Finding Lost Things—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 14C/Proper 19 (Luke 15)

Luke 15:1-10 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

15 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. ² And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 

³ So he told them this parable: ⁴ “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? ⁵ When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ ⁷ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. 

⁸ “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ ¹⁰ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

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                “Birds of a feather flock together,” or so we’re told. It’s a message that Jesus’ critics embraced as they observed him hanging out with, what they believed, was the wrong crowd. That is, he shared meals with sinners and tax collectors. It was a common critique leveled by the religious leaders against Jesus. If he was hanging around with the riff-raff of society, he must be like them. Otherwise, he’d been spending his time with a more righteous crowd. Yet, that’s where Jesus went.

                Jesus responded to his critics with a series of parables found in Luke 15. The lectionary reading invites us to consider two of Jesus’ best-known parables. There is a third parable, that of the prodigal that follows this one, which is the text for the Fourth Sunday of Lent in Year C (Luke 15:11-32). Thus, in this reading we find Jesus sharing the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, both of which serve to answer his critics.

                When it comes to Jesus’ eating partners, they are the reason why Jesus decides to defend his practice of sharing the Table with sinners and tax collectors, we might want to think for a moment about our own Table fellowship, especially that fellowship that takes place at the Communion Table. It is worth remembering here that a meal, the Eucharist, stands at the heart of the Christian faith. As we ponder these parables, in light of Jesus’ response to his accusers, we might want to reflect on who is welcome and who is not welcome when it comes to our Eucharistic fellowship. Christian communities began to fence the Table from almost the beginning of the church. We know that by the second century only those who were pre-approved could share in the bounty of the Table. In part, this is due to a misreading of Paul’s instructions to the Corinthian church regarding his concern about them eating and drinking in an unworthy manner (1 Cor.11:27-33).

There is nothing in Paul’s instructions regarding Table fellowship that suggests people be excluded from the Table, that is, unless they are acting in an unbecoming way. From my reading of the passage, it seems clear that a portion of the congregation was refusing to share what they brought to the meal so that those who were poor and possibly late-comers because of their employment didn’t eat. Some appear to be getting drunk while others went hungry. That’s what it means to eat unworthily. 

Getting back to the question of Jesus’ Table partners, it’s clear that they’re not the kinds of people a religious person would normally hang out with. However, Jesus answers their critique by Sharing these two parables about sheep and coins that are lost and then found, and the joy that accompanies the restoration of fortunes.

                The first parable concerns a lost lamb and the steps the shepherd takes to bring it back to the flock. In this story, the shepherd has ninety-nine sheep—a rather large flock—and he loses one of them. Instead of chalking that up to the nature of things—sheep do wander off—he decides to risk the welfare of the ninety-nine so he can go find the lost lamb and return it to the flock. While that sounds like a rather powerful act of compassion, it also sounds rather silly. Would you really exchange the safety of the ninety-nine for the restoration of the one? What is it that Spock said to Kirk in Wrath of Khan as he lay dying from radiation poisoning? “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” But that’s not the way it is with Jesus. The needs of the one apparently outweigh the needs of the many.

Pastors often face a similar dilemma. Where should they put their efforts? The flock they have or the lost lambs they don’t have? I know how many congregations would respond, but what would Jesus say? Would he not want us to be involved in the world, seeking to restore those who are hurting spiritually to health? Of course, this is never an either/or proposition. Some might take these parables as proof that the church is called to “save souls” but not the world. But is that what Jesus is saying? At the very least it would seem that in the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus is telling us that he wants us to be outwardly looking. Not only that, but we should celebrate when the lost are found. Richard Lischer notes that this methodology for church growth is rather inefficient. He writes: “Demographically based mission operations and virtual evangelism will fill up the building, but will such methods turn up the lost soul?” [Richard Lischer, Reading the Parables, p. 96).

From the Parable of the Lost Sheep, we move to the Parable of the Lost Coin. While the first parable speaks of a shepherd who risks everything to find one lost lamb, here we have a woman (for some reason I always picture a rather old woman) with ten coins. When she loses one of the coins, she tosses the house upside down to find the coin. So, why would she go to all this trouble when she still has nine other coins? I can see looking under a few cushions on the sofa, but turning the house upside down? Now, we’ve all lost things, and we might expend some energy trying to find the lost item, but there comes a point when it’s not worth the energy (unless it’s your keys or phone). In this parable, the woman lights her lamp, sweeps the house, and continues doing this until she finds the lost coin. While we might understand her desire to find that coin. Maybe she needs it to pay a bill. However, the parable doesn’t end there. You see, after she finds that lost coin, she begins shouting with joy. Maybe she even does a dance. We might even understand this, but there is more to the story. When she finds the lost coin and does her dance of joy, she then invites her friends over for a party so she can celebrate the recovery of the lost coin. Now, I may be reading something into the parable, but it would seem to me that she’s going to throw a party. At the very least she invites friends over to help her celebrate, and if you’re going to do this, you’re probably going to include some refreshments. If so, then she’s probably going to spend more on the party than that lost coin was worth in the first place. What then is the message of the parable? Could it be a celebration of God’s extravagant love that relentlessly pursues us to restore us to fellowship? When that happens, well, there has to be a party! You have to celebrate!

