The Greatest Commandment

 Read Matthew 22:32-40

We began the new year with a series we call the Words of Jesus. We had spent a year in the Old Testament and wanted some words from our Master. We surely find them here.

This part of Matthew brings the ministry of Jesus to a crescendo. He has his triumphant entry into town—that had to push the buttons of the religious leaders.

Jesus was teaching, frequently in parables. The Pharisees and Sadducees wanted to discredit Jesus.

Jesus was a new force to be reckoned with and he spoke with authority, not like the Teachers of the Law or the Pharisees or the Sadducees. He had been all over the countryside and had a substantial following.

Anyone who could take him down publicly would surely have some street credit. We are not talking a gunfight at the OK Corral. We are talking about discrediting the One who claims to be from the Father with the law that came from the Father himself.

The Pharisees and Herodians teamed up with the perfect question. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar?

Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar?

It may seem like just a coffee shop question.  Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar?

Answer yes, and many of these people think that Jesus is a sellout.  At the moment when people were ready to follow this revolutionary. Telling the people not to pay taxes to Caesar would certainly end up in a jail cell for Jesus.

You don’t have to be right. You just need to give the Roman soldiers a reason to lock this guy up and throw away the key. The Romans were fond of their taxes.

If the Romans governed your area but you paid your taxes, they didn’t much care if you worshiped the one true God or a carved wooded pole and made offerings to it all day.  Just pay your taxes.

All the Romans wanted was to conquer the known world and have that world pay them taxes. It’s good work if you can get.

Tell people to go ahead and pay taxes to the emperor who said he was god would make Jesus a sellout.  Either way this question will take Jesus down a notch or two no matter how he answers.

It was a perfect setup.  So, there Jesus, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?

Jesus said, who has a coin?

A coin is produced.

Whose image is on the coin?

Caesar’s.

Then give Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God that which is God’s. 

What did Jesus say?

First, Caesar is not God.

Second, if it is of this world, don’t get wrapped up in it. It belongs to this world. It is something that the pagans chase after and make into their gods. It is neither here nor there as far as we are concerned. It’s just stuff. If we need it, God will provide it.

Third, there are absolutely things that belong to God and are not to be shared with others.  He is God. He is sovereign. He is holy. He is righteous. The list goes on.

Give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s.

Not only were the people amazed, so were the Pharisees.  They surely didn’t see that one coming. They left the area. There was no victory for them on this occasion. There was no street cred. They had been publicly humiliated in a single sentence.

If the Pharisees struck out, that didn’t mean game over, it meant there was an opportunity for the Sadducees to score big. You see, the events of this day were more like a Shakespearean play than just a day in the town square.

The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. That is why they are SAD YOU SEE. That explanation is required neither by law or prophecy but by the pastor’s guild that it be used twice a year.

So the Sadducees had this little scenario dreamed up, probably for the torment of the Pharisees, but surely it would work on Jesus as well. I mean, it was well thought out.

A man had a bunch of brothers. There were 7 in all. The oldest took a wife and then died. The next brother took his brother’s wife as the law required, but he died.

The woman is still unmarried and childless, but her original husband had more brothers. They marry and die without child, so the question is: Whose wife will this woman be at the resurrection?

That’s a good one. The Sadducees had put some effort into this one. They had surely frustrated the Pharisees with this one. It would get Jesus for sure. They could chalk up this victory for sure. This was the no-win scenario for Jesus.

Mathematically, I can prove that 0=2. The math is flawless but the logic is absent. We need to understand that if the premise is false, you can prove whatever you want to prove. If the premise is false, you can make just about anything you want look to be true.

Jesus replied by saying, “Your premise is false. There is a resurrection. The insurmountable question quickly dissipated into nothing.

Jesus said, there is a resurrection. You got that part wrong and everything thereafter that you have painted as truth is false as well.

There is a resurrection of the dead. It’s coming. You might want to prepare. What’s not coming is all this physical restraint. We will be like the angels, ready and able to worship God in everything that we do.

Here is how Jesus ended this encounter.

Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

The Pharisees got wind that Jesus had put an abrupt end to the efforts of the Sadducees to trick him. They shouldn’t give up so quickly. They thought they might give it another try.  It was time to pull out the big guns.

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

That seemed straightforward enough.

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Jesus answered directly and without hesitation. He took over the conversation at this point.  Here’s the typical answer to your question and here is the full answer.

You must love God with everything that you have and are and will be. He is God. He is worthy of you worship and praise, and OBTW—love each other while you are at it.  This is the whole of the law. 

