party over one lost sinner who is found. Consider the
celebration of the angels over one lost soul that is reclaimed. The rejoicing
in heaven makes the rejoicing on earth pale in comparison.
Luke begins his
recount by saying that Jesus said this to those who were listening, but who
were the ones taking in Jesus words? Who was listening to Jesus tell these
parables? As was so often the case, tax collectors and sinners were drawing
near to listen to Jesus. Tax collectors were also sinners, but they were
considered so sinful they needed their own special category. Both groups of sinners
were inching their way ever closer to Jesus. However it was their presence that
caused the Pharisees and scribes to grumble and murmur. Jesus was committing a
social and religious faux pas by associating with these people, and worse to
them, Jesus was violating the Law by associating with them.
But in truth, Jesus
was doing what he always did. He was leaping over social barriers and
transgressing cultural boundaries without a backwards glance. He taught and
preached to and ate with and accepted hospitality from people who were not
always welcome with the “good” folks in society. But it was these sinners who
were drawing close to him. They were the ones coming near, eager, maybe even
desperate for a word of hope, a word of God and a message of good news.
But the religious
folks don’t like this, and they do not know how to handle it. They don’t know
what to make of Jesus. Surely Jesus knows who these people are. Surely he knows
that they are outsiders and outcasts. But still Jesus sits with them and eats
with them. Jesus doesn’t just associate with these sinners, he pulls them into
relationship with him. And at this, the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled. Because
if Jesus was willing to welcome these people, these cheaters, these apostates,
then he might make it look okay to be a sinner and a tax collector. Then what
would happen to the good people? What would happen to the folks who did their
duty, obeyed the Law to the last letter? They were also listening to Jesus, and
if they started rubbing shoulders with these sinners, maybe they too would head
down the wrong path. In other words, you are who you hang out with. As one
commentator put it, how many parents have spent hours warning their children
about the dangers of the company they keep. And yet here’s Jesus, keeping some
pretty bad company – at least in the eyes of the religious leaders. But were
these people really bad or were they lost, lost just as the sheep and the coin were? Lost and needing to be found?
To
Jesus they were lost. So he tells all who will listen, especially those other
99, parables to hopefully open their hearts and their minds; to God and to each
other. Jesus told them parables. But remember parables were not nice little
bedtime stories for adults. Parables come with a twist. They carry a verbal
punch, designed to shock and disturb. Parables pushed those listening to consider
who they might be in the parable, and even more importantly to think about who
God is – in the parable and in their lives.
If
they owned 100 sheep and one of them became lost, wouldn’t they go out and search
for that lost sheep? Wouldn’t they take the risk of leaving the other 99 who
were safe and together and go back out to find the lost one? Wouldn’t they,
when they found it, lay it over their shoulders and call for friends and
neighbors to rejoice that the sheep has been found?
And
wouldn’t they search like that woman for the lost coin? Wouldn’t they do what
she did – light the lamp and sweep the house until they found it? And when the
coin was finally located, wouldn’t they also call all of their friends together
and get the party started because what has been lost is now found. Wouldn’t
they rejoice?
But here’s the thing;
maybe they wouldn’t do those things. To be honest, the shepherd leaving the 99
sheep alone, exposed to threat and danger, to go out and hunt down the one lost
sheep seems kind of reckless. He could have found the lost one only to come
back and find the other 99 gone – or worse. That doesn’t seem wise or prudent.
And would they
have done what that woman did? I can understand searching for the lost money,
but inviting all of her friends in to celebrate probably cost more than the one
coin was worth to begin with. Neither parable showed people acting with what we
might consider common sense.
But maybe that’s
the point. It’s not about common sense; at least not what we think of when we
hear those words. For us it might be wiser and a more sound investment to let
the one sheep go or to forego a party over the reclaiming of one lost coin. But
that isn’t what God was about. It isn’t what God is about. Isn’t that what a
parable is supposed to do? Show us what God is about.
Biblical scholar,
teacher and preacher, David Lose, wrote that in past years he thought of these
parables as giving us a window into God’s persistence. God refuses to give up
on even one lost sheep. God persists in looking for that one lost coin. God
adamantly keeps looking for the one sinner, lost and alone, even while the
other 99 wait. But maybe, just maybe, there is another way to see the workings
of God in these parables. Maybe this is another way of seeing God’s
extravagance. God is extravagant in looking for the lost one. And God is
extravagant in rejoicing when the lost one is returned.
If my family’s go
to for rejoicing is stopping for a dish of ice cream, then in heaven the ice
cream would be flowing like rivers. And that’s because God is extravagant. God
is extravagant in pursuing even one lost sinner. God is extravagant in
rejoicing when that sinner returns. God is extravagant in this because God is
extravagant in love. God never gives up because God never stops loving. God
rejoices in finding one lost sheep because God is extravagant with grace. If
these parables give us a window in which to see God, to see God’s heart, then
what we find, what we see is extravagance.
God is profligate
in hope, grace and love. God is reckless in pursuing the lost, and God is
extravagant in welcoming the lost back home. And God is extravagant in
rejoicing. The question is: can we follow God’s extravagant example? Can we
show that same incongruous pursuit of one lost person? Can we show the same
forbearance, can we rejoice with the same abandon and abundance? Can we do what
God does and show grace, extravagant, celebratory grace to all?
Lost. Found.
Rejoice. God does it all with extravagance.
Let all of God’s
children say, “Alleluia!” Amen.
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