Scripture: Luke 15:6 – “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” (NRSV)
When I was a teenager, I read this passage from the Sermon on the Mount: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Since I had little experience with the Bible at that time, I was very disheartened when I read it. It comes on the heels of commandments to never be angry at people, to never think of being with someone with whom you are not married, to accept cruelty upon you and to pray for your enemies. These are tough things for a teenage boy who was sometimes picked on to accept. But I decided to try to be “perfect” anyway. I remember thinking that life was a contest and if I could do the most good things and avoid the most bad things, God would reward me. And I had a good start, since I was more interested in studying and clean living that my wild and foolish classmates.
There is a term for this kind of thinking: self-righteousness. And as I matured and read more of the Bible, I learned that self-righteousness was a much greater sin and much larger impediment to working toward God’s Kingdom of Love than anger or passion.
Despite what I thought I read in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus continually has more compassion for those who are struggling with life than for those who think they have everything figured out. This is the lesson of the Parable of the Lost Sheep. We normally identify with the sheep, the one that is rescued by the shepherd. We feel lost and alone sometimes and long for Jesus to rescue us. But Jesus’ true focus is on the shepherd. The shepherd ignores the ninety-nine well behaved sheep and seeks the one that has rebelled against the flock, who has fallen into trouble. Perhaps the other sheep resent the foolishness of the lost sheep, or another shepherd might view that troublemaking sheep as an acceptable loss. After all, new sheep would soon be born who would stay with the flock.
But as in the Sermon, we are called to be like the shepherd, like the God figure. Jesus says that God is the one who seek out that one troubling and troubled person who does not live up to or fit societies expectations, the very person that most religious people and most religious organizations would scorn, just as the Pharisees and the scribes did so long ago. Religious purity tests do not often inspire sinners to improve themselves and join the flock. They make them feel under attack and they become defensive and dismissive of religious people. And when the religious fall into self-righteousness and hypocrisy, they feel that they have been proven right.
Loving and accepting the lost is what Christians are called to do, and the true church is made up of people who have not figured everything out, who are not perfect, and who work together every day to be a little bit better, a little more accepting, and a little bit more loving. To be perfect as the Father is not to never make a mistake, but to love and forgive no matter what, which might actually be more difficult. We may never be perfect, but through God’s guidance we can strive to be better than perfect.
Prayer: God, help us to love and accept and welcome those that others have driven away, for together we might make the world a better place. Amen.
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