Malcolm Rogers on Luke 15:1-10, 12 September 2003
Today we are looking at the first half of one of the most well-known and best loved chapters in the Bible. We are looking at two stories that Jesus told: the story of the lost sheep and the lost coin. Jesus is telling these parables to contrast the Pharisees and God. When someone who is lost is found, the Pharisees mutter and God parties.
We are beginning our Alpha course in two weeks time: Tuesday 29th September, 7pm here in church. Ten weeks: coming along to have a meal together. Preparation is happening: I think it is! What is Alpha? A course to look at Christianity. Why are we having Alpha - turn to Luke 15.1-10
Two stories: Same message.
First: Shepherd - figure of authority. Has 100 sheep. Counts them - one is missing. So he does what anyone would do. He goes off and searches for the lost sheep. I’ve often told this story as if the shepherd did the foolish thing - leaving the 99. But we have to assume that the 99 were safe: in the sheepfold. No this shepherd does what any shepherd would do: he searches until he finds. And when he finds, he goes home and he celebrates
Second: Widow. She is the figure of authority in this story. She has ten coins. She loses one. And she does what any reasonable person would do. She looks for it. If you have ten ten pound notes, and that is all you have got to live on for a month - and you lose one - you look for it. You are desparate. It is like when I lose my keys or my diary (not that I lose anything!). This woman goes through that house like a storm - looking for that lost coin. She does a Lorraine on it. She sweeps and she sweeps. Is it in that corner? Is it behind the chair? And she tidies out the doors and the cupboards. She looks in bed, behind the radiators, under the fridge. She takes the children and turns them upside down and shakes them to see if they have eaten it; she takes the dog and turns him upside down to see if he has eaten it. And when she finally finds it, she breathes a sigh of relief, and she celebrates.
Challenge to our attitude - to how we think
Jesus tells these stories because the pharisees have been muttering and grumbling. [15.1] Jesus has been spending time with “tax-collectors and sinners”: the people who the pharisees, or for that matter any decent member of society, considered were the scum of the earth.
Tax collectors were slightly different then. Worked for the Roman authorities. Extortion. They were hated and despised. But often they were outcasts before they became tax collectors. Emile pointed out that Zacchaeus was a small man - despised, ridiculed. Thought, “I’ll show them. They don’t want me - well then I’ll work for the opposition and I will take them for everything they’ve got”. Men, driven by derision and motivated by hate. And “sinners”. Anybody else whose lifestyle was not appropriate. Mary Magdalene was a “sinner”: another word for prostitutes.
And the Pharisees muttered because Jesus associated with such people. The God of the Pharisees was a remote, aloof, superior God. He was up there, waiting for people to repent, to sort their lives out. Then he would accept/welcome you. And so the Pharisees were horrified that Jesus spent so much time with “sinners” and tax collectors. Purity was something that you got - and you had to keep it undefiled: “You’re not touching my purity”. Like a cat with a half dead mouse - call purity.
But Jesus didn’t avoid the “tax collectors” or the sinners. He accepted them, he “welcomed” them. He ate with them. WHY? Because - Jesus says - God welcomes you. Our God is not sitting up there, remote, aloof, superior - waiting for us to repent. I am so grateful that God is not like you or me. When someone hurts us, we say, “I’ll forgive you: if you grovel” No, says Jesus. God is like a shepherd searching for that lost sheep. He is like a woman desparately searching for a lost coin.
“Listen”, Jesus says, “God is not waiting for you to repent, to sort your life out.” If he was waiting for you to sort your life out before he forgave you - he would have to wait for all eternity. God has already come to you. He offers the gift of forgiveness. He offers to set you free. Free from guilt, free from slavery to sin, free to change and grow into the person who he made you to be, free to become a precious son or daughter of God - a prince or a princess in the Kingdom of Heaven. It is a free gift: God has already done what is necessary. All you need to do is receive it.”
Perhaps you might say: “There is no such thing as a free gift - there is always a cost”. You are right. There was a cost. It was a terrible cost. But you don’t have to pay it. God himself paid the cost.