Love God.

Love one another.

Everything in the law and the prophets is anchored to, rooted in, and otherwise connected to these two basic statements.

Love God.

Love each other.

This is our answer to most questions that come up in our lives.  What do I do?  Do that which shows love for God and for each other.

Jesus turned his teaching point into a route of the Pharisees. He flipped the script on them.

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

 

“The son of David,” they replied.

 

He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,

 

“‘The Lord said to my Lord:

    “Sit at my right hand

until I put your enemies

    under your feet.”’

 

 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

 Jesus had answers for those who would confront him. Within those are answers for us. He has more answers for us if we will take his yoke and learn from him.

Jesus has plenty of answers for those who will put his words into practice. He has plenty of answers for those who want to challenge him as well. I prefer his counsel over his admonishment.

I would rather be on the teaching end of a Jesus parable than the stinging end of one of his woe unto you sentences.

Jesus told us in the clearest terms that the essence of what we do—the things that are important in our lives—is to love God and to love each other.  Everything is built upon this very real premise. It’s all about love.

So just what is the greatest commandment in the law?

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

We know what we need to know to please the Lord. Love God. Love each other. Everything else stems from these two premises.

These premises are true and our instructions for life are clear.

Love God.

Love one another.

Amen.

 

Matthew 23 - Part 2

 

Read Matthew 23

The first of the woes—the kingdom of heaven.

You Pharisees don’t want people to live in the kingdom of heaven; yet, you don’t live there yourself.  What’s up with that?

If anyone truly entered the kingdom of heaven, the rules of the world and the secular demands of the religious hypocrites would have no hold on anyone.

The Pharisees enjoyed their high standing.  They didn’t want anyone cutting into that.  They wanted to use God’s word to control and not to empower the people who sought after him.

Did they not understand how much greater it would be to live among people empowered by God to do God’s will? 

Do we understand that making someone less does not make us more?  We know many people like this.  They want to bring down, discredit, gossip about someone else so they feel better than those they have disparaged.

This section is a protracted monologue by our Lord about the Pharisees and other religious hypocrites.  It is one chastising after another without counsel to us.

So, here is our counsel from the full biblical witness.

Love one another.

Pride leads us to shame.  Humility keeps company with wisdom.

He who despises his neighbor lacks sense.

Do nothing out of vain ambition or selfish deceit.

Seek justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.

We are not in competition with others.  We serve God by serving others.  We should celebrate when the lost come home.  We should rejoice as others seek to follow the Lord.

We only have to think back a few verses in this chapter.

Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.

Amen.

Matthew 23 - Part 1

 

Read Matthew 23

Do as I say.  Not as I do.

Many of us old folks remember that saying.  Most won’t argue that such an attitude is not effective leadership. Lead by example is much better.

This is the exact attitude that Jesus pronounced upon the teachers of the law and the Pharisees.  But Jesus didn’t leave it there.  He told the people that they had to obey these men with poor examples of leadership.

Do what they say but not what they do.  Ouch!

The instructions that they give still come from God’s law even though they do not understand God’s heart.  They are terrible shepherds but they have memorized the rules.

They do not practice what they preach!

They will list ad infinitum the rules that one must follow but won’t help the least little bit.

Everything that they do is done for show.  They wear some big boxes on their foreheads.  They have tassels galore on their robes.  Think of someone like Muammar Gadhafi. He was the dictator of Libya for decades.  He was also a colonel in the Libyan army. His chest was always covered with medals.  He wanted to look important.

This is a rabbit trail but if you are the dictator of a country, why do you appoint yourself a colonel?  You think after 20 years, he would have promoted himself to general.

In any case, the Pharisees liked to walk around with their rank and medals on full display, getting the best seats wherever they went, being hailed as teacher or rabbi. They were the epitome of an it’s all about me attitude.

Jesus noted that the people must do what they say.  This was probably one of the least popular things that Jesus told the people.  It had to rank up there with love your enemies. 

But the concomitant still applied. Do as they say not as they do.

Yes, you live by a different model.  There will be people in authority that shouldn’t be in authority, but you are still called to live according to righteousness even when those above you don’t have clue what that is.

Some of you have been in positions where the best you could do is say, when it’s my turn I am sure not going to do things that way.

Don’t ever apply this to your parents. It will come back to bite you.  You might realize just how smart your parents actually were once you become one.  The only perfect parents are those with no children of their own.  Their thoughts and attitudes are always perfect.  They have never been put to the test, so they are unblemished, at least until they have their own children.

