Sermon for Fall Kick-Off - Luke 15:1-10

Recently, the question of whether we will ever have fun again has been in the news. In what is clearly a sign of the times, the New York Times ran an opinion piece called, “What is Fun? Can I Have It? Will We Ever Have It Again?” Followed by a second one called, “How to Have Fun Again,” in which the author begins,”I’ve been in a funk. But let’s be real, who hasn’t been?” She admits that she is more inclined these days to stay on the couch than go have an adventure (Wendy MacNaughton, 9/2/22). And in case anyone needs to hear this, she says that, even though we are out of the habit of having fun, we can get it back. She recommends rolling down a grassy hill or watching clouds change shape or doing anything that taps into what you found awesome as a kid. It might just take a little practice.

The author did not mention going back to church for fun, but I’d like to add that to the list. My children will tell you that fun is not the first word they think of when I tell them they have to go. But one of the fundamentals of Christian community is that there is joy here. Maybe not rolling down a grassy hill kind of fun, at least not always, but a kind of deep joy. When we gather, it is because Jesus has called us to do so. The living God has issued an invitation to us by grace to be in fellowship with God and one another. Scripture, by the way, is full of parties in heaven, and wedding banquets and dinner parties here are earth, all mysteriously connected in one grand celebration. We could call it a progressive party that begins on earth and culminates in heaven. Whenever we gather here on earth, there is rejoicing in heaven. Even the angels must be having fun right now.

I was listening to a preacher talk about today’s Gospel story, and she said she was going to call her sermon, “Let’s get this party started” (Sermon Brainwave). You are welcome to groan a little if you need to. But the title is theologically appropriate. In today’s beloved stories of the lost sheep and the lost coin, and of the prodigal son which comes next in the text, we hear that whenever what is lost is found, there is joy in heaven. Luke tells these parables in response to some Pharisees and scribes grumbling over the wrong sorts of people Jesus is having dinner with - all those sinners and tax collectors. The stories are meant to move the grumpy righteous people away from their complaining to a sense of joy about that very fellowship. Joy comes from knowing that no matter how far any of us strays from God’s invitation, no matter how lost we become, God will seek us out and find us, and throw a huge party. Classic grace stuff here, and the heart of the good news.

One could wrap up a tidy sermon right there. But this is Fall Kick-Off here at Christ Church, and you’re a pretty savvy bunch that might be expecting something more than the standard stuff. Not to mention that this is the day we celebrate a new season of Christian formation and discipleship, including wrestling with scripture more deeply. So it seems appropriate to look at these stories from a different angle, perhaps a less familiar one. After all, scripture is a living, breathing, holy thing that has more than one thing to say to us on Fall Kick-Off.

So let’s start with a some oddities about the classic way of looking at the lost sheep and the lost coin. Luke is very quick to interpret these stories for us, saying, “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Please note that repentance is not exactly in a sheep or a coin’s wheelhouse. In fact, they have exactly zero capacity to acknowledge sin and repent of it, so it’s a little strange to say that these stories are about sinners who repent.

And then there’s how we look at the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to find the lost one, the woman who sweeps her whole house to find the lost coin, and for good measure, the father who anxiously awaits the return of the prodigal son. We tend to read these three figures as allegorical stand-ins for Jesus or God. Ok, what’s really fun about that, which I can get away with saying here at Christ Church, is that this interpretation then includes a female character as God, the woman looking for her lost coin. And if I could digress just a bit further, the funniest tweet this past week in response to Queen Elizabeth’s passing was surely the one that said, “I can’t believe they are going to make a MAN queen. This woke nonsense has gone too far” (@unfortunatalie).

As fun as all of that is, the brilliant, Jewish New Testament scholar Amy Jill Levine points out that first century Jews would not have read God into the role of shepherd, sweeping woman, or forgiving father at all (Short Stories by Jesus). In fact, she suggests that we have misnamed these stories. Rather than the parable of the lost sheep or coin or prodigal son, Jews would have heard these as the parable of the guy who lost a sheep, the woman who lost a coin, and the father who lost his sons. That shift opens up a new way of hearing these, as stories about what to do when you lose precious things and people. In short, these are stories about people losing, searching, finding, and rejoicing.

There’s a powerful word for us in this, for people who have lost a lot in the last two and half years. Many of us lost family and friends during the pandemic. May God be with all who grieve their loved ones. But there are other things we’ve lost, too. I asked a few friends what they’ve lost. They said things like dinner parties and spontaneous potlucks with friends. Getting a good night’s sleep. Being able to shut off their worry about the news or the climate. Their sense of hope. Even, if the New York Times is right, how to have fun anymore. It can all feel very heavy.

And I hear a particular word about loss in the image of the 99 sheep. For the record, it’s hard to scan a hillside of 99 sheep and realize one is missing. Kudos to the keen eyed shepherd. What about our flock? I am grateful for all the ways we have stayed connected as a community of faith, including online, but I look out at the congregation each week and think about those who have not returned. And I worry about other people who are lost, unknown to us, who have not yet heard the good news of God’s grace for them. The parable of the guy who lost his sheep asks us pretty directly, what are we going to do to go find them? How will we search out the lost?

That’s part of our work to do together, to find and invite people into this community of unconditional love and grace. And then to rejoice with the angels in heaven when they arrive. And speaking of rejoicing, as we begin a new season of ministry, maybe we should remind each other about the joy underlying all that we do here. Joy that God calls us together, joy that the risen Christ is moving among us, joy that we are connected to the celebrations in heaven. Today we heard that Jesus once told stories to help people move from grumbling to rejoicing, to move from despair to hope. Just the same, he calls us to joy and hope now. It might take a little practice to find joy and hope again. But this is the very place to do it.