Sermon 9/15/2019 “The 90 and 9”
Preacher: Jo J. Belser
Location: Church of the Resurrection at Immanuel Chapel, Virginia Theological Seminary
Text: Luke 15:1-10
Day: 14Pentecost, Proper 19, Year C
Before I start today, let me tell you what happened early this morning when I arrived here on campus. A woman stopped me, said she had been walking her dog, and had heard a kitten stuck in the storm drain near Bohlen Hall. With our gospel lesson today about a lost sheep, I didn’t know what to do: go rescue the kitten or be here with you for worship. Then I realized I could send Rev. Guimond. “Go be Jesus,” I said, “and rescue that poor lost cat.” I’ll tell YOU what happened later [audible groans and other protests].
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This is a “be careful what you wish for” story. Because wondered all week what I could tell you about today’s gospel lesson you don’t already know. I know that you know all about the three parables Jesus told about lost things. Luke’s gospel tells about all three of these parables in chapter 15. For some reason, our lectionary includes only two in today’s gospel lesson. The third—the parable we call the “prodigal son” story—was our gospel lesson on the Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 31 this year.
These three parables include a lost son, a lost sheep, and a lost coin. They feature a father who runs to greet his wayward son when he returns home, a shepherd who risks all to find and bring a strayed sheep back to the flock, and a woman persistently looking for a lost coin even though she has other coins. If only this were Trinity Sunday, we could spend all our time today thinking of how the images of God these three parables contain represent Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
However, since this is not Trinity Sunday, we will notice today that in each of the three parables, there is rejoicing by the searcher when the lost one is found, and lack of rejoicing by someone among those who were not lost.
I know you also know the point Jesus was making with these parables. Each of you could “ace” a seminary exam on this subject by observing that God never gives up on those who are “lost,” that God rejoices greatly when someone who is lost returns to God, and that our challenge is to rejoice with God when the one who is lost repents. We might even get extra credit if we began to look for those who are lost and tell them about the One who found us and brought us home to God.
Yep, we know these parables. We even, some of us, can sing Elizabeth Clephane’s hymn about Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep. Called “The Ninety and Nine,” this hymn begins:
There were ninety and nine that safely lay
In the shelter of the fold;
But one was out on the hills away,
Far off from the gates of gold.
Wait! Jesus’ parable doesn’t say the 99 sheep who were NOT lost were in “the shelter of the fold.” The way Jesus told the story, the flock was “in the wilderness,” which is where the shepherd left the 99 sheep when he went in search of the one who was lost.
Apparently, we “un-lost sheep” have re-written the story a bit. Maybe we get nervous about being in the wilderness while our shepherd is seeking out the one who is lost. So, we envision ourselves in a place of safety, flocked together inside a “sheepfold,” complete with protective fencing.
But what about the allusion to heaven, the “gates of gold” reference in the hymn? The woman who wrote the words to this hymn had in mind her brother, we are told, who died tragically in a riding accident shortly after repenting and returning to Christ Jesus. So, for her, the “ninety and nine” were in the wilderness of this life, which is always a mere breath away from our life hereafter. In Clephane’s reckoning, the further we are from the “gates of gold,” the more lost we are.
The sheepfold was HER interpretation. In general, our interpretation is a bit different. Someone in the church, no doubt, has cleaned up Clephane’s lyrics to this:
There were ninety and nine that safely lay
In the shelter of the flock;
But one was out on the hills away,
Far off in the cold and dark.
Over time, hearing and re-hearing this parable of the lost sheep, we equate the “shelter of the flock” with the church. Here we are in the church, while Christ Jesus is scouring the countryside out THERE, in search of lost sheep to bring to us in the church.
The problem with the ways in which we rewrite Jesus’ parable is that we leave out an important feature of Jesus’ stories. In each of Jesus’ three parables, he makes no value judgment about what is lost. Instead, what is lost is as precious to God as what is not lost.
On the other hand, we think ourselves “not lost,” therefore “good,” and those out there who are lost as “bad.” And we-the-unlost have a terrible track record about letting the lost-but-now-found join us in the sheepfold of the church.
And yet, we are all in the wilderness of this life, and we each can become lost. We can be “bad and lost” but also “good and lost.” We can easily identify those we judge to be “bad and lost:” mass murderers, rapists, child abusers, drug dealers, and perhaps even (God forbid!) immigrants, homeless people, and others least like us. But maybe we don’t even notice that we can be “good and lost.” We can be good people, yet not really be in relationship with our Creator and in denial about what comes after this life. However, whether bad or good, lost is lost.
The Good News is that our creator seeks out the lost—with great effort, persistently, patiently—calling them and us back into relationship, loving them and us beyond measure, even though and we they are lost or not. Our shepherd loves us all beyond measure, equally, and will rejoice when we return to God, just as he rejoices when we remain in relationship with God.
I had hoped Rev. Guimond would come back to us here in the sheepfold carrying a rescued kitten on his shoulders. However, he says there is no longer a cat in the storm drain. Apparently, Jesus got there before he did!
Are you the lost sheep? I hope not! But, if you are, you are in the right place today. Are you one of the ninety-and-nine who the shepherd has left in the wilderness to go find his lost sheep? If you are among the ninety-and-nine, you are being challenged by these parables to love like God loves and to rejoice and make room in the flock for the formerly lost when they return home, knowing that we are all works-in-progress about this loving-as-God-loves business.
