Scripture/Sermon of
the Day. September 11, 2022
Luke 15:1-10
The Story of the Lost Sheep
1-3 By this time a lot of men and women of questionable reputation were hanging
around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not
pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals
with them, treating them like old friends.” Their grumbling triggered this
story.
4-7 “Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn’t you leave the
ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When
found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and
when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with
me! I’ve found my lost sheep!’ Count on it—there’s more joy in heaven over one
sinner’s rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.
The Story of the Lost Coin
8-10 “Or imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp
and scour the house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it? And
when she finds it you can be sure she’ll call her friends and neighbors:
‘Celebrate with me! I found my lost coin!’ Count on it—that’s the kind of party
God’s angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God.”
Reflection/Sermon:
I. I was looking at one of the hundreds of thousands of Christian websites
on my computer. It was a site called: THE CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW It’s motto was:
“THINK BIBLICALLY, LIVE ACCORDINGLY.”
II. I like that! I wish it was possible! No one in the Bible thought more
Biblically than the apostle Paul. He was at the head of his class in Rabbi
school, so he thought Biblically since he was a boy. But he confessed that no
matter how biblical his thinking, he couldn't “live accordingly.” “I want to do
good but I do evil!” He said. But Jesus found him!
Jesus comes to us especially when we fail — when we are lost. We don’t need to
ask — he just shows up. Like he did to the blind beggar Bartimaeus who sat by
the road most of his life, begging. One day Jesus showed up. The psychiatrist
Carl Jung said, “Called or not called, God is present.”
III. You know what the shepherd didn’t do to the lost sheep? Punish it.
According to Jesus, when we are lost, God doesn’t punish us — but rescues us.
That Christian Worldview website said:
“You need to be saved from: God’s judgment and wrath... you need to be saved
from God “throwing” you into the “lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:15) Because God
is loving but also full of wrath against those who break His laws and reject His
offer of reconciliation.”
IV. That’s not true. Jesus healed friends and enemies. He told us to bless
people who hurt us.
V. One of my main challenges as a pastor who preaches the Christian faith —
is I have to keep telling people to put their attention back on Jesus. Many
Christians want the angry, killing God of the Old Testament rather than Jesus.
But Jesus is our God, not Conan the Destroyer! When people broke God’s law,
like the woman caught in adultery, Jesus saved her life!
VI. When people broke God’s law, Jesus ate with them, enjoyed and loved
them. He blessed them. Our God is an awesome God of wisdom, power and love who
saves us when we are lost! Opens our eyes when we are blind! Transforms the
hate in our hearts to compassion. That’s the Christian Worldview in the
Gospels.
Father Thomas Keating, who died in 2018 when he was 95, was someone who knew God
more than most people over the course of his life. I saw more than a hundred
talks he gave on the spiritual life, and he never talked about God’s punishment
— only God’s love. He said: “You can never say too much about the love of
God.” Yes, our God is an awesome God who rescues us when we are lost and
carries us back to heaven.