So, let’s exclude parents from this example, but most of us have had supervisors that the best we could do is just catalog the learning experience as something we would not do when we were in charge.

Some people are just negative examples.  Jesus told the people that the Pharisees were negative examples.  Do not follow their examples.

If you need positive examples, use that of the Father or the Christ (who just so happened to be the one teaching these people).

Don’t think that you will ever know enough to be called teacher or rabbi.  There is a sermon title that has been passed down for decades, surely going well back into the previous century, maybe further.

It is called, Titles or Testimonies.  I don’t know the text of the original message but for many of us, the title fully conveys the message.

When we stand before Jesus, he does not want to see our curriculum vitae. He doesn’t want to see our resume.  He doesn’t want our business card and he sure doesn’t care how many titles you can put before and after your name.

Our credentials are our love and service.  Use your gifts and talents to serve the Lord, mostly by loving one another and serving others.  When the roll is called up yonder, titles won’t mean diddly.  It’s will be our testimonies that will be the substance of our discussion with our Lord.

Here is your nugget to think on.

And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

It’s got a last will be first and first will be last ring to it, don’t you think?

And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Amen.

Matthew 16 - Part 1

 

Read Matthew 16

The Pharisees were getting frustrated.  Jesus had told his disciples to have nothing to do with the blind guides.  The Pharisees can’t best Jesus in their thinking or knowledge of God’s word, so they asked for a sign.

Realize that some of the Pharisees had seen the mighty acts of God delivered through Jesus and sometimes through Jesus and his disciples.  So why do they ask for a sign?

The Pharisees want Jesus to perform for them.  They want a miracle on demand.  They want Jesus to recognize their status and comply with their request for a sign.

Then Jesus dives into a nautical piece of wisdom.  Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning.  Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.  OK, the nautical saying came later surely in concert with the words of Jesus.

Jesus told these religious hypocrites that they understood the signs of the day, but not the signs of God.  The men who were to have known God more than everyone else, knew him the least.

Jesus noted that it was a sinful generation that sought a sign.  A sinful generation was blind to the mighty acts of God at work in the world and the Son of God standing before them.

Jesus has already noted that the Pharisees were the blind leading the blind.

There would be no sign except the sign of Jonah.  The Pharisees would get a real tongue lashing in a few more chapters, but for now, Jesus just walked away from them.

Amen.

John 10 - Part 1

Read John 10

I really enjoyed John 9, but the discourse at the end of the chapter between Jesus and the Pharisees continued into the next chapter.

How do we know?  The chapter begins: Very truly I tell you Pharisees.”  There’s not much room for discussion about who these words are aimed at.  Don’t check out of this message for there is always application for us.

God’s Chosen People went into exile in Babylon after repeated warnings not to worship other gods.  The warnings went unheeded and people had a 70-year hiatus.   Actually, the people endured captivity once again but while they were away, the land enjoyed a Sabbath rest.  

After the captivity and return, worshiping other gods seems to have diminished among the prevailing offenses of God’s Chosen People.  We see religious orders emerging—Pharisees and Sadducees.  Of these two, the Pharisees gained their status by knowledge of God’s word.  There were already scribes during the captivity.

The Pharisees were the smart guys and Jesus had just told them that they were blind.  It could be worse.  He could have called them robbers or thieves. That was coming later.

Jesus uses the shepherd and the sheep as a metaphor.  There is a gate in and out of the sheep pen.  That’s the only legitimate point of entry and exit.   There is a gatekeeper.  He only responds to the shepherd.

The shepherd uses only the gate.  He calls his sheep and they follow him.  They will not follow a stranger. In fact, they social distance themselves from the stranger.  The sheep know the voice of the shepherd.

Now that we are in chapter 10, let’s see if it gives us a little insight into the previous chapter.   Let’s go back to the scene with the second appearance of the man born blind who now can see before the Pharisees.  They asked him the same questions they did the first.

The man replied:  Why are you so interested?  Do you want to be his disciple too?

What happened next?

Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”

 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.  Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.  If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

The Pharisees had assumed the role as shepherds of God’s Chosen People but the people did not know their voice.  The Pharisees spoke as strangers not as the voice of God.  They knew the rules, came up with some new ones, but they did not know God’s heart.  The people could tell that they were not their own shepherds.

We often think of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, and he is and we will get there soon, but Jesus also identifies as the gate.  Whoever enters through him will be saved.

Our lives will be all about him, coming and going and finding green pasture because of him.

