Scripture: Ezekiel 34: 11-16; Luke 15: 1-10

(11) For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. (12) As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. (13) I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. (14) I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture and on the mountains of Israel. (15) I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. (16) I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.

- Ezekiel 34: 11-16

(1) Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. (2) And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."

(3) So he told them this parable: (4) "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? (5) When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. (6) And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' (7) Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

(8) "Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? (9) 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.' (10) Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

- Luke 15: 1-10

When hope seems dashed on the rocks of human violence as it has been this past week for both Palestinian Arab and Israeli Jew;

when merciless gunfire and clouds of stones steal the last vestige of innocence from their children;

when desperation turns to terrorist evil in a Yemeni harbor and the grim procession of flag draped coffins resumes its all-too-familiar death march;

when we look at adults molesting children, landowners exploiting workers, the devastation of ethnic cleansing, and American prisons filled with a tenth of African American men;

when humanity's malignant record extolling the virtues of honor, duty and religion has been so thoroughly stained with blood red lies,

then, as people of faith, we will only find consolation in the belief that though we may wander far into the wilderness of depravity and destruction, there is a compassionate God who persists, there is a compassionate God who picks up the pieces, there is a compassionate God who brings redemption even into the most hopeless corners of the world's failings.

We need not look across the ocean to these headline-grabbing hot spots of human evil to know that our hope rests not with us. For when we look at our own souls and at the way one human being can be so prone to inflict pain on another, we come to realize that if there is hope, then it is not going to come from us, but from the God who is in the crossfire of every battlefield, the tears of every victim of abuse, and in the prison camp of every lost and wandering soul.

Of course, it is into such places that the Gospel becomes real. Into such places faith becomes more than an option on a middle-class menu, but a matter of survival. God is the only hope in such lost places as Serbia and Rwanda or the AIDS ward of Huntington Hospital or the relentless march of Alzheimer's in the memory of a once articulate friend. For if God is to mean anything to us, then it is into these places where there is no hope that God enters and brings redemption. This is both the absurdity of our faith and its power. Into such a places, Luke has Jesus tell two simple parables about the persistence of God to seek out the wandering and lost: the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin. From these parables we learn of the persistence of God.

Luke tells us that Jesus is eating with sinners and that the religious authorities harshly criticize him for not only associating with them, but enjoying himself as well:

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them."

Now these sinners are not secretly nice people who made a mistake or two. No these are the pimps, the Nazi collaborators, and the drug dealers of Jesus' own day. These are not people we invite to church suppers. So why does Jesus party with such scum? Luke's answer is that Jesus' mission is to save the lost. Jesus represents a God whose compassion is so infinite that he loves sinners even as these. Condemned by the scribes and Pharisees as a glutton and drunkard, Luke has Jesus tell a parable about why he associates with such low life.

One of the parables features a woman a woman who, not so incidentally, represents God - unheard of in this ancient patriarchal culture! The parable is strange indeed! The woman has 10 drachmas each worth about a day's wages for a farm hand - not a large sum of money. In poor Palestine in would be even less than what a migrant worker would receive today much less than $40 or $50. She loses one of the small coins which she cannot seem to find. She lights a candle to search in the dark corners of the house. She gets a broom and sweeps the floor to find the coin. Then, after an extensive effort, she locates the coin and what does she do? She throws an expensive party for friends and neighbors to celebrate the recovery. The parable is a bit odd - even foolish. The absurdity is that the party is far more expensive than the lost coin. The woman's extravagance is as absurd as the God who is depicted in the other parable of the Lost Sheep.

Now the Parable of the Lost Sheep has inspired much Christian piety, hymnody and art. Jesus carrying a rescued lamb on his shoulders has been the subject of more stained glass than any other image. But a close reading reveals that the parable is odd.

First of all, shepherds in First Century Palestine, contrary to their sanitized image in countless Christmas pageants, were not the type you brought home to your mother. They would come down out of the hills to town like Harley Davidson bikers to party and raise a ruckus. Nonetheless, Jesus uses the shepherd story to convey his point about God rescuing the lost.

He asks, "What shepherd would leave behind 99 sheep in the wilderness, and head up to the hills to find one lost sheep?" The response is simple. No shepherd would. No responsible shepherd with half a gourd would. You don't abandon your flock. Sheep are not intelligent animals. Dangers lurk in the darkness. There are wild animals that prey. The flock's life would be at risk. The parable is absurd!

Jesus is saying that though no human shepherd would risk the entire flock for the sake of one sheep, God's love reaches out to each and every one of us even the lapsed sinner who has placed him or herself in the worst situation. This crazy God is willing to put everything at risk for one lost and wandering soul.

This, of course, makes no sense if one expects that God's purpose is to bless whatever is impressive or successful or pleasing. There is nothing in the Gospel about being the best or brightest or biggest of anything. The Good News of God in Jesus Christ is that when the bottom has fallen out from you when you are so lost in the wilderness so that all you can do is bleat and cry and grow numb then the Good News is that you can never be so lost that the love of God cannot find you.

The power of our faith is now and always has been about the power of God to raise people from the dead. That's it. Period. It's not about what we do or what we don't do. Whether we are sinners or decent people. It's about God. It's about a God who is so persistent that God never gives up even when we do. When we create camps for Jews at Birkenau or for Japanese Americans in the Utah desert, God does not give up. When we line up with tanks and rocks in the name of Allah or Yahweh or the God of Jesus and kill and maim and hate, God does not give up. When we enter a faith crisis because of some loss or hurt or tragedy or question and believe that God is silent, God does not give up. When we become lost whether by choice or circumstance so that we are as desperate as a bleating sheep, then God does not give up, but persists. Like a woman who searches for a lost coin, like a shepherd who leaves everything behind to find the one lost sheep, our God seeks us out: in prisons of the soul, in secret addictions, in the wilderness of broken relationships, in those trapped by a violent temper, in those who live in fear, in dead end jobs and in blinding success; in the heart worn and the calloused, even into graves, God seeks us out.