Today’s Gospel lesson begins as Jesus seemed to be surrounded by some grumblers who had noticed that people considered outcasts and sinners were staying around to listen to Jesus and that Jesus openly acknowledged their presence. The grumblers might have objected because those sort of people represented habitual problems for the town or because those sort of people had not apologized enough and hadn't really shown proper contrition for their sins, before Jesus had conversation with them and even ate with them
In response, Jesus told one of his best-loved stories about the lost sheep. Now Jesus didn't deny that it was dangerous for sheep to wander off and stray from the herd or that people do foolish things they shouldn't. Jesus never condoned, much less encouraged further irresponsible and sinful behavior. Rather Jesus in effect said, “Disciples are those who get on with it, and search for what they can do to bring an end to the separation and suspicion, to put a stop to deception and manipulation, who seek ways to pull humanity out of the mud.” Jesus didn't just allow room for change, reconciliation and amendment of life to take place, Jesus made room for change, reconciliation, and amendment of life to take place. Jesus was intent on rescuing people from unhealthy behavior not simply punishing people for it.
If one comes to St. John’s and walks around our neighborhood or spends some time down at the Commons, it is difficult not to notice that there are serious social problems out there. The church makes no claim of having instant solutions and guaranteed answers, but God gives people of faith the yeast of hope that we can introduce into the public arena. If everyone believed that tuberculosis or polio or mental illness was incurable we would still be building sanitariums outside the city, putting people in iron lungs and drilling holes in people’s heads. Today we do not have the cure for AIDS or a universally effective preventative for drug and alcohol addition. Yet we do have the Good News that God does not give up and hence neither should we.
God opens possibilities, and frees us from the stifling control of despair. People can and do really change. Perhaps we need to honor such successes more than we do, not in order to pat ourselves on the back and become self satisfied and complacent, but because we need to be reminded of the sparks that are lit and burn brightly seemingly against all odds.
Some of us remember the old hard plastic phonograph records, which when they got scratched or sticky with fingerprints, use to skip, and play the same passage over and over again. You had to nudge the arm of the needle on to another groove for the song to continue. Despair and anger have the tendency to control us by keeping us in the same groove, playing a short passage over and over again until we go crazy. God is available to nudge us all, getting us unstuck from the same old notes, and on to listening to God’s larger song.
St. John’s, like many downtown parishes across the land, has felt the financial crunch. It’s not that we were or are doing something wrong. It’s tempting to look for blame or to despair about the future. I wonder if today’s Gospel is suggesting that the self-blame game isn’t an appropriate response to the challenge of discipleship. The shepherd with the missing sheep didn’t blame himself or spend effort scolding his assistants. Instead he went searching. The woman who lost the coin didn’t berate herself, retire to a corner and begin hysterically sobbing; instead she got up and started looking underneath the furniture and rugs. Jesus himself spent more time searching and encouraging than scolding and snapping at people.
Jesus calls us to get on with it, to keep searching, like the shepherd for the lost sheep or the woman for the lost coin. Expect to rejoice in the found, in the discovery of something not yet totally clear, but clearer or something that can be only imagined by hope. Yes it is possible at any time for peace, for goodness, and for mercy to break out!
To be sure we are not to be Pollyannas and victims of own optimism, but trusting in God’s grace. It’s been said that discipleship doesn’t require one to have great faith in God, but faith in a great God. Therefore here at St. John’s we are called to go forth, offering God our best, be it here in worship, or out there this afternoon and all during the week because, in the words of a small sign I once saw, “because kindness matters.” Kindness matters and God promises people of faith that the light of hope rises and prevails over disaster and ruins, be it New Orleans or Lower Manhattan or Port a Prince. We are on a journey. At times, the way seems murky and, the roadmap seems confounding and we all will stumble and get lost. Yet, people of faith keep moving, expect to search, to find and rejoice, for God will not abandon us to our own fate.
