Sermons

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The Parable of the Found Sheep
July 23, 2000
Second in a sermon series on the parables of Jesus
Pastor Dan Baumgartner

This morning we get to continue our look at three of Jesus' parables, those “little stories with big points” (Buechner).   Jesus did a great deal of his teaching through the use of these stories. 

Last week we read the parable of the two builders, one who built on rock and one who built on sand.  We learned that the only difference between the two was that one heard Jesus' words and put them into practice, and the other heard Jesus' words and did not put them into practice.

Today we read a well-known parable, often called the “Parable of the Lost Sheep.”  However, I've titled my sermon today the “Parable of the Found Sheep.”          

Luke 15:1-7

I watched the news one night last week, and caught part of an interesting story about three hikers who were high up in the Cascade mountains ... about 6,000 feet, I think.

One of the hikers went ahead of the others to scope out the trail, and as he did so, a thick fog settled over the rugged peaks.  Two hours later, the other two still couldn't find him.  They looked, they yelled, they searched and searched.  Then they got scared. 

"He couldn't have gone that far.  The terrain is pretty treacherous.  He must have fallen.  What do we do?!" 

They did what any well-prepared hiker does in the year 2000.  They pulled out their cell phone, and called for help!  And before too long, an emergency rescue helicopter was hovering there at 6,000 feet.  And not too long after that, a helicopter from the news station was in the area, investigating the story.  And just when they were going to call more people into the search...the third hiker turned up, safe and sound. 

He had wandered off a wrong trail and gotten turned around.  Eventually he ran into another group of hikers who pointed him the right way.   My thought as I watched this story was: Wow, what a lot of energy and time and money invested just to look for one hiker.  We can't afford to do that every time somebody gets lost.   Jesus would disagree with my response, I'm afraid.  

At the point Jesus tells this parable, he is surrounded by "tax collectors and sinners," that motley crew of people rejected by the religious leaders of the day.  And in fact, these religious leaders are with Jesus as well, and they are grumbling...can you believe the kind of people that this Jesus meets with?   That he even eats with? 

Sharing a meal was no small thing.  To have fellowship around a table meant a great deal in the ancient Middle East.  It still does today.   We seem to have lost something in the translation when we jet through the McDonalds drive-through and see how fast a meal can actually be eaten...super sized or not.  No, in Jesus' day inviting someone to table with you, or being invited...really meant something.  Honor, respect, kindness, trust...all of those things were rolled up in sharing a meal.  So when the religious leaders criticized Jesus for welcoming and eating with untouchables, they weren't talking about him holding his nose and putting up with an unpleasant task for 20 minutes.  No, Jesus was spending time.  He was VALUING people...people the leaders wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.    He was, in fact, living the parable he was about to teach.    

The Pharisees, on the other hand, lived under a written code which compelled them to deal with "sinners" in this way:  entrust no money to them, ignore their testimony in court, share no secrets with them, do not allow them to be guardians to an orphan, do not travel with them, do not have them as your guest nor be their guest.   Jesus disagreed.

And so he told this story.  I told you last time Jesus' parables had four things we should consider:

• What does it SAY
• What might it MEAN
• What is the MAIN POINT, and
• What QUESTION does Jesus leave us with 

The first was the story:  What was it saying?  That's not quite as easy in this parable as it was last week.  Last week dealt with the foundation of a house, and many of us have worked on one or at least understand the concept.  But how many of you have been a shepherd?  How many have ever been around sheep at all? 

We'll have to use our imagination a bit, and what we know of the Middle Eastern customs. In a poor village environment, a hundred sheep was a lot of sheep.  A great flock, actually.  More normal would be 10 or 12 or 15 sheep.  So this is either a very large flock, or quite likely it was the flocks of several families in the village.  That would be very normal, with two or more shepherds also accompanying the flock.    

And we have to know a little about sheep.  I confess, I don’t.  But in the EXTENSIVE reading I have done, I have discovered two important things.  The first thing is they really are not too smart.  The second is that they love to eat.   As I read this story I went, "Oh, c'mon!  How can you be with 99 other sheep and get lost?  It would be like going to a Mariners’ game with 100 others.  Sure there are a lot of people at the game, but you don’t get lost from your group of 100! How does a sheep get lost?"  

