Meditation for November 14

From Peter Munson

Luke 15:1-10

 

Who Is the Lost One?

 

"And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.' So he told them a parable: 'Which one of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing... 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.'" (Luke 15:2-5, 7)

 

Whenever I reflect on this parable, I always wonder:  Who are the 99 righteous people who need no repentance?  Perhaps they are not righteous at all, but self-righteous, and in denial about the fact - the truth - that all of us are in need of repentance.  I think of those famous words from Isaiah 53 that we hear every year on Good Friday: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (verse 6)  "All we" - as in all of us.

 

We go astray when we wish ill for our enemies, rather than following Jesus' command to love them and pray for them.

 

We go astray when we hold back from sharing the deepest parts of ourselves with our partners, children, and friends.

 

We go astray whenever we rush to criticize or pre-judge another person, before we have all the facts.

 

We go astray whenever we hold on to old hurts and allow them to turn into resentment and bitterness, instead of making the courageous and loving step of forgiving those who have hurt us.

 

We go astray whenever we glorify war, and act as if those who would speak and work for peace are traitors to our country, forgetting that Jesus said the peacemakers would be called children of God. (Matthew 5:9)

 

We go astray whenever we hold our light and our gifts under a bushel basket, instead of letting our "light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)

 

We go astray whenever we fail to ask God for what we need, or fail to share with God what is on our hearts.

 

We go astray when we are stingy with our love or stingy with our money, instead of being people of generosity.

 

We go astray whenever we make money our God, and base our decisions solely on whether we have enough money or not.

 

We go astay whenever we think that the Lord's hand is too short to save, or that his ear is too dull to hear. (See Isaiah 59:1).

 

We go astray whenever we think only about our own needs, and not about the needs of others.

 

We go astray.  As we sometimes declare in our worship, "...we have offended against thy holy laws, we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done." (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 321)

 

In other words, all of us go astray.  In other words, I am the lost sheep, desperately in need of being found.  I am the one who needs to repent, and it all starts when I admit to God, to myself, and to you:  "I am lost.  And I am in desperate need of God, and of God's forgiveness, and - on many occasions - I am desperately in need of your forgiveness.  Lord, I see the error of my ways.  Help me work my way back to you.  Help me to repent - to turn around - and start following you again."

 

But thanks be to God, we have a Good Shepherd who is on the lookout for us, especially - most especially - when we lose our way and go astray.  He is out actively looking for us, to bring us back home.  In fact, he starts coming after us way before we even realize that we have headed out for the wrong pasture, for our Lord is always seeking us, always loving us, always inviting us to come back home, and be with Him.  He is the kind of God who welcomes us back with open arms, and indeed rejoices over us - even throws a party! (remember Luke 15:11-32!) - when we repent.

 

Who is the lost one?  That would be me.  I am the lost one.  That is the truth.  But there is another truth that is truly amazing and inspiring.  Our Lord welcomes sinners and eats with them.  Our Lord likes nothing better than to sit down at table with the likes of you and me.  He likes nothing better than to welcome the lost one back home.  For that we can all be truly grateful, and add our voices of rejoicing to the voice of the One who rejoices over us.