- Sermon - Mickey Anders

Text: Luke 15:1-10

Do you have an obsession? Most of us do. Princeton physicist Paul Chaikin's obsession for M&M's candies was so well known that his students played a sweet practical joke on him by leaving a 55-gallon drum of the candies in his office. Little did they know that their prank would lead to a physics breakthrough.

The barrel full of the little candies made Chaikin think about how well they packed in the barrel. Chaikin and his colleague, chemist Salvatore Torquato, then investigated the physical and mathematical principles involved when particles are poured randomly into a vessel. After a series of studies, they wrote an article for the journal Science showing that oblate spheroids - such as plain M&M's - pack surprisingly more densely than regular spheres when poured randomly and shaken.

Mars Inc., which makes M&M's, did not help sponsor the research although it donated 125 pounds of almond M&M's to Chaikin, Princeton said in a statement. (2004 Reuters)

Not every obsession leads to a science breakthrough, but we all have our little obsessions. In fact, the phrase "obsessive-compulsive" has worked its way into the everyday language. Many of us will use the term in an offhand manner to describe someone who is meticulous or absorbed in a cause.

Some of us will even say of ourselves that we are OCD, which is the abbreviation for obsessive-compulsive disorder. OCD is actually a serious psychiatric anxiety disorder, and is one of the top ten most disabling illnesses in terms of a diminished quality of life. In common language, OCD is obsession pushed to extremes, but we all have our minor obsessions.

Some of us may be obsessed with M&M's or other food items. I seem to rotate from one food obsession to another. First it was jelly beans, then Atomic Fireballs, then M&M's, and then Snickers. Not long ago, my wife told me about a conversation she overheard in a grocery store. One woman said to the other, "I eat a popsicle every day!" I guess the power of suggestion was too great for me because I have eaten a popsicle every day since she told me that story! An obsession is something like that which gets on our mind, and we just can't get it off our mind.

Some of you told me that you were singing that little song "Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet" for weeks after I preached the sermon on it. Last week, I woke up at 3 a.m. with my playing over and over the praise song we had sung in church that day - "Holiness, holiness, is what I long for. Holiness is what I need." When I become obsessed with something like that, it almost drives me crazy!

I want to suggest that our text for today deals with two people who were equally obsessed - a shepherd who lost a sheep and a woman who lost a coin. These are the first two of three parables in this chapter, and all of them deal with “lost and found” themes.

The first parable deals with a shepherd, a common character in the Bible. Shepherds play prominent roles in many of the stories of the Bible. Many of the greatest Old Testament figures started out as simple shepherds, people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and David. God is quite often identified as a shepherd in the Old Testament as in Psalm 23. And shepherding is often used a symbol of divine care. In fact, it is clear that the shepherd in this parable represents God who tirelessly looks for us.

Jesus says that the shepherd owns 100 sheep. There is, of course, great significance to the number 100. In numerology, it is a complete and whole number. One hundred represents a certain level of wealth for a shepherd. With 100 sheep, a shepherd can provide an adequate living for the family.

And 100 is such a nice round number, which must have been very satisfying for an obsessive shepherd. Do you think this shepherd was obsessive compulsive? It is probably no accident that this shepherd owns exactly 100 sheep. Perhaps he owned 87 sheep at one time, but he was compelled to get enough sheep to round his flock out to the perfect number - 100. I think he had to work hard to get exactly 100 sheep. We can imagine him counting his sheep every day - 96, 97, 98, 99, 100! It must have been a most gratifying feeling to bring that last sheep into the fold at night. One hundred sheep. All is well with the world.

But then one night, the shepherd counted - 96, 97, 98, 99... Ninety-nine! What an incomplete number. Of course, there was the matter of the value of the sheep. It was 1/100th of his wealth. But there was also the distress of such an anxious number as 99.

We can imagine the anxiety building up in this poor obsessive shepherd. Like an ancient Rainman unable to watch Judge Wapner, this shepherd cannot stand the inexact number of sheep before him. Finally, he can abide it no longer, and he leaves the 99 to go look for sheep number 100.

What about the 99? Scholars have wrestled with the fact that the shepherd leaves the 99. Jesus gives us no clue as to the care of the 99. Sheep require a shepherd to care for them, and this shepherd leaves them alone. Some have speculated that with so many sheep, there were probably two shepherds caring for them. The one leaves the flock in the care of the other, and heads off to find the lost sheep. Others have imagined that there was a pen where the sheep were kept when they were not grazing. Unfortunately, Jesus gives us no clue about the 99. We only know that the one sheep was of such importance that the shepherd left all to pursue it.

