Sept. 14 | Pentecost 14, Year C
Jer. 4:11-12, 22-28 or Ex. 32:7-14
Ps. 14 or Ps. 51:1-11
1 Tim. 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10
The spread of the kingdom of God over the earth is not passive. In his love, God searches for sinners and the kingdom rejoices with her King when he recovers them. Human history has been the story of God working to restore sinful humankind to a right relationship with him.
The parables speak of diligence and persistence on the part of the shepherd and the woman. They work hard and they do not stop until the object of their concern is found. In addition, their concern is not relative to the majority. They do not consider one out of many to be too insignificant to cause concern. Every “one” is valued and worth the effort to be found—regardless of whether it is passively lost or wanders away. Likewise, God searches for sinners.
The lost are sinners, like the rest of us, but they are a particular subset of sinners—those who either have never known Jesus or have known Jesus but now have drifted away from following him. Although these verses describe the lost as being beloved by God, they leave us to ponder where the lost are to be found. As we look to the parables, however, we are directed to their location. In the parables, the sheep are lost in the world and the coin is lost in the house. We can expect to find the lost around the world and within the church.
As Christians we seek the lost sheep in the world by sending and funding missionaries and missions throughout the country and the world. We seek the lost coins in our midst by providing Christian education, Bible study, ministry, worship, and fellowship.
Jesus is the physical manifestation of God’s search for the lost. In him, God comes to earth to gather what has been lost. It is a labor that leads to and through the cross and the grave. God came into the world to save sinners—to find the lost and bring them back into the kingdom. As a result, of course he dined with tax collectors and sinners. But the subtext is that as his disciples we too must have as our primary purpose searching out those who are lost—both those who have never heard the gospel and those who have rejected God’s Word. That is why the Church exists and what should bring joy to her as an outpost of the kingdom of God.
This is the attitude that we are to have as we live our lives in the context of the family, the community, the world, and the church. Since, as Jesus taught, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life,” God’s love is expressed in the radical and costly pursuit of sinners. After all, it was while we were still sinners that Jesus died for us.
It was clear in the mind of Paul, and as a result, in the early church, that we have been saved by God through Jesus Christ so that we might be an example to those who are yet to be saved. It follows that to be an example we must be present to the lost.
We are to share the love of Christ in our world. Be a door for his amazing grace. By sharing the love that God has shown us with those who do not know his love, we can make heaven happy, for there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
Look It Up:Â Psalm 98:2-3
Think About It:Â The victory of God is both the gift of salvation and its revelation to the world.
The Rev. Dr. Chuck Alley, former rector of St. Matthew’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, teaches anatomy at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical School.
