The One
A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
September 15,
2013
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
Luke 15: 1-10
Let us pray,
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
Amen.
15 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to
listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling
and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 So he told
them this parable: 4 “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and
losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go
after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 When he has found
it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6 And when he comes
home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice
with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 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.
8 “Or what
woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a
lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 When
she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying,
‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just
so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one
sinner who repents.” [1]
As difficult and challenging as last week's
scripture passage was, with the cost of discipleship, we follow it up this week
with a much more comforting text, at least on the surface. There is grace, there is care, there is
love, there is God reaching out to the lost sheep, showing care without end,
showing us that God will go to great lengths to care for us, to find us, even
when we go astray. These are actually the first two parables of a set of three.
The third in the set is the Prodigal Son, which builds on the same theme:
should we ever go astray, God will be there seeking us out, welcoming us back
with open arms, rejoicing that now the herd is back together because the one
lost sheep has been restored. It's comforting. It's overflowing with mercy,
grace, forgiveness and love. But there is a challenge to it, and that is
because the audience is not the one, but the many, the herd, the elder
brothers, the scribes and the pharisee's. Jesus is talking to the ones who see
Jesus reaching out to sinners and are quick to say, "That's not
fair!" We find ourselves often when we are faced with this passage,
wondering which we are, which do we see ourselves as. Are we the many, herded
together, the flock, or are we the one?
It's interesting that it actually matters. I
love that it matters. It doesn't matter in most walks of life. Most world
religions even don't build up the individual, or the one. Many of the eastern
ones explicitly value the collective rather instead of the one. The one making
waves threatens the group, so must be either stopped, ignored, or isolated, or
silenced. But yet here, Jesus is claiming the one has value, the one matters,
the one, not the group, but the one. So much of the world's game is not based
on the one, but instead the many. It isn't easy to be the one. The majority
rules, the herd votes, and the one will lose, every time, but is the one always
wrong? How many times is it that the one is often actually right, on the right
side of truth? How often is the lone voice crying in the wilderness the one
that's actually making a whole lot of sense, fighting against the tide? In our
Adult Sunday School class, we have been walking through the Bible, and have
been engrossed in the Prophets for the last few months. Each prophet seems to
stand alone against the herd, against the rising storm of the majority, against
the much louder voices of the masses. One by one they come forward, Isaiah
speaking of the one nation standing firm against all the much stronger nations,
the one suffering servant, giving life for all. Jeremiah, the one voice of
reason warning of the impending doom. Ezekiel the one voice reminding the newly
exiled Jews that God is still in control. Amos trying to remind folks to be faithful
when things are going well, and Joel trying to get people back on track when
they have gone very bad. Jonah runs away, Daniel stands firm, Elijah is one
against hundreds. Each one up against tremendous risk, each one very much on
their own, each one thought of by those in the herd as very very lost. The list
goes on and on.
A more well known example from the Old
Testament is Moses. Having led the Israelites out of slavery, he heads up to
the mountain to receive the law directly from the Lord, but he's gone too long,
at least for the many. They begin to get restless. And they begin to get extra
religious, but not in a good way. With Moses gone, and God's presence within
him, seemingly away, the group convinces each other that Moses is lost, that he
has led them astray, that he isn't coming back, that God has also left them, so
in their restlessness they make a new god, a replacement, a golden calf. . .
the one is with God, and the herd is lost. Connect that story here to the
Pharisees, Jesus's audience when he tells this parable about the lost sheep and
the lost coin. They would call themselves the heirs of Moses, the keepers of
the law, but are they standing with God or have they made their own, for here
has God come in their midst, and they are grumbling, wondering why things are
this way, why it's not fair? If Jesus is the messiah and come to them, why is
he not acting like they think he should? Why is he with the sinners and tax
collectors instead of them? We're right, we're on the right so, ask everybody
they'll tell you. Could all of them be wrong? Could the system be wrong? No of
course not Jesus, you are wrong, what are you thinking? Have they shaped for
themselves a golden calf, having found God absent in their lives, building a
new God for themselves in their own image.
But Jesus triples down. He tells three
parables all pointing to the importance of the individual, the perfect value of
the one. If you look through the Old Testament characters you don't find
perfect sheep, but flawed ones, with God providing the only perfection. It is
the same with the disciples. It is the same with us. Again grace becomes the
system. I talked last week a little about my teaching strategy and philosophy,
of raising a high bar and including to the best of my ability grace. It came up
during this week, as I was explaining to my students the way they would be
graded. I told them how hard it is to fail my class. It's set up that way on
purpose. It's hard to fail. I have this system where I grade all of their
writing for me, paragraph by paragraph, looking at each on its own merit. Each
paragraph then has to be of a certain quality, with a new and unique chance of
scoring really high. But the ten point grading system begins with 0, for you
guessed it nothing, then 1 for writing a word, 2 for writing a sentence, 3 for
writing a sentence on the subject, 4 for writing a paragraph on the class as a
whole, 5 for writing a paragraph on whatever topic the question was on, but still
somehow not answering the question. Yes it sounds like that's pretty
ridiculously easy, but you gotta remember, they are all failing grades, but a
five is a 50%, failing, but 50% is much better than a zero, so just by being
half way present you can fail, but only barely, setting your success up to fit
into the average, if you are at all remotely answering at least part of the question
you'll get a 6 which is passing. Then there is a 4 point scale of quality,
7-10. So it's hard, it's really hard to fail, you have to actively work at
failing, but on the other hand it's hard to get an A too. It's hard to be
exceptional, but I told them, the reason I make it hard to fail is not because
I want them all to get processed through successfully, not at all, instead it's
about creating a system that rewards risk, that rewards extra effort, that
rewards really putting yourself out there. I think that's what Jesus does when
he offers us grace.
