Proper 19 C, September 11, 2022

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY

Br. Robert James Magliula, OHC

Pentecost, Proper 19 C - September 11, 2022

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10

Click here for an audio version of this sermon

This was not just an observation; it was an accusation. At the beginning of the 15 th chapter of Luke, Jesus is criticized for the third time by the Pharisees for spending his days with sinners---lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes---not only talking with them, but eating with them---and even worse, returning their hospitality. Pharisees were taught to avoid sinners and unbelievers, to not touch anyone or anything unclean. For them, Jesus is guilty of violating the law and social norms of the day. Ironically, at the deepest level, their words are a statement of the Good News. Jesus not only welcomes sinners, but he also eats with them. Eating with them means there is relationship and acceptance. Jesus aligned himself with them and is on their side. Throughout the gospel stories Jesus chooses to hang out with the wrong kind of people, crossing lines, and making God just a little too easily available.

Throughout the history of the church, we like the Pharisees, have struggled to establish standards. We have put a lot of effort, time, money, and blood, into defending what we believe about God. Our standards often focus on who is in and who is out. Judgement happens whenever sin is defined as only a legal category of failed behavior. For Jesus the defining characteristic of sin is not misbehavior but being lost. The first concern for Jesus is not who’s in and who’s out, or who gets a dinner invitation. For Jesus, everyone is already in. Everyone is invited.

Given our usual standards, we hear today’s Gospel as being about the lost sheep and the lost coin. But I want to suggest that maybe that’s not its focus. Maybe this gospel is more about the searching shepherd and woman than it is about the lost sheep and coin. Lost sheep and coins happen all the time. But a shepherd who risks everything for one sheep is something different. When the focus is on the searching shepherd and woman then what we believe about God gives way to another question; perhaps a more crucial question: What does God believe about us?

These parables are not about being wrong. They are about being lost. There is nothing about culpability, blame, or finding fault. That doesn’t seem to be Jesus’ concern. His concern is for the one who is lost. He doesn’t explain how the lost one becomes lost. He doesn’t judge. The focus for him is recovering and reclaiming the lost. The starting point for him is grace: searching not blaming, finding not punishing, rejoicing not condemning.

All of us have been lost, at some time and to some degree, through our own fault or sometimes just the circumstances of life. We can all name the pieces of our life that have been lost over the years. To be lost is to live without a sense of grounding, having no anchor or ties to something beyond our selves. We can be good, hard working, and successful and still feel lost. We can be holding it all together, doing all the right things, giving all the right appearances, and still be lost. We can have a good reputation and be lost in questions of our own identity and purpose. We can be so busy and productive that we are lost to the wonder, beauty, and mystery of life. We can be financially secure and still be lost in fear. We can say and do all the right things and be lost in a secret life that is self-destructive. We get lost in our fears, grief, worries, anxieties, anger, prejudice, perfectionism, and need for approval. In our lostness we live fragmented lives.

For God every one of us is unique and irreplaceable. Everyone is loved and desired, including the stranger and the enemy on the other side of the world. No matter who we are or how lost we become, the God revealed in Jesus is constantly searching for us, finding us, and rejoicing over our presence at the table. Everyone matters. Everyone belongs. It is God’s longing for wholeness and union that causes God to search. The creator longing for the created. The divine longing for the human. The lover longing for the beloved. A shepherd searching for a sheep and a woman searching for a coin. That longing lies at the heart of these parables. The shepherd does not wait on us but initiates the search. God is always seeking, without blame or judgment of how or why we became lost, without conditions for coming home.

Our God cannot do otherwise. That is the reality and the foolishness of divine love. +Amen