Last year a former homeless man was buried at the prestigious St. John’s Episcopal Church, across from the White House. St. John’s is called the “church of presidents” since nearly every U.S. leader since James Madison has worshiped there. In an unusual memorial, former members of Congress and prominent professionals attended the burial of William Wallace Brown, Jr. Someone had swindled Brown out of his house 15 years ago, and he had lived on the streets ever since. One Sunday morning he spotted, then president, George H. W. Bush entering the church and asked the former president to pray for him. Bush looked at him for a moment and said, “No. Come inside with us and pray for yourself.” After that, William Brown became a regular attender at the 8:00 a.m. service and always placed a crumpled dollar bill in the silver offering plate. At his funeral, Dolph Hatfield, a member of the church who befriended Brown, said: “the homeless and the most important are one and the same.” Hatfield introduced himself to Brown after another parishioner snubbed him. He became Brown’s best friend, inviting him for a meal or taking him grocery shopping after church. The pastor who conducted the service said that Brown, “really understood that the kingdom of God is for all of us. It doesn’t matter about ethnic background, race, or class — all the things that we allow to divide us, but that in God’s eyes are not really important.”
In the two parables we read together today, we find two individuals looking for something which was lost. One was a lost sheep and the other was a lost coin. The parables are introduced by the first two verses of the chapter which say, “Now the tax collectors and ‘sinners’ were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them’” (Luke 15:1-2). The setting is developed by Luke as he paints the background of a group of critical, muttering, religious folk. But in the foreground of this portrait of words is a group of sinners who are gathering around Jesus and hearing him gladly. The religious folk are there because they want to find fault with Jesus, and the sinners were there because they were genuinely attracted to Jesus. You find yourself saying, “Now wait a minute, shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t the sinners be giving Jesus a hard time and the righteous folks be his friends? Shouldn’t the religious people be his supporters and the sinners be his detractors? But it is the other way around. How can this be?” The pious crowd thought they were the “in crowd.” and that the others should be the outsiders. I suppose if Jesus had catered to the devout people of his day and looked down his nose at the dirty sinners, they would have loved him. But because he showed an interest in the outsiders, they hated him, and as you know, were eventually successful in having him killed. They were always criticizing Jesus for not doing things right and following the time honored traditions. They accused him of doing wrong when he did things like heal on the Sabbath, and never seemed to understand that their hatred of him, and their plots to kill him, were in any way breaking the law or the result of the evil in their hearts.
The sinners, on the other hand, loved Jesus. He made them feel like God was interested in them and that there was hope for them. Far from being put off by his preaching about repentance and faith, they found themselves hopelessly attracted to him. They couldn’t get enough of what he had to say and were always wanting to be around him. They invited him to their parties and enjoyed his company. Far from being starchy and stiff, religious and self-righteous, he was genuine and real.
The first thing that these parables teach us is: God is interested in the least. Of course, in God’s eyes there are no “least.” Every person is valuable. Even if they have tattoos and body piercing, even if they are steeped in sin, even if they smell bad and have no money, even if they have poor grammar and no education, they are valuable to God. It is important to understand that the lost coin was not more or less valuable than the ones which were not lost. The lost sheep was not any more special than the 99 others. But to the other sheep it may have seemed unfair that the shepherd left them in order to search for the one which was lost. After all, they had not wandered away. They had followed the shepherd and listened to him. Didn’t they deserve special treatment since they had not gone astray?
Sometimes I hear things in the church like, “All they care about is the young people. We are the ones who have been members here all our lives and no one cares about what we think or what we like. They only care about the new people and trying to get outsiders to come. What about us?” This is the whining of the ninety and nine. The point is that you are not the ones who are lost. You are already found, and we should be seeking those who are lost. And it does not matter if the lost look different from us, or are a different color and from a different cultural background. It does not matter if they don’t dress like us. We will never have a sign out front that says, “No shirt. No shoes. No worship service.” They are welcome into the service whatever their condition — the worse the better. Who cares whether they have a tie on or not? Certainly not God.
