Title: Who’s Missing and Does It Matter?
Text: Luke 15:1-10
Thesis: People matter to God
Introduction
Just south of here there is a $3.25 million project to do some renovating of Berkley Park. In order to do those projects it was necessary to drain Berkeley Lake and it was the draining of Berkeley Lake that prompted an article in the Denver Post: As Berkeley Lake in Denver Drains, Treasure Hunters Scour What’s Unveiled. The drained lake bottom is visibly “littered with rusted cans, broken bottles, driftwood and lots of freshly dug holes.”
Area treasure hunters have waited for 35 years (since 1976) for the chance to see what has been lost on the bottom of Berkeley Lake. One treasurer hunter reported using his metal detector to unearth “13 rings, a buffalo nickel, a silver mercury dime and lots of wheat pennies” in just a few hours one recent Thursday morning. (http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_18761039)
I doubt that many people have lamented the loss of a rusty old can or broken bottle but those who lost their wedding rings while swimming in Berkeley Lake were undoubtedly saddened when they discovered their loss.
Things that go missing matter to us.
I. Missing things matter
“Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and loses one of them… Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one…” Luke 15:4 and 8
In these two parables Jesus identifies two characters that experienced a loss. One is a sheep herder and the other a homemaker. The sheep herder lost a sheep and the homemaker lost a silver coin. The sheep was important to the sheep herder and the silver coin was important to the homemaker.
In London there is an official governmental office for lost and found items. It is the London Transports “Lost Property Office.” It is located on the side of the Baker’s Street Station, just across the street from the fictitious residence of Sherlock Holmes. It has been there since 1933 and it is where all the lost items found on or in any of London’s transportation systems… subways, buses, cabs, etc., are placed to be reclaimed. Every year between 150,000 and 200,000 items are found and turned in to the LPO where officials attempt to locate owners and return their lost items.
Every year people lose wheelchairs, false teeth, watches, backpacks and lunch pails, umbrellas, cell phones, and what have you… between 2009 and 2010 38,000 books, 29,000 bags and 28,000 pieces of clothing were turned in. Oddities found and turned in included urns with human remains, a suitcase full of money, a human skull and a lawnmower.
We’ve all lost things. And while some losses are inconsequential, others are of consequence. Some of our losses are of actual monetary consequence and others losses are of sentimental consequence. And those things that are of consequence matter.
In our story today two things mattered, a lost sheep and a lost coin.
A. The lost sheep mattered
“Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” Luke 15:4
The lost sheep represents 1/100th or 1% of the shepherd’s flock. The wandering off of one sheep does not seem like much when he has 99 sheep remaining in his flock. However the lost sheep was so important to the man that he left the 99 remaining sheep in the open country and went looking for the lost sheep.
For three years running Bonnie and I have made a fall day-trip out to the Flat Tops to cruise the Flat Tops Scenic Byway between Yampa and Meeker during Aspen season. Three years running we have failed to find the Scenic Byway out of Yampa… but we always have fun looking for it and often find ourselves at the end of a miles long trail that dead-ends in a rancher’s front yard. I just checked the web site for directions to the Scenic Byway Trail and found that “Directions to the Trail are Unavailable at this Time.”
But to the point… one year on our return we found ourselves driving through sheep herding country. There were thousands of sheep being moved. I was really fascinated because I had read an article in the Denver Post about how western Colorado ranchers were hiring Peruvian descendants from the ancient Incans as “guest workers” to shepherd their flocks. (This is a labor force that is essential to the sheep ranching industry and no one does it better than the Peruvian shepherds.)
And there they were… Peruvian shepherds working the sheep. Huge corrals. A dozen of the 1950’s vintage shepherd’s camper wagons. Sheep too many to count… there were so many sheep that one would wonder how one might be missed. But a greater fear in the ranching community is that a shepherd will desert their flock leaving hundreds of sheep abandoned and unprotected in the Colorado open country.
And yet in our story that is exactly what the shepherd in our story did. When one of sheep went missing, the shepherd went looking for it and did not come back until he found it.
Meanwhile in attempting to find the one lost sheep he seemingly recklessly placed the remaining 99 sheep at risk.
