Jesus The Jester #5 | “Strays”

0:01 Friends, you may have noticed a few stray sheep in the sanctuary today. We are hoping that you will find a warm spot in your heart and adopt these sheep. Slip them in your pocket and take them home. We are also praying that there will be no sheep hoarding. so that everyone can have one.

0:35 And if you haven't found a lost sheep by the end of today's service, please see Austin Appelbach either at the back door or upstairs at coffee hour. I understand that he has additional sheep supplies in his pockets. For those of you who are worshiping online, be assured if you have filled out one of those connect cards and we know you that the Reverend Natalie Owens Pike has already mailed one of these little woolly creatures your way. Let us pray. God of truth, your word is a lamp for our feet and a light on our path. Open our hearts this morning to receive your wisdom.

1:35 Grant us strength to follow the road that you would have us travel. This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. Thank you. This fall, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church is studying the parables of Jesus. We've been working with a basic premise. In the parables, Jesus acts the part of a jester. He questions the broken wisdom of the world. He invites folk to look beyond corrosive patterns to picture a different way. And Jesus does this by telling stories.

2:31 Make you think stories. Change your life. Stories. With an arched eyebrow, Jesus invites us to behave as though we were already citizens of the realm of God. Now at times an invitation like that can feel sort of challenging. And at other times an invitation like that can feel like a shower of grace. And sometimes it manages to be both. Listen now for God's word to you as it echoes to us from Luke chapter 15, beginning with the first verse. Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and scribes were grumbling and saying, this fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.

3:41 So Jesus 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's lost until he finds it? And when he's 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've found my lost sheep. Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

4:39 This is the word of God for you, the people of God. Thanks be to God. This past Tuesday, when I exited the M1 bus right in front of the church, a voice called out to me, Pastor, it's been a long time. I looked up and saw a slender man sitting right out in the front steps there. He was holding a cardboard sign. He was asking for money. I studied his face. He looked vaguely familiar. And as I gazed his way, looking a bit perplexed, the man remarked, you don't remember me, do you? And then, thankfully, something about his voice made sense in my brain, and I blurted out, C? Is that you, C? C used to be a regular out on our steps, but I've not seen him in about eight years.

5:46 And yet there he was. When I called his name, C began to laugh. Yes, he chuckled, it's me. See, I observed, you've lost weight. Yes, he responded with a shake of his head. I'm getting old and I've been sick, but I'm doing better now. It's good to see you, I said. Good to be seen, C replied. And as I walked away, both of us were laughing. Today's parable is the first of three consecutive stories told by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Each of these stories focuses on something that's been lost. In the first, Jesus describes a shepherd searching for a lost sheep.

6:46 In the second, Jesus pictures a woman sweeping her home, looking for a lost coin. And in the third, a father scans the horizon, yearning for the return of his prodigal son. In each of these parables, something lost is found. On Wednesday of this past week, I exited the church just as we were preparing to serve our midday meal program, a place at the table. Ruben Nuneau, director of ecumenical outreach, was outside on the street giving final instructions to a group of volunteers from Louis Vuitton. A line of people waited out there. It stretched all the way along 55th Street on the sidewalk and then turned at the corner of the church and stretched back north in front of the church. Men and women, young and old. Ruben explained to me that we were trying something new on Wednesday. Volunteers were taking drink orders, lemonade and coffee, and were writing people's names on the cups. It's going to be, Rubin exclaimed, just like Starbucks. And the first person in line, a woman, echoed his comment, just like Starbucks. And she laughed appreciatively.

8:29 Before Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son, the Gospel of Luke sets the scene for us. Luke provides a context for these three stories. He tells us that tax collectors and sinners were drawn to the teachings of this new rabbi. This bothers a few of these onlookers, a loose collection of religious folk. They shake their heads. This guy is popular, maybe too popular. They point fingers. He's breaking bread with the wrong sort. This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them. As their words hang in the air, Jesus turns to these disgruntled souls and tells them a parable.

