LK 15: 1-10

Laterally Luke…Pentecost + 17…Revised 2019

Jesus is still on His way to Jerusalem, seemingly unable to get out of His habit of keeping bad company! Tax collectors, &, ‘sinners’, for goodness sake! It’s great news though, that there’s room for you, me, all of us, in His company. Maybe not as ‘tax collectors’, but ‘sinners’ sounds all-embracing enough, doesn’t it?

 MT, himself a former tax collector, in his account of this incident [18:14] adds a heartfelt, personal, additional note sounded by Jesus: ‘It’s not God’s intention that even one of these little ones should be lost!’ Lost-ness’, found-ness, & rejoicing all share centre-stage here. Even if the ‘religious right’ still look down their noses from the wings at interlopers like you and me! 

Like God, as God, Jesus has a preference for the little people of this world. He’s  comfortable in His own skin as one of them. He knows how important one sheep, one coin, or whatever they may represent today, are to little people. Yes, God is taking sides here. May we be as concerned for those who need us by becoming God’s loving carers for them. Becoming God’s way of seeking & finding them, in very down to earth ways!

There’s still more good news; perhaps harder to take on board, even, than what’s gone before. Those who turn up their noses at today’s equivalents of ‘tax-collectors & sinners’, not to mention Jesus Himself, are worth going out of our way to find too. Those who don’t give a thought to the possibility they themselves are among the lost, they are worth finding too. In spinning His lost sheep & lost coin yarns, Jesus is re- assuring any of us who think we’re not worth finding, that we are. He’s also urging any of us who believe ‘there’s nothing lost about me!’ not to be so sure of that! Jesus invites us all to rejoice that God thinks we’re all worth searching for and finding. 

There’s a sense of lostness abroad in the world today. People are responding to this in more & more desperate, violent, or otherwise disturbing ways, losing themselves in the process. Thus the violence keep on spreading, widening, tightening its grip. 

Three simple trains of thought we might preach from today’s short passage: 1)‘Sheep’ & ‘coin’ are both worth looking for. 2) Searching, Finding, & Being Found are life-changing experiences. 3) Celebrate by rejoicing with God’s Holy Angels at every newly-found life.

Brian 

Afterthought: Maybe the ‘Intention’ of today’s Eucharist could be as a Celebration of Searching, Finding, & Rejoicing? The story of the Lost Son doesn’t crop up this year, but why not include him / us too?