The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 15, 2013 - Pastor Adam Moline
Ezekiel 34:11-24 1 Timothy 1:5-17 Luke 15:1-10
Grace, mercy and peace to
you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Our text today is the Gospel lesson just read, especially these words,
“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.” Thus far our text.
Dear friends in Christ, a
penny saved is a penny earned is a popular saying from years back that doesn’t
mean too much anymore, because pennies don’t really add up to that much
money. You can’t buy anything with a
penny. It’s value isn’t that much. You can’t even get a small piece of candy for
a penny. So when we lose a penny, we
just don’t care. And really, so often,
if we see a penny on the ground, some won’t even stoop down to pick it up.
Thus the confusion of our
text today. A woman loses one out of ten
small silver coins, and she searches all over for it, looking up and down,
sweeping, looking under the bed with a flash light. She is desperate to find that lost
penny. She obsesses over it. She’ll do whatever it takes to find the one
penny, even having the other 9 safely in her purse, and to you and to me, it
just doesn’t make any sense or seem worth the effort.
The same thing with the
shepherd. He has a hundred sheep, who
are fattened and ready for the slaughter, and one wanders away. He still has 99 ready to go. Those of you who have cattle know, you’re
going to lose one or two; it’s just the way it goes. And really, it’s no big deal. You can’t put the 99 at risk just to find
one. You can’t let the sure profit be
endangered, just because of one that wandered off or is sick. There’s no value in the lost sheep. There’s not a reason to find it. And yet, that’s what the shepherd of our text
does. He leaves the 99 and finds the one
who was lost. And what’s more, when he
finds it, he has a big party and celebration.
Why? It doesn’t make sense. It runs counter to logic. If we were in the same situation, we would
take the losses and go on. These little
things just aren’t that valuable to us, they aren’t that important in the big
picture.
And we ourselves know that
because of this corrupt world there are always going to be the losses. In our retirement accounts there are the
stocks and bonds that lose money. In our
gardens and farms, there are the plants that don’t produce. At our places of employment, there are
workers who get fired for failure to perform their duties. Part of being human is cutting your losses
and taking the best you can get in this world.
And to cut down to the chase
we even cut our losses with very personal things. I can’t put up with my husband or wife
anymore, so I’ll cut my losses and get a divorce. I can’t pay my bills, so I’ll cut my losses
and declare bankruptcy. I can’t wait
until marriage, so I’ll live with my boyfriend now. And perhaps most disturbing – something I saw
on our Local PBS this past week – a company named Compassionate Choices that
helps people who are sick to kill themselves – as if saying “I can’t handle any
more sickness or cancer, so I’ll cut my losses and die today.”
It’s as if these things have
no value to us. Its as if we these
things are just expendable – and because of our sin that’s just the way it
seems. And yet all of these things go
against God’s word. All of these things
– and more – show the sin in our own lives.
How could God value us, if we despise his word so much? How could God want us if we sin so often and
regularly? Why should God give a hoot
about us, if we don’t give a hoot about what he says in our world?
And yet, dear friends, he
does. God does care for us, for our two
parables are truly about him. He is the
woman who searches for the one lost penny in the house, despite having the nine
others. He is the shepherd who goes out,
leaving behind the 99 sheep to find just the one lost sheep. It’s God who does the seemingly absurd thing,
to rescue sinners like you and me, rather then cutting His losses in regard to
our sin.
And it’s a very personal
thing that God does. He comes down in
the person of the Son, he takes on our human flesh, he physically takes our sin
and guilt upon himself, and he allows himself to be killed by our sin, by our
hands, by our guilt, so that we might be forgiven.
And if we sit back and look
at it, it doesn’t make any sense, does it?
It seems to be foolish for Jesus to suffer for us sinners. Just as foolish as leaving behind 99 good
sheep to look for one lost one. Just as
foolish as sweeping and cleaning the entire house to find one small invaluable
silver coin. In fact the cross of Christ
is so often even more foolish looking to our sinful human eyes than those two
parables.
Yes. The message
of the cross is foolishness to
those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. God chooses to save us by the foolish looking
death of Christ. And the forgiveness for
you, earned by Jesus on the cross, comes to you in other seemingly foolish
ways. In water and the word, where your
sins are forgiven. In bread and wine,
where you eat the body and blood of Jesus, given and shed for you for the
forgiveness of sins.
It seems foolish, but it’s your salvation. It seems crazy, but that’s how you get heaven
given to you. Its like searching the
house for a penny. Its like finding a
single penny in your home and rejoicing.
And yet the truth is this, Christ, the son of God, died for you and for
your forgiveness. In His name. Amen.
