The Gospel according to Luke 15:1-11

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him.  And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."  So he told them this parable: "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? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.  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.'  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.  "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?  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.'  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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It isn’t very often when I am reading through the lessons for a Sunday that a word pops into my mind that seems pertinent to all three of them, Old Testament, Epistle, and Gospel. But that happened on Labor Day as I started to think about the coming Sunday. The word is the word reversal. Just to make sure I wasn’t imagining things, I looked it up in the dictionary. There are several definitions, but the one that had come to me was "the act of changing position, condition, or direction."

This is fairly obvious in the exodus passage. Moses had gone up to the mountain to receive the law. When he didn’t return quickly, the people forced his brother, Aaron, to make a golden calf to worship so they could beg for food. They were claiming that their deprivation was Moses’ fault for bringing them out of Egypt. When god hears this, he is angry. He says to Moses, "I have seen how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn against them and I may consume them: and of you I will make a great nation." Moses responds with a plea to god. "Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people." He goes on to relate all the reasons that they should be saved with the result that, "the lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people." Clearly a reversal has taken place in god’s actions. Moses has saved the day.

Jim and I were both ordained to the priesthood in January, 1992 on the "feast of the conversion of Saint Paul. The sermon was all about, how he had persecuted the church and participated in the stoning of Stephen. On the road to Damascus a sudden flash of light surrounded him, and Jesus spoke to him asking for support. Some days later, in the presence of Ananias, Paul proclaimed Jesus as lord. A conversion, a reversal had taken place. In Paul’s letter to timothy which we just heard, Paul points us again to this conversion event, thanking Jesus who strengthened him "because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even thought I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence.

Luke tells us in the gospel today that Jesus had been hanging out with a bunch of sinful people, tax collectors, undesirables, the unclean, and no doubt prostitutes and druggies. It was in this kind of setting that he told stories. This didn’t sit well with the self-righteous Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day. They were quick to condemn Jesus for keeping this company. Their god disapproved of such behavior. Granted, these folk were not without fault. Their lives were self-destructive, often hurting themselves as much as they were hurting others, but Jesus didn‘t care. He was comfortable with sinners.

In response to the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes, Jesus tells two parables. One is about a shepherd who has 100 sheep. One has gotten lost so he leaves the other ninety nine to search for it. When he finds it he rejoices. The second is a woman who had ten silver coins and lost one of them. She searches her house from top to bottom and finally finds it. In her joy she calls together her friends to share her good fortune.

The Pharisees and scribes probably like to hear Jesus tell stories with hidden meaning, but do they realize e what these parables are about? As David Moessner writes in the lord of the banquet, "Jesus does not allow the point to escape his Pharisee-scribe audience; he is like the shepherd and the woman, seeking out the lost and separated folk from society and bringing them to the table fellowship of repentant sinners." Instead of excluding, god is doing just the opposite. Jesus, speaking for god, is welcoming with joy those whom the grumbling religious leaders would dismiss with condemnation. A reversal has taken place.

Learning to live with reversals in our lives, and in the lives of other is sometimes a challenge. We are all fixed on certain points in our lives and we don’t like some kinds of reversals, changes in direction. Psychologists have come up with a scale indicating the negative effects on humans who suffer from significant reversals, from loss of spouse to divorce, to loss of jobs or moving to another city. Pain is the result of those reversals. And even in situations as global as the possibility that the Anglican Communion may be headed for a breakup as a result of the election of Bishop Robinson, there is concern. We want it to remain a united body. We don’t want it to change direction.

I sometimes find it difficult to hang in with people who suddenly change their minds on crucial questions; flip-flop is the word in vogue these days. It leaves me felling uncertain about where they stand and where I stand. And again, the fact is that I want to preserve things as they are. But isn’t that good? Isn’t it important that we hold fast to those values that we see as good, as constant? And when someone disagrees with us, we should be willing to go to battle. Reversal can be a sign of good things happening or it can have a negative effect.

So, although we may not see this at the time, it is clear from scripture that it is wise reversals in our journey that are demanded by god. If god is very glad to take another look at a given situation or person and let reversal happen, we must be willing too to take risks or change.

The times we are going through now are difficult ones, for me at least. I find myself worrying about political issues, about safety issues in terms of terrorists, about issues in our own Anglican communion. It is very easy from me to take sides and rage at the people who don’t agree with me. And then I stop to wonder what god wants. And I wonder how I can discern whether I should stay put with my thinking or reverse my course?

I can only answer this with my personal experience, knowing that each of us must find our own way to knowing the mind of god. The answer for me is listening. This is not easy. I can talk to god, praying both in worship with all of you and in my private prayers. I can praise god, and thank god, and petition god, but the most difficult thing is simply listening, making the time to listen to what god might be saying.

I spend a good bit of time in my car each week. The temptation is to turn on wabe, or a put in a cd. But I am trying to use this time to pray, to share with god my dilemmas, and to ask for help. And in the silence that follows this conversation, I hope to get a nudge to take a new direction, or an image of someone who needs to be called, or just to become aware of special thanks which need to be offered. I want to hear what god is asking of me.

Changing positions, condition, or direction are always options for us to consider, and we pray that god will guide us in making wise decisions.

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