This morning, we hear the reading from Luke in which Jesus tells the story of the Good Shepherd who will leave the 99 sheep to find the one who has been lost. It is a lovely image he presents of our God, who will not leave one of us behind, but will go in search of us until we are found. Jesus was trying to provide a beautiful and caring illustration of who God could be for us, a God who would seek out even the one lost one who has gone missing and he is speaking about any of us as well…even if we have chosen to separate ourselves from the flock, even if we feel so lost that we will never be found. Let us pray, O God, we know you watch over all of us and are always watchful for those who are feeling lost. May we follow in your ways and seek out the ones who feel they have lost their way. Grant us your peace and comfort and be with us always. Amen.
This morning, following our Service, Don Chretien, will speak about his time of service during the Vietnam War. As I thought about the Good Shepherd, I also thought about the code across the branches of the US military to leave no one behind. Soldiers, even in times of great fear and attack, will try to go back and save their friends or sadly, retrieve the bodies of fallen comrades.
In March of 1990, Tim Obrien published a book called The Things They Carried, about a platoon of American soldiers fighting on the ground in the Vietnam War. The book is a collection of short stories based upon his experiences as a soldier in the 23rd Infantry Division. Here’s what he wrote about the soldiers:
“The things they carried were largely determined by necessity. Among the necessities or near necessities were can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wrist watches, dog tags, mosquito repellant, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-aid, lighters, matches” …“Sewing kits, military payment certificate, sea rations, two or three canteens of water. Together those items weighed between fifteen and twenty pounds depending upon a man’s habits or rate of metabolism.”
“Taking turns, they carried the big scrambler radio which weighed thirty pounds with its battery. They shared the weight of memory. They took up what others could no longer bear. Often they carried each other, the wounded or weak. They carried infections. They carried chess sets, basketballs, Vietnamese English dictionaries, bronze stars, purple hearts. They carried diseases – malaria and dysentery, they carried lice and ringworm and leaches, rots and molds. They carried the land itself – Vietnam, the place, the soil. They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere they carried it – the humidity, the monsoons, the stink of fungus and decay. All of it. They carried gravity.”
“They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die – grief, terror, love, longing. These were intangibles but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity. They had tangible weight. They carried shameful memories.” Of course, he is speaking about the many heavy burdens that these men were forced to carry, and he emphasizes that the unseen ones were often the worst.
Sadly, most of us have become acutely aware that many who have served in times of war, and especially in Vietnam, including the many nameless women who served as nurses there, continue to carry these heavy burdens all of these years later.
This morning, we are reminded of this image of the Good Shepherd which Jesus shared as he attempted to provide concrete images for the people to understand. In his writings, Rev. Glenn McDonald explainss that, “Those who open the Bible for the first time are often surprised to learn that Jesus consistently goes out of his way to offend religious people. You would think that rules-keeping, line-drawing, morality-enforcing men and women would be Jesus’ natural allies. But it’s not so. The three parables that make up Luke chapter 15 challenge that idea entirely. These stories concern lost things – a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost child.
Luke 15 begins: “Now the tax collectors and ‘sinners’ were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, who were the most respected religious people of Jesus’ time complained, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” Jesus welcomes sinners. He eats with those who would have often been the outcasts of the day for those who took their faith seriously.
Even today, in the Middle East, sharing a meal with someone is a sacramental act signifying acceptance. Sitting down together offers respect to your guests; we feel treated with respect when someone welcomes us into their homes and shares a meal with us. Sadly the Pharisees are convinced that Jesus must be a bad man. He chooses to share a table with sinners. They believe that someone who understands God’s ways and God’s heart could not even consider such a thing. But Jesus seems to say, “Do you really want to know about the heart of God? Let me tell you a story.”
Looking for a lost sheep would have been very difficult in the arid conditions there. Of course, that’s not what happens in Jesus’ parable: Jesus says, “And when he finds it [very much alive], he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.”
Restoring the one who is lost, notes Rev. McDonnell, “whether it be the stranger who is hurting, the man who is disillusioned by organized religion, the woman who’s been rejected by friends and family, or the teenager ready to give up on life – almost always requires significant commitment.”
And, the parable concludes with this: The shepherd “calls his friends and neighbors and says, ‘Rejoice with me.’” Apparently, in Palestine, 10 to 20 families would often jointly own a flock of sheep. So if one sheep became lost, it was everyone’s loss. And if that sheep were found, it became everybody’s reason to rejoice.
Jesus is saying that God’s heart always goes out to the one who is most in need of help, most in trouble, or most neglected. The closer we ourselves seek to be near to God, the more we will feel true happiness when something wonderful happens to someone else, especially those who are lost or hurting.
Tim Laniak, a seminary professor who has spent much of his life exploring Middle Eastern shepherding, tells the story of a family in the nation of Jordan. In his book While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks, he shares the story of Mrs. Aref, who many who knew her remarked that she loves her animals as much as – and maybe more than – her own children. “She knew the animals quite intimately and was greatly affected by their needs… One day, to her immense distress, Mrs. Aref lost track of one of her ewes. Because sheep regularly mingle with other flocks at common pastures during the day, she checked with her neighbors that night to see if the ewe had gone home with someone else. But none of them had seen the missing creature. “She inquired among more distant neighbors over the next week, but no one had noticed a stray or found unidentified remains. Weeks turned into months without a sign of the missing ewe. “Then one day, two months later, a large flock came through the village led by a hired shepherd. As was still her habit, Mrs. Aref asked the young man if he had come across a lost sheep. As the words passed her lips, one of the ewes in the solid pack of passing sheep lifted her head, immediately recognizing the sound of her owner’s voice. Mrs. Aref screamed with delight and rushed through the startled mass to embrace her lost sheep. It didn’t take long before the whole village heard the commotion and shared in the reunion.”
Jesus says, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” In the kingdom of God, after all, everybody counts. Every last one.
Resources:
Rev. Glenn McDonnell, Pursuing The One Who Is Lost
The Things They Carried