I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.

It seems like a unique metaphor, but consider its presentation not in the first person from the words of Matthew.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Jesus denounced the religious hierarchy and replaced it with a relationship with God.  He was the way, the only way.

He is the way, the only way.

Had the Pharisees truly received God’s written word, they would have recognized the Word that came in the flesh.

Many people were beginning to see how estranged from God the religious leaders had become.  The Pharisees did not know his voice.

We too must make sure that we do not become religious.  We must not become self-righteous. We have our traditions and practices that come with being God’s child.  He wants us to put everything we have to use for his glory, but what we create and grow accustomed to must not supplant our relationship with God.

We must seek God and his kingdom and his righteousness first.  How do we do this in this crazy world?

We must know his voice.

Amen.

Parables of the lost sheep and lost coin

Read Luke 15:1-10

Imagine growing up where there is an “in group” and an “out group.”  Maybe you don’t have to imagine.  By the time you get to junior high or high school, these things develop all too easily.  But for the purpose of this exercise, imagine that you were and had always been a member of the “in group.”

The rules were made to suit you.  You like the people in your group.  People that you didn’t like were not in your group so you didn’t have to worry about them.  If the rules for the outgroup were not strong enough, then you just revised them.

If you are in the “in group” then it is important that those in the “out group” be kept in their place.  Sure, there was some migration into the “in group” but not without a cost and those who came were never meant to feel as if they were really part of the group.

 

Most of you have discerned at this point that this exercise with you being part of the “in group” is putting you in the Phylacteries of the Pharisees and other self-righteous religious leaders.  Consider the words of Jesus in Matthew’s 23^rd chapter.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

In this encounter, the Pharisees are just watching, but read all of the 23^rd Chapter of Matthew to get a better perspective of how Jesus saw this group of people.

Let’s play along a little longer with you being part of the self-righteous group.  You knew that you were right in living the way that you lived.  That’s just the way it was.  It had always been that way as long as you could remember.  Yes, there were rules for you but you could interpret them, bend them a little for you while strictly enforcing them with those not in your group.

You could look at those not in your group and condemn them for just about anything that they did.  You held the power and authority to say what was acceptable and what was not.

Then one day a man—sort of a wild card because nobody knew what group he fit into—came along and talked to you and your group and he spoke as one who had real authority.  He would be a great addition to your group but he also talked to those not in your group and treated them as if they were as important as you and your group.  Sometimes it seemed like he valued them more than he did you.

So using the model that you have grown up with you think, “He is either one of us or one of them.  It can’t be both, and because he won’t be exclusive with us; he must be one of them.”

The problem is that he speaks with real authority.  People listen.  People hail him as an important person.  Crowds gather for him. 

On top of all this, when he confronts your group, you always walk away with your tail tucked between your legs. 

We come to this 15^th chapter in Luke’s gospel and this group of people known as the Pharisees.  They are observing Jesus.  They have not confronted him on this occasion but they are looking for something big to hold against him.  They would really like to go one up on him.  They are doing what we might call in therapeutic terms, “self talk.” 

They are reinforcing what they think about Jesus by talking among themselves and reminding each other that this man welcomes sinners.  He doesn’t just tolerate them.  He welcomes them.  On top of that he eats with them.

On this occasion, Jesus was teaching and it appeared that mostly people of this “outgroup” had gathered to listen to him.  Tax collectors and sinners is the term we find in the Bible.  Outcasts, those of doubtful reputation, and even notorious sinners encompass the range of descriptive terms for the people that I have described as the “out group.”

But the Pharisees were there and listening and Jesus knew it.  So, he told a story—a parable—about a shepherd and his sheep.  There were one hundred sheep in this story.  That’s a nice size flock, enough to get the people interested anyway.

But one of the sheep is missing.  Jesus surely has the empathy of the crowd at this point.  People understand what it is to take care of sheep.

How do they understand this?  I doubt that there were any shepherds in this crowd.  They have found something else to do for their livelihood. There’s no way that I am going to take care of sheep.  It’s a tough life.  You have to be on guard against wild animals and thieves. 

On top of that, sheep don’t know what’s good for them.  Of course one is missing.  That’s what sheep do.  They go astray.

The question is, what does the shepherd do?  He goes looking for the lost sheep.  That’s what shepherds do.

He leaves the 99 in the open country—some translations say the wilderness—and he starts looking for this lost sheep.  Jesus then said, when he finds it.  Notice that he did not say if he finds it.  He said when he finds it then it is time to celebrate.