In the mind of the shepherd every sheep is important and the thought of losing even one was sufficient to make him take a huge risk in order to find it. The point is not the folly of the shepherd. The point is the intense concern for and desire on the part of the shepherd to rescue the lost sheep.
Similarly…the next parable is about a coin that mattered.
B. The lost coin mattered
“Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?” Luke 15:8
In the story of the lost coin, the woman’s loss represents 1/10th or 10% of her holdings. She originally had 10 silver coins, lost one and then had 9 remaining. Commentators say the coin was the equivalent of a day’s wages. That does not sound like a lot but most of us would care if we lost a day’s wages.
Other commentators suggest that the set of 10 coins might be compared to a set of pearls and the loss of one coin was akin to losing a pear from a pearl necklace. And others think the 10 coins were perhaps the woman’s dowry, the loss of which would be devastating.
Whatever the case she lost it and she was determined to get it back and she did!
A few years ago one of our children sold their home and bought another. One morning one of the kids was taking a bath when we heard a shriek that made my skin crawl and the hair stand up on the back of my neck. It was one of those really disproportionately alarming shrieks that should be reserved for something really catastrophic. However… one of those little wobbly-people from a Fisher-Price toy had gone down the drain.
In that the drain would not drain, a plumber was called. He blew compressed air into another drain and out popped the little man from the tub drain… all safe and sound and the tears of grief turned to tears of joy. The little lost man was found!
Lost things matter. Sheep matter. Coins matter. Little toy people matter to a child.
(Note… when we examine the text for next week we will see that the loss of one son represents ½ or 50% of the man’s sons. The idea is perhaps to instill in us a sense of how things escalate in value and particularly so when it comes to people.
People matter!
The incident that prompted Jesus to begin weaving together the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son was a mean-spirited comment he overheard from his critics.
II. The things that matter to Jesus are missing people
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then Jesus told them this parable: Luke 15:1-2
By definition a parable is a story the listeners can easily relate to but that story also has a deeper underlying implication. In the telling of these two parables Jesus is not talking about lost sheep or lost coins. He is talking about lost people. The lost sheep is a lost person. The lost coin is a lost person.
I once served a church where a lady approached the Board of Deacons to express her concern for my lifestyle. She was concerned that I was having breakfast at the Burlingame Café… and did the Board of Deacons know what kind of people have breakfast at the Burlingame Café? She felt her pastor should not be associated with those kinds of people and so on and so forth…
On any given day, perhaps one of the most complementary things that may be said about you is that you, as a Christian, are a friend of sinners and that you even eat with them. (Understandably, not in the Psalm 1 way in which you walk in the counsel of the wicked, stand in the way of sinners or sit in the way of sinners… but in the Jesus loving people way.)
If there is anything dear to the heart of God it is people. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God is not willing that anyone should perish but that everyone should come to repentance. (John 3:16; Romans 5:8 and II Peter 3:9)
However, missing people did not and do not matter to everyone.
III. Missing people do not matter to everyone
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:1-3
The problem with the Pharisees is that they did not care about the same people Jesus cared about. In fact Jesus cared about people upon whom they placed absolutely no value. In their minds the tax collectors and sinners were of no value and the fact that they were not going to heaven did not matter one iota to them.
In our story the tax collectors were Jewish people who had contracted with the Roman Government to collect taxes from their fellow Jewish citizens. They were thought to be treasonous and they were despised. They were viewed by the Jewish citizenry in much the same way that Afghanis who contract with the United States military are thought to be treasonous by some Afghans and that is why they are alarmed by the thought that the Americans will leave without giving helping them immigrate to the United States. They know they will be killed if they are left behind.
The sinners are a universal lot… we are not just talking everyday sinners. They folks were professional sinners and they worked in trades and did things that a good and religious person would never think of doing.
Most of us know about those kinds of people and the things they do but few of us actually hang out with them or know them personally. And in some cases the sinner label had as much to do with race or ethnicity or guilt by association as anything.
Interestingly, Jesus contrasts the dismay of the Pharisees and teachers of the law with the joy in heaven when a person who was missing comes to Christ.