When it comes to interpreting these two parables, I agree with Richard Lischer, who suggests that these two similitudes “depict a persistent search for something of relatively minor value that has been lost, and both end in a neighborhood party. Where each parable exceeds the ordinary is in the eruption of joy at the discovery of something as insignificant as one sheep in a hundred or one drachmae in ten—or one soul who repents” [Reading the Parables, p. 97]. Speaking from out of a mainline Protestant community that struggles with evangelism (we prefer actions to words), it’s often easier to focus on what we have and fail to notice what is going on outside our doors. Evangelism doesn’t have to involve heavy-handed efforts that guilt people into the kingdom. We don’t have to “scare the hell out” of them either (not just because many of us have let go of a belief in hell). But we can share a word of grace with those who need it, even as we recognize our own need for grace. That can lead, in light of the parables, to a celebration.

As we ponder the message of the parables, I see a connection between their message and the mission statement of my denomination [Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)]: “We are Disciples of Christ, a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world. As part of the one body of Christ, we welcome all to the Lord’s Table as God has welcomed us.” Since the lead-up to the parables is a question of Jesus’ Table fellowship (who he eats with), that mission statement would seem to reflect Jesus’ practice of table fellowship. That leads us back to the question of our own Eucharistic fellowship and how Jesus’ Table fellowship should influence it.

The two parables speak of God’s desire to find what is lost, and when God does this, there is a reason for a party/celebration. These parables serve as a response to those who criticized who Jesus ate with. So, who should be welcomed to the Table in our churches? Remember that Jesus ate with everyone who would share a meal with him. He ate with Pharisees and with tax collectors. He did this not because “birds of a feather flock together” but because they would experience a moment of divine grace as a result. In telling the parables the way he does, Jesus makes it clear that the ministry he was engaged in would be shared with everyone who follows him. Richard Lischer points out that in these two parables we don’t encounter a “Good Shepherd” or a “Good Housewife.” So, while the parables might speak of God’s extravagant grace, it’s good to remember that in these parables we only encounter a simple shepherd and a woman with ten coins. Therefore, we can be the shepherd and the women. In the spirit of these two figures, we can drop everything so we can seek out those who have lost their way and help them find their way back into God’s loving embrace.

While the parables and the context that leads Jesus to share them can speak to our calling to share good news with the world, part of that sharing good news involves the way we practice Table/Eucharistic fellowship. I have come to embrace the idea that the Lord’s Table belongs to Jesus and therefore it should be an Open Table. That’s not just because I think it’s good to be nice and hospitable. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s not the reason for my embrace of an Open Table (yes, I know that the church from at least the 2^nd century fenced the Table). I have embraced this view because I believe that it fits with Jesus’ own vision of Table fellowship and that if this is true then anyone who comes to the Table may encounter Jesus at that Table. If that is true, then perhaps they will experience a life-transforming event.

               As you ponder this possibility, consider the message Sara Miles shares in her book Take This Bread about the first time she went to a service at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. She describes how everyone present, no matter who they were, was invited to the Table. What happened next was a conversionary experience.

I still can't explain my first communion. It made no sense. I was in tears and physically unbalanced: I felt as if I had just stepped off a curb or been knocked over, painlessly, from behind. The disconnect between what I thought was happening—I was eating a piece of bread; what I heard someone else say was happening—the piece of bread was the “body” of “Christ,” a patently untrue or at best metaphorical statement; and what I knew was happening—God, named “Christ” or “Jesus,” was real, and in my mouth—utterly short-circuited my ability to do anything but cry.  [Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion (pp. 58-59). Kindle Edition].

Jesus faced criticism about the kinds of persons with whom he shared meals. He responded to the criticism by sharing two parables that spoke to his sense of mission, his sense of what God was up to in the world. That mission involved restoring people whose relationship with God and others was broken to wholeness. In the parables, God is willing to take a risk and expend both energy and resources to find those who are broken, restore them to their proper place, and then throw a party to celebrate the fact. As far as I’m concerned, that part takes place at the Lord’s Table. After all, as Sarah Miles points out when she tasted the bread and the wine “Jesus happened to me.” She discovered the Table to be a place where the lost are found, and therefore where everyone can share the joy when one who is lost is found and we can celebrate with thanksgiving (Gk. eucharisteo). 

 

Image Attribution: Moyers, Mike. The Seeker, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57153 [retrieved September 3, 2022]. Original source: Mike Moyers, https://www.mikemoyersfineart.com/.