“LOST & FOUND”
Saint Luke 15. 1-10
The Third Sunday after Trinity: 28 June Anno Domini 2009
Fr Watson SSP
Your "old Adam," your "Goat-Boy & Goat Girl" is just like the Pharisees. You want God to pay attention to you but not to those bad people who aren't good like you think you are good. But the tax collectors are your brothers. The prostitutes and socialists and pro-choicers are your sisters. The aids patients and homosexuals; the politicians and immigrants; the homeless and drug addicts; they are members of your family.
The family is the race of Adam, all humans. Your clan is diseased-all of you. You all have the contagion of sin. All your deeds and good works, are filthy rags; rags contaminated with the sweat of sin and the stain of Satan.
God sent His Son the Great Physician. Not only is the Christ anointed to be healer and liberator, but He is designated the great Pastor-the True Shepherd of Shepherds. Jesus came to heal the sick; to free the fornicator; to restore the lame; and to search out and rescue the lost sheep.
A lamb no more chooses to be lamb than a follower of the Lord decides to be made part of God's royal family. As lambs are birthed ("lambed") in blood, so too disciples of the Master are born in the waters of the baptismal rebirth. As white and wooly sheep have a shepherd who tends to their welfare and health, so too Lambs of God have the Christ Pastor Who guarantees their eternal welfare and spiritual health.
Now to be sure, some people who belong to the Shepherd, some Christians, are introverted and may not overly enjoy the company of others. But even those who struggle with the daily challenges of inter-personal relationships and allure to solitary hermit-hood, don't really want to be lost and marooned. You were made to have families. You were meant to have brothers and sisters. The devil is the solitary and prowling loner seeking others that he can make equally alone and lonely. But you are part of the tribe of Judah; you are Sons of Israel; you are parishioners who have a parish; royal priests who eat at a family table.
The 99 sheep that are left behind are never really left by the Shepherd. Jesus wants His Word of Love and Forgiveness shared with the entire world until He comes again in glory. So, if the 99 sheep in His parable are meant to refer to self-righteous Pharisees who are rejecting the Pastor, then remember that the Lord wants these hypocrites too to come to the knowledge of His Person & Work. He loves the lost and who is more lost than a hypocritical non-believer. The 99 are only without the Shepherds searching care "temporarily" in this parable. Even as the rejecters of Paul's preaching in Ephesus were only temporarily without the Word when Paul withdrew to other areas and there was an interim-until the next preacher of Christ arrived on the scene.
If the 99 are meant only to refer to the flock which does already belong to the oversight of the Bishop of your Faith, then likewise, they are not alone but are already safe for the night, secure in the Shepherd's gate-fold and well attended by under-shepherds. The flock is fed and watered and protected by its Pastor in the pasture of Holy Mother Church.
No greater fear can befall a young child than to get lost from its parents. Every child has buried in his subconscious the fear of having both parents killed and the resulting orphan-hood that would occur.
Jesus knows that even as sin drove Adam to hide, and to turn on his help-mate, sin causes you to retreat from His presence. A lost sheep cannot find itself. A lamb that loses its way from the flock cannot fix things by itself-no matter how hard it tries. Jesus knows this. Jesus knows how you're feeling right now and He also knows how bad things really are for you. The Shepherd knows how hungry you get for real food; not the snacks that only taste sugary or salty and never nourish. He knows how thirsty you are for the cool water that actually refreshes. He gives you the still waters of forgiveness that restore life and banish the satanic heat of damnation. Jesus knows that even as your greatest earthly dream-wish would probably be to just be a little child again without any cares, worries, hurts, or needs, sitting with Mom and Dad on big comfy couch in your home…that your greatest need is to become "as," "like" a little child, a little lamb, safe in His arms. This He does in His absolution. His work of forgiving you began before the creation of the world. His active forgiving took place here in time from the moment of His conception, through His patient obedience to His Father's Will, and all the way to His entrance in the city of Jerusalem to seek all who had strayed. Lambs, sheep, you've been found again this morning. In His + Name your sins are remitted and fully pardoned. This day He nestles you close to His chest, you are firmly grasped by those hands bearing deep scars, and carried home. He nestles you close to the heart that he allowed to be pierced by a Roman spearhead. He places you now in that ageless rock of righteousness even as you are in His Body and His Body is in yours in the Sacrament. Where He sits enthroned with His Father and the Spirit as the Shepherd Monarch of Mercy, so you too reign as His Royal Priests-His siblings of salvation.
Home…what a beautiful and peace giving word it is. Heaven is your home. Here this Mass Day a piece of heaven is here for you. Your Shepherd, your fellow sheep, the green grass of life immortal. He speaks your name, you recognize His voice. The Good Shepherd Who is The Lamb of God takes away the sins of His little lambs. You are lost no more.
In The Name of The Father and of The + Son and of The Holy Ghost