blogging toward sunday - "which one of you?"

Our passage this week is Luke 15:1-10 (just click on this the underlined text to see the passage).

This is the passage about the lost sheep and the lost coin. They are wonderful stories of the passionate search for the lost. Great news if you have a sense of your lost-ness, otherwise...

I like how Jesus starts these parables; "Which one of you... would leave the 99 sheep and go on a dangerous search for that one little lost sheep?" I guess, during children's time, we would like to raise our hands to Jesus' question with "ME, ME!" but I wonder, as balance the checkbook adults, what our real response would be to Jesus? I am guessing their were few raised hands that warm summer day in Palestine.

The reality is the shepherd's action is just, as one commentator put it, loopy on the shepherd's part. This silly shepherd seems as misguided as that farmer who wastes the valuable seed on feeding the birds, the father who welcomes his ungrateful son home with no cost, or the rich man who commends his dishonest manager for cooking the books. Not only would we not raise our hands as ones who would act this way but we might find it hard to resist correcting Jesus or asking him to repeat himself - for we could not have heard what we thought I heard?

I had a chance to hear Garrison Keiller speak at the Art and Lectures Series on Tuesday night. As always he spoke many memorable lines. With this passage in mind one thing he said stood out for me.

"God writes comedies but we are not always the best audience. We don't always get the jokes."

In our passages from Luke's gospel the past couple of weeks Jesus is sharing parables with his would-be followers about the nature of the Kingdom of God to which he invites them to enter. It is an odd place of justice where the rules seems to be turned upside down, shook-up and laid waste.

It is not any easier today than it was in Jesus' day to enter into this world of God's way - of extravagant grace, love that does not count cost, and abundance beyond measure. We have lived so long in a world ruled by market driven scarcity that we hardly know what to make of a world where there is so much "cup overflowing" love that you can allow love to take you into the dangerous and unknown in search of a lost little lamb and still have enough love leftover for the pack of 99 who await (a bit begrudgingly) your return.

I think what Garrison was talking about was what happens when the lost sheep is found and at home at last. Jesus' picture of this homecoming includes of all things - rejoicing angels. It's the joke that the actions of an irresponsible, thoughtless, "someone could have gotten killed" little sheep is the very act that causes God to invite the angels - as well as all creation - (and you and me) to a huge banquet feast with great rejoicing! If you are the 99 it makes you laugh (or pisses you off) because you didn't see it coming, how could you? If your the lost one, it makes you cry - for joy.

Just some reflections as we make our way to Sunday...