Luke 15.1-10
Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’
So he told them this parable: ‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.
‘Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.” Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’
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The preacher has a difficult choice to make on days like today. When events of national and indeed international significance happen, one must decide whether to ‘go with the readings’ or talk about what has happened.
But on this occasion, the death of Her Majesty the Queen, you can’t really separate the events from the readings, the two go together.
Our Sovereign Lady, Queen Elizabeth the second has died. She spoke in her later years about how her Christian faith, how it had brought her hope and peace and joy, particularly in difficult times. For seventy years, her faith was the bedrock of her service to us. and that’s the thing, she was our Queen, but she was our servant. And her role model was the greatest servant of all, Jesus Christ.
Why would somebody have such dedication to God, and for so long? Seventy years on the throne and ninety-six. Why would they, with all the rotten things that happen to us in our lives, keep going on, and still say at the end of it all, whether one’s life is short or long, ‘it was worth it, following you Lord, was worth it.’
Because Jesus Christ, God amongst us is worth following, because in the bible and in her prayers and in her experience, Her Late Majesty found somebody who was worth following. In him she found all that she needed. And no matter what anybody says, deep down we know that we need the same.
Why is he worth following? Because this gospel reading tell us about his character, his passion for us’ the lengths he will go to find us, to renew us and restores us, and to give us life, and give it to the full.
In the context of our passage, Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners, the very people that the pharisees think are the worst of the worst. And this man Jesus welcomes them. ‘How dare he’ they say associate with such people, they grumble, because they do not understand the first thing about the character of God..
You see, the pharisees, they weren’t truly alive. You can tell when somebody is truly alive; there is a vitality to them, there is that twinkle in their eye and a smile, there is that sense of humour, they carry themselves lightly because they know their life is not their own but rather, it belongs to another, and is to be given in the service of others.
Who does that remind you of…
But the pharisees, so concerned, and so much more interested in how they look and following their petty rules and judging others for failing to do so, they fail to really look at themselves and see just how, how ugly they are, with their rules and laws and regulations and inability to see nuance in anything, so quick to judge. They don’t even see other people as fellow humans and that they are in the same boat as them. If they did, they would see that when the judge others, they are obscuring the darkness in themselves. They don’t realise that they need Jesus just as much as the tax collectors and sinners do. They are indignant that they could somehow be on the same level as them. They don’t realise, that they, like the tax collector and sinner, must repent.
With this perspective on life, there is no humility, others are simply there to be judged and found wanting, with that perspective on life, there is no way that we can truly live.
Jesus knows that the pharisees are not truly living, Yes they have their breath in their lungs and the beating of their hearts and blood flowing around their bodies, but that’s about it.
Because living, is about being humble, living is learning that we need a saviour, living is receiving forgiveness, living is learning to love, more and more, day after day. To serve others, to think of them before ourselves, to be selfless and dutiful, not out of a sense of legalism but rather from a real and deep joy.
Who does that remind you of...
Look of the passion of our God in Jesus. Jesus is the Shepherd in this story. So strong is his love for his lost sheep, that he leaves the rest safely behind and searches for the one who is lost. And does not stop until he finds them. he carries his lost sheep home with him, gathering his friends and neighbours and says; “rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” I have found the person lost in poverty, in darkness and doubt, even in their own sin, In all kinds of terrible situations. I have reached down and grabbed them by the hand and pulled them out of the pit and the muck and brought them back to me.’
Change, transformation, the pursuit of the lost, the fight for justice, this is what Our Lord God is all about. That is what Jesus shows us. Jesus came to serve, not to be served. This is the kind of God that Her Late Majesty followed. She was a servant Queen who followed The Servant King.
There was once a Roman Catholic Cardinal who said this about what it means to follow God and serve him with all your being;
‘Whoever serves the Lord must allow him to appear, must be as translucent as glass, so that one doesn’t see [their] light, but the light of Jesus Christ, who is standing behind [them.]’
Her Majesty’s life always pointed elsewhere, that was why it was a beautiful life, that was why she was fully alive, because she modelled her life on Jesus, she served him and shared his love for others. Her life pointed to God, the passionate God who will pursue us to the very end, and will not stop until he has rescued us from the darkness of the world, and the darkness that exists within.
For Her Majesty, who as the King said in his first speech to the nation, ‘may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest,’ at the last day will be raised, lay her crown at the feet of Jesus Christ and say ‘Lord, it was all for you.’
May we, have the humility to see who Jesus is; to be drawn to him, just as Her Late Majesty was, and when we reach the heavenly places when our time eventually comes, lay our own crown, the crown of our lives at his feet, and say, ‘it was all for you.’
Amen.