Lost and Found
The Lost Sheep, Alfred F. Soord, Public Domain. University of Southern California Libraries and California Historical Society. Digitally reproduced by the USC Digital Library. Click on image to link to source.
There is a get-to-know-you, icebreaker question that simply asks: “Star Wars or Star Trek?” Since childhood, I’ve been the sort of person who leans toward Star Trek. Early in my ministry, when I talked about it, I felt like the young pastor forcing my science-fiction interests on a disinterested older generation. Now, generations younger than me are enthusiastic about all the Star Trek reboots, and I’m one of the old guys with childhood memories of watching the original series on an RCA, first-generation color television.
Many Star Trek devotees believe that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is the best of the films. In the film’s dramatic conclusion, Spock enters the ship’s engine room to repair the warp drive, even though the engine room has been flooded with a lethal concentration of radiation. In the nick of time, the warp drive is repaired, and ship moves out of danger. But the celebration is short-lived. Kirk and the crew realize that Spock has sacrificed his life to save theirs. A poignant conversation takes place between Kirk and Spock over the intercom and through the clear barrier that separates them, radiation on the one side, safe space on the other. “Don’t grieve, Admiral, it’s logical,” says Spock. “The good of the many outweighs … the good of the few… or the one.”
If you recall someone you love who was hurt or dying, you probably want to push back against that statement with questions: “Really?” “Do the needs of the many always exceed the needs of the few or the one?”
Jesus’ teaching recorded in today’s gospel text challenges that notion. In brief twin parables, Jesus says something important about God’s value system. Ninety-nine sheep are gathered round, but the shepherd’s heart is with the one missing in the wilderness. Nine silver coins are in hand, but the woman worries about the one lost in a dark corner. In God’s economy, each person is worthy of special concern, and every individual is known and loved. God, with an unlimited attention span, is able to love everyone actively, tangibly, and in a focused manner, sort of like a shepherd loves each sheep in the flock.
This truth about God’s love has some corollaries.
God loves us, not because of we lack faults, but in spite of them. As the 15th chapter of Luke opens, Jesus is speaking to religious leaders who aren’t convinced that God’s love extends to those with faults. “Tax collectors and sinners were coming” to Jesus, Luke says. As you may remember, tax collectors frequently were not only corrupt, but also commonly viewed as traitors, collaborators with the Roman occupiers. Sinners were people whose violations of Mosaic law were enough to be barred from worship in the local synagogue. Jesus, the sinless One, includes sinful people whom others have excluded. His message of grace is unmistakable: he doesn’t love the sin, of course, but he loves each person regardless of his or her shortcomings.
Another corollary to the truth of God’s love is this: God’s choice is more important than our choices. When you reflect upon the witness of scripture, then I think you’ll discover it’s true:
· Moses, a man who exhibits uncontrolled temper, a fugitive on the run for killing a man, afraid to speak to those in power;
· David, a man who displays uncontrolled lust, mastermind of a plot to murder a loyal warrior;
· Peter, impulsive, overly emotional, whose courage failed him at key moments;
· James and John, whose ambition and pride led them to selfishly lobby for special favors;
· Thomas, the doubter;
· and a great company of other patriarchs, prophets, and apostles who made faulty choices that today might exclude them from an employer’s short list of candidates.
In each case, God loved them, chose them, and saved them. In the end, their lives were defined not by their unfortunate choices, but by the fact that God chose them.
From the perspective of a pastor, one of life’s great mysteries is why some people, when receiving the offer of God’s love, don’t accept it. Good gifts are placed before them, but they won’t accept them. Or, why others accept the gift for a while, then, one day, simply leave it behind. A path that leads to wholeness and life is pointed out to them, but they walk down the path that leads to destruction and death.
Sometimes, I think, the rejection of God’s love has to do with a misunderstanding, pursuing something awful while incorrectly imagining that it will turn out wonderful. Sometimes, an addiction grabs hold of them in ways that truly feel like a demonic force, and they are pulled toward something that feels more powerful than their ability to resist. Sometimes, the rejection of God’s love has to do with early life experiences in which something evil happened to them in the name of religion. “If that’s heaven,” they think, “then I’d rather end up in hell.” If we could just love these people long enough actively, tangibly, perhaps they would yet believe. But I know how difficult that feels. Sometimes, it’s like being a lifeguard trying to assisting a drowning person. And you wonder how long you can help without being pulled under and drowning along with them.
At the beginning of this message, I described for you the conclusion of the second Star Trek film, and now I want to tell you, very briefly, what happens in Star Trek III. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise go on a search for Spock. They risk their careers, their ship, and their lives, to go to a life-giving but very dangerous place because there is a slim chance that Spock can found alive.
The dialogue in the closing scene points back to the previous film, and in its own cinematic way, encapsulates the essence of today’s gospel text:
Spock says, “You came back for me.”
Kirk replies, “You would have done the same for me.”
Spock’s confused, not-daring-to-believe response: “Why would you do this?”
Kirk says, “Because the needs of the one… outweigh the needs of the many.
Jesus says, “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?
Wherever we are in life, God is actively looking for us, tangibly trying to love us. By God’s grace, may we be among the ones who are found.
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