IV. It is a joyful occasion when missing people are found.
“When he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home…” “And when she finds it she calls her friends and neighbors and says, ‘Rejoice with me…” Luke 15:5 and 9
One of the ways we can measure the importance of something gone missing is the depth of the sense of loss when it is lost. The other way we can measure the importance of something gone missing is in the extent of the celebration when it is found. In great loss there is great sadness. In recovering what was lost there is great joy. In these stories we can safely say that the partying that went on upon discovering the lost sheep and the lost coin was directly proportional to and proportionately in response to the sense of loss.
In both the story of the lost sheep and the lost coin there is a sense of reckless abandonment on the part of the ones suffering the loss… they almost go berserk in their efforts to find the lost sheep and the lost coin. There is a sense of frantic frenzy that resulted in the finding of the sheep and the coin.
I confess that I have a bit of a problem fully identifying with the shepherd and the homemaker. I can understand losing something and wanting to find it. I can understand being happy when one finds what was lost. I don’t know how many times a week I lose my keys or my glasses or my phone and every time I find them I am happy. But this rejoicing part baffles me. It seems way over the top.
My next door neighbors have a wonderful dog named Hazel. Hazel likes me and whenever they walk her and she sees me on our patio she is there. She wags and squirms about as I scratch behind her ears and scratch her back. Now just suppose one day that Hazel goes missing. She slips out the front door or gets off her leash and she is gone… lost! Pat and Amy put up posters on the board at our mailbox station with her picture and asking people to call them is they see Hazel. They nail fliers to telephone poles. They drive the neighborhoods and check the animal shelters. They search and search for Hazel.
Then a day or so later… they find Hazel and they are so happy to have Hazel back that they call all the neighbors and they invite everyone over for a party to celebrate their having Hazel back safe and sound. So we all go over and they have catered Bennett’s BBQ brisket with Original Sauce. There are pans of loaded baked potatoes. There are huge pans of baked beans and containers of coleslaw. There are ice filled tubs with cases and cases of soft drinks. They hire a live band to play. They literally drop a bundle rejoicing over having found Hazel.
Tell me that isn’t ridiculous! Who would do such a thing?
In the case of the shepherd… he likely spent more on the party than the sheep was worth. In the case of the homemaker, she likely spent more on the party than the value of the coin. Their celebrating is nothing short of excessive and extravagant.
In our story today there are two kinds of joy.
A. There is earthly joy
“Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’” Luke 15:5-6 and 9
Our earthly joy may be over-the-top but it is intended to point to another kind of joy and that is God’s joy when a lost person is found.
And there is also heavenly joy.
B. There is heavenly joy
“I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” Luke 15:7 and 10
People matter to God and they matter so much that the story Jesus tells is designed to make that point. God’s joy is an over-the-top joy! And if people matter to God… people should matter to you and to me.
Jesus was saying that if the Pharisees had even a fraction of the concern of the shepherd or the woman, they would care about the people he was hanging out with because they were lost.
Conclusion
When we lived in western Kansas there was a family who moved into the Marcuson place. Gail and Kay had built a new home and were renting out their old farmstead home. The family had two boys and a little girl. One fall day nearing harvest, when the milo was full-grown and headed-out, the two boys left their yard and went out to play in the field of milo. They were unaware than their little sister had followed them into the field.
Later they returned home and the family realized that the little girl had gone missing and it was assumed that she had followed the boys into the field but being so tiny, she was not able to see her way out and was lost in a rather vast western Kansas field.
It grew dark when the phone call went out but and all of the neighbors gathered to walk the field in search of the tiny little girl. It was a cold fall evening and the wind was blowing and the leaves on the plants were dry and rustling so loudly that we could hardly hear ourselves calling her name. And down deep we all knew that we could never hear her tiny little voice even if she heard us. We prayed and we each took a couple of rows and we began walking the rows in search of her knowing that we would probably just about have to step on her to find her.
When we found her glad shouts, “We’ve found her! We’ve found her!” carried across the field as we carried her home and placed her in the anxious and welcoming arms of her mother and father. Missing people matter.
The stories in out text today are about people who have gone missing and how much they matter to God. Our challenge is to go and find and love missing people… because missing people matter to God! It is because people matter to God that we are sponsoring Back to Church Sunday again this year… because people matter to God they matter to us and just as Christ would have us go into their world, I believe Christ would have us invite others into our world where they will be loved and accepted by Christ and Christ’s followers.
