Proper 19C’25
14 September 2025
Luke 15.1-10
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
North Little Rock, Arkansas
The Rev. Carey Stone <+>
“Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Amen. from Luke 15.30
Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news – let’s start with the bad news first. Human beings are prone toward a deadly hatred. When that hatred is activated, it is capable of the worst, the most heinous acts including as we have seen this week– murder. The most likely targets of this hatred are those who are different from us, with different religious or political beliefs, causes, professions, genders, sexual orientations, skin colors and so on, they are viewed with suspicion at best, and seen as a detestable enemy at the worst. It has always been this way and it was in Jesus’ days on earth.
There was no greater hatred in the first century than for a group of people called tax collectors. There were several reasons for this. First, a tax collector was the human face of the oppressive occupying Roman empire. Tax collectors had the full power of the empire behind them and regularly practiced extortion by levying and lining their own pockets by charging amounts far greater than even the empire required. Some of these were also Jews and views with extra hatred as they were viewed as traitors to their own people. Besides this group there were also another hated group and especially hated by religious folks those simply referred to as sinners. The religiously pious found great satisfaction in being able to look down on these as a way to feel better about themselves and to place themselves in a superior position by not associating with THEM. This systematic identifying, labeling and demonizing of certain individuals and groups continues to this day.
Can you imagine the horror and white-hot rage that filled the hearts of the piously religious pharisees when they saw Jesus, eating, drinking, and having a good time with these filthy dregs of society?! ‘Would you just look at him – how disgusting! He doesn’t just tolerate those sinners he welcomes them, then sits down with them to eat, drink, and throw a party!’ This kind of behavior flew in the face of their understanding of who God was supposed to be and act like – the righteous were never supposed to mix and mingle with the unrighteous especially at a meal. Spiritual writer Anne Lamont nailed it when she wrote:
You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do!
Whenever we identify – label and demonize those who are different from us It
reveals that we have all been bitten by the same venomous snake.
. Well, that’s enough bad news! Fortunately for me, and for you, Jesus has Good News to share with us!
Look at the photo in your bulletin p._______ I love this image of Jesus sitting at the table with sinners. I love his smile! The gospel passage starts out with: “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him…” Jesus wasn’t a puritan! A scrupulous killjoy would have never attracted this kind of crowd. There was a presence in and around Jesus that was filled with love, joy, peace and was not boring but was fun in fact! True, Jesus certainly went to temples and synagogues on the sabbath day, but he was also willing to go where the sinners were, beyond the temple walls. Jesus would have agreed with Abraham Lincoln who once said “A drop of honey catches more flies that a gallon of vinegar (gall).”
Jesus, when confronted for his loose living with the sinners wasted no time by sharing two parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. These parables overstate the point that there is no length to which God the Good Shepherd will not go in order to find one lost sheep.
The parable of the lost coin again makes the point that a whole house would be practically taken apart in order to find that one silver coin. The endings of the two parables point us toward God’s ultimate aim: Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost! Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!” Like the Francis Thompson poem indicates Jesus is “The Hound of Heaven” who will not rest until he finds every last one of us and brings us to the party rejoicing!
There is only one way to disarm hate and heal our separation from God and our neighbor – that way is love. The God of Love is in hot pursuit of us ALL, especially those people that we don’t like.
There’s only one way to finally disarm hate and that way is Love.
Our baptismal covenant fleshes out what that kind of love looks like on the ground: By maintaining a Constant connection with God – connection with the real Christian faith and God’s Church – constant resistance to evil in all its forms – sharing the Good News of Christ by our words and by our deeds – looking for and seeing Christ in ALL persons and loving them ALL – and finally, striving for justice and peace among ALL people – with God’s help. This kind of love may move us beyond our church walls, and outside of comfort zones out to where God’s precious and lost sheep are
Archbishop Desmond Tutu gets the last word today:
We might be surprised by who we see in heaven, God has a soft spot for sinners, his standards are quite low. Amen!