Bruce Larson says sheep nibble their way into lost-ness.  They move from one patch of grass to the next, oblivious to what is going on around them, sometimes moving right through a hole in the fence.  And they keep nibbling from one patch to the next until they're totally lost.   And in fact, once they are bewildered and alone, they will often just stop and lay down. 

That's when the shepherd in Jesus' story goes to work.  He leaves the other sheep.  Are there other shepherds? We don't know.  Are the other sheep safe?  We don't know.  It doesn't matter.  This parable isn't about the 99.  It's about the one, and so the shepherd goes looking.  He puts himself at risk to find that one sheep.  

A shepherd alone in the wilderness is at risk.  Who knows what rocky crag that sheep might be out on, or if it's getting dark, or if there are wild animals around? But he risks and goes, and finds the sheep.   And when he finds it...he says, "Bad, bad, bad sheep!! What's wrong with you?!  If you ever do that again, I'll...I'll shear you bald!" 

No, of course he doesn't say that.  This shepherd is just glad…overjoyed… to find the one that was lost.  But the shepherd's job isn't done.  He may now be miles away from where he started, and he still has that silly sheep, lying there in front of him on the ground.  He needs to carry it back home.  It's heavy, and hot and squirmy but he throws it up on his shoulders and heads home.  And finally he gets to his village.  Instead of plopping down on the bed and falling asleep exhausted, he calls all his friends and neighbors together to rejoice...to a party!  Now, they all know what's been going on...and they're glad.  They're glad he's home safe, glad the sheep has been found.  The community is back together.  There's joy!  Not grumbling about the resources expended on the sheep...  Joy!

Now stop and think: that one lousy sheep must have been awfully valuable to that shepherd.  Why risk life and limb and time and energy all for the sake of 1% of an investment?  One sheep out of 100 is “statistically insignificant”...it shouldn't matter.  Just go take care of the 99.  If you're an investor, and you win on more deals than you lose on, you'll come out okay...losing some is part of the game.  If you are a salesperson, you keep the majority of your customers happy and you win big; you don't worry about the few that fall away. 

But this shepherd says something different to us.  Jesus says something different to us.  He says that every single person...is important.  Every single person is important...of immense value, way too valuable to ever give up on.  Jesus wanted to impress that on those religious leaders.  None of these people: tax collectors or sinners...not one is insignificant.  Not alcoholics, not drug addicts, not mentally unstable, not unemployed, not homeless... not those who find success in things, not those whose career consumes them…not those who know God, not those who think they know God, not those who don't know God...there is no such thing as an insignificant person to Jesus.   And it's a darned good thing, too.  Because when you stop and think about it, we can be lost in so many ways.  And it's a good thing Jesus is the kind of shepherd that will keep looking for us.

I often walk or run with folks around Queen Anne Hill, and I have pointed out to some of you the exact manhole cover where I was in the early '80s when I realized God was looking for me.  I was in my twenties and my whole world was crashing down around me.  Everything I valued ... school, girlfriend, sports...everything I valued, everything I had built my self-image on had disappeared from life.  I was a Christian...but I was about as lost as I could get.  I walked around Queen Anne Hill for months, almost every night, wondering where God was, and if he even cared about me.  And God met me, right by the manhole cover where 8th Avenue meets Highland Drive.  God met me and said, "Aha!  I found you!  I love you."  It's what I needed.  It was like being picked up and carried home.

Some of you have read Anne Lamott's book, "Traveling Mercies."  She tells a wonderful story of being found.  Anne's life was a blur, falling apart fast.  She said she felt stiff and dying on the inside.  She was drinking too much, was sick, went through an abortion, she was hooked on sleeping pills.  And one depressing night she lay on her bed and the world was spinning around.  She says:

 "After a while, as I lay there, I became aware of someone with me, hunkered down in the corner, and I just assumed it was my (deceased) father, whose presence I had felt over the years when I was frightened and alone.  The feeling was so strong that I actually turned on the light for a moment to make sure no one was there -- of course, there wasn't.  But after a while, in the dark again I knew beyond any doubt that it was Jesus...I thought about what everyone would think of me if I became a Christian...I turned to the wall and said out loud, "I would rather die."  I felt him sitting there on his haunches in the corner of my sleeping loft, watching me with patience and love." 

