Scripture/Sermon of the Day

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3 So he told them this parable: 4 “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 is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

I. If someone asked you what your idea of God is, what would you say? A lot of people think of Michelangelo’s painting on the Sistine Chapel, the Creation of Adam, where God is an elderly but strong white man with a grey beard and long gray hair, flying. Surrounded by angels with his left arm around what looks like a woman, maybe Eve, ready to be given to Adam.

II. In the Old Testament God is a powerful almighty king-like figure who creates life or destroys it by his whim. God created everything and then decided to kill it all, except Noah and his family and all the animals that fit on their boat. And the Old Testament God is often angry — when the people of Israel decided to fire God and make their own god, God killed a lot of them.

III. The prophet Jeremiah accused God of raping him — In Deuteronomy 22:15 chasack is the word for sexual violence, and elsewhere for rape. That’s the word Jeremiah used in 20:7 when Jeremiah complained that he didn’t want to be a prophet but God seduced (patah) and raped (chasack) him and he couldn’t resist.

The same God commanded another prophet, Hosea, to marry a prostitute, Gomer, who would continue her trade while married and only quit when she was too old and could no longer make money.

IV. In our country, many religious people say, “We want God back. Bring God back to the schools, to the government, to the courthouses.” In the violent insurrection of January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol, there were many pictures of Jesus, and crosses. Many saw the event as an act of God. People chanted, “Bring God back!”

When I hear people chanting about bringing God back — as they fight and spray bear repellent at people and break windows and doors to violently enter a building I wonder — what God are people wanting back? A Viking god of war?

IV. Jesus saw this problem — people’s ignorance of God — as the most serious crisis he addressed. The heart of the problem was the religious leaders who had misinformed generations of people, making them as spiritually blind as they were. So Jesus told stories about the God he came to reveal, 38 of them in the four gospels.

V. The story of the lost sheep, our reading last week and this week is a simple, sweet story that causes people distress when they think about it.

Jesus told it because religious and legal experts complained that he associated with “tax collectors and sinners.” The religious leaders said these people are “unclean” and any “good” person must avoid them. An unclean person can only become “clean” by paying the religious authorities enough money through sacrifices and other religious “services."

VI. Shepherds don’t like this story because they know you can’t leave 99 sheep unattended to go after one who is lost.

It’s disturbing if you’re not a shepherd because it offers no consequence for sinners — for the lost sheep. The sheep isn’t returning of it’s own will. It’s the shepherd — God — who goes after it. When found — the shepherd isn’t angry but “thrilled” and puts it on his shoulders and carries it back to safety and life. You could say, to heaven.

VII. Can you imagine how angry the pharisees and legal experts were when Jesus told them the salvation for the sinner did not need to be brokered by them? The Pharisees imposed huge tariffs on salvation and Jesus told people to keep their money — the Temple-Salvation-System wasn’t necessary. Ask God directly — or don’t — God will still find you and then have a party when you’re found!

VIII. Even today — many people hear Jesus’ stories of God and say — “That doesn’t feel right. A person who does wrong has to say they’re sorry and suffer some kind of consequence. They have to repent. They have to change. There needs to be some kind of punishment.”

I agree. But in Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep — JESUS SAYS GOD IS NOT LIKE US — and whatever our idea is of love and mercy — IT IS SMALL compared to the love of God.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Next week we will look at one of the most disturbing — and demanding — stories in the Bible, the one we call “The Prodigal Son.”