Sixteenth Pentecost

             September 16, 2007

     They had been hunting buddies for many years.  At least once a year the group would agree on a desirable place for hunting whitetail deer.  They also had a commitment to safety, always going out paired with another hunter.  That’s why those who had returned to camp several hours earlier were surprised when one of the hunters returned after dark, staggering under the weight of a ten-point buck.

     “Where’s Henry?” the others asked.

     “Henry had a stroke or something earlier today.  He’s a couple of miles back up on that far ridge,” the successful hunter said.

     “You left Henry lying out there and carried the deer back?” they asked.

     “It was a tough call,” nodded the hunter.  “But I finally figured no one is going to steal Henry!”

      We have no reason to believe that the sheep missing from the parable Jesus told in today’s Gospel had been stolen.  It is far more likely that the sheep simply wandered off, absentmindedly grazing on succulent tuffs of grass, and tumbled over a cliff.  What we can believe, however, is that the shepherd searched until he found the lost one. 

     The words “lamb,” “sheep,” and/or “flock,” are used over 400 times in scripture.  I always appreciate it when those references show up in the lectionary.  As I have shared with you on many occasions, I know a little about sheep and shepherding.  It was not an easy task on the farm of my boyhood days.  Sheep took a great deal of attention.  Lambing season always came in the dead of winter and rising from a warm bed to check on the pregnant ewes was a tough chore.  Taking in a few orphaned lambs meant twice-a-day feedings with a bottle.  Administering worm medicine was a messy job, doctoring on hoof-rot meant keeping a sharp pocket knife handy, protecting the herd from marauding dogs, shearing and gathering all the wool in early summer, and moving the herd from the pasture around home to the head of the valley six miles away, required several rescues along the way.  I would often grumble about “dumb sheep,” especially when one would blow its nose all over me.  Anyway, it was not until I had some sheep of my own that I understood better the diligence required to make a living from raising sheep.  Losing a sheep, especially because of indifference or inattentiveness, was inexcusable to the shepherds who would serve as my role-models.  Losing a sheep, for whatever reason, also meant losing some of one’s livelihood.

     Sometimes, very often perhaps, we long for the simple, straightforward lessons about life, responsibility, and what God might expect of us.  We live in a highly complex, complicated, pluralistic, and exponentially growing technological world.  Some of the lessons learned in simpler times appear to have been lost or have faded in our memories.

     I would suggest that may be true in our spiritual lives, as well.  I believe the more complex and complicated our lives become the more we need to search for, find, and reapply those simple, uncomplicated lessons that served us well in earlier times.

     I hope you have noticed that when people came to him with complicated troubles or difficult theological questions Jesus would simplify things through the use of the simple teaching device called a parable.  The profound, deep, and eternal truths about God and God’s love for creation and all creatures was expressed through the story of everyday experiences and by drawing a word-picture that all who heard them could understand.  The parable about a lost sheep and a lost coin express in simple terms the truth about God’s relationship to people.  Here we have the favorite method of Jesus the Christ for painting the picture of who God is.  The key word here is love.  What about God’s love for the sheep?

     I know you have noticed that God’s love is individual.  The 99 were loved, but 99 are not enough.  One sheep was out on the hillside alone.  Perhaps that sheep was injured, lonely, hungry, or ashamed.  The shepherd would not rest until he had brought that one home, until that lost one felt the warmth of love and genuine care.  In my younger days, if it were up to me, I would have been satisfied with the 99 who had come home.  But, God is not like that.  God will not rest until the lost one, the last one is gathered in.  It is a moment of profound relief when one learns they are not God.  God is God.  In order to find the one lost sheep God sent the Good Shepherd.

     God’s love is also patient.  Sheep are sometimes foolish creatures.  By giving in to the temptation to sample the green grass just outside their own boundary or not watching where they are headed or that danger lurks, the sheep finds itself in trouble.  Of course, they have no one to blame but themselves for the trouble they face.  The sheep that aren’t lost at the time are prone to have little patience with the foolish ones.  Conveniently forgetting the time they, too, were lost, they might be tempted to say things like, “Well, it’s their own fault, they brought it on themselves, or they made their bed, now they just have to lie in it.”  Or, some might say, as I heard down home, “If they didn’t want to go to Bluefield, whey did they get on the train?”

     Notice that God is not like that.  They sheep may well be foolish, but the Good Shepherd will lay down his life to save that one foolish sheep.  We may be and very often are, foolish, but God loves even the foolish one who doesn’t really know how they got into such a fix and can’t find their way home.  God, through Jesus the Christ, the Good Shepherd, searches and woos and loves until the lost one is led home.

     Finally, God’s love is a rejoicing love.  There is nothing but joy here, according to the parable Jesus told about why he would dine with tax collectors and sinners.  No recriminations, no “I told you so,” and no holding grudges or resentments can be found in this story.  Just pure joy and rejoicing is recounted.

     God’s forgiveness is absolute.  The only thing required of the wayward sheep is a genuine confession.  The absolution is guaranteed and new slate is given upon which nothing has been written. 

     God’s love is individual, patient, and rejoicing.  When we understand how very simple that is we are made ready for service to others.  We identify with the lost one.  The wanderer is made wiser, the weak are made strong, and the sinner understands and accepts forgiveness. 

     So, Jesus welcomes and eats with sinners again this day.  In the individual, patient, and rejoicing love of God, he not only welcomes us; he provides the food that nourishes body and soul.  That heavenly food can never be stolen.  Amen.

                                                          ~The Rev. G. Thomas Mustard