September 12, 2004

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

Luke 15:1-10

“Heaven Rejoices”

     Jeremiah’s passage certainly levels the playing field: “For my people are foolish, they don’t know me; they are stupid children.  They don’t understand anything.  They are skilled at doing evil and don’t know how to do good!” 

     All fall short of the glory of God, even religious folks.  “Now all the tax collectors and sinners (that was anybody who wasn’t a Jew, by-the-way) were coming near to listen to Jesus.  And the Pharisees and the scribes (these were very religious people) were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them!’”

     Theses particular Pharisees and scribes were looking down their noses at people and thus, couldn’t see past their own prejudices.  They felt they were better than everyone else because they were religious leaders and keepers of the sacred traditions.  But as C.S. Lewis wrote many years ago in his book, Mere Christianity, “When a man looks down on people and things, he cannot see that which is above him.”    

     In their comfortable positions of power and prestige, the Pharisees and scribes had missed something important.  God wasn’t calling them to maintain a clubhouse for the like-minded, but to reach out to the world, to seek the lost, to serve the needy, to share the Word of God. 

     It’s a good thing when religious folks flock together because there is strength, support and security in the community of God’s people.  We are meant to be together.  But if in the process we fail to be the United Church of Christ but rather, the United “Clique” of Christ, then something’s gone wrong. 

     We all know the seven most deadly words in church, right?…“We’ve-never- done-it-that-way-before.”  This is the perspective of sheep in a fold keeping boundaries.  This is the perspective of those who lose sight of that which is above them and the call to reach out.

     Nowhere in the Gospels does it say we’re supposed to maintain a really good fold, well organized and cost efficient.  Nowhere are we called to run a business or a well-oiled institution.  We’re supposed to be out there, doing what the Good Shepherd did, doing what Jesus did.  Followers of Christ reach out with healing, compassion and forgiveness to people estranged from God and one another.  They reach out to the poor, the lost, the hurting, the sick and the needy, to tell them of the hope in Jesus Christ, to rejoice with them as they come into the company of Christ’s people.

     Rejoicing!  That’s really what this is about.  “I have come that you might have joy and that your joy may be complete,” said Jesus.  And in the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin that follows it, there is rejoicing when the lost are found.  “I tell you,” said Jesus, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”  Imagine that – when we turn to God, heaven rejoices!  When we humble ourselves before the Lord, letting down our barriers, there are cosmic implications!  Heaven rejoices!  The Good Shepherd is looking for us and when we listen to his voice we’ll be renewed by his saving love and all of heaven will break out with singing.

     Martin Luther said that every day we die to sin and every day are born anew in the saving love of the resurrected Christ.  The Savior’s grace is greater than our sins.  Love conquers all.  Christ was a victor over sin and death and we share the victory.  How good it is when such grace reaches to us, fills our hearts and then reaches beyond us to the lost and lonely, the hurting and needy.  Heaven rejoices!

     Next Sunday, we will be called upon to reach out in a way we haven’t done before.  We’ll be asked to grant permission to the Joint Exploration Team to begin working on a merger proposal.  Now is a good time for us to prayerfully consider why we are doing this.  Is this about having more sheep in the fold so we can more easily pay the bills?  Is this only about having things on our terms and in our building?  Is this about people on the inside willing to grow only if those who come in agree to be like us?  If so, we should probably vote “no” next Sunday.  But if instead this is about being the lost whom Christ reaches and about reaching out to others in his name, they maybe we can vote “yes”.

     The people of Second Church are not the last bastion of righteousness any more than we are.  Like us, they are people with shortcomings and needs.  They need us to reach out to them as much as we need them to reach out to us.  This is a great challenge because it means working outside the box, reaching beyond the fold.  It means letting go of boundaries, prejudices, that “We’ve never done it that way before” mentality and Lord knows what else. 

     But certainly the Lord knows this, and wants us to know it too – he has come that we might have joy, that our joy may be complete. 

     Complete joy - does that sound good to you?  Listen for the good sounds, O sinner turning to the Savior, opening your heart to God’s people.  Open the windows and open the doors of the fold, go out into the world.  Be a beacon of Christ’s light in dark places, the embrace of the Good Shepherd.

     Listen…heaven is rejoicing!