It seems like I am always looking for something that I misplaced, the matching sock, that book, my keys, my manners, my mind. Sometimes I’m looking for something and then I forget what I was looking for.
The Gospel today shows us two images of searching, one for a lost sheep and the other for a lost coin.
It is an image that is meant to leave us wondering. Why try so hard for something so unimportant? There are better and more valuable things to do. It is a simple cost benefit equation and the shepherd and the woman with the coin don’t add up, they are inefficient, they spend too much time on the wrong things. They don’t manage their time properly. Where is the value added? Where are their priorities?
So there is something else going on here.
Jesus is teaching the Pharisees and the scribes about priorities.
The Pharisees and the scribes thought that Jesus should not give so much time and attention to sinners. Jesus shouldn’t be so welcoming. He shouldn’t eat his meals with them. His time should be spent with people of more worth and importance and value.
The point of these two parables has to do with rejoicing and celebration; or rather the lack of celebration and rejoicing exhibited by the scribes and the Pharisees. God and God’s angels, all the heavens rejoice when one sinner repents. God looks for the lost, they are of great value to God because they are lost, because they are missing, and God celebrates extravagantly when they are found.
So the lesson from these two parables is the question, “Why don’t the righteous rejoice? Why don’t they celebrate?”
If they don’t then are they righteous after all? Which ones are the sinners any way?
A little lost lamb. The shepherd abandons the rest of the flock of valuable full grown sheep to go find it. He searches for days, wandering in the wilderness, until he finds the lost one and returns and celebrates, inviting everyone over.
A little silver coin is lost. The women lights a lamp and searches every nook and cranny of the house, sweeping carefully, slowly. Day after day she does this, she uses up her sick days at work, she misses more work, she losses her job. She searches until she finds the lost one and she celebrates inviting everyone over.
Jesus is celebrating with the lost ones, he invites everyone to come over and celebrate, and the Pharisees and scribes don’t approve, they don’t join in, they can’t, they don’t see why they should.
It is an ugly sad thing when the righteous can’t celebrate, it is the most toxic spiritual poison there is, the soul shrivels and becomes so small.
Life is not about merit. Eternity is not about deserving or earning or cost benefit or value added.
It’s all about mercy and whether we can celebrate that mercy of God in others, if not there is no mercy for us, because we skipped God’s party.
God is experienced as the one who searches carefully, arduously, incessantly for all those with sour souls, lighting a lamp, searching the darkness, carefully sweeping, slowly sweeping, always on the cusp of celebration, heaven and nature are always on that tipping point to join in the celebration.
Are we ready for the party? Are we poised there on the cusp of celebration eager to celebrate God’s mercy? Ready…set…surprise!