Lost Sheep, Mad Bombers, and Me

L O S T   S H E E P,   M A D   B O M B E R S,  A N D   M E

THE NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME—C

September 15, 2013

THE OLD TESTAMENT

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

^11.         At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem:

            “A scorching wind comes from the heights in the wilderness, toward of the daughter of my people,

                        not for refining and not to cleanse, ¹²a wind too strong for that will come from me.

            “And I will declare their sentence.

^22.         “The folly of my people is that they do not know me.

            “They are foolish children, without understanding.

            “They are skillful at doing evil, but they do not know how to do good.

^23.         “I have seen the land, and look! it is formless and void;

and to the skies, and they have no light.

^24.         “I have seen the mountains, and look! they are quaking, and all the hills are writhing.

^25.         “I have seen, and look! there is not a person, and all the birds of the skies have fled.

^26.         “I have seen, and look! the fertile wilderness and all its cities are torn down

                        because of the Lord, because of his fierce wrath.

^27.         For thus says the Lord:

            “All the earth will be desolate, but I will not destroy it completely.

^28.         “For this reason, the land will mourn, and the heavens above will wail:

                        because I have declared my plan,

and I will not repent, and I will not turn back from it.

THE PSALTER

Psalm 14

^1.          To the Music Director:  a Psalm of David

            Fools say in their hearts that there is no God.

            They have ruined themselves.  They have done awful things.  None of them does good.

^2.          The Lord looks down from the heavens on human children

                        to see if there are any wise, any who seeks God.

^3.          They all have turned away.  They are altogether defiled.

            There is no one who does good, not a single one.

^4.          Do they not know, they who do evil, who eat my people like they eat bread,

                        that the Lord will call them to account?

^5.          There they were terrified with great terror, for God is with the righteous generation.

^6.          They would frustrate the plans of the needs, but the LORD is their defender!

^7.          I wish that the salvation of Israel would come from Zion!

            When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people,

Jacob will dance for joy!  Israel will rejoice!

THE EPISTLE

I Timothy 1:12-17

            ¹²I thank our Lord Christ Jesus who empowered me, because he counted me faithful, placing my in ministry ¹³who at first was a blasphemer and persecutor and hurtful, but I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief; ¹⁴but the grace of our Lord, with the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus, superabounded.  ¹⁵Faithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first.  ¹⁶But rather I was shown mercy for this:  that in me first Christ Jesus might show the example of the patience he has for all who were about to believe on him into eternal life.  ¹⁷To the eternal, immortal, invisible King, the only wise God be honor and glory forever and ever.  Amen.

THE GOSPEL

Luke 15:1-10

            ¹All the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to hear him.  ²The Pharisees and scribes would grumble, “This man receives sinners and eats with them!”  ³So he told them this parable:

            ⁴“Who among you who owns a hundred sheep and loses one will not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you find it?  ⁵And when you find it, you’ll put it on your shoulders rejoicing ⁶and go home and invite your friends and family, ‘Come have a party with me!  I have found my lost sheep!’  ⁷I tell you there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who do not need to repent.

            ⁸“Or which woman of you who has ten drachmas and loses one will not light a lamp and sweep the house and look hard until she finds it?  ⁹And when she finds it, she calls her friends and family, “Come party with me!  I found the drachma I lost!’  ¹⁰Just like this, I tell you, there will be joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

L O S T   S H E E P,   M A D   B O M B E R S,  A N D   M E

A SERMON FOR THE 19^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME—C

September 15, 2013

by William F. Thomas II

            It was a Monday, May 15, 1972.  We met at the altar of Jefferson First United Methodist for prayer.  Virgil Adams led us.  Virgil was my spiritual father.  We mentioned what we wanted to pray for.  Finally, somebody asked, “Shouldn’t we pray for Governor Wallace?”  Virgil looked mystified.  “What happened?”  We told him Governor Wallace had been shot.  Virgil burst into tears, and we prayed.

            After everyone had left, I stayed with Virgil at the altar.  He said, “I’m not crying for Wallace.  I’m crying for the man who shot him.”

            Forty-one years later, finally I’m getting into the ballpark where Virgil lived.  Ariel Castro killed himself a couple of weeks ago.  I was horrified at what he did.  What he stole from those girls, ten years of their lives, no one can restore to them, ever!  They will carry those scars in their souls for the rest of their lives.  There is no punishment adequate for what he did, and no punishment can make it right for those three young women.  But when I learned he had killed himself, sadness seized me, hard!  I was so sad at the waste of life, of Ariel Castro’s life.

