Year C Proper 19 1 Timothy 1:12-17 Luke 15:1-10

I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence.

Paul the Apostle was, until his conversion, Saul of Tarsus, a devout Jew and a Pharisee, yet he describes himself as a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. Certainly he didn’t see himself in this light as he went about persecuting the Church and killing off Christians at an alarming rate. Violence toward what Saul saw as the blasphemous followers of Jesus was accepted in his society, so Saul had no reason to feel he was doing anything wrong. He created mayhem and performed murder, backed and strengthened by his devout beliefs as a Pharisee.

If he ever had a moment of self-doubt, it would have quickly passed, at least in part because of the support he felt from other Pharisees, from people who agreed with his beliefs and with what he was doing. Saul was a man lost in his zeal to eradicate the followers of Jesus, a man who felt justified in his terrible actions, because he had the backing of those close to him. He was quite satisfied with his lot in life, and his fellow Pharisees would certainly have agreed that he had every reason to feel so. He probably would have plowed right on with his terrible ways had God not taken notice of his enthusiasm, dedication, and piety. All these gifts had become twisted, but they were strong, and God had use for Saul.

To win Saul over, it was first necessary to get his attention. With great love, God took the time and trouble to blind Saul on the road to Damascus. Not all gifts from God are pleasant. Suddenly Saul was alone in the dark. For the first time, he let go and allowed God to care for him, heal him, and redirect his life, and he became Paul, the Apostle of Jesus.

The average individual in our society today, hearing Paul describe his life before his conversion, wouldn’t be likely to feel any kindred to the man who murdered Christians. It’s also unlikely that many people in our society would describe themselves as “lost”, because we feel that we’re doing all right when we have material needs satisfied, a roof over our heads, and food on the table, when we feel secure. Society bolsters us up, and we don’t identify ourselves as among the lost. But “lost” in the eyes of God is something entirely different from what we have in mind when we use the word.

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."

Today’s Gospel reading begins with a crowd around Jesus, and in the multitude, a group of Pharisees. The Pharisees are the “good” folks, the ones who hold the “accepted” beliefs, are part of the correct religion, are financially well situated, and socially acceptable. To us they often seem haughty and out of touch, but that’s only because we can view them from an historical perspective and in the light of our faith. Back then, we might not have been the ones at table with our Lord, we might have been among the Pharisees, and comfortably so.

The Pharisees’ complaints against Jesus’ choice of companions are well grounded in the standards of the day. Good folks didn’t associate with known sinners or with the despised tax collectors, but there’s a deeper question here. Is anyone beyond God’s mercy? Is anyone, ever, so lost that God cannot find them and bring them home? This is what Jesus hears, and it is to this that He responds.

"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?

It’s a wonderful image, that flock of sheep, all happily grouped together in one place, enjoying the grass, feeling comfortable, not worried about anything – much like any group of Pharisees, or any of us today. Of course the Pharisees would have been put off by the image, because first-century shepherds were considered lawless and dishonest. Jesus always chose his examples carefully.

Did the one sheep that had wandered off even know that it had the left the group? Quite possibly not! Perhaps it had found an extra succulent patch of grass and become so absorbed in the meal that it failed to notice the flock moving on to higher ground. It’s the shepherd that notices that sheep is gone, and it is only the shepherd that becomes frantic, dashing off to find that one lost sheep.

The gathered crowd must have been astounded by that image of a shepherd running off and leaving his flock. He already has 99 sheep safe and sound, and yet he deserts them in the wilderness to frantically search for that one sheep that has gone missing. There are many perils that could possibly befall the 99 while the shepherd is retracing his steps, searching for the one that is lost, but it doesn’t matter. Each sheep is important to the shepherd; each sheep is priceless in His eyes. We can surmise that the Pharisees were horrified with the image of God as a shepherd, but the common folk, listening to Jesus, would have understood that Jesus is speaking of God’s passionate and frantic love for each and every individual.

In Jesus’ day, social lines were clearly drawn, and so the listeners to this parable would have felt they knew to whom Jesus was referring. They would have concluded that the lost sheep was someone the acceptable elements in society would have considered not worthy of God’s time, tax collectors, prostitutes, sinners. But Jesus knew there were others who were not as obvious, others listening who did not understand they too were among the lost. An example would be anyone like Paul. He was a fanatic, but he was also a member of a socially acceptable section of society, those who would never have believed Jesus was referring to them.

So where do we fit in, are we, too, lost? In our society, it would hard for us not to be – at least at times – very lost indeed. However, the awareness of our being “lost” comes to us only in those rare moments when we become aware that no matter how large our circle of friends, how huge our family, in this life we are alone. Most of the time, we have ways of hiding this knowledge from ourselves, by joining more groups, becoming involved in more causes, extending our contacts, and filling our time so that we never have to face our isolation. In the end we’re so busy, so preoccupied with human activities, so lost in our schedules, we don’t realize we have wandered away from the flock.

A few years ago, a seventeen year old girl left her hometown with a strange man her parents didn’t know. For days she was gone, not aware that she was in any danger, not trying to contact her family. In her absence, her parents were frantic, appealing for her return, searching, through the police, everywhere for her. When she turned up unharmed she was probably surprised by all the fuss. The news media said this child was developmentally delayed, and we, who busy ourselves with the world, are in many ways like her, spiritually delayed and unaware of the dangers we face.

As we lose ourselves in the world, how desperate does God become to find us and bring us back? We only need to think of how desperate those parents were this last week to find their missing child. Jesus, our shepherd, is more concerned for us than even than those desperate parents whose frantic fear is almost too painful to consider. He longs for us, reaches out for us, and when we set aside the world even for a moment to make time for Him in our lives, He gathers up us in his arms.

When the shepherd has found the lost sheep, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.'

The truth is that you don’t have to be a “notorious evil liver” to have wandered away from the flock. Because we are human and find strong support in our society to do so, we can become so distracted by the world, by our lives, that we are unaware we have spiritually wandered away. We tell ourselves we’ll set aside time for prayer, for God, when we aren’t so busy, as if it’s perfectly all right to step into and out of the flock when we choose, but every step away leads us into darkness.

The good news is that Jesus loves us with a passion we cannot even begin to imagine, that being “found” only requires of us that we is take the time to become quiet, to divest ourselves of worldly distractions, to realize we are in our lives alone, and to open ourselves to Him. Being “found” is never something we accomplish on our own – but if we are still, in His infinite love Jesus will find us and bring us home.

Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Let us pray:

Eternal and unchangeable God, in whom alone we find rest for our weariness and comfort for our sorrow, and from whom alone comes all true joy; keep our hearts always fixed on You, open our minds to see ourselves as You see us, save us from all unwillingness to be the people You are calling us to be, and when faith is difficult and the call of the world is strong, grant us the grace to keep from wandering away, and yet, should we stray, guide us back to You, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.