9:35 Actually, he reels off three parables for his critics. He describes a lost animal, a lost item, and a lost person. In each of these stories, the lost are found. And when they're found, a celebration breaks out. A spontaneous party springs up. These parties, Jesus says, stretch all the way down the sidewalk to heaven. You can see an artist's rendition of one of these joyous shindigs on the cover of today's bulletin. Curiously, even though Jesus uses these parables to answer his critics, he chooses to respond with three stories shaped by uncommon tenderness and joy. When the shepherd finds his lost sheep, he picks her up, lays her across his shoulders.

10:44 He walks back toward more familiar fields, whistling a happy tune. And then when he arrives home, the shepherd calls his friends and neighbors and says, Come on, celebrate with me. I found Daisy. According to Jesus, the people's revels ripple all the way to the shores of heaven. that's a lot of joy in this parable heaven's joy stands in contrast to a boatload of human grumpiness and this is a common theme in the good book Again and again, we are told that Jesus strikes certain people as being naive, misguided. When Christ acts with compassion, some see only foolishness.

11:50 What's the rub? Why are folks so grumpy? Well, a few reasons come to mind. Some conclude, then and now, that the lost more or less deserve to be lost. In this life, you make your choices, you pay the consequences. Doesn't the good book say the wages of sin are death? wander away from the flock and the wolves will get you that's just how the world works others standing on the edge of this parable taking pot shots at jesus from the sidelines look to be well sort of lunchroom jealous why are you at that table jesus why aren't you feasting with those of us who obey the rules? Why aren't you tending to the 99 sheep still in the fold?

13:01 Why aren't you polishing the coins that are still in your purse? Why aren't you throwing a party for the dutiful son who remained home faithfully completing his chores? In theory, the idea that God has a heart for the lost. Seems like a nice thing. Good for you, God. Go seek and save the lost. But secretly, heaven's logic annoys us. It offends us. In these parables, God seeks out the lost. And then on finding them, God scoops wayward souls up, throws them over a broad shoulder, and deposits them not at some sort of detention facility, but at a party.

13:59 What did the stray sheep in today's text do to deserve a party? Some point to the final line in the parable, the one where Jesus says, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. This, some argue, is Christ's core message. Repent, and then heaven will throw you a party. But others protest, wait a minute, how exactly in this parable does the lost sheep wandering in the wilderness demonstrate repentance? It's a good question. And questions like this remind us that sometimes we try to make the parables do too much. In other words, rather than debate the ways of wayward sheep with you this morning, we might want to return to our foundational premise. In the parables, Jesus is not trying to teach shepherding 101 or bread baking 101 or Parenting 101. He's trying to give us a glimpse of God's realm. He's trying to tell us something about the character of God.

15:35 Are you looking for God? Well, guess what, says Jesus? God can be found feasting with the lost. Seen in this light, the parable compels us to ask a follow-up question. Where are the lost? Who counts as lost? As today's passage begins, local religious leaders complain that Jesus is sitting at the lunchroom table with two despised classes of people. Tax collectors and sinners. Tax collectors were especially reviled in Jesus' time. They were considered traitors. They worked for the Roman government.

16:30 They raised money at the tip of a spear to support a foreign army that occupied Israel and repressed its people. The second category of folk with whom Jesus breaks bread is much broader in scope. He eats with sinners. Now in the first century, who did people consider to be sinners? Well, that's a difficult question. It's actually a huge question. Depending on who you were hanging out with, all sorts of different people might fall into the category of sinner. People who disobeyed the law of Moses, they were sinners. drunkards and gluttons, liars and cheaters, fornicators and sorcerers.

17:28 They got the label sinners. Some in the first century implied that those living on the bottom rungs of society must be sinners. Otherwise, why are they there? In this vein, some argued that shepherds were by and large sinners. Although ironically, of course, Jesus has a connection with these scruffy ruffians since the day he was born. Others claim that human suffering, human suffering, was a sign that a person was probably a sinner. And in the New Testament, there are those who imply that sick people are sinners. Now, to be clear, this is not true for Jesus.

