16 Pentecost, Year C

"LOVING US INTO THE KINGDOM"
(Sermon text: Luke 15: 1-10)
Proper 19: Exodus 32: 1,7–14 -- Psalm 51 -- I Timothy 1:12–17 -- Luke 15:1–10
Given at Trinity Church’s worship service & picnic, Whippoorwill Club, Mt. Vernon, IL

Back in the days of Disco music (about 30 years ago – I am showing my age!), there was a famous Disco club in New York City. It was very popular. So popular, in fact, that people would line up outside on the sidewalk to try to get in. The club was so exclusive that it sent staff members out to survey the crowd, and would pick only those that were deemed worthy of being allowed in – those that wore nice clothes, were attractive, and so forth – to allow them inside.

That image, the one about being worthy enough to be allowed in, is a good image with which to approach today’s Gospel reading.

“This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them”, Jesus’ critics, the Pharisees and the Scribes, say in today’s reading.

And therein lies a tale: In Our Lord’s day 2,000 years ago, it was quite important – especially to the “religious elite” of His day – with whom one kept company, and with whom one ate. The central reason for this type of scrutiny was that is allowed a person to keep oneself ritually pure.

In fact – as far as ritual purity was concerned - it made an enormous difference what one’s status was.

Some of the causes of being ritually impure,[1] or just being a “religious second class citizen” were accidents of birth: being born a Gentile and not a Jew, being born female and not male, being born with a deformity of some sort, or having a skin disease. [2] All of those things (and others) mattered greatly. They determined – in some cases – whether or not one could worship in the Temple in Jerusalem. They determined whether it was important to learn the mysteries of God as they had been received in the Law of Moses or not.[3]

Other causes of ritual impurity or “second class citizenry” were the result of one’s own actions: being a tax collector,[4] engaging in serious sin (like prostitution, e.g.), and so forth.

And so, the Teachers of the Law, the Chief Priests, Scribes and Pharisees all functioned like staff members of an elite club, reviewing those who would be included for their worthiness, selecting some while shunning others.

The zeal with which the rigorous demands of the Law were maintained eventually became the source of religious pride, and then, hatred, as these “first class” religious figures came to look with disdain on everyone who didn’t measure up to their standards.

But Jesus comes, offering a role reversal:[5] like a staff member, combing the line of eager people seeking entrance into the Kingdom, He walks down the line, passing by those who are well dressed, or who are attractive and trendy. Instead, he seeks out the ugliest, the unfashionably dressed, the shy and socially backward.

Why?

Because Our Lord came to seek out the lost, being willing to ignore the 99 sheep for the sake of the one lost one. That seems to be the thrust of the first parable, the Parable of the Lost Sheep, we hear today: God’s economy is different than ours….What one of us would jeopardize the welfare of the group for the salvation of the one? That’s exactly the way God seems to work….God’s “economy” (the word “economy comes directly from the Greek, where it originally meant “plan), God’s “plan” is different than ours.

And the other parable, heard today,[6] the Parable of the Lost Coin (as it’s often called – which appears only in Luke, by the way) drives home the point of God’s diligent seeking for those who are lost….every corner, every part of the house is scoured until the lost is found.

In the process of this diligent search, God overturns our expectations, reversing the roles, bypassing those who think their own efforts will gain them access into the Kingdom.

For Our Lord knows that the lost sheep cannot find itself, and the lost coin cannot make its way back into the purse.

Without the diligent searching of God, we are helpless to save ourselves, or to find our way into the Kingdom. “You see, just at the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”, St. Paul writes in his Letter to the Romans.[7]

God takes the initiative. In Christ Jesus, God loves us into the Kingdom. Instead of casting an eagle eye on us, seeking to determine who should be kept out, the divine eye looks at us with the perspective that only love can provide, seeing us as human beings – made in the image and likeness of God – dearly beloved and loved by God.

God’s loving us into the Kingdom means changes for us: it changes our relationship with God, changes our hopelessness into new life, changes the way we behave toward God and toward others. It allows us to keep God’s holy laws – the holy life that God calls us to, but now, through our new relationship with God, we have His help in doing so. No longer do we need to try to gain access, and surely not by our own worthiness or our own merits, but by the grace and generosity of God, shown in Jesus Christ.

Simply put: God’s searching for us, and our responding to God’s call, changes us forever. God does not leave us where He found us.

Knowing God’s love for us and His earnest seeking after us ought to fill us with joy! For we are infinitely precious in God’s sight, each and every one of us.

We are the objects of God’s searching for us, and God’s diligent search for us is proof of our value in His sight.

We see the proof of God’s love and estimation of us most clearly in the cross. For on the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrates His love for us, offering us a way into the Kingdom that we ourselves cannot provide. We are dependent on His gracious invitation.

A prayer in our Book of Common Prayer[8] says all of this quite well….It prays:

“Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross, that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hand in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.”


[1] John’s Gospel account describes in good detail the concern of the ruling elite for ritual purity in their refusal to enter the courts of Pilate during Jesus’ trial, lest they be made unclean by such association and contact, and thus not be able to observe the High Sabbath of Passover. See John 18: 28ff.
[2] Leprosy, e.g.
[3] Females learned what they knew about the Law of Moses from male family members, generally.
[4] Tax collectors were lumped together with other “sinners” because they were generally Jews who collaborated with the hated Romans. The tax system of 2,000 years ago was prone to fraud and extortion: tax collectors were allowed to collect a certain amount above the actual tax itself, but there were few restraints on being able to extort additional funds beyond the usual amounts due.
[5] Luke’s Gospel account is full of role reversals: the high and mighty being cast down from their seats, and the lowly being raised up. See the Song of Mary, the Magnificat, Luke 1: 52.
[6] These two parables, the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin, form parts one and two of a three part trilogy of Parables. The third parable is the Parable of the Prodigal Son, which, unfortunately, we do not read in this current cycle of readings.
[7] Romans 5: 6 – 8 (NIV)
[8] This prayer is a Collect for Mission, found in the Office of Morning Prayer, Rite II, Book of Common Prayer, 1979, p. 101.