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.