OH, THE JOY!
a sermon based on Luke 15:1-10
by Rev. Rick Thompson

Here we go again!
We've seen it several times now in Luke: Jesus, Pharisees, and dinner. So what can we expect?
That's right—trouble!

Jesus is seeking the outcasts of society—again! Jesus is welcoming sinners, breaking boundaries, eating with them—again! Jesus just keeps being Jesus, keeps searching, and keeps on celebrating when anyone—anyone at all!—says “Yes” to his invitation.
And what do the Pharisees and scribes do in response? They complain--again. They grumble and murmur--again. They point their fingers at Jesus, and wag them in disgust. “How many times do we have to tell you, Jesus, to quit hanging out with those people.”

Yes, Jesus has been hanging out with the wrong people. In that world, Jesus, the dignified rabbi and teacher, was expected to eat with other dignified, respectable people. But what was he doing instead? Mingling with sinners, welcoming them, even EATING with them.

Jesus was breaking the rule many of us taught our children: “Birds of a feather flock together.” In that world—not unlike ours—a respectable person would not want to be seen with people like that.

The table fellowship of Jesus with sinners was unthinkable—SCANDALOUS, in the eyes of his critics.
And, in response to their complaints, Jesus does what he often does. He tells stories.
He tells of a shepherd who has a real problem on his hands. This shepherd, responsible for 100 sheep, has lost 1 of them. He's accountable for the lost sheep. So what will he do? Take his chances that nobody will be too angry about one lost sheep? Or risk everything, leave the 99 in the safest place he can find, go off searching for the 1, and hope all will be well when he returns?
It sounds pretty foolish to leave the 99 unguarded—but that's what this shepherd does!

Then Jesus tells of a woman who's lost one of the 10 coins she's been saving—a total of 10 days wages. She turns her house upside down to look for that coin and, when she finds it, she invites her neighbors to a party to celebrate. Now that sounds pretty silly, doesn't it? Fret about one lost coin, and then spend all 10, and perhaps more—her life savings—on a party to celebrate when she finds the one she'd lost?

What kind of behavior is that?
Apparently it's God's kind of behavior!
Because God seems as foolish and reckless as that shepherd. God seems as frantic to find the lost as that woman looking for her coin.

And why do I say that? Well, remember what God has done to find the lost sheep. Remember what God has done to find the lost coin. Remember what God has done to find you and me!

What is that? God has sent God's own Son, and that Son has taken on flesh and bones, and has known our pain and our sorrow, our laughter and our joy. In fact, that Son has even been willing to go to a cross. To die. For you. For me. To place us over his shoulders there, and carry us home—home where we belong, home to God.
Just think about that. Just think about how determined, how relentless, God is, how God longs to find us and claim us as God's own. Think about a God who has not only gone looking for the lost sheep, turned the house upside-down looking for a lost coin, but even gone to a cross—to death—to find you and me!

Isn't that amazing?!!

And then can we get our minds around this: that when God finds us—any one of us, each one of us, God is filled with joy! God is so full of joy that all of heaven and earth are called upon to rejoice in God's discovery! Just think about that—when God found you, God rejoiced, and invited the whole creation to join in rejoicing. Oh, what joy that is!
So, do you know what it is to be lost? So lost that Jesus would come looking for you? So lost that the Lord of all would die on a cross for you?

Have you ever felt like your life had no direction? Have you ever been so burdened by your past that you felt you have no future? Then you know what it's like to be lost!
Have you ever felt that the world is so senseless and chaotic that there cannot possibly be a loving God behind it all? You know what it's like to be lost!

Have you ever acted like the Pharisees in our story today—so determined to find Jesus guilty, and point fingers at the ones he hangs out with, that they lost sight of the bigger picture of God's wide love and mercy? Then, whether, you like it or not, you've been lost.

And it's no fun, no fun at all, to be lost. It creates panic, even despair.

But, in Christ, God has come to look for us when we're lost! God has come, full of mercy and forgiveness and love, to bring us home to God!

As I often do, I have turned to preacher William Willimon [1], and tell another of his stories. One Easter, Willimon relates, an Episcopal priest colleague introduced him to a young man. The priest exulted, “He's going to be baptized tonight!”

Willimon asked the young man, “How did you come to the church? What brought you here?”

“I got put here,” the young man replied. “I really mean it. I think Jesus just came out and got me. That I'm here tonight planning to be baptized is nothing short of a miracle.”

That young man knew something. That young man knew the joy of Jesus, and the joy and the gift of being found by Jesus! And, oh, the joy it is—for God, and for the one who is found!
But there's a problem in all of this, isn't there! When God finds someone, God may be joyful. And the one found may be joyful.
But the rest of us may not.

Do you—like me—ever notice a little bit of the Pharisee in yourself? You know, the wish that God would be more selective? That God wouldn't hang out with that person? That God would look more diligently for people just like us, and a lot less recklessly for people who are not like us? Do you ever wish that some of the lost would stay that way—lost?

Don't we get jealous at times that God—and, sometimes, God's people—seem to pay attention to the wrong people?

There's a Jewish story about the good fortune of a hardworking farmer. The Lord appeared to the farmer, and granted him three wishes. But there was one condition: whatever the Lord did for the farmer would be doubled for his neighbor. The farmer, astounded by his good fortune, asked for 100 cattle. He received them immediately, and was overjoyed—until he saw that his neighbor had 200. Next he wished for 100 acres of land, was filled with joy when he received them—until he saw his neighbor had received 200. The farmer was unable to celebrate God's goodness, unable to celebrate his neighbor's good fortune, and could only focus on how slighted he felt in comparison to his neighbor. So, when God came offering to fill the third wish, do you know what the farmer asked? “Strike me blind in one eye!” he requested.

And what did God do?
God wept!
God weeps when we can't join in God's joy over finding the lost.
We pray that God will not need to weep here—in this corner of God's church!
These stories, like many of the stories of Jesus, are both inviting and challenging, aren't they?

The invitation is to each one of us: when we are lost, when we aren't sure about our next step, when we can't find our way, we are reminded that Jesus comes looking for us. When we are burdened and troubled, we are assured that Jesus comes looking for us. When we are afraid and alone and desperate, we are assured that Jesus comes looking for us. And, there is this wonderful, amazing promise: when Jesus finds us, the only joy greater than our own is the joy of God in heaven!

But there is also a challenge in these stories. The challenge comes with the reminder that no one is beyond the searching, seeking love of God. The challenge is to us who would like to determine who's welcome in the church, when Jesus makes it clear that all are welcome. The challenge to us is to join with God in rejoicing when the lost are brought safely home. The challenge to us is to join with Jesus in actively, passionately, joyfully searching for those who have not yet been found by Christ.

And, oh, the joy of God when the lost are found!
Yes, the joy is God's! God rejoices in finding us and any who are lost! God rejoices over any who are embraced and carried by the deep and lasting love of Christ.

Will that be our joy also—to join in rejoicing when God finds the lost sheep, the lost coin?
That's the joy God wants to give us now.
That's the joy of God—joy enough to last for all eternity!
Oh, God, grant us such joy!
AMEN.

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[1]  William Willimon, Pulpit Resource, Vol. 32, No. 3, July/August/September 2004, p. 47