Sermon: Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Luke 15:1-10, September 11, 2022
Sermon: Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Luke 15:1-10, September 11, 2022
Faith Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman
I want to echo Peter’s words when he was with Jesus and the other disciples on the mount of Transfiguration: “How good, Lord, to be here!” (cf. Matthew 17:4) At last, here I am with you as your pastor. It’s been quite of journey of faith to bring us together here at Faith for the sake of the work that has been entrusted to us.
Thanks be to God!
We all have high hopes for what our shared ministry may mean for the revitalization of Faith Church. And there’s good reason to be hopeful, I believe. That said, on this my first sermon among you, I want to set the record straight from the get go: I am not a miracle worker. I have no magic wand to wave that will effortlessly rejuvenate this congregation.
Actually, when it’s all said and done, I am among you essentially as a beggar who can show other beggars where to find bread. That’s what ministry is, especially with Lutheran theological sensibilities.
Which is to say, I also have a confession to make, to reinforce what we did together at the beginning of this liturgy: while I’ve never been a tax collector (though I lived among them most recently in the DC area) I am nonetheless among the sinners whom Jesus liked to hang out with. I am one of the lost ones whom Jesus has found.
And I daresay you also have been among the lost whom Jesus has found. You and I, we have been the sheep that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, had long sought out to recover and to restore to the other 99 in the flock. You and I, we have been that lost coin whom the woman searched every corner of the house to find as we heard in today’s parables.
Together, we’re in good company with the likes of the apostle Paul who in words traditionally attributed to him in 1 Timothy, our second reading, said, “and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the foremost…. To the Sovereign of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Timothy 1:14-15, 17)
In Christ, we come together, sinners forgiven, redeemed, lost ones found. And in Christ we have found each other, here and now. Again, I say, thanks be to God. With this foundational perspective we begin our ministry together.
Moreover, Christ having found us, you and I, we have been cause for rejoicing in the halls of heaven. As Luke records Jesus having said to the religious leaders who grumbled and complained that he welcomed and ate with sinners and tax collectors: “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 persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:6-7)
Think about it: we, too, are among those lost ones whose rescue causes heaven to erupt with joyful shouts of thanksgiving. Picture that in your mind’s eye. Can you hear the celestial song?
Thus it is that by God’s grace in Christ, we have been called together to rejoice here and now in unison with the whole company of the saints in heaven. We are a community of faith which in Christ is a community of rejoicing. May such a rejoicing spirit mark our life together.
As you get to know me as a pastor and preacher and teacher, you’ll find that I love words and their rich meanings, especially those meanings that emerge from the original languages, in the case of the Christian scriptures, Greek.
Take the word rendered in English as ‘rejoice.’ The word that translates ‘joy’ in biblical Greek is the same root word for rejoicing and for grace and for generosity and for giving thanks, and for Eucharist. One little word contains so much theological meaning, especially for Lutherans who are all about grace!
This little word proclaimed awakens us to new or renewed faith in Christ, trust in the one who graciously searched high and low for us until we were found.
And thus awakened, we get up out of our seats to come to the table where Christ again meets sinners and tax collectors to eat with them, moreover, to feed them with his very self in bread and wine.
At this very table, we hear echoes of the joy, the rejoicing in heaven over the lost having been found, the heavenly choirs of saints and angels singing songs of rejoicing.
Take a look at the image on the cover of today’s bulletin. It depicts the woman rejoicing at having found the lost coin. But you can also picture her as Christ, our great high priest who also finds us. Or you can see the woman as a pastor in vestments elevating the bread, the host, in great thanksgiving, ready to feed us with Christ’s presence, and with broom in hand prepared to go out to serve the world. One image captures well the qualities of our life together.
Which is to say, having been fed with Christ’s very self and having joined in the heavenly rejoicing at this table of Eucharist, the table of thanksgiving, we leave this place to be the hands and feet of the God in Christ who searches for the lost sheep and the lost coins.
We begin our ministry officially together on “God’s work, our hands” Sunday in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Across the country, ELCA congregations are devoting this day to special works of social ministry in more public ways than usual.
It's God’s work, our hands Sunday at Faith Church more than just one Sunday a year. We are doing God’s work of finding and feeding the lost when we with our hands:
We open our parsonage to house refugees from Afghanistan in cooperation with Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest;
when we help feed those without homes at Grace Church downtown;
when we welcome children into our preschool;
when we welcome persons from the LGBTQIA communities into the life of our congregation;
when we lend our support to border ministries;
when we share in the justice work of the Arizona Interfaith Network;
when we open our building to various twelve step programs and other community groups and churches; and more.
When we share in such work, we are like Moses depicted in today’s reading from Exodus who interceded on behalf of the wayward people, trying to convince God to relent from judgment and to save and rescue the people. In fact, our prayers of intercession set the agenda for our share with our hands in God’s work of rescue. Think about it: who and what we pray for are those whom and that for which we are called to serve.
Now a final word: we also begin our ministry together on yet another anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York City, in Washington, DC and in rural Pennsylvania, twenty-one years ago on September 11, 2001. [Here, tell story of my 9/11 experience…]
One of the most lasting images of autumn 2001 in NYC: the hundreds of rescue workers who searched the rubble for weeks and months, first seeking survivors, and then searching through so much dust to recover the precious dust of the earthen remains of those who lost their lives on that horrible day.
May this image, striking and poignant and painful though it may be, also remind us of the rescue mission that God in Christ entrusts to us. Even when we rejoice together here with the choirs of angels, with the church on earth and in heaven, we also share deeply in the world’s pain and suffering. It’s a bittersweet missionary journey that we’re on, full of joyful thanks to God, but also marked by many tears shed in solidarity with those who still are waiting to be found and restored to community.
Thus in Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit blowing the sacred winds of God into our sails to propel us forward, let’s get to work…. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. And thanks be to God.
Announcements for September 11, 2022:
Welcome breakfast following liturgy in parish hall.
Installation, with Bishop Hutterer preaching and presiding, on Wednesday, October 5 at 6:00 pm.
Hours when I am routinely in the office: Monday-Thursday, 9:30 – 2:30.
Exploring best ways for direct communication with me, but for now: email and church office phone.
Kindly be patient with me as I get acclimated.
Soon beginning member outreach.
Weekly bible studies will soon commence on Wednesday mornings and Thursday evenings, hybrid.
Adult ed on Sundays will soon begin as well.