           

            You see, God created Ariel Castro.  But God didn’t create him to do that.  God created him in love, with gifts and graces the world needed.  God loved Ariel Castro.  Jesus died for Ariel Castro.  And God has waited and hoped all these years that Ariel would hear him, and repent, and finally grow into the joy God prepared for Ariel Castro, the fullness of life Jesus died to buy for Ariel Castro! 

            Ariel Castro was a lost coin, a lost sheep, Jesus wanted back.  Arthur Bremer, who shot George Wallace, was a lost coin, a lost sheep, Jesus wanted back.  “The saying is true and worthy of all acceptance,” Paul said to Timothy, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” and the he added, “and I was the first of sinners, their chief.”  Paul was a lost coin, a lost sheep.  And he learned to rejoice when a lost sheep is found, when a lost coin is back safe.

            Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of that Baptist Church in Birmingham.  God created the men who did that, and he created them in love, with gifts and graces to share with the world.  God didn’t create them to throw bombs at babies.  And God grieved with those dead babies.  And God grieved with their families and friends.  What happened to them was indescribable, inexplicable, unconscionable, evil.  

            But God loved the bombers too. 

            The parable of the Lost Sheep and the parable of the Lost Coin are two tellings of the same parable.  And there is a third telling right next to them, you know.  The Parable of the Lost Son.  We call is The Prodigal.  Notice the difference?  The man ran all over the countryside looking for his lost sheep.  The woman turned her house upside down looking for her lost coin. 

            The father sat on his rear end, did nothing to bring his lost son home.  Why?  Because sheep are dumb and coins are inanimate.  But you can’t MAKE people love you.  You can only imprison them.  Like Arial Castro did to those girls.  That’s evil.  God doesn’t do evil.  Either people stay with you or they don’t.

            God wanted Ariel to come home.  God wanted those bombers to come home.  God wanted Arthur Bremer to come home.  God wanted Adolf Hitler to come home.

            So why are the two Old Testament readings so very grim?

When my daughter Emily was a baby, when she was not yet walking, one day she tried to climb a magazine rack.  Now I didn’t care about that silly magazine rack.  Seeing her explore her world was a delight.  But I was afraid she was going to hurt herself.

So I pulled her down.

She climbed back up.

I pulled her down again.

She climbed back up again.

I started telling her, “Baby, don’t climb that.  You might hurt yourself.  Don’t climb that!  Stop climbing that!  STOP CLIMBING THAT!”

Finally, I put my head down and I begged, knowing where we were going, “Baby. Please don’t make me spank you.”  Because I would rather she experience a slap on her bare leg than some worse injury.

She cried a few minutes after I spanked her, then she was all right.  But she never tried to climb that magazine rack again.

I couldn’t sleep that night.  Not even when I was sure I had done the right thing could I sleep any night I knew I had caused my baby to cry.  To this day!

God has been saying to his children for millennia now, “Please don’t make me spank you.”

Sin isn’t bad in God’s eyes because it offends his dignity or his ego.  Sin is sin in God’s eyes because it hurts his beloved children, us!

Please don’t hear me lessening the suffering of Ariel Castro’s victims, or of the young women killed when that bomb went off in Birmingham 50 years ago; or of their families.  What their families went through I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy!  But God took care of those babies.  It was awful what happened to them, but they’re all right now.  If their grieving families could fight their way through the anger and bitter hatred that I would feel if somebody did that to my daughter, they are all right. 

But what of the souls of those sinners, those lost sheep?  What about them?

There is not a sinner nor a sin in history who was ever beyond the power of the Blood of Jesus to cleanse, nor beyond the scope of the love of Jesus to want.

Not even you.

Not even me.

I was a lost sheep.  I was a lost coin.

Sometimes I wander off yet.  Do you?

How can I accept my salvation if I rejoice in the condemnation of any?

How do I hold any beyond the reach of Jesus’ love without standing outside there myself?  How do I hold anyone down in the sewer without staying in the sewer myself?  How do I ascend to glory and bar the way to others?

Thanks be to God, his grace is available to EVERYONE!

That means I can come in too!  Thanks be to God!