ARE YOU READY TO PARTY?

Dr. Richard J. Henderson September 16, 2007

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I Timothy 1: 12-17
Luke 15 1-10

Introduction

You've lost an important paper around the house. You begin looking for it everywhere. You go through the desk, your table, look in the family room, but it's no where to be found.

You realize that it isn't that big of a deal - it's not like you lost your keys or your wallet - but still you need to find it. You could get a replacement, but that would mean a lot of time and effort.

You try to remember the last time you had it and where you were. You go there, but it's not there. Your frustration grows. You ask yourself, "Why am I spending so much time on this," but you go right back to looking under the sofa cushions and in the end table drawer. You find yourself going back to the same places where you've already looked. The frustration mounts.

Then at last you find it! There's a tremendous relief as you shout "Hurray" to yourself. You're so excited you call the neighbors and invite them to come over, and you throw a great party!

What? You wouldn't throw a party because you found an important piece of paper?

I

Jesus emphasizes how important it is to God when those who have gotten lost are found. Jesus' critics grumble because he is "welcoming and eating with sinners." In response to their carping Jesus tells three stories to explain why he's doing what he's doing.

In Luke these three stories are grouped together - the parable of the Lost Sheep (the shepherd leaves ninety-nine sheep behind to go find the one who's lost), the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son (also known as the prodigal son). Each of these stories pictures how important sinners are and how much joy there is when one returns.

In the parable of the Lost Coin, a woman loses a coin and searches to find it. It's only ten drachmas, which equals less than a day wages for a laborer. Even in those days that was a very small amount of money. What she's searching for is worth something, but not a lot.

The woman searches everywhere. She lights a lamp because it is dark in her house, she sweeps the entire house, and searches every cranny and nook. She is going to find that coin.

When she finally finds the coin, she celebrates. She calls her family and friends and says, "Come party with me. That which was lost had been found!"

II

I don't know about you, but I've never been invited to a party because someone found a $20 bill they'd lost - or even a $50 or $100 bill! This part of the parable is absurd. You don't throw a party because you found some lost money. The party would cost more than the money you found.

That's the point. God's celebration over the lost and found is so extravagant that it's just crazy! The great preacher, David Buttrick, says this is a parable that is "pleasantly nutty." God pulls out all the stops when it comes to the celebrating the return home of someone who has wandered away. It's a huge party.

It's not the sensible thing to do. As George Bush the first would say, "Wouldn't be prudent!"

When a sinner has turned around and come back home, you and I say, "That's a wonderful thing to happen, I'm so happy for them. What a heart-warming story." But Jesus says fill the balloons, put up the streamers, pop open the bubbly, and invite all the neighbors; we're going to have a party!

This is no small event. It's a cause for great celebration.

It's hard to overestimate the joy for God when people leave the brambles and high weeds, turn from their destructive life, and head home to the God who loves them.

III

But not everybody is celebrating. At the very beginning of this passage Jesus got in trouble because he was hanging out with the wrong kind of people - "He welcomes sinners and eats with them." The religious leaders were upset because Jesus was spending time with known sinners. I guess they wanted Jesus to spend his time in the synagogue teaching classes and patting them on the back for being such devout, God-fearing people. "If he is who he says he is he wouldn't be associating with those kinds of people."

They missed the point of who he was. He came to find the lost and show them the way home. He came to pull people from self-destruction and give them help in living well. He came to find the sick and offer them health.

The religious leaders missed the point that God loves sinners. They also missed the corollary to that - we should love sinners too.

IV

I think Jesus is saying to us: your congregation shouldn't be just clean, healthy, fully functional, devout people. It should be include large numbers of people who are sinners, people who have screwed up their lives and aren't sure there is a way out. It should have a significant portion of people who are unhealthy and desperately searching for healing medicine.

Another way to look at it: our congregation should be less like a gathering of pious, devout people who are sure of God's rewards for them, and more like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, where people are depending on God's help and struggling every day to do the right thing.

The pious Pharisees and scribes pit themselves against Jesus because he is talking with the prostitute, having lunch with the crooked businessman, having a conversation with a known criminal. The religious leaders want a clean, pure, sacred world - unfortunately that means they can't reach out to grasp a dirty hand.

The irony is that in pulling back from people in need, they don't see the sin of their own lives.

Our congregation is filled with people who are sinners - people who have screwed up their lives, who are unhealthy and desperately searching for God's healing words. We, all of us, are among the sinners we serve.

Conclusion

Because God loves sinners so much, Jesus spent a lot of time with people who were considered unhealthy, dirty, lost, and sick. Jesus once said, you don't send a doctor to cure healthy people, but to those who ailing. The catch is - that's all of us!

Jesus spent time with the people God sent him to help. Those are the same people Jesus sends us to help. How has your outreach to sinners been? How is your outreach to the sinner within?

When one lost child heads for home, God plans a huge party.

Amen

© Richard J. Henderson 2007