This week's lectionary readings really helped me to grow spiritually. They pushed me to see past my own short-sightedness and to make some connections I had not made before. The first story that leads up to the Scripture reading for this Sunday is the parable of the lost sheep. You probably remember that Jesus told this story about the sheep who was lost (hence, the title). The shepherd left the 99 sheep that he had and went to search for the one that was lost. The shepherd does not leave the 99 in a pen or in a safe place...he leaves them "...in the wilderness..." The wilderness is a hostile place. It's a place of the unknown. It's the place where the children of Israel wandered and where Jesus was tempted. But the shepherd leaves his flock to search for the lost sheep.
The second story is the parable of the lost coin. In this story, a woman has ten silver coins. Somehow, she loses one of them and begins to search for it. She looks under furniture, through drawers, anywhere she can think of that the coin may have been placed. She is so determined to find it, that she even lights a lamp in order to give her more light in her search.
At this point you're probably thinking, "Okay, Dustin...so what? We've heard these stories before. We know what they mean! God's love is so great that he will go through whatever it takes in order to find us. He continues to search for the lost sheep. Like a valuable coin, so are people. There's nothing new here." Well, that is part of what Jesus is saying here. But it's really not the full story.
In order to better understand why he told these stories, we have to look at the entire context. Last week we talked about repentance. In fact, the entire season of Lent pushes us in that direction. And while a case could be made that these stories are about repentance, if that is our primary focus, then we are woefully missing Jesus' point. Let's look at the final lines of both parables.
In St. Luke 15: 7, Jesus finishes the story with "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." And in verse 10 he says, "Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
Do you hear the repetition here? The main focus of these stories cannot be the repentance, it must be something else. After all a sheep might be able to repent, but there is no way that a coin can! So what is it that these stories are really pointing towards? The key word in both of these stories is "rejoice."
Rejoice, or joy, is something that we may not always understand in our culture. In the Jewish culture of the 1st century, rejoicing was a flamboyant, outward expression of the inner excitement that they felt. Many times rejoicing was evident through shouting, singing, clapping, dancing, and feasting. In other words, it was a huge party!
That's what Jesus was saying happened after the sheep and the coin were found. The shepherd invited his shepherd friends over to party with him. The woman invited her neighbors over to party with her. His point is that when the lost are found then God invites all of his people to a huge party! With singing, shouting, dancing, and clapping of hands, God, the angels, and the children of God join together with a great celebration.
That leads us to the third parable in the series...the parable of the lost son (many of us know this one as the parable of the prodigal son). Once again, the story isn't so much about the boy's repentance as much as it is about the celebration of the father. It's also about the invitation to party for the lost being found.
I'm afraid that those of us in the Church have lost sight of what it means to rejoice and to be filled with joy. But you see, the shared joy that we have with our Father and with our brothers and sisters is what sets apart our fellowship as Christians. We should get excited; we should celebrate; we should outwardly express our joy in our own salvation and the salvation that God is bringing to all who will accept it. God's joy must be our joy. The joy of our brothers and sisters must be our joy. If it's not, then maybe we're more like the scribes and Pharisees who sit on the edge of the room and are "grumbling." It's our choice. We can either celebrate or we can live a life of misery. I would much rather celebrate than to complain. Here's how I envision God calling to us as his children to join the festivities: http://youtu.be/3GwjfUFyY6M
Until next time...
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