Foremost
1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10

September 12, 2004

It is obvious that there is not a single person here who has not made a single mistake. Moreover, I doubt that there is anyone here who has not also made the same mistake at least twice. Different situations make us think that this time we can be successful where once we failed. The situation does matter, even for Jesus.

Jesus tells lots of those odd stories or parables - and they are odd. A number of them are repeated in several Gospels, virtually the same parable story, but told in the midst of a different situation. We’ve heard the parable of the lost sheep before - in Matthew Jesus answers the question about who is the greatest by talking about the children and the little ones. Luke recalls the same story differently.

This may sound silly, but it is possible that we sometimes lose perspective of the purpose of all these Biblical stories. Simply, as Paul declares to Timothy, it is that Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Evangelical churches go to town emphasizing the sinners part, as well as the necessity to be saved. Here we are not always clear what it is that we are being saved from - and even less sure that the evangelicals really understand what their jargon is talking about - and we would prefer not to think about the gravity of our sinnership, and look up to emphasize our possibilities as the image of God.

Paul identified himself with all humility as “the foremost of sinners.” It is a little arrogant to believe that one is the best at anything, even sinfulness, but what he meant was that he could never pretend he was better than anyone. How could he if he had ever heard the story of Jesus eating with the scum of society?

Several accounts keep affirming that Jesus loved parties and dinners, did not shy from consuming alcoholic beverages, and cavorted with a typically rough crowd. This wasn’t that condescending kind of socializing with the lower classes while holding your nose to prove that you are involved with all people. No, the signs were that Jesus really enjoyed the rough crowd. These were not, however, unfortunate people who got on the wrong side of the tracks, but were really good people at heart. Tax-collectors were slimy, crude, manipulative types at their best. Prostitutes were not always lovely people on the inside. As David Buttrick called it, Jesus really loved “the not nice.”

It is easy to characterize various nationalities by their cuisine - Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican - but if there ever was a society that defined itself by its meals it was first century Judaism. Lots of foods were unclean and unfit to eat, and the choice of a meal partner was never accidental. Who you ate with said an enormous mouthful about who you really are. The scribes and Pharisees complained that Jesus ate with sinners and even had fun with them - and that was the worst thing you could say about a person. A good person, a person who aspired to be saved and redeemed by God, a rabbi in fact, should only eat with the right kind of good people, high class folk.

Jesus knew that this was not a petty challenge. The Pharisees and company were claiming that he acted and lived shamefully, and that would affect how many other people would look at him. He responds with three parables - the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son. All three have the central character lose something and then later find and recover it. It is not too much of a hint to say that the central character always represents God. The middle one, the parable of the lost coin, is the one worth hearing today.

It’s just a woman here. Before the feminists take my head off, realize by that I mean not a queen or wealthy nobility or even a rich widow the likes of which are encountered in many of Paul’s letters. No particular details about her, but it is not hard to draw the conclusion that she is not wealthy. Why else would she go searching frantically for a lost coin, except that she really needs it?

This frantic search for something that should not have been misplaced if it had been put back in its proper place is autobiographical for most of us. Again, I doubt there is one here who cannot admit to a least one adventure looking in all the wrong places.

Unlike some people I know, she actually finds it! There is an elation, I know you can attest, far beyond the value of the lost item. But just a minute now. Jesus has already told the parable of the lost sheep, and this parable parallels the former one closely in its plot. It is also apparent that the finder is God, and that means that God is a woman.

We all know about the patriarchal dominance of such a society, and I doubt we can feel the same shock of such an inference on the part of Jesus. Socially, Jesus is saying something incredibly momentous and radical. For us, it still says not a little, though may not give the same bite in our society as there once was. Theologically, Jesus implies, God is not the one we choose. In more than one way, God chooses us and clothes herself in people we often would not select.

And this God does not make real sense to us. Having found her lost coin, the woman is so happy that she throws a party for all to rejoice with her. I bet that was a difficult explanation to her friends, but most of us will go to a party even if there is no good reason. Yet, parties are never cheap and certainly she spends more money on the party than that silver coin was worth. God’s joy is seldom economical. Ninety-nine sheep are left vulnerable to the wolves while the shepherd drops everything to find the single lost lamb. God’s churches would seldom pass muster as viable institutions in the market place, but often at just that time, God is in the room.

Jesus concludes almost obviously that such uneconomic joy is just what happens in the heavenly realm over one sinner who repents. Nevertheless, in the two parables no one repents. I haven’t heard a lot of sheep say I’m sorry or even fewer coins. Yet to follow the parable’s plot all the way, they are still found. We have built a cottage industry writing books and preaching sermons on how to find God, and how to repent properly. God does not wait; God finds you first. Watch who you eat with.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan