Merit or Mercy

Luke 15:01-10

The Lord Be With You.

Here lies a parable …

There once lived a hermit on a small island that had a visitor one day who asked him why he lived the way that he did. The hermit replied that he came to this island because he no longer felt that he had any purpose or contribution to give to anyone anymore. His family. His job. His community. When the visitor asked him how long he’d been on that island, the hermit said that it must’ve been close to 30 plus years. The visitor asked him what kind of work he’d done when he was with people. The hermit replied that he used to work for Kodak as the person that would develop pictures people would give him on film. The visitor then told him that even though most people now get their pictures instantly and digitally Kodak is looking for a person just like you, who has the intimate knowledge of how this works, to direct their remaking of what you used to do. The visitor then told the hermit that we can never know what our futures might be and that all have value that constantly needs to be re-discovered and brought back because we all have contributions to the whole individually as well as together. It’s only through this reaching out to another that we can see the merit of the mercy of God.

Here ends the parable.

What is our value? What do we view our value is to our ourselves, our family, our workplace, our community? What do we view as our value to God? What IS our value? It’s a question we all ask from time to time. Depending on our age or the situation we may find ourselves in, the answer may vary but we’ll always need those assurances that what and how we want to be valued is, in fact, what we’re valued FOR.

But, sometimes what we want to believe is not the reality. There’re days, that I can remember, that when the girls were young, they would come into the bedroom when I was sleeping, stare in my face, and begin to ask all sorts of questions. This was a bit irritating since it seemed that it was always after I had just gotten to sleep after a long night working. I’d tell them to get out of my face and they then took that personally and would go crying to Jane. I guess I wasn’t very patient with them. But there are times when those around you just don’t fit with what’s going on around you and you sometimes need to show the mercy that may be hard to see and has a hard time coming to the surface. Sort of like this story I’m reminded of …

As a crowded airliner is about to take off, the peace is shattered by a 5-year-old boy who picks that moment to throw a wild temper tantrum. No matter what his frustrated, embarrassed mother does to try to calm him down, the boy continues to scream furiously and kick the seats around him.

Suddenly, from the rear of the plane, an elderly man in the uniform of an Air Force General is seen slowly walking forward up the aisle. Stopping the flustered mother with an upraised hand, the white-haired, courtly, soft-spoken General leans down and, motioning toward his chest, whispers something into the boy's ear.

Instantly, the boy calms down, gently takes his mother's hand, and quietly fastens his seat belt. All the other passengers burst into spontaneous applause.

As the General slowly makes his way back to his seat, one of the cabin attendants touches his sleeve. "Excuse me, General," she asks quietly, "but could I ask you what magic words you used on that little boy?"

The old man smiles serenely and gently confides, "I showed him my pilot's wings, service stars, and battle ribbons, and explained that they entitle me to throw one passenger out the plane door on any flight I choose."

Everyone finds merit in SOMETHING and it’s this difference that each of us has that allows us to reach to another in our own unique way and give mercy where it might not always be appreciated by that person but CAN be shared by those surrounding him.

This Gospel, this morning, affirms our value to God. We’re the LOST sheep. The LOST coin that Jesus referenced. But how we value those who are closest to us and those in our communities, even those in this church, can be dislocated or disjointed. It is WELL that we can have a reminder that we’re all the same in the eyes of God. Families split up or are held close together based on varying degrees of value and what happens is that time has a way of accentuating those initial feelings. Because, after all, they’re just human feelings subservient to the brokenness that we’re all born with and are guilty of displaying way too many times. And it’s those assertions of merit, by broken humans, that keep other humans from becoming a part of the family that we all have and that keeps them from fully experiencing the beauty this ecclesia might offer.

What Jesus is saying is that if we have a person that’s lost, we’re told to go FIND them. Whether lost in their own sense of self detriment or in the ways of this world. We’re to go and walk WITH them back to the place where they can begin to see their own value and merit as that of the most blessed creation of the one true God, the Father. The one who created them in the womb of their mother. The one who calls the rest of us, as His disciples, to go and find them. And bring them back. What’s lost belongs to God in the first place.

Jesus is saying that we must seek them out like we would if we lost that rare coin because their inner soul SHINES as bright as that coin. Jesus is saying that we’re to seek them out to allow them to see for THEMSELVES the innate value they have with the one creative God that wouldn’t have put them here on this earth to wander about without meaning and then cease to exist. Jesus is saying, brothers and sisters, that we must show them their merit and thus enable them to have that mercy because, after all, God has given us mercy in our day to day lives too.