God loves “sinners”. He has shown us how much he loves us. He has come to seek us. 2000 years ago he sent his only Son to come this world and to die for us. And God continues to seek us, to invite us to accept the free gift of new life that he offers. God is not like this: arms folded and severe - God is like this: arms open and welcoming.
I love the story of the son who, in an act of rebellion left home, cursing his parents and stealing a great deal of money. His parents didn’t know where he went, and he was too ashamed to come home. But they went on loving him, and so they searched and they searched. And one day, a year or two later, as they were searching they saw him sitting at a street corner, in tattered clothes, begging. And they went up to him - and as he was looking down at the pavement, he didn’t realise it was them, he said, “Got 20 pence”. And they answered, “Son, we will give you 20 pence, but what we really want is to give you everything that we have”. These stories talk about the God who seeks - and who wants to bless.
These two stories are a challenge:
If you do not yet know the Lord Jesus, if you do not know what it means to be a friend of God, if you are weighed down by guilt, if you are caught as a slave of sin and there seems to be no hope of escape, if you are crippled by the fear of death (and Hebrews 2.10 teaches that the fear of death is the root of all fears) - then this passage is good news for you. It is about a God who loves you, who offers you a new life - and all you need to do is to receive it.
Take the booklet that is on your chair home. It tells us what Christianity is all about - about friendship with God. It talks about how Jesus can meet the hunger that we have for meaning, for life after death, for forgiveness. It tells us about Jesus: his claim to be the Son of God on equal footing with God; his character, his rising from the dead. It talks about why Jesus died: It tells us how we can know God as a friend, how we can live a Jesus centred life, other-person centred life and not a self-centred life, and how we can change.
This booklet invites us to receive the gift that God offers: the gift of forgiveness, new life and the Holy Spirit to live in us. It’s exciting - but also frightening. I wonder if you have used any of these excuses: “I don’t need God; I’ve got too much to give up; There must be a trap; I’m not good enough; I could never keep it up; I’ll make a decision later”. And this booklet explains one way that you can receive the gift that God offers - and how you can begin to live the Christian life.
Come to the alpha course. People spend time and money going on training courses - give them another skill. We’re inviting you to come on a course that could change your life. It won’t cost you any money - in fact you will get a free meal. The only thing that it will cost you are Tuesday evenings.
If we know the Lord Jesus, this passage is also a challenge. A challenge to us:
1. We need to recognise that we are Christians because God came to seek us.
I have become increasingly aware of the fact that it is God from start to finish. He sent his son Jesus, 2000 years ago, he comes to us now and speaks to us. It is important to remember that. God is not someone who you have - Jesus is not someone who you have - the Holy Spirit is not someone who you have. They came and sought you. They have you.
2. We are called to be like God - to seek out the lost.
At times we can be like the Pharisees. I was like the Pharisees at the work day. It started raining. Wino’s asked if they could shelter in the porch. No. You’re not going to defile our nice clean church. You might come in and take something. Thank God, he had mercy on me and made me think again.
(Story about Tony Campolo)
We need to be like that. Our role may not be to work among such obviously “lost” people: but the lost are everywhere. They are the people we work with or are at school and college with, mums - toddler groups or the school; people we meet at the angel or at nags head, or at the social club. They are the people we do things with, members of our own family.
What are you doing about them? Are you saying, “I don’t believe that you will ever become a friend of God - so I’m not going to bother” - or are you saying, “It’ll give me too much grief to talk of Jesus, so I’ll keep quiet”. Or are you prepared to do something?
We are called to be imitators of God. The challenge to us is to seek: to seek those who are lost, to pray for them, to spend time with them - to listen to them, to talk about Jesus when it is appropriate - with respect and gentleness (Starets Silouan), use this booklet or another, invite them along - to church. That is why we are doing the alpha course - not only to learn together - do a refresher course - but an opportunity for everyone to do something: pray, cook, set up, join in the groups, provide transport - in the work of making Jesus known.
What are we doing? A firend of mine, a vicar in Hackney, he had a dream. People with eyes closed plunging to their death. Christians making daisy chains.
What if this shepherd had not sought? The sheep would have been lost. What if the woman had not sought? The coin would have remained lost. What if you and I do not seek? I don’t know.