Sermon for the 4th Sunday in Lent (transcribed)
30 March 2025
Luke 15:1-32, Joshua 5:9-12, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
If today's service ends up lasting longer than you'd like, it's my fault because I extended today's Gospel reading. The rubrics say that I can lengthen a reading but I can't shorten a reading. And it just made sense to extend this reading today. I think it's a truth and advertising issue because if we were going by what the lectionary said we would hear, “Jesus told them this parable,” and then what we would hear would be the parable about the father and the two sons and it would skip the two parables that come before it, the parables about the lost sheep and the lost coin. It just for some reason, it didn't seem right to me because these three parables work together. They are a meditation on the depth, the breadth and the height of God's love and the joy that fills the heart of God when he finds even one of us, or when even one of us comes to our senses and returns to him.
These three parables together constitute Jesus's answer to these religious authorities who are not happy about the company Jesus is keeping, he's hanging out with tax collectors and sinners after all. So Jesus tells them there's a shepherd searching for the one sheep in his flock out of 100 that goes missing. And when he finds that sheep, he brings it back to rejoin the flock. And he invites his friends to celebrate finding that one sheep. Jesus says that party is like what happens in the company of heaven. There will be more rejoicing over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent.
99 righteous persons who don't need to repent? I wonder, how many of us would be included in that 99? Well, before you start wondering about yourself, or looking around, the whole idea of 99 people who don't need to repent, is an absurdity. Nowhere on earth, nowhere in the whole annals of human history are there 99 people who don't need to repent. That would be a shock to these religious authorities who are questioning Jesus. They think that they are so observant of the law of Moses that they would be among the 99 righteous persons. But in truth, there's only one who was, as we shall in a few minutes pray in the preface for Lent, who was tempted in every way as we are, yet did not sin. There's only one, and these religious authorities are talking to him. So since all we like sheep have gone astray, the joy in heaven just goes on and on as each one of us lost sheep gets found by the Good Shepherd.
Then there's a woman with 10 coins. Luke uses the word drachma. It's the only place in the New Testament that describes the coin as the drachma. In most other places it's the denarius, which is the Latin term. But either drachma or denarius, it represents one day's work for your average worker. And I was reading some commentaries about this parable, and there are some suggestions that the ten coins that the woman has are on a necklace. It was a decorative item. Maybe this necklace was a gift from her husband. Maybe he was able to after some period of hard work, he was able to hold back one drachma and put it aside. And then maybe it took him a couple of years, but he finally was able to save up 10 to make this necklace for his wife. And so, when she wore it, if she ever wondered, “Does he love me?” The necklace would remind her, “I suppose he does.” And then, she would think to herself, “And I suppose I love him, too.” So when this string breaks and the coin is lost, she sweeps and sweeps the house like never before until she finds that missing coin until she finds it. And then she rejoices as the necklace gets repaired and the love that it represents gets refreshed, and she feels that love renewed in her heart yet again.
I love that take on this parable because something similar happened to me. Some years ago, I was out speaking to a group of kids at a Christian school in Mississippi, at their chapel service. After Chapel I said my goodbyes and I went out to the parking lot and I got in my car and when I put my hands on the steering wheel, I looked at my left finger and it was bare and I was like, where'd my ring go? It was there when I got here today. And so for like the next 45 minutes, the whole student body of Wilkinson County Christian Academy is scouring the place. Looking for my ring. They were so kind and they were they were, um, they were just, they felt awful that I had lost it. And I had to drive back to our house and I had to tell Beth what had happened. She was most gracious. She says, that's not our marriage, it's just a symbol of it. And one day about a week later, I woke up from a good night's rest. That's one of the things I do best, by the way, is sleep, And I woke up and I looked at my hand and the ring was back. I was like, “how did that happen?” Well, in the house we lived in, there was a pedestal sink in the bathroom. And when I was doing my morning ablutions the day of speaking at that chapel, my ring slipped off and it went behind the pedestal of the sink and Beth found it. And I think she found it probably three days before she gave it back to me, but she waited till I was good and asleep and she slipped it back on my finger. In that moment it was October 7th, 1995 and we were at Christ Church in Tyler, and we put those rings on each other's fingers, and that whole moment came back to me and that was a real moment of just renewing the love that I have for her. It was a wonderful thing and so I think of that woman losing one of the coins from her 10 drachma necklace. This must have been a similar moment for her.
Then we come to this third parable which is what you're supposed to hear today. There's a son who gets lost. He gets lost because of his own stubborn self-will. I figure he's probably kind of like I was when I was 19. Ask my mom and my sister how I was when I was 19. He says to his father, “give me my share of the inheritance,” which is really saying, “I wish you were dead,” because that's when you get your share of the inheritance And he takes his share in cash. He doesn't need the land. He doesn't need the flocks. He's going to go out. He's going to live the high life, which he does until he runs out of cash and he's got to find work. And the only job that he can find is taking care of pigs. That's a pretty low job for a Jewish guy to get. And then says Jesus he comes to his senses. He decides to go home and apologize to his father and say, “I've sinned against Heaven and before you,” and he doesn't expect anything from his dad except maybe maybe to get hired on as a ranch hand. But his father blows up all those plans. He runs to meet his son. A Middle Eastern man does not run to meet somebody. It is a total abdication of one's dignity and he throws his arms around his son. He hugs him, he kisses him. And when his son makes the confession, “father, I've sinned against Heaven, and before you, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son,” the father points to one of his servants and says, “quickly get the best robe and the signet ring and those expensive sandals we ordered on Amazon for him. Prepare a feast because we're going to have a party. My son was dead, but now he's alive, he was lost and now he's found.”
And meanwhile that other son is not so happy about the party being thrown for his slacker brother. But Jesus, for Jesus, the other son is a message to those religious authorities. Jesus is telling them God's favor is not a reward for good behavior. It's a gift And it is a gift that is not in short supply. It is a gift that is abundant. It's like the Manna which was Israel's meal ready to eat for about 40 years during their wilderness wandering. Every day the Lord would send the manna down from heaven so that the Israelites would have food for their journey that day. And on Friday morning there would be a double portion so they'd have enough for the Sabbath and wouldn't have to work on the Sabbath, picking up the Manna. The Israelites never really figured out what it was. That's why they called it Manna, which means what is it? And for 40 years that sustained them until they crossed the Jordan and they were able to eat the produce of the land of promise. Well, our Manna as Christians is the bread of Heaven, that we receive at the Lord's table. We are sustained for our journey of faith by the manna of our Lord Jesus feeding us himself. Our Lord, Jesus in whom we are reconciled to God, who rejoices when he finds us, who runs to welcome us home when we come to our senses and return to him.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Matthew Rowe+