This Gospel points to what Jesus is trying to show the Pharisees of the time. They grumbled because Jesus was eating and hanging around with the outcasts, tax collectors and sinners, and any proper person of Jesus’ Rabbi status wouldn’t be caught dead with people like that. THOSE people were cast offs. THOSE people did not merit the mercy of God because they had, in the Pharisee’s eyes, turned their backs ON God. OTHERWISE, they wouldn’t have all the inflictions they had. However, those same Pharisees seem to have forgotten that the God who showed mercy to THEM, the apostate Israelites, in the wilderness REJOICES over the salvation of every lost soul. Jeremiah 31:10 says it like this, “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: 'He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.” And in Ezekiel 34:11 it says, “For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.”

Jesus is saying that those Pharisees were missing the mark. To go and gather up all these lost people and return them to God’s flock. To God’s collection. Jesus told those Pharisees that, because they believed themselves sinless, they were lost themselves because they refused to seek out the 1 OTHER truly lost. That what’s lost BELONGS to God and no person, man or woman, has the authority to usurp what God has ordained and that Jesus came back to redeem.

That sort of goes to you and me. We’re ordained as disciple in this world to seek out those that have been disaffected and wandering. Lost in their view of what it means to be a Jesus follower and what it means to gather together to hear the words that have guided centuries of truth. We are called to focus on our neighbors rather than ourselves and, by doing so, love our neighbors AS ourselves.

You know, it’s been said, that when we focus on another it gives less time to imagine our own failings. Our own pains. Our own struggles because it has a way of redirecting our own sense of being lost into something that allows us to be SEEKERS of people rather than ACCUMULATORS of hate and pain. It redirects our energies from that which hordes dark negatives to that which exudes pictures of the light. And that because there are people who walk among us that can only see that darkness, this Gospel is directing us to bring that light of God into their midst so that they can see their own tomorrows with a sense of promise and possibilities. That the mercy of God MERITS their worth so much so that God sent His only Son down to die FOR US in order that we can be in His presence forever and gain that mercy that is waiting for all of us.

Just as God is Israel’s shepherd as it says in Isaiah 40:11, we are our neighbor’s shepherds too. Psalm 23 says in part, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.” You and me could substitute our OWN names into that passage because Jesus is calling us to not judge our neighbor as a person on their merit but with the mercy that God has granted to us. Jesus is calling us to reach across that great divide that we have created and invite ALL those people who even appear to wander to turn their paths to this house that God has built and that God sustains.

There’s an old Jewish story that tells of the good fortune of a hardworking farmer. The Lord appeared to this farmer and granted him three wishes, but with condition that whatever the Lord did for the farmer would be given double to his neighbor. The farmer, scarcely believing his good fortune, wished for a hundred cattle. Immediately he received a hundred cattle, and he was overjoyed until he saw that his neighbor had two hundred. So he wished for a hundred acres of land, and again he was filled with joy until he saw that his neighbor had two hundred acres of land. Rather than celebrating God’s goodness, the farmer could not escape feeling jealous and slighted because his neighbor had received more than he. Finally, he stated his third wish: that God would strike him blind in one eye. And God wept.

Only those who can celebrate God’s grace to others can experience that mercy themselves. When Jesus is talking about putting the lost sheep on his shoulders He’s saying that you and me should walk hand in hand with those that have convoluted ideas of what church is all about and even those who believe that worship is confined to sitting in front of their computers listening to a preacher.

Jesus says to find that lost sheep and that lost coin and return it to the community. Return it to the others. Not keep it safely set aside. Folks, it’s real simple. If we, as an ecclesia, are to walk the walk of Jesus then we must and are required to reach out to those we know are sitting at home right now in order to let them know that we’re looking for them. And praying for them. Letting them know that the value God has determined FOR their lives is greater than any value they may place on themselves. It is immeasurable. Because God has the mercy to give merit to every person alive. And like the hermit in the parable, what we believe about ourselves is much less than what we’re really worth in the eyes of our Saviour.

There are MANY chances to find those lost sheep. Find those lost coins. Our busy world keeps us with our heads down. But in keeping our heads down we cannot see clearly what is right in front of our eyes or hear that which is being said right behind us. It keeps us looking within our own selves and not looking out for the possibilities that God places there in front of us all the time. But, can we all look up and take those chances? Can we all find those that are missing?

Can we pray? …

Father in heaven. We pray that you use us as the good shepherd. We pray that you use us to find the one who is lost and cannot find their way. You have said in your word, Lord, that the Son of Man has come to save that which is lost. Help us to find those that we can bring back or into your house. We pray for ourselves to have that courage and to always be looking up to see the beauty and mercy and you give to us. All this we ask in Jesus’ name.

And all God’s people said – Amen?!