We used to have a gentleman attend our service a couple of years ago who walked to the church from the Rose Garden nursing home. His name was Charlie. Some of you may remember him. He was different. He would often speak out in the service. He would sometimes even say “Amen” during the sermon — God forbid! But the worst thing about Charlie was that he wore a baseball cap during the service. And some here were more concerned about the fact that he was wearing a hat in church than the fact that this was one of God’s children in need of love and acceptance and a place to worship — not criticism and correction. Some fine Christians here scowled at him and others scolded him so that after awhile he did not come back — to our shame. So often in the church we have an “Us and Them” mentality, when what we need to understand is “Them R Us.” Whether a person sitting in the congregation is a visitor or a lifelong member, they are us. We need to take seriously the words of Jesus as we consider those we think of as least. He said, “Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last” (Luke 13:30). We need to be reminded that the Bible says that at the judgment Jesus will say to us, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me” (Matthew 25:45).
The story is told of a poor black man who was sitting on the front steps of a church with his head in his hands, when suddenly Jesus appeared and sat next to him putting his arm around him. Jesus asked him why he was so troubled. He looked up at Jesus and said, “They won’t let me in.” Jesus looked him in the eye and said, “Don’t let it trouble you. I’ve been trying to get in for fifty years and they won’t let me in either.”
Secondly, these parables teach us that: God is interested in the lost. In the culture of Jesus’ day, a woman was given a dowry. Since women did not carry purses, they would wear their money — usually in a necklace or a head band which held down their veils. The coin which this woman lost was probably one of these dowry coins which came loose from the chain. It was not of greater value than the other coins, or of any less value. The thing that made it the center of her attention was that it was lost. In telling this story, Jesus was trying to help the religious folk understand that all people are important to God. They thought that God hated sinners and was not interested in them. They thought they were more important to God than sinners because they had never wandered away. They thought if someone wandered away, it was their responsibility to find their own way back. But God cares about lost people, and he searches for them like the woman searched for her coin.
And is there any doubt that there are lost people in Knox County? One recent survey found that there are 35,000 people in Knox County who have no church affiliation whatsoever. Do we care about those 35,000 people? Do those people matter to God? Do they matter to us? We have seen signs of just how lost people are right around us. We have learned about a kidnaping and murder in our county. We have read about a fiery suicide by two teens who appeared to be normal and talented. We have learned that the internet has made its way to Mt. Vernon as a young girl was lured through a chat room and subsequently used for pornographic purposes. Several robberies and shootings have taken place recently. And these are just the things we know about through the newspapers. Alcoholism and drug addiction are rampant in our little town. Marriages are in trouble. Young people are lost. People are in desperate need of Jesus in their lives. And what are we doing about it?
One day, as Jesus was in Samaria, the people came out to see him. Now, the Jews thought that Samaritans were the least of all human beings who were hopelessly alienated from God. But Jesus turned to his disciples and said, “Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35). The harvest Jesus was talking about was the Samaritans. Jesus’ teaching always had a surprise or shock factor. Imagine a farmer walking by his field and not recognizing that it was ready to be harvested. It would be absurd. What if he looked at a field full of ripe grain and said to himself, “It’s going to be a long time before this is ready to harvest, and perhaps it never will be.” We wouldn’t think much of that farmer’s ability. But we are walking by lost people everyday who are ripe for God and ready to come to him, yet we fail to recognize it and make no attempt to bring them in. They are ripe and ready to give their lives to Christ, but we look at them and say, “No way, that person is not ready to come to God — and probably never will be.” But they are ready. If only someone would invite them. If only someone showed that they cared and were concerned. If only someone would share what God has done in his or her life they would respond.
Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:37-38). When Jesus said for us to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send out workers, the word he used in the original language literally means “to throw out,” or “to eject.” Why does God have to throw us out into the fields? Why do we have to be ejected? Why are we so reluctant? Is it because we understand so little of the heart of God? Is it because we know so little of his love for the lost?
