Valois United Church

Epistle Reading 1 Timothy 1:12-17
Psalm 14 & 53 VU 735
Gospel Reading Luke 15:1-10

Paul wasn’t very nice a few years ago. He was known as Saul, then...

He was present for the first killing of a Christian - when Stephen had stones thrown at him until he was dead, Paul stood there as an official witness.

And then he would go from town to town, seeking out the Christians and having them brought to Jerusalem for trial.

He knew all the Jewish law backwards and forwards, and would use it against the fledgling church.

Every Christian feared him.
Every Christian feared the day when Paul would come to town.

He was, one could say, the chief sinner.

Now, we begin each worship service with a prayer of confession.
We don’t do that because we’re perfect.
We do so because we, too, are sinners:
we do things we know are not right
and we do wrong things in ignorance
we say things we know are not right
and we say wrong things in ignorance
we think things we know are not right
and we thing wrong things in ignorance.
And that’s only the half of it. That’s the stuff we do that we should not.
Then there is all the stuff we don’t do, which we should.
Probably we do even more of that....
Not acting in deep love, not acting for justice,
not acting in infinite care...
Not speaking in deep love, not speaking for justice,
not speaking in infinite care...
Seriously, what have we done in the last week to make the world a better place?

Indeed, I’m sure that most of the time, we are more at fault for what we don’t do, than for what we do do.

But whichever way around it is, we, too, are sinners.

Another way of looking at sin, is that sin is what brings brokeness to the world.
Or sin is brokeness in the world.

And we are a part of that:
the broken relationships with those near us;
the broken relationships with the people
who produce our food and clothing;
the broken relationships
with people of other races, cultures and religions,
in our own country, and in far away places
- in such places as Iraq or Afghanistan, for example

Yes, we, too, are sinners.

We are the silly sheep, who ran off into the bushes away from the flock.
We are the coin, who simply fell away from its right place.

Ralph Milton:
Not long ago I came down with a bout of the flu so I spent Sunday morning listening to some of the religious talk shows. I watched a succession of guests who told of their terrible, awful, really sick former lives, which they described in great lurid detail, and how they were saved by Jesus. (I was amazed at one host who managed to get five syllables out of “Jesus.” He said, “GEE-a-zus-a-um.”)
Those talk show guests dealt exclusively with the xxx sins. Sex, drug abuse, partying – the kind of sins their viewers would salivate over. They didn’t waste their time on the sins of selfishness, consumerism, racism, sexism, greed, envy. They stuck with the juicy stuff.
That leaves us in the ecumenical churches with mostly the boring sins to worry over. The Jeremiah passage, for instance, can be the basis of a highly relevant and necessary ecological sermon, but it’s hard to know how to make it as interesting as the “juicy stuff”.

Whether it be, in Ralph’s words, “juicy stuff” or not,
Yes, we, too, are sinners.

We are the silly sheep, who ran off into the bushes away from the flock.
We are the coin, who simply fell away from its right place.

Paul discovers how lost he had been one day when he was on the road to Damascus. He finds out that, even though he had tried to shut Jesus out of his life, that Jesus is able to break through.

Confronted with the reality of Jesus, he is shattered. And he is exultant, because, humbled and shattered,
he discovers that he has been found, that he –
in spite of all the horrible things he has done –
he discovers that he is loved and forgiven.

This is what the Letter to Timothy refers to - a letter written as though from Paul, although we know it was not Paul who wrote it. This letter refers to Paul’s discovery that he was a wretched sinner.
And yet he has been found.

How he must have delighted in today’s parables.

One hundred sheep - and one is lost, and the master goes looking for it.
Paul, lost, and the Master went looking for him, found him on the Road to Damascus, and brought him home, rejoicing.

Ten coins - and one is lost, and the home-maker hunts for it.
Paul, lost, and the Master went looking for him, found him on the Road to Damascus, and there was celebration in heaven because of it.

And so it is with us.
We mess up.
With what we do, and what we don’t do.
We are a part of a world where there is brokeness.

Us, lost, and the Master keeps on looking for us.
Maybe we’re a bit like the Great Pyranese that we used to have - for years, if that dog had a chance, she would sneak out, and she would run away from home.
But we would keep looking for her, up and down the streets, until we found her.
Again.

Perhaps we reflect need to reflect upon one of the few poems that I have ever been able to memorize. Because it is short.
God of second chances
Here I am.
Again.

- Nancy Speigelberg

We can be comfortable with ourselves.... we’re not so bad. We’d rather judge others....
I read a story this week about someone whose father was the “dark sheep” of the family. They went to visit the child’s uncle - the child’s father’s brother - who was a minister. They went to the church service. And the father’s brother began his sermon by saying “Today I was going to preach on a particular theme for all of you. But my brother is here today, so I am going to preach to him, the lost sheep, the lost coing” And then he began to list all the things that the child’s father had done wrong. The child’s father and their whole family left the service.

No, we cannot look at the other and say “look at them.”
We are the one sheep. Lost.
We are the one coin. Lost.

And God continues to seek for us, each time we go missing.
And in love and tender care, God wants us to know:
we are forgiven and loved.

It is a powerful thing.
Psychologist and support groups continually try to help people set down the burdens of where they have done things wrong.
God invites us to do the same.

We may well need the support group and the psychologist to help us set down the burdens of where we have done things wrong.

But at the same time we need to hear, over and over, that God forgives us, gathers us back into the fold, gathers us back with the other treasured coin, and celebrates our return.

We are loved. We are forgiven. We are a part of the family of God.
Hallelujah.

But wait a minute. That is good news.
But when we get good news in Scripture, turn it around and there is challenge.

Remember what got Jesus started with the parables of God’s grace...
We read: “All the tax collectors (who were all known to be corrupt) and sinners (perhaps prostitutes) were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the religious leaders were grumbling and saying “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them....”

My goodness.... talking to such notorious sinners was bad enough, but to eat with them indicated an acceptance of them....

Well, therein lies a challenge: which sinners, notorious sinners, have we sat down with this week in care and acceptance? Any drug dealers in our schedule this week? Convicts released from prison? Parents who do not treat their children as they should?
These are the people Jesus would sit down with this week.
Not to say that what they were doing, or had done, was okay,
but to let them know that they were ALWAYS welcome to turn to him,
turn to God, and to discover God’s grace.

We have that news.
We have that news to share.