He throws this sheep over his shoulder—remember there are 99 left back to their own care—and the shepherd must get back to them so this lost but now found sheep will move at the shepherd’s pace.

But bringing this lost sheep home is cause for celebration.

This parable hits home because it is something that a shepherd would do.  Think back to the beginning of the previous chapter as Jesus is talking about healing on the Sabbath.

He asks, “What would you do if a family member or a donkey or an ox fell into a well on the Sabbath?  Would you not go right away and rescue this person or animal?”

The questions are rhetorical.  Of course, you would rescue them.  Imagine calling out to your favorite ox—who among us does not have a favorite ox—saying, “Just hold on until tomorrow.”

Recall that the Pharisees remained silent.  Had they actually answered the question with the obvious answer, their blindness might have been lifted, but they would not give an answer that seemed to agree with this man who welcomes sinners.

They had to keep their distance.  They did not want this man who dined with outcasts to be seen as part of their elite group.  They were practiced at sales resistance.

Most of us go to yellow or red alert and shields up whenever we talk with a salesman that we don’t know.  The salesman is trained to get you comfortable with saying yes.

Wouldn’t you love to be in perfect health?

Wouldn’t you love to see your grandkids have their college paid for?

Would you love to have two or three times the pay that you have now?

Of course people answer yes to these questions.  That’s why the salesperson asks them.  He wants you to get comfortable saying yes.  Then he starts on his sales spiel.

The Pharisees had obviously had a club meeting to discuss sales resistance with this Jesus.  Unless, they have a plan to trap him, they don’t want to be trapped by their answers to his questions.

The problem is that Jesus was asking questions that they should have been answering so they too would have eyes to see.  Jesus had nothing to sell. He had life abundant and eternal to give!

Jesus is talking to the entire crowd but the Pharisees should have had the greatest understanding of these parables.  Without any comment from the men adorned with phylacteries, Jesus tells another story aimed mostly at the women in the crowd.

A woman has 10 silver coins and loses 1 of them.  At this point, most of the men have tuned out.   

“OK, a sheep running off by itself is one thing, but how does a coin get lost? It can’t run off.  It should be exactly where she left it.  Right?

I would agree it should be exactly where she left it but I don’t even want to confess the hours that I have spent looking for things that were exactly where I left them.

So she turns the house inside out looking for this lost coin.  She gets a lamp to look in dark corners, probably making mental notes where she needs to vacuum now that she has shined the light over there.

Again note, Jesus did not say if she finds the coin; he said when she finds it.  This woman was going to search until she found the coin.

When she does, she is going to get all of her girlfriends together and celebrate.  What was lost is now found.

If they had today’s technology back then, we could all watch the new reality TV shows, Sheep Search and Coin Hunt.  A little Facebook live and hourly tweets could have kept us all plugged in.

The women were surely plugged in to this parable.  Of course you hunt for the lost coin.  Of course you celebrate when you find it.  Of course you rejoice with your friends.

Lost sheep and lost coins were things that people understood.  You didn’t just write them off.  Today, a 1 % write off doesn’t seem as important.

For the past 2 decades many companies have adopted a strategy of attrition with customers that register recurring complaints.  Voice menus with inadequate options frustrate many customers.  Many just live with the substandard service and others just discontinue the service.  Many companies are just fine with losing customers who complain.  They will not invest the extra effort to retain the 1% or 5% or sometimes even 10%. 

But 2000 years ago, you were not content to leave their status as lost.  You found the sheep.  You found the coin.  You searched until you did.

The Pharisees were content with the in group/out group arrangement.  The outcasts were outcasts for a reason and their status did not need to change.  The Pharisees had a never-ending supply of penalty flags and they were content with many being outside their elite circle.

The problem here is that God was not content to write off the lost.  He was not content to just condemn the sinners.  He actively sought the lost and the outcast and those surely on the fringes of society.

He sought them.  He pursued them.  He made a way for them to be included in this wonderful thing that today we call fellowship.  A couple thousand years ago, we would have called it koinonia.  It’s communion, connection, inclusion.

Fellowship is not a strong enough word these days.  We have relegated fellowship to times when we eat and snack, mostly with our close friends.  Koinonia is connecting with everyone as if they were a close friend.  Koinonia is family.

God desires us all to be family.  His heart desires none to perish. He doesn’t want anyone to remain lost and unrepentant.  This is not God’s wish, as if anyone could grant God’s wish; it is the desire of his divine heart. 

That desire produces action!