A week later she staggered into a church...and felt “…like the music... or something...was rocking me in its bosom, holding me like a scared kid, and I opened up to that feeling -- and it washed over me."  I began to cry and left before the benediction..."and I opened the door to my houseboat, and I stood there a minute, and then I hung my head and said (to Jesus) "...(Okay).  I quit.  You can come in."

No one is insignificant.  Not the Anne Lamott who by that time had already published three books, and was popular as a speaker, and seemed so popular and intriguing to others.  Not the Anne Lamott who was absolutely dying on the inside.  No one is insignificant.  The shepherd goes looking.

What incredible value that one sheep must have had.  It doesn't really even make sense.  What value each person is to God.  Now I KNOW that this morning even as I say this, some of you are saying, "Yes, but you don't know what I'm really like.  Yes, God goes after people, but He would never go looking for me."  But Jesus would disagree.  You're wrong.  He has gone looking.  By coming to earth, by hanging with every type of person, by being lifted on a cross...Jesus says YOU are valuable.  He is looking for you.  He will continue looking.

Let's not be silly enough to think that this parable is only meant for those who are not Christians.  It's meant for us, lost sinner or lost Pharisee.  You may have known Christ for years...but you may feel overwhelmed by life and on your own.  You may have nibbled your way from one tuft of grass to the next and suddenly find yourself far away.  Or you may have never been able to articulate the feeling that God is looking for you.  We need to keep our mind open to the possibility that wherever we are...God is pursuing us.

Now…after Jesus found people, loved them, spent time with them...he always sent them back out.  He told his disciples who had been fishermen...that he wanted them to be fishers for men, for people.  He called them to reach out to other nibblers who had wandered off.   We receive that call too. 

One of the great things about being a pastor is that I get to hear a lot of stories of faith journeys.  I am constantly amazed to hear of significant turning points in people’s stories with Christ.  Always, always, always there was SOME person, some key person at the right time who walked a long ways to find them, who reached out a hand to them.  Always.  And YOU can be that person for someone else.  It's not a technique.  You don't have to attach a big word like "evangelism" or "mission" or "outreach" to it, because that can sound like a formula.   It's not a formula.  The point of the parable is not to study the details of exactly HOW the shepherd looked for the sheep...the point of the parable is to see the HEART that drove him to even look for the sheep.  So many times, in the church,  our sharing of Christ has gotten bogged down with technique (What's my strategy? Door to door?  Billboards? A new web site?)...so many times we have failed to reach our communities...our neighbors, our friends, our colleagues...not because our technique was wrong, but because we have lost the perspective of having been found ourselves...once, or many times. 

Once you have been the found one, it changes everything.  In the story about the hiker who was lost...if that had been you, and you knew the concern, effort, expense, the value placed on you...how would you respond to the next call for volunteers to search for a lost hiker?

It's not about technique.  There are people dying to be known, craving the consistent touch of another human being, longing to have someone stick with them through hard situations and even the tough parts of their personalities.  We don't have to save them, or convert them or convince them.  We get to listen.  To love.  To keep coming back, to keep extending a hand.  We can walk with them into Jesus' presence. 

We had some neighbors in Minnesota we grew to love.  As far as I know, our theological discussions meant zero, zip, nothing at all...until we had the chance to listen to them in a hard situation, and asked if we could pray with them.  We just walked with them into Christ's presence.  Then more discussions came later.

I told you that Jesus’ parables often end with a question for us.  I want to encourage you again to take a few seconds of silence right now, and listen: 

What question is God asking you this morning through this parable? 

Jesus...told this story to two groups of people who had gathered around him.  One group knew they were lost, tax collectors and sinners.  Around them were a group of grumbling scribes and Pharisees, thinking that those in the first group were expendable, disposable, without value. 

Jesus disagreed.  In fact, they were the very ones being welcomed with a party that reached to high heaven itself.  Amen.