Readings: Luke 15:1-7 (NIV)
Where: At Trinity, on the 10 September
Minister: Rory Grant
15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Romans 13:8-14 (NIV)
Love Fulfills the Law
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”[a] and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
The Day Is Near
11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.[c]
- I’ve struggled with the sermon this week, the lectionary texts are not easy ones for us to relate to at a distance of several thousand years.
- The reading from Exodus speaks of spreading sacrificial blood on our lintels
- Ezekiel speaks of warning the wicked that they will die for their sins
- In Matthew’s gospel Jesus speaks of dealing with conflict and dissent in the church
- And in the book of Romans, the apostle Paul tells us not to owe any debts, and gives us a colourful list of the ways in which we can break the law, and fail to love our neighbour.
- It’s not exactly inspiring stuff.
- Then, as I was taking my Bible in schools class on Thursday, something started nudging at my subconscious.
- Our Bible story was the parable of the lost sheep and the good shepherd.
- And something deep down told me, these two passages go together.
- I’ve spent the rest of the week trying to figure out how!
- You’ll need to bear with me, because I’m not sure that I’ve got all of this figured out and tied down to a neat takeaway message.
- But if there is one, this is it. Are you ready?
- Jesus owes us nothing. Jesus owes us nothing.
- Now I can hear what you’re thinking: “That’s it, he’s finally lost the plot. He’s gone mad.” But bear with me.
- As I said, it started with sharing the parable of the good shepherd with Room 10 at Gleniti school.
- For most of those kids, it was the first time that they’d heard this story. As I read it, I could see their eyes light up. They got it. It landed.
- There is something about hearing the parables of Jesus for the first time that opens up a window in your mind that you never knew was closed.
- This lesson was taught to me by one of my mentors in the faith. We have heard the stories of Jesus so many times that they grow stale. We forget what they must have been like for the first hearers. So let’s stop and listen again.
- Picture the scene
- Jesus is talking with some of societies undesireables. Maybe he’s teaching. Maybe he’s healing. Maybe he’s simply listening and sharing the day with them.
- A crowd gathers around. We’re part of that crowd. A crowd following the Pharisees and teachers of the law.
- They’re not happy that Jesus is associating with these. It’s a black mark against him as a Rabbi, and as Messiah.
- Suddenly Jesus turns to them. That look in his eye. “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them…”
- Who is the story aimed at?
- Who is the shepherd?
- Who is the lost sheep?
- Who are the 99 who do not need to be saved?
- Where do we fit into this story?
- On the surface it is clear. Jesus is the good shepherd. The sinners and tax collectors are the lost sheep, and the Pharisees are the 99 who don’t need saving.
- But there’s more to it than that.
- If the lost sheep are those who have failed God’s law, and God’s law is summed up in the great commandment “Love the Lord your God and love your neighbour as yourself” then the Pharisees are sinners too.
- They’re all lost sheep. Lonely, broken, and tangled in the thorns of life. This is the great insight. This is the twist in the tail. The very ones who would cast judgement are themselves in need of mercy.
- So where do we fit?
- If we’re honest, I think that we usually think of ourselves as part of the 99. There’s some truth in that. We’re followers of Christ. We are grateful recipients of his love and salvation and grace. We are safe in his arms, and yet we are still broken and lonely and lost.
- We too are lost sheep.
- We too await the loving arms of our saviour.
- Now, I imagine that none of this is particularly surprising to you. We’ve heard this before, we owe Jesus everything, but why do I say that Jesus owes us nothing?
- Romans 13 continues Paul’s outline of the transformed Christian life
- 1-7 covers how we are called to realte to the society that we live in
- 8-14 focuses on our relationships with every other person in the world
- Revolves around the 2nd half of the great commandment, love your neighbours as you love yourselves.
- Obvious parallel with Good Shepherd. Pharisees were not loving their neighbour.
- Starts with this odd line “Owe nothing to anybody”
- Continuation from paying taxes in v. 7
- More to it than that.
- In Bible, debt is associated with poverty, and breaking of God’s order
- In other words holding someone in debt == doing them harm
- Usually the Bible admonishes those who lend money, this time it’s the other way around.
- Withholding what someone is owed == doing them harm.
- Great commandment tells us, and good shepherd shows us, our neighbours are owed our love.
- Witholding that love from our neighbour is perhaps the greatest evil that we can do in our world.
- Every person is a child of God. Every person, no matter how they got themselves lost, is deserving of love.
- Jesus shows us the way. He is left owing nothing, because he gives everything in love.
- Pharisees & teachers of the law saw themselves as righteous, but they withheld from others the dignity of light and love. They owed a debt that they could not see.
- The day is near
- Early church did not expect for us to be sitting here 2,000 years later
- Like them, we are caught up in God’s great promise of salvation.
- Like we said a couple of weeks ago, we’re stuck here somewhere between the realities of heaven and earth
- Maybe it’s hard for us to expect that the day of the Lord is somewhere just around the corner
- Maybe, like them, we’re tempted to get cynical and to watch out for ourselves. To satisfy the desires of the flesh, as Paul puts it. To withhold love and dignity from others. To do them harm.
- We are called to put on the light of Christ.
- We’re not drawn here because we’re already safe in the fold, we drawn to this story of heaven and earth, we’re drawn to this story of redemption and salvation because we know that we’re tangled up in the thorns and we that loving voice is calling our name.
- And he plucks the thorns out of feet and heals our wounded hearts, he is not leading us back to a safe vantage point, but calling us to join him in the search for one more sheep, lonely and lost.
