Put on the sandals of the Shepherd or Pick up Your Broom
Luke 15:1-10
St. Andrews Memorial Church
Jerusalem
September 15, 2013
No Grace Period. No, grace period. No grace, period. This is the little sign in the parking garage
to the World Market in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I have always thought it was a
strange and mysterious little sign in a city dominated by Lutherans. No grace
period. Obviously written by a Pharisee not a person who has received the good
news of Luke 15 where there is abundant grace especially for those who are
sinners, prostitutes, and tax collectors. For them and for us--- lost sheep and
lost coins, there is abundant grace and assurance that we will be found and
treasured.
It’s a comforting message if you
are the lost. Jesus loves us this we
know. God will come find us when we have strayed or gotten ourselves into a
difficult place we can’t get ourselves out of alone. Like a good shepherd, he
will come and rescue us and carry us gently on his shoulders. What a comforting image. Like a woman with a broom who has lost her
precious treasure, she will search high and low until we are found. We are the compassionate concern of a
searching God who will not leave us or forget us. This is indeed amazing grace. Unfair as it
might be for the 99% who stayed on the path, the rest of the flock, it is
amazing for those of us who get lost easily. This is good news, is it not
church?
This parable of unearned grace is
for those who have ears to hear, the tax collectors and the sinners. Like the story of the prodigal son, it is yet
another story about a lavish and loving God who cares for and saves both the
righteous and the sinners. Grace is for both, for all. This sounds good but is
it fair?
Not if you are a Pharisee or a scribe
with a law inspired religion. A party in heaven for lost people and sinners is
upsetting news. It makes living by the law and commandments optional at best.
It is bad enough to be told you must eat with these people but then to be told
you should identify with them by putting on the sandals of the shepherd or to
become a woman with a broom?
This is too much. It’s easy to admire Jesus and to identify
with his actions until you begin to think about whom he wants you to sit down
with or have supper with. For example, it is easier to give money to the poor
than to invite them to share your home or change the economic structures that
support your class privileges and keep them oppressed. It is easy to say you love your neighbor if
they look like you, belong to your faith community, or your political party.
This week while visiting the Al
Kurd family in Sheik Jarrah I found myself the recipient of unearned grace. We
were talking about the possible war with Syria and I was talking about my need
to have a “contingency plan” in case something happens. I mentioned that I had
gone to Ramallah to get a multi-exit visa to Jordan just in case I needed to
leave. Before I could finish my sentence, Mohammed’s aunt said, “You must come
here, stay with us. We will be your family.” And just like that, I, a
foreigner, a woman from the country that might begin this dreadful war, was
invited to live with this Palestinian family who not only has no gas masks but
also shares their home with unwanted settlers from Brooklyn. This is Palestinian
hospitality. This is grace---unexpected and real. This sheep without family
here was found and invited not only to the table but also into the home as kin.
Now it is easier, I believe, to
identify with being the lost sheep or coin but the invitation is also there for
us, like the Pharisees to become God’s partners in doing the seeking and
finding. We are asked to scuttle over
rocky cliffs looking for that one missing sheep or wave our candles over the
shadowy cracks in the floor beneath the furniture looking for that lost piece
of silver. We are asked to identify with
the lost by putting ourselves in the sandals of the good shepherd or by picking
up the broom of the diligent sweeper?
Jesus asks us to put ourselves in
the place of the one who seeks not only in the place of the one who is found.
The invitation is not only about being rescued or saved but joining him, as Barbara
Brown Taylor puts it in “rounding up God’s herd and recovering God’s treasure.
It’s about swapping our good examples for a good broom. It is about discovering
the joy of finding. Salvation is relational. It is connected to the well being
of others.
Last Easter while on the way to
Bethlehem to share a celebratory meal with friends a young man on the bus asked
me if I had been saved. I guess the clerical collar was not a guarantee that
this was so. So I answered the way a good process theologian would, the way a
person from a denomination who says God is still speaking, who lifts up the
comma as well as the cross, “Brother, I am saved everyday.” My fellow pastor,
also in his clerical collar added, “George Bush was saved.” Now I could see
that the young man did not what to do with either of these responses so I added
one more, “Brother, whether we are saved once or more is not the question. It’s
about what we are doing now that counts. Are we better Christians or people now
that we are saved? Do we love as deeply as the one who loves us? This is the
point, don’t you think?”
This is the point church, is it
not? How does this unearned grace, this
love save us and all those around us including those we call sinners. This
parable of rescue and recovery, seeking and finding reminds us also that the
joy of heaven is found in the welcoming home of every soul. Let it be so and
may it begin with us today as we put on the sandals of the shepherd or pick up
the broom of the woman. Let us become seekers for in doing so we too are found
and find our worth. In doing so we get
to share in that heavenly banquet with all of God’s sinners and angels.
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