September 12, 2004
Scripture: Luke 15.1-10
Come Home
Years ago, I wrote a column for the Transcript papers. If I remember correctly, it ran here in Norwood . It was called “The Father Side,” and basically was about life as a dad trapped in suburban hell. My poor children, I'm afraid, appeared in the paper far more times than would have been their wish.
I did stories about soccer and parent-teacher meetings and train sets at Christmas. Norman Rockwell stuff, from sort of a Grateful Dead perspective. Occasionally, I'd run into someone at church or at the supermarket and they'd say: “Hey, I got a chuckle out of that story.” It was really innocuous stuff, and all meant in good fun.
Until I did a story on going to Disneyworld .
I actually got hate mail for criticizing Disneyworld . Apparently, people took umbrage with the fact that I said Disneyworld was the only place on the planet where a mouse can trap people, and that my favorite ride was the plane ride home.
And then there was the thing about parking.
Yea, we got lost. And had to go through the thing with the Disney “parking helpers.” This may have been one of the stupidest conversations I ever had in my life. You are all familiar, I assume, with the Disney parking system – how the lots are named after Disney characters …
So the conversation went something like this …
“Do you remember where you parked, sir?”
(Thought bubble over my head.) If I remembered where I parked would I be talking to you right now? But instead, I had to answer – and I still cringe when I think about this – “I think it was … Goofy.”
“Goofy?”
“It might have been Dopey.”
“Dopey? You think you're Dopey?”
“No. Pluto. Yea, Pluto.”
“Why Pluto?”
“Because I know it was very, very far away.”
And so we drove around in that little golf cart thing. And we finally did find the car somewhere in Pluto.
I'm told that today, when this happens, that you ride around the lot with the panic button pressed down on your keypad. Sort of like car fishing. And when the lights and the horn go off, you've found your car. Given Disney's marketing skills, this will no doubt become a ride in the future.
But back to Pluto. What did we feel when we found the car that once was lost and now was found? Yes, I did feel both Dopey and Goofy, but we all felt a sense of joy. And not just because we could stop riding in a golf cart with mouse ears on top.
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Shepherds.
They appear in a couple of crucial locations in the Gospels.
It is to them, in the Gospel of Luke, that news of the birth of the Christ child comes. In the Gospel of John, Jesus explicitly calls himself “the shepherd,” who is here to tend his “one flock.”
The most famous of all Psalms, the 23 rd , perhaps even the most famous of all Biblical verses is: “The Lord is my shepherd.”
This picture that Jesus paints today in this parable is an amazingly powerful image. It shows up all over the place – the image of the perfectly coiffed, blond, Jesus with a pure white fluffy little lamb over his shoulders.
How can you not feel warm and cuddly about this?
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Well, you could if you knew a shepherd.
Anybody here know any shepherds? It's not exactly a career path you hear a lot these days.
You know, it's important for our 21 st -century ears to hear the story the way that Jesus' audience would have heard the story. And to see some of the things that are hidden in this story, it's important to understand what a shepherd is – and was.
Ironically, I actually know someone who worked as a shepherd. Well, pretty close, he worked on a sheep farm. He was from Australia , where there are more than 120 million sheep. Considering there are only 20 million people in all of Australia , common sense would dictate that at least a few people are shepherds. According to this fellow, it was backbreaking work. And while sheep don't have the terminally bad hygiene of … say, camels, you're still hanging around with animals all day.
Also, back in the time of Jesus, being a shepherd would have been a dangerous job. Sleeping out in the open, protecting what would have been a family's livelihood – the flock – from thieves and wolves. And most probably, you would have been at the lowest rung of society. Shepherd was not a glamour profession. It is not by accident that the first people to witness the birth of Jesus are the lowly and the poor, the shepherds watching their flocks by night.
Now understanding the responsibility placed upon a shepherd, can you imagine how Jesus' audience must have heard this story?
Let's cast the following question in a 1 st -century context.
Jesus asks:
“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?”
In Jesus' time, everyone would have raised their hands. A hundred sheep was a significant amount. It was probably the entire livelihood not just for one family but for several families. A small clan.
So Jesus' audience has to be thinking: this is nuts. Who, in the right mind, would leave 99 perfectly well-off sheep out alone in the wilderness, at night, where they could be stolen or devoured, to go in search of one?
Write the one off.
Forgetaboutit.
The guy on the park bench talking to himself with the bad teeth and ragged clothes and the Jack Daniels in the paper bag.
Write him off.
The calls that come in here looking for money for food or clothes for kids. Could be a scam. Write ‘em off.
OK, now we're getting close to the 1 st -century mindset. When Jesus said, leave the 99 and go after the one, the people must have thought he was crazy. It goes against common sense. It goes against standard accounting practices.
But that's the whole story of the Gospel.
We do now use standard accounting practices. Because grace makes accounting irrelevant.
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Moments of grace burst through every now and again – just to remind us that grace happens. Against our wildest expectations, grace comes surging through – amazing grace – and shatters the bonds of common sense.
Where common sense says: write off that one, we abandon common sense, and fall into the arms of grace.
Midland , Texas . Back in the fall of 1987. Baby Jessica. 18 months old. Wandering in her backyard, falls down a 22-foot abandoned well. Only 10 inches wide. Now you might have to stretch your memory a bit on this, but this just wasn't the lead story on the news. This was news all around the world. One little girl. One lost sheep.
It was a media roller-coaster: each new attempt failed. Each new attempt brought the danger of the hole collapsing closer and closer. 24 hours. thirty-six hours. People glued to their televisions. 48 hours. This is just going to end in tragedy, everyone is thinking. Meanwhile, one of the engineers had the unusual idea of building a parallel well, and then cutting across. 50 hours. Hope is fading. Then, 58 hours after she fell down the whole, one of the rescue workers breaks through the parallel well and reaches the baby. The whole world rejoices.
“Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost!” Jesus said.
These are powerful, powerful stories.
Because in these stories, the goodness of God is reaffirmed. The existence of grace is reaffirmed. Those who once were lost are now found.
The nine miners who were trapped underground in Pennsylvania .
The newborn baby – literally a day old – found in the earthquake rubble of Bam , Iran , December 2003. 40,000 people died. But the story of the baby found dominated the news. One lost sheep.
“Rejoice with me, for I have found the sheep that was lost!”
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I once was lost, but now am found.
Why does this resonate so powerfully with us? I think, because, being “found” means going home. Jesus puts the lamb over his shoulders and returns him to his home.
When we see Bay Jessica being re-born again – almost literally – coming up through the birth canal in the ground and into her mother's arms, we are reminded of coming home.
This will be a theme throughout all our lives, until we finally return to God. It is the purpose of our seeking – to be found. By each other, and most importantly, by God.
It is the reason we gather here today. Softly and tenderly, we are being called. To come home, to come home, to come home.