The third thing these parables teach us is: God rejoices when the least and lost are found. When the shepherd finds his sheep, the scripture says, “When he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Luke 15:5-7). When the woman finds her lost coin, the scripture says, “And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:9-10). In the parable which follows these two, the father of the prodigal runs to his son who was lost and throws his arms around him. He puts a new robe on him and a ring on his finger. He throws a feast for him and invites all his friends and neighbors. He rejoices over his son who was lost, but is now found. But the older brother who never left home was angry that the father showed this special attention to the sinful son. Yet, that was the way it should have been.
We have seen people coming to Christ recently in our own church. It has been the cause of great joy. There is more joy over them than the many who have been in the church since they were carried in by their parents and never left. That is the way it should be. It is not that the new Christians are more important than the established Christians. It is that something new and wonderful has happened. Someone who was lost has been found, and we have the need to rejoice.
One time, when Lisa was young, we were Christmas shopping in a mall. Suddenly, we noticed that she was no longer walking with us. Panic gripped us as we looked around but could not find her. We could not imagine how it could have happened. One minute she was walking by our side in the crowd and the next minute she was gone. We called for her and raced through the mall looking for her. Then we saw her. She was standing in front of a talking Christmas tree. She had been lured away by the person inside the Christmas tree that called to her and was asking her questions. We grabbed her, hugged her, kissed her and told her that we missed her. We didn’t kiss and hug our other daughter who was with us and did not wander away. There were no tender words of affection for her. Our attention was focused on the child who was lost. That is as it should have been. Our older daughter was just as glad to find her as we were. It did not mean that we loved our other daughter less, or that we loved Lisa more. We loved them both, but one was lost and was wonderfully found.
We don’t always recognize the lost as wandering children of God. The lost may be a mess, but they are no less loved by God. Helmut Thielicke, the great theologian, once wrote: “Jesus gained the power to love harlots, bullies, and ruffians . . . . He was able to do this only because he saw through the filth and crust of degeneration, because his eye caught the divine original which is hidden in every way — in every man! . . . When Jesus loved a guilt-laden person and helped him, he saw in him an erring child of God. He saw in him a human being whom his Father loved and grieved over because he was going wrong. He saw him as God originally designed and meant him to be, and therefore he saw through the surface layer of grime and dirt to the real man underneath. . . . Jesus was able to love men because he loved them right through the layer of mud.”
And so, we understand that each of us is infinitely important to God. God is not using us to accomplish some great goal, we are the goal. We are the purpose and end of his great plan. What God wants is us — the least of us, the lost among us. And when he finds us he places us on his shoulders and carries us home. He calls all the host of heaven to rejoice over what he has found. We are the prize — the purpose of his work — the focus of his love.
Rodney J. Buchanan
February 18, 2001
Mulberry Street UMC
Mt. Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
IN SEARCH OF THE LEAST AND THE LOST
Luke 15:1-10
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4).
These parables teach us that:
1. God is interested in ______________________________ .
2. God is interested in ______________________________.
3. God rejoices when _______________________________
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (Feb 18, 2001)
1. Read Luke 15:1-2. What was the setting for the parables which followed?
2. Read Luke 15:3-10. What are the similarities in the stories?
3. Why does the world consider some people less important or valuable than others? How does this happen in the church?
4. Read Matthew 25:41-46. What is God’s opinion of those who are often thought of as the “least”?
5. Why do you think the religious folk of Jesus’ day were so hostile to him, while the “sinners” were so attracted to him? Shouldn’t it have been the other way around?
6. Read Matthew 9:36-38. Why do we fail to believe that the harvest is plentiful? Why are the workers so unwilling and so few?
7. Read Luke 15:25-32. Why was the older brother angry? Why are the older brothers of the church sometimes angry when joy is expressed over those who “come home” from a life of sin?
8. What can we do to make the least and the lost feel welcome in the church?
9. How can we make the older brothers feel appreciated and needed?
10. What does God expect us to do about the lost?
