Whole

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

September 15, 2019

19 Proper C

          Whenever I hear the parables Jesus tells this morning, I am reminded of the hymn “Amazing Grace.”  The first words of that hymn are “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”  In my experience, people either love or hate this hymn, and I have a love/hate relationship with the words myself.  On the one hand, as humans we are made in the image of God and redeemed in Christ.  So, while we may do some wretched things, we are not wretches.  But on the other hand, the feeling of being lost then found, whether vocationally, relationally, spiritually, or in many other ways is a common human experience, as is being metaphorically blind, again in many different ways, and suddenly seeing the light.

          The joy of finding something that was once lost is also common, whether something of great value, or the car keys or cell phone.  The sweet relief that comes after being lost on an unlit road at night and finally realizing where I am is a phenomenon I am all to familiar with.  This week, we marked the 18^th anniversary of 9/11, a day of tremendous loss.  And in the past year, we, both as a parish and as individuals, have experienced great loss. 

          So, when we hear Jesus’s parables this morning about a lost sheep and a lost coin, we understand both being lost and losing.  That there is great joy when the lost sheep and the lost coin are found is a no brainer.  The leap to God rejoicing when one person returns to the fold is an easy leap to make and I love the thought of God rejoicing.  So, for once, Jesus seems to make sense.

          However, there is a lot about these two parables that does not make sense if we look closely.  First, how do these parables respond to the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes who say about Jesus “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”  Secondly, the answer to “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?” is probably no one.  No one is their right mind would leave 99 sheep to their own devices and go after the one because then there would be 99 additional lost sheep.  Thirdly, Jesus seems to be making a rather large leap from the finding of a lost sheep or coin to the rejoicing in heaven over a sinner who repents. After all, neither a sheep nor a coin is capable of repentance. The sheep just wandered off, as sheep are prone to do, and no telling how the coin got lost, but it obviously wasn’t the coins’ fault.  And lastly, we can think that the shepherd and the woman represent God looking for the lost, but the reality is that we are never lost to God. We might feel lost, but God always knows where we are.  In the reading from Jeremiah, God’s people are quite lost, having strayed far from God and apparently not knowing their way home. They are lost in a wilderness of their own making.  But God knows exactly where they are and God’s displeasure with where the people are is evident.  Even when we feel lost, we are not lost to God.

          So what on earth is Jesus up to this morning?  Here is a thought.  Both the sheep and the coin were part of a larger whole. There were 100 sheep and 10 coins, both nice round numbers that indicate completeness. When the sheep goes missing and the coin turns up lost, that whole is fractured. It is not just that the sheep is missing, but that the community is broken. It is not just that one little coin is missing, but that the nine are not complete without it. When the sheep is returned and the coin is found and restored to the others, the 100 and the 10 are complete again. And there is great rejoicing, both on earth and in heaven, rejoicing not only that the individual sheep and coin were found, but rejoicing that what was broken is now whole.

This morning/in a few minutes we will baptize Ellie and Ethan Calkins.  We could easily think that we have brought lost little sheep into the fold, and we will say “We receive you into the household of God.  Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood.”  So, yes, on the one hand, we do welcome Ellie and Ethan into the fold.  But on the other hand, we welcome them into the household of God where our work is to make the broken whole.  Our work is to work for justice and peace, to proclaim the gospel in word and action, and to respect the dignity of every human being, bringing wholeness to this broken world, and to rejoice when whatever is broken is made whole.

          How do Jesus’ parables respond to the Pharisees and scribes who say “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them?”  Jesus parables remind us that we cannot create unity by fostering division.  We cannot fix what is broken by breaking it more.  We cannot find what is lost by losing more.  We cannot create love by hating.  The work of the gospel, and the work of baptism, is to restore the broken to wholeness, to work for unity where there is division, and to proclaim our faith that love wins by showing that love to the world.

                                                                             Amen