1st Timothy 1.12-17; Luke 15.1-10
From an economic point of view, you know the answer to Jesus’ question. “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?” Which one of you? The answer is likely to be, ‘Not one of you.’
A risk assessment would show how going after one sheep is neither sensible nor wise. In the Judean wilderness, caring for and protecting a flock was difficult, dangerous business. No shepherd expected to go through a year without losing one or more sheep to accident, disease, or predators. A single sheep that wandered away was unlikely to be found. Besides, any shepherd who left the rest of the flock behind and unprotected would, while he’s gone, lose even more sheep than the one stray recovered. Better to take the 1% loss and keep the rest safe—an acceptable loss. That’s sensible and wise. But not for Jesus or his parable—and not in the economy of God’s grace. In the economy of God, every single sheep matters, every person matters. “Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Jesus then tells about a woman with ten coins who loses one. This time, the stakes are higher, at least in economic terms: a 10% loss compared to the shepherd’s 1%. This is an asset that matters, so she searches carefully to find it. The task of finding this coin, however, would’ve been harder for her than for us. Homes in Jesus’ day were typically made of stone or mud bricks; there weren’t many windows, so the interior was dark; and the floors were usually dirt. A lost coin embedded in a dirt floor in a dark room would’ve been a challenge to find—no LED flashlight to assist the search.
And the relief and joy the woman would’ve felt when finding that coin would have been more than the happy surprise that you feel when you take a jacket out of fall storage and discover a $20 bill tucked in the pocket. The coin she lost—a drachma is what the ancient text behind our translation calls it—was equivalent to a day’s wage. Real money. But is there a financial advisor anywhere who would tell you it would make sense to throw a party? Eduard Schweizer, 20thc Swiss biblical scholar who, back in his day, also taught confirmation classes in his church, describes one of his young students who heard this parable and pointed out that the woman wasn’t very smart in economic terms because, “She spent more on the party than the coin was worth.”
Yet that’s exactly the point. Jesus’ parables of the shepherd searching for the one lost sheep, the woman with her one lost coin, and the parties that follow, are not about prudent economics. These parables are about the economy of God’s grace, about Jesus’ life and ministry, and about the joy of our being found by God.
One of the great traits of God in and through the scriptures is of a God who goes in search of people made in the divine image, of a love that does not give up and does not count the cost. This is the character of God all through the scripture: from seeking out Adam and Eve when they had fallen into sin; to Psalm 139 saying, “Lord, you have searched me out and known me;” to Jesus describing his life and ministry by saying at one point that he has come “to seek out and save the lost.” This is what the church means by the grace—God’s desire for life with the people he creates and loves, a desire driven only by the passion of the seeker, without counting the cost.
Francis Spufford, author of the book Unapologetic, describes this seeking, saving grace of God and says that, like the shepherd and the woman, lost people arouse Jesus’ particular tenderness. In all their varieties. People whose bodies or minds don’t work properly…People who one way or another fall short of the rules, whether it’s their own doing or not. People who live beyond the usual bounds of sympathy because they are unpleasant, or frightening, or boring, or beyond understanding, or dangerous. These are the focus of Jesus’ searching grace.
“Over and over again, Jesus gives his whole attention to whoever he meets, including a multitude of foreigners, and members of an occupying army. Each person in front of him is, for that moment, the one missing sheep. And Jesus is never disgusted. He never says that anything or anyone is too dirty to be touched. That anyone is too lost to be found. Even in situations where there seems to be no grounds for human hope, Jesus will not agree that hope is gone. Wreckage may be written into the logic of the world, but Jesus shows there is more.” Now we have seen too much wreckage; buy Jesus shows us another way. In a shepherd searching for one sheep and a woman searching for her day’s wage, we see Jesus who searches for us without counting the cost. There is no acceptable loss in the economy of God’s grace.
As for us? St Augustine, an early Church Father, said, “We are the sheep, we are the coin; we are lost.” Because of the power of sin in our lives, Augustine says, “We have wandered into the region of un-likeness.” It’s an odd word: unlikeness. Augustine probably invented it in order to make a point. “We have wandered into the region of un-likeness.”
What Augustine is saying is that, though we are made in the image and likeness of God, our human brokenness and sin take us the opposite direction from God. Like a sheep wandering from a flock, “we have wandered into the region of unlikeness.” We are lost. There is, within us, a chronic propensity to turn away from who God has made us, the life and gifts that God has given us, the life God desires for us. We have, Spufford notes, an enormous capacity to mess things up. The power of social media to connect and inform becomes, instead, a platform for division and lies; public and civic life meant for the common good are infected by corruption and violence; our common and shared humanity are poisoned by condescension and selfishness.
Only this is nothing new; there is nothing new under the sun, the Bible points out. The letter of James, for example, speaking about the power of the tongue says, “With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing…This ought not to be so.” There is, within us, an almost irresistible knack for damaging ourselves, others, and even the people we love. We are lost.
But we are not left to fend for ourselves in that lostness. There will be in God’s time justice that means that evil will not ultimately prevail, judgment that sorts it all out—both in the world and in our lives. Christ will come again “to judge the living and the dead.” But because both judgment and justice belong in God’s gracious hand and not in us lending God a helping hand, there is always forgiveness and hope. Because God searches for us to bring us home from the region of unlikeness and from the wreckage written into the logic of the world, there is always hope. And because of that hope, we who are lost can turn and return to God with the trust that we will be welcomed. Sin judged, but we are welcomed. “Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
We have wandered into the region of unlikeness. Yet Jesus does not leave us there. From God seeking out Adam and Eve when they had fallen into sin, to Psalm 139 saying, “Lord you have searched me out and known me,” to Jesus describing his own life and ministry by saying that he has come, “to seek out and save the lost,” Jesus searches for us—searches for you—because he wants nothing more than for you to find a life and home within God’s grace. Jesus seeks the lost until they are found, not counting the cost, even the great cost of his death on the cross. And he celebrates the return of the lost with a party in the Kingdom of God.
The complaint of the religiously serious and dutiful about Jesus in today’s gospel, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them,” is true. That is what St Paul says today, too. ““Here is a saying you can rely on without doubt, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” The search of the shepherd for the one lost sheep that wandered into the region of unlikeness, the diligence of the woman in search of the one lost coin, is also the passion of Jesus for you. Some may wonder if that is sensible or wise. And maybe it isn’t. But it is grace. In the economy of God’s grace, you are beyond measure and value. The life and gifts that God has given you, the life God desires for you—that is your true home.
And today, when you come forward to receive Jesus as he gives himself to you in bread and wine, in the sacrament of his body and blood, and you listen carefully, you might just hear the sound of heaven’s own party. “Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
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