And Jesus gives us no clue about the one lost sheep. What happened that this one was lost? We can imagine that it foolishly wandered from one batch of green grass to another, until it suddenly found itself totally removed from the rest of the flock. The classic artists renditions usually show this sheep trapped on some treacherous ledge in the mountains. But Jesus has no word about why this sheep is lost.

And, interestingly, there is no condemnation of the sheep. There is no thought of rebuke of the sheep. There are no lectures about the dangers of greener grass. There is no hint that the sheep ought to have known better, or was living a wicked life. There was only the simple fact of the matter. The sheep was lost and the shepherd went after it.

Jesus says the search ends in success, and the shepherd is so thrilled that he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” The whole point of the parable is this party at the end. The shepherd shows extraordinary joy at the recovery of the lost sheep.

The second parable is that of a woman who has lost a coin. The coin has a certain value since it represented about a day’s wages at the time. I suppose any of us would be anxious about losing a day’s wages. But some suggest that this may have been a special coin in another way. It was the custom for women to receive a precious necklace as a part of the wedding dowry. Quite often this necklace had ten coins strung on it, and the woman would wear it proudly as a symbol of her marriage. Perhaps the woman had lost one of the coins from her wedding necklace.

Here Jesus paints the portrait of another obsessive person. Ten is a good number; nine is bad. Obsessively, the woman lights a lamp, sweeps the house and searches carefully until she finds the lost coin.

This parable also ends with a grand celebration over finding that which was lost. She calls together her friends and neighbors saying, “Rejoice with me for I have found the coin that I lost.”

One of the surprising aspects of this story is that the woman clearly represents God, just as the shepherd did in the first parable, and just as the waiting father does in the parable of the prodigal son to follow. The Bible was written in a very patriarchal age. Men dominated everything and women usually stayed in the shadows. We should not be surprised that the Bible calls God Father or that there are an abundance of male references to God. The surprising thing is that there are ever feminine images of God. This is clearly one. God is like a woman who lost a coin! On another occasion, Jesus will say that he feels like a mother hen looking after her chicks. Jesus was not afraid of feminine imagery for God and neither should we be afraid.

All of these stories tell us something about God. Like the professor who can't get M&Ms off his mind, God is obsessed with us! God is after us just as the shepherd is after the sheep and the woman is after the coin. In fact, Jesus tells us the same was true for him. At the end of the story about Jesus stopping a parade under Zacchaeus’ tree, Luke adds this verse, “For the son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” Jesus was obsessed with the likes of us, and God is obsessed with us.

May of us feel that obsession. In the small group last Monday, various ones said, I feel a need to get back close to God. One woman said she felt like she did not have a choice. God was after her to get back in church. She was lost but God had found her.

On Wednesday night, Kathryn Wilson shared her moving testimony about how God has worked in her life leading up to her entrance into seminary. God had always been at work in her life, calling, growing and preparing her for this moment. When she finally retired after 25 years as a probation officer, and her children were grown and taking care of themselves, she found herself without an excuse to give to God. She had been lost, and through all these years, God had pursued her. Finally, she was found.

God is obsessed with you and me! God doesn’t care if you have wandered like a sheep from one bit of green grass to another, slowly finding yourself far away from God and the church. God doesn’t care if you have fallen like a coin between the cracks in the floor, or have rolled to the dark corner of the room. God doesn’t care if you have tripped into the gutter where the storm waters have almost carried you to destruction. God is obsessed with you and me!

In these parables, Jesus wasn’t really talking about shepherds or a poor woman. In fact, this parable is not directly addressed to his followers. Look again at how this chapter begins:

“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.’”

Jesus is addressing these stories directly at the scribes and Pharisees who were upset that Jesus welcomed sinners.

Both stories end with an almost identical moral:

“Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

All three parables in this chapter are pointed towards the unforgiving scribes and Pharisees. They wanted Jesus to have a different attitude toward sinners. They wanted Jesus to preach hell fire and damnation to them. They wanted Jesus to insist that they clean up their act before dining with him. They wanted Jesus to emphasis proper behavior and ritual purity before they would be accepted.

They wanted Jesus to approach the sinners with an “if… then…” sentence. “If you repent, then I will love you.” “If you quit your sinful ways, then I will accept you.”

But Jesus showed us that the love of God is a “because… therefore…” sentence. “Because I love you, therefore, you will repent.” “Because I accept you, therefore, you will change your ways.”

Jesus was inviting the scribes and Pharisees to the party. Come! Rejoice with God. The lost sheep has been found. The lost coin has turned up. The sinner has repented. Joy! Joy! Joy!