Did you know that today’s parable of the lost sheep, provided the basis for the very earliest drawings of Jesus? In the catacombs of Rome, and a few other places in the first centuries, Jesus was represented as a shepherd, carrying the sheep over his shoulders. Most shepherds in ancient Palestine were teenagers or young adults, because they lived outdoors day and night, they climbed up and down the hills and valleys, and walked long distances to find those green pastures and still waters. This was a lonely occupation, one that required strength, stamina, and perseverance. Using the story of a shepherd looking for a lost sheep was a brilliant answer to the question of why Jesus welcomed sinners. It reminded his listeners of an occupation, and a specific task, with which they were familiar. It touched on the universal desire to protect one’s property and income. And, it re-named sinners as lost sheep, worthy of compassionate rescue.

So the first thing Jesus was doing in telling this parable of the lost sheep was to explain his behavior. He was identifying himself as a shepherd sent by God, and subtly reminding his listeners of the long Scriptural tradition that described the leaders of the Jews as shepherds. The first reference is in the Book of Numbers, to the appointment of Joshua as the successor of Moses (27:17). The second is in a prophecy, which rejects King Ahab as the shepherd of Israel (I Kings 22:17). Later on, the three great prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, all pronounced indictments against the kings of Israel and Judah, saying that those shepherds have led the people astray (Jer 50:6). A whole chapter in Ezekiel is devoted to this theme, beginning with the false shepherds, who feed themselves but do not feed the sheep (34:2), they do not bind up the wounds of the sheep or bring back the strays, or search for the lost sheep (34:4). Therefore God said, “I am against the shepherds” (34:10), and “I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out . . . I will rescue them . . . I will feed them . . . I myself will be the shepherd” (34:11-15).

Therefore when Jesus explained his eating meals with sinner in terms of a shepherd seeking lost sheep, he was making a claim, using very familiar imagery, that he was God’s appointed shepherd, and that God was acting directly through him to seek out the lost. Standing firmly in the prophetic tradition, Jesus was rejecting the whole idea that sinners were condemned by God, that sinners were impure, and that righteous people ought to avoid them. Here I want to remind you that we today think of sinners as people who have committed evil acts. The ancient Jews would have agreed with that definition, but would also have included people who worked in impure jobs, such as transportation workers, physicians, butchers, and tax collectors, as well as people born out of wedlock, and people who had not offered the required sacrifices. Jesus apparently regarded all the “sinners” he met, as lost sheep, and he understood his task to be restoring those lost sheep to the household of God. This task always had two dimensions: the first was to forgive their sins and restore their relationship with God. The second dimension was to include them in the community of God’s people: i.e. to invite them to the dinner party.

Now we come to the second meaning of this parable. I will approach this meaning by asking you think which character in this Gospel reading, you could most readily identify yourself with? Are you one of the Pharisees who are complaining? Are you the shepherd, or the woman searching for the lost coin? Are you the lost sheep? If you identify with the Pharisees, this might mean you are anxious about whether there are enough resources for everyone. If you identify with the lost sheep, this might mean that you feel lost at this point in your life. There are so many reasons for feeling lost that I can’t list them all. They range from the loss of a job, to the loss of health, to the loss of a relationship, to inner feelings of guilt or doubt. What Jesus was intending, in this parable, was to tell everyone who feels lost, that he is searching for you. Jesus the Good Shepherd is NOT waiting for you to find your own way; he has left the flock in order to find you, and bring you home!

Think about this for a moment. When I remember the lost times in my life, the times when I was confused or desperate or scared, those were also the times when I was most aware of receiving help from Jesus. At those times, the longest prayer I could manage was “show me what to do now”, and my most frequent prayer was half as long: “Jesus, help me”. I want you to know that those prayers were answered: both by the distinct sense of Jesus’ loving presence, and also by the arrival of help, often from very unexpected directions. This parable says that when you or I have been cast out or gotten lost or been left behind, we are not alone.

I wonder if anyone here has identified herself or himself with the shepherd going after the sheep, or the woman looking for the coin? When we are parents with young children, we might find ourselves searching for a child who has wandered away; and when we are older we are more likely to misplace important small objects, like our keys (which I do frequently!!). While accepting those simple parallels to our lives, it is important for us to recognize a higher calling in this parable. Jesus invites us, when we are able, to join him in searching for lost sheep right alongside him. There are many places in the Old Testament where God asks people to provide for the poor, by allowing them to glean the fields after the harvest, by the prohibition against charging interest, and by the return of land in the Jubilee year. Likewise, the custom of hospitality to strangers was accepted as a sacred duty, along with respect for the foreigner living among the Jews. This awareness of people in need was deeply embedded in the hearts of the Jewish people because of their experience as slaves in Egypt, and was the basis for teaching and showing compassion.

For some reason, perhaps having to do with suffering under foreign rule, this care for lost and needy folks, had diminished in the time of Jesus. Out of religious zeal, there were many Pharisees and scribes who were only concerned with their own righteousness. And probably some people then, as now, felt that sinners had made bad choices in their lives, and deserved their fate. If you look, you can find verses in the Old Testament, which support the idea that disease and misfortune are punishments from God.

The higher calling that Jesus sets before us is to remember that all of us have made some bad choices, and all of us are still God’s beloved children despite those choices. Jesus seems to have made no distinction among the sinners he ate dinners with; he treated everyone as worthy of God’s forgiveness and love. Jesus call us to follow him by adopting this attitude, and by actively caring for the lost, as we are able. Almost all of us have a lost person in our family; we know friends and neighbors who are grieving or ill or unemployed; and we in this parish, have those who come to eat at Our Daily Bread, and the guests coming with the Rotating Shelter.

The interesting thing is, that this “work” of caring for the lost sheep, actually benefits the shepherds who do the work, at least as much as the sheep who receive it. Ask anyone who volunteers at Our Daily Bread: Jan Camp or LaVerne Martin. Ask Vi Fugate about Sunnyvale FISH or Rich Randolph about helping with the Shelter. They will all tell you that they have received more than they have given. I’ve recently read about research which supports this assertion. It’s a longitudinal study of 200 people who were growing up in Oakland in the 1920’s. They were interviewed annually until they graduated from high school, and then once a decade. All of them went through the Depression and World War II, and have had to adjust later in life to the big technological changes of the last 20 years. The ones, who are happiest, are not those who have been healthy and prosperous and had peaceful families. The happiest people are those who have found ways to give to others throughout their lives, since they were in high school. They believed they had a contribution to make, that they could make the world a better place in some small way. They had empathy for the suffering of other people, and they had a desire to help. (Michele Dillon and Paul Wink, In the Course of A Lifetime). All of that is what Jesus was doing, and describing in his parables, and IS asking us to do.

So let me remind you that there are many different ways to help people who are lost. Making a dinner for them is one way that we focus on at St. Thomas, but just as important are these other ways: treating people and their sufferings with respect; having and expressing compassion; forgiving injuries and injustices; listening to people tell their sorrows and problems; celebrating small victories; passing on your knowledge and wisdom; visiting people who are confined in prisons, in the hospital, and at home; working for social justice in wages and health care; doing clean-up and rebuilding; and sharing your resources. In all these ways, we are called to be shepherds-in-training with Jesus Christ, the Great Shepherd of us all.