18:25 In fact, on multiple occasions, Jesus pushes back against false claims that the human suffering is an indication that God is punishing somebody for sin. He rejects the notion that if you're down and out, it must be because you've done something wrong. Instead, Jesus talks about sin as if it is a virus that infects every human soul. In the book of Romans, the apostle Paul echoes this perspective, writing, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All.

19:17 Calvinists call this all total depravity. I once heard a seminary professor argue that total depravity is the best place to start a theological conversation because everyone can agree that it is obviously true. Ouch. But yes. And here today's text flips our perspective. The deep irony in this parable is that the people criticizing Jesus for picnicking with sinners are in fact shown to be the people who are outside the shepherd's fold. The deep irony here is that Jesus tells these three stories to individuals with hard hearts, to people who are also clearly, painfully, tragically lost.

20:21 So is this a parable about sin? Well, that depends on your definition. If sin is being estranged from God, then it is about sin. And it's also a parable about heaven's response to estrangement. This parable invites everyone, especially Christ's critics, to marvel at the ways of God, to attend to the one who seeks, who finds, and who celebrates those who have been lost. As a pastor, I hear the word lost a lot.

21:17 People undergoing a medical ordeal, those awaiting the next scan, those trying to judge various opinions, their own anxiety, and the worries of family and friends. often use the word lost. Someone recently said to me, I don't know where this is going. I feel lost in a thicket of hospitals and blood draws and follow-ups. People who are struggling in a relationship where all was once roses and confetti. People who report that where they once experienced a close partnership and now find wrenching isolation. These folk talk about feeling lost.

22:16 People whose hearts yearn for a healthy relationship use words like loneliness and lost. People going through a protracted job search and during the challenge of presenting their best self over and over to strangers only to face the humility of rejection. people who ask me why why wasn't I chosen these people can feel like society has cast them off doesn't care when they don't show up they can feel lost I've had people sit in my office people who look like they've got it made money career success names literally in lights who have wiped back tears and confess that they're not sure why they're doing what they're doing. They feel lost.

23:20 I think we know what it feels like to be lost. All of us. And I wonder if in telling this parable, Jesus is inviting those who sit at a distance in the lunchroom, those who question his choice of companions, to pick up their trays and switch tables. Own your lostness. Come on, join the party.

23:58 Isn't that what we all want? The late Fred Craddock once told a story about how as a child he would play hide-and-seek with his sister. One day, explains Craddock, I found this place under the porch and I knew she would never find me there. Ready or not, here I come. Here she came out of the house, into the house, into the weeds, behind the trees, down by the corn crib, around the barn. She couldn't find me. I almost gave myself away, snickering. She'll never find me here. She'll never find me here. And then it occurred to me, she'll never find me here. So after a while I stuck out a toe. And the next time she came by, she saw my toe.

24:57 She cried out with giddy joy, I see you. Now you're it, you're it. I came out brushing myself off and saying, oh shoot, you found me. What do you want from this life? What do you really want?

25:24 In the last eight days, I've been hugged by two people who recently received job offers. My arm's been grabbed by a person who was told, you don't need to come back for another six months for a scan. I've laughed with a man who was sitting on our front steps, whose name I thankfully remembered. I watched a woman chortle with glee at the promise that she would receive a cup with her name on it, just like Starbucks. What do we want? Really, really want? Is it too far-fetched to say we want to be found? We want to be embraced by the good. We want to be something other than a nameless sheep wandering through this hard-knock world.

26:22 I also wonder, I wonder if we were to recall our own moments of feeling lost, if we might become less jealous of the God who seeks. I wonder if we were more in touch with our own wish to be found, our own desire to be invited to sit at the cool kids table or the uncool kids table, I wonder if we might have a bit more compassion for those the world wants to dismiss.

27:05 And then, remembering our own times of feeling lost, perhaps we can sense why heaven celebrates. Why do people laugh when they tell you good news? Could it be because deep down we know the joy of being found?