God didn’t just speak everything into existence and say, “Good luck guys.  See you at the judgment.”  He has been and remains actively engaged with his creation, so much so that he came himself in the form of Jesus to live in the human condition.

God is so engaged with his creation that he took the sin of the world upon himself when Jesus gave himself freely to be the Lamb of God that took away the sin of the world.  If dying for us is not fully engaged, then what could be?

God is so engaged with his creation that when Jesus ascended to heaven, God’s own Spirit came to be with us.  We call this Spirit the Counselor, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, and the Holy Spirit. 

God has not forgotten one of us.  Consider the billions of people alive now and the billions who have lived before us.  You think that God might have written off some of them early on, but God’s heart longs for all to come home to him.

So when Jesus walked the earth teaching and preaching and healing and rebuking and casting out demons and just showing people what his Father’s heart was all about; those on the fringes and edges of society were clearly in his sights.

Those whom the righteous called outcasts and misfits and sinners received head of the line privileges when the one with the words of life came to town.

Of course Jesus went to the lost.  He came to fulfil the desire of his Father’s heart, that none should perish.  He could have just reprimanded the Pharisees, put them on probation, and returned to heaven instead of going all the way to the cross.

But his heart, like his Father’s and like the Spirit’s who lives inside of us now is a heart that none will be lost—that none will be lost.

Our challenge in this age where shepherds are scarce and our money is mostly in the bank is to have a heart for the lost.

We take care of each other as family.  That’s who we are, but we are not content that so many live outside the family.  So many remain lost.  So many seek the things of this world when truth and life and abundance lie in God’s Kingdom that he has opened to us.

Abundance lies in inclusion in the family of faith.  That said, we do have to do some maintenance from time-to-time.  The mission of the church is to reach the lost, bring them to Christ, help them become disciples, help them take on the easy yoke and light burden of our Master.  Somewhere along the way that includes baptism.

But, we also have to take care of those who are a part of this body.  We have to take care of those who are sent and who go into this world to reach the lost.  We must be wise so as not to focus exclusively on the body of believers that gathers weekly, but we must not neglect them.

The shepherd left the 99 for a short time.  He may or may not have left those sheep in the care of an assistant, but he wasn’t gone for a long time.  He left in search of the lost but he came back to the flock. Tending the flock ensured there was a flock to tend.

Surely, he searched with intensity.  Every sheep was important to the shepherd. 

Everyone in a modern-day congregation is important.  We don’t like being compared to sheep, but the analogy is applicable. 

We are also numbered among the shepherds for we carry the good news.  We go in search of the lost.  We desire none to perish.  We leave the flock for short periods and go in search of the lost.

We need the strength of coming together, but we need the heart of mercy that sends us on a mission with passion and intensity when we go in search of the lost.

We are to search for the lost, not out of duty, but out of love.

Has our heart been shaped like our Master’s?  If it has, we have this compulsion to reach out to the lost time and time again.

We will view the lost from his perspective, not so much that they are lost from our local body, but that they have strayed away from the Good Shepherd.

We are his arms and legs and voice and compassion in this age.  We reach out to the lost.  When only 1 sinner comes home, there is rejoicing in heaven.

Rescuing the lost connects heaven and earth with joy and rejoicing.  When the desire of God’s heart is fulfilled, the result is joy.

God knows when a sparrow falls and numbers the hairs on our heads.  He not only knows when a sinner repents and comes home, he is filled with and heaven is filled with joy.

We know that we do not reach out to the lost on our own.  The Holy Spirit is with us until the end of the age.  If the angels in heaven can celebrate when just one lost person comes home, how can we do any less?

We must celebrate the profession of faith.

We must celebrate the baptism.

We must celebrate every step taken in discipleship for this is where we grow in God’s grace.  We not only work to bring people home but to keep them home.  They become part of the family and grow in grace with us.

We can look at the world as a dismal place full of people who have turned away from God, or we can look at it as so many celebrations just waiting to happen.  There are so many opportunities—so many opportunities to excel.

Let us have a heart for the lost.  Let’s take good news to them.  Let’s be God’s light and love to them.  Let those who do not have the Lord taste his goodness in their every encounter with us.

God is not willing that any be discounted as lost.  He has sent us to rescue them.  Walking with God’s Holy Spirit let us bring God the desire of his heart.

That in itself—that we are in this together with God—is cause for celebration.  God trusts us enough to find the lost and be a part of bringing joy to his heart.

Let us reach out to the lost as never before.

Amen.