16 June 2013 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA
Text: Luke 15:1-10 (Mic 7:18-20, 1 Pet 5:6-11)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
You
don’t have to be a child of the eighties to be familiar with the song “We Are
the Champions.” This anthem is played at
nearly every sports championship around the world, be it the World Cup, the
Super Bowl, or the World Series. It is a
reminder that in this fallen world, only one can be the champion, and everyone
else is a “loser.”
“No
time for losers,” says the song, because “we are the champions of the world.” And in today’s parlance, it’s pretty bad to
be a “loser.” If you are a loser, you
sit alone at lunch. If you are a loser,
nobody wants to speak to you. If you are
a loser, you are not going to be seen socially with the winners and the
champions.
The
champions of first century Jewish society in the Roman Empire – the Pharisees
and the scribes – were grumbling at Jesus, as usual, saying: “This man receives
sinners and eats with them.” In other
words, Jesus has time for losers. Jesus
“receives” them, will be seen with them, talks to them, and even eats with
them. Jesus has broken the rule against
allowing the losers to eat at the table with the champions, the winners, the
cool kids.
For
in their world, to be a “sinner” was to be a loser. You did not associate with them, did not
speak with them, and you most certainly did not eat with them, people like “the
tax collectors and sinners” who were, incidentally, the ones who were “drawing
near to hear” Jesus.
“So
he told them a parable.” Actually, he told
them several, teaching them about the importance of the lost. For Jesus is actually more interested in the
humble lost than he is in the self-aggrandizing champion.
Our
Lord first speaks of a lost sheep. And
in this case, the sheep is only one of a hundred. Should a shepherd leave the 99 sheep who have
not wandered to seek out the lost? Well,
that is just what a good shepherd does.
He will “go after the one that is lost… until he finds it.” A lot of terrible fates can befall a lost
sheep, but if the shepherd finds it, it is a cause for rejoicing. It is a reason to throw a party. It may not be the World Cup or the Super
Bowl, but to the lost sheep, this is his life; and to the shepherd, this is his
beloved sheep – even if to the world, this is a “loser,” a “sinner,” a creature
that deserves to bear the consequences of his bad mistake.
Of
course, that is not how God’s kingdom operates.
The King of love my Shepherd is.”
Our Good Shepherd is interested in saving the lost, not teaching them a
lesson. He has come to save us, not to
condemn us. And in fact, our Lord says:
“there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over
ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
And
consider the lost coin. The woman in our
Lord’s story does not give up on the coin just because it is lost. No indeed!
She lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and “seeks diligently until she
finds it.” She has time for the lost
coin and doesn’t simply allow it to slip between the cracks or write it off as
a loss. “And when she has found it, she
calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have
found the coin that I had lost.’” And
again, Jesus reminds us of the “joy before the angels of God over one sinner
who repents.”
Although
Jesus is the Champion of the world, in the literal sense of the word, Jesus is
the only one of our race to have never fallen into sin, the only Man who was
not a “loser.” And yet, Jesus is willing to be treated as a lost sheep or a
lost coin. “My God, My God,” He cried
out from the cross, “Why have You forsaken Me?”
Our Lord was not lost, but cast away.
He was the goat sent into the wilderness to bear the sins of the people,
the scapegoat. He was the coin used to
redeem us back from sin, He who was himself sold to sinners for thirty pieces
of silver. And though the hosts of
heaven wept at what our Lord suffered, they rejoice eternally for what He has
gained. For He has gained us, dear
friends, us “poor, miserable sinners,” losers the lot of us. All of us “lost and condemned persons.” Lost, that is, until we have been found,
redeemed, and rescued by our Champion who has time for us, and who draws us into
eternity.
Dear
friends, we have additional cause for joy, for rejoicing, on this holy Lord’s
Day. A little lost lamb has been found
and delivered safely to his home, Hayden Rumfield. By water and the Word, according to the
promise of our Good Shepherd, the lamps have been lit, the house has been
swept, and by God’s diligence, Hayden has been found in the Lamb’s Book of
Life! Heaven rejoices, and there is joy
before the angels and before men. And
Hayden will sing with all of us: “God’s own child I gladly say it, I am
baptized into Christ.”
He
is yet another fulfillment of the Word of the Lord, who “will again have
compassion on us: He will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast our sins into the depths of the
sea.” For Hayden’s sins, including those
inherited from his parents, and those of his own, have all been drowned with
Pharoah’s hosts and with the evil of the world at the great flood. He is preserved in the Ark of the Church,
found and rescued by the one Champion who has time for losers, who finds the
lost, and who makes each one of us “more than conquerors” by the cross, by the
forgiveness of sins, by His Word, and through His very body and blood. And the vault of heaven resounds!
And
having been found, we can indeed “be sober-minded; be watchful,” although “your
adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to
devour,” because the Lord has rescued us. He has rescued Hayden and all of the lost. He has found us and lays us on His shoulders,
the same shoulders that bore the cross for us, and He leads us in rejoicing!
There
is no room for grumbling here, dear friends.
There is no need to seek a championship that excludes losers and tries
to marginalize the lost. For we are all
lost. And yet we are all found: champions
by virtue of the victory of the One Champion, of the world and for the world,
who has redeemed the world, who has found it lost and fallen and is remaking it
new and glorious, who declares us to be “more than conquerors.”
And
so, let us rejoice, dear brothers and sisters!
Let us rejoice in the Lord’s victory over the devil on our behalf. Let us rejoice for all the baptized,
including little Hayden, and ourselves!
Let us rejoice over every sinner who repents, over every wandering sheep
who finds his way home, over every valued person created in God’s image who has
slipped through the cracks of this fallen world to be found by our merciful
Lord, everyone who is brought to repentance and everlasting life. For in being found by Him who has sought us
and saved us, we are champions indeed.
Amen.
In the name of the
Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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