Pentecost 14
As I was reading the readings preparing this sermon an old Sunday School hymn kept coming into my mind.
Jesus loves me!
This I know,
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong;
They are weak, but He is strong.
Refrain
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so.
As simple and as childish that it is, it contains a profound truth.
God is deeply in love with each of us. Not just humanity in general, but each and every person. To make this truth about God plain, Jesus tells two parables, about a lost sheep and a lost coin, and about how their owners searched and searched until they found even just one that was missing.
Thankfully, God has no limitations in showing God’s love. God is like a woman who will turn her house upside down to find even one coin. God is like a shepherd who will search high and low for even one sheep. There is no dense shrub, no deep valleys, no back streets, or hidden corners, or cupboards into which God will not go to find those who are lost. Even just one.
In the parable, the woman is so excited at finding her one lost coin that she calls all her friends. “We have to celebrate! I found my coin that was lost!” And just like that, says Jesus, the angels of God rejoice when even one person who is lost is found, when even one person repents, comes home, allows God to embrace them and say, “You are mine. I love you. I would search and search the whole world if I had to.” Even for just one.
Jesus told these parables because at the time, certain people were grumbling about what kind of people Jesus was busy finding, what kind of people Jesus was inviting to the table and eating with. These grumbling people were religious people who were sure that they themselves were safely in God's fold, safely deposited into God's purse. They knew who it was that should be included in God’s sheepfold.
Maybe they didn't realize that they also were the lost ones that God was trying hard to gather up. Did they know that God was turning the world upside down to find tax collectors and sinners as well as good religious people, to claim us all as God's own sheep, God's own precious coins?
That's how God works, for after all God’s essential being is love. From the beginning, God's Spirit has been sweeping through the world seeking people to rejoice in belonging to God, whether they deserved it or not. In Jesus, God really did do something to turn the whole world upside down. The God of the universe came among us as a human person named Jesus, who lived and died as one of us, stretched his arms out to us from the cross to welcome the lost, the least, the losers. Even just one. Even you and me!
God still yearns to gather us all up, so that no one ever feels lost. We do not have to do it on our own, because every individual is precious to God.
Maybe it's significant that when the woman finds the coin that had been lost, she throws a party for all her friends. The woman may be thorough, but she's not miserly. She found one coin, and then spent who knows how many to throw a party! Is that ironic or is it grace?
If we are the coins in the story, so precious to God that even just one is worth everything and the occasion of finding just one is cause for great celebration, then we are God's coins and our lives are to be spent in the cause of seeking and finding and celebrating. God doesn't just tuck us away in some safe deposit box, a heavenly coin collection waiting for our value to increase. God says, “Let's have a party now.”
Even just one coin, one sheep or one person means everything to God. Even just one is cause for great celebration. Even just one who offers himself or herself to be spent for God's purposes is a great blessing for the whole neighborhood.
In our worship we practice God's economics. We gather, acknowledging that all we are and all we have comes from God, belongs to God, is loved by God, can be given and offered and spent for God. We offer our time, our talents, our money, and the produce of our hands and our minds in God's service here in this place, where we live and in the world. Our ministries are varied, but each one is valuable, each one is important to God, because even just one enables us to continue God's work of seeking and finding and celebrating.
Even just one. Even just you. Even just me. We are precious to God and precious here, in God's house as a part of God's family.
Jesus loves me!
This I know,
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong;
They are weak, but he is strong.
Refrain
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me! This I know,
As he loved so long ago,
Taking children on his knee,
Saying, “Let them come to Me.”
Refrain
Jesus loves me still today,
Walking with me on my way,
Wanting as a friend to give
Light and love to all who live.
Refrain[1]
[1] Anna Bartlett Warner, 1824-1915