Remember how the heroes of the Old Testament
are pushing the edge, often out on their own, I think God wants us there
working beyond the norm, on the outside of the herd, where we can be the most
dangerous for good, where we can really be with him. Grace takes failing out of
the equation, doesn't it, makes it no longer an issue. No longer. . . Some
students, like the Pharisees may look to the system and find that it isn't
fair. They work really hard to get a safe 8, and it's only 3 measly points
beyond the person on the outside who couldn't even answer the question. I talk
to students all the time, how come I keep getting 8's aren't I doing what you
asked me to do. What can I to get that better mark? The answer is always the
same. Always. Take a risk, put yourself on the line, do more than you ever
thought you could. They always say, but what if I get it wrong? So what I say,
how many points are you going to lose? 1 at most. Come on show me something. Show
me your thoughts. Show me you, put yourself into the answer, that's what I want
to see.
Do you think that is what God wants from us?
For us to put ourselves on the line, to risk, to be on the edge. But what if I
get lost? I'll find you. What if I go astray? I'll corral you back in. What if
I fail? How can you, for I am there, and I've set up the system, and I made
you, and I know you better than you know yourself.
The Call to Worship was from Psalm 139, I want
to look at that Psalm more closely, let's read it.
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me. ---- me, you, me, each of us
2 You know when I sit down and
when I rise up;
you
discern my thoughts from far away. ---- So how could we get lost?
3 You search out my path and my
lying down,
and
are acquainted with all my ways. ----- Even before we know
4 Even before a word is on my
tongue,
O
Lord, you know it completely. ------ Even before we speak
5 You hem me in, behind and
before,
and
lay your hand upon me. ---- God hems us in, so why should we do that for
ourselves?
6 Such knowledge is too
wonderful for me;
it
is so high that I cannot attain it. ------ We can't, bet we can strive, growing
closer and closer, approaching.
7 Where can I go from your
spirit?
Or
where can I flee from your presence? ------ still afraid of getting lost?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are
there;
if
I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. ----- even self inflicted failure can't
separate us
9 If I take the wings of the
morning
and
settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall
lead me,
and
your right hand shall hold me fast. --------- so where can you be lost
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness
shall cover me,
and
the light around me become night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark
to you;
the
night is as bright as the day, .
for
darkness is as light to you. ------------------ outside of our perceived limits
13 For it was you who formed my
inward parts;
you
knit me together in my mother’s womb. ----------- inside and out, before us, after us
14 I praise you, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful
are your works;
that
I know very well. ---------------- he is
a pretty good craftsman, don't you think
15 My frame was not hidden from
you,
when
I was being made in secret,
intricately
woven in the depths of the earth. -------- Do you think that's a God who cares
for each and knows each
16 Your eyes beheld my unformed
substance.
In
your book were written
all
the days that were formed for me,
when
none of them as yet existed. ----- Do we
each have a chapter?
17 How weighty to me are your
thoughts, O God!
How
vast is the sum of them! ------ imagine all of his thoughts of us
18 I try to count them—they are
more than the sand;
God knows us, completely, God made us completely, all parts, each of
us, and God will go to every length to find us when we are lost, all of us,
each of us. What else should I fear? What is left?
I quoted Bonhoeffer last week too, and will do so again, he once wrote
this:
“Jesus
Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted
him. On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers.
For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the
Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the
thick of foes. There is his commission, his work. 'The kingdom is to be in the
midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of
the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies,
not with the bad people but the devout people. O you blasphemers and betrayers
of Christ! If Christ had done what you are doing who would ever have been
spared' (Luther).”
Look to Christ's
example. . . again. Not with a great group, nor a great multitude, at the end,
for all had abandoned him, he was alone, surrounded by those deemed evil doers
and mockers, Jesus, the one, fitting all the descriptors within Psalm 139, too,
same as us, but was so much more, was also the one true holy God. The one. . . let
us aspire to be like him, unafraid to be alone, and like him, never truly
alone, for God was in him, and will never leave our side. Let us not fear
getting lost, but to celebrate being found, with all of our brothers and
sisters, uniquely each children of God, in his image, many many ones. Amen.
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