"Rejoice"

Jeremiah4; 11-12, 22-28/ 1 Timothy 1: 12-17/ Luke 15: 1-10
16th Sunday of Pentecost/ Year C/ September 16, 2007

Sheep are stubborn and downright stupid. They will eat and eat and eat until there is nothing left to eat. The will wander off on their own looking for the next mouth full. They pay no attention to their surroundings and sometimes find themselves in trouble they cannot extricate themselves from.

My grandfather raised sheep. He kept them to keep the weeds and grasses trimmed in the yard. They had to be watched though because they could tear the whole yard up in no time at all. There was one sheep though that was notorious for wandering off from the herd. Blackie, Blackie was a black faced sheep with an appetite for the sweet delectable willow leaves on the willow near the creek next to my grandfather's house. We were never allowed to go anywhere near the stream because there were water moccasins that lived there. One day, Blackie, in a frenzy of eating, ate himself into the creek and then couldn't get out. He was surrounded by water moccasins. Standing in the middle of the creek bleating, having no sense just to walk out of the water, he bleated.

My grandfather was quickly summoned. He came down the hill telling all of us to stay away from the creek he didn't want us to get bit. Grandfather, who by this time was in his late 70's tried everyway he could think of to get the stupid sheep out of the water, to no avail. Blackie just stood there bleating piteously, with out moving. Finally, my grandfather sent one of the older boys to the barn for some rope. He then climbed that big ole willow tree, shimmied across a big branch that hung over the place where Blackie stood. Lowering the rope, he finally succeeded in getting the rope over Blackie's big head and then literally dragged Blackie out of the stream as he shimmied back down the tree.

We figured Grandfather would be upset with Blackie and do something to punish him. But instead, he climbed down and began to pat Blackie on the head, saying Good Boy, Good Boy. As he stood there patting the sheep he checked to make sure that Blackie was OK with no bites or marks on him and then led him up the hill back to the herd. We were stunned. We figured Grandfather would kill that ole sheep or a least give it a good beating for being so stupid. But No, he led up to the trough next to the house and filled the trough with feed and turned him loose. Telling us kids to leave him alone, and get up on the porch while he ate. Talk about grace. I learned a lot that day about Grace. Grandfather didn't get upset, and seemed to forgive Blackie for being so stupid. It surprised us all.

That is the way grace is though. At the heart of our understanding of God is one thing: Grace! Grace is God's love and acceptance freely given and not earned. Grace is a gift not people who deserve it or to people because they are particularly special. It is a gift given out of the generosity of God's love for all creation. Grace is boundless and expansive, and, many believe, in the end, irresistible. Grace affirms that it is not humanity that saves itself but God, who has acted in the past, still acts today, and will act tomorrow. Grace is God's gift to undeserving children(sheep) regardless of age, or gender, or orientation, or sinfulness. Grace is radical. It is at the root of all that we do and say as Presbyterians and as Christians.

But we have a problem with grace. We think that it ahs to be earned. That if someone is to enter the kingdom, they must act a certain way, believe a certain doctrine or dogma, live according to our standards of behavior and life. In today's story from Luke's Gospel, Jesus has sat down a table with those that the Pharisees and Saducees, the religious establishment would call sinners. They question Jesus' morals, his lifestyle, and Yes, even his message. They could not see that Jesus was reaching out on God's behalf to those who were the lost, the least, the lame, the blind, offering them welcome into a world that accepted them for who they were and calling them to a higher, better place of life.

This is the strange and mysterious nature of the God we believe in. This is the God that Jesus points to throughout his ministry and in his life. God's grace can be found in Jesus in countless ways, from the many times he sits to eat with tax collectors and prostitutes, to the story he tells to the Pharisees about a shepherd with a lost sheep, or the woman with a lost coin, or a father who had two sons who throws a party to celebrate the return of the one who was lost and now found, the one who was dead, but is now alive. The good news of Jesus Christ is that God's grace comes to us not because we have done anything to deserve it or because we are worthy of it. God's love and forgiveness comes to us simply out of the boundless mercy of God's laughter and joy with the created.

This is the Good News we are called to celebrate with other people. There is no more important message to bring to our culture than God's irresistible grace. Unfortunately in our high schools and our society, people are judged according to certain abilities or traits. If you have what it takes you increase the likelihood you will succeed. If you say the right word, believe the right things, do the right actions, then you are deemed worthy of your peers approval. Those in high school and even the church have experienced seeing people judged and measured everyday. How subtle, and sometimes not so subtle are the pressures to fit into a certain mold, a certain belief, a certain lifestyle, a certain behavior so that we feel accepted and loved.

Grace teaches us that God loves us where we are and for who we are. God is knowing God loves us in the midst of our foolishness and powerlessness. Grace is experiencing God's love and compassion, God's laughter and in our very being, even in the midst of despair and turmoil and insecurity. This "Good News" of God's grace for me is expressed in Paul's letter to the Romans. "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor thing present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus."

Recently the news papers have been filled the story of the young woman who accidentally left her child locked in a car on the hottest day of the year and the child died. People have criticized and questioned why or how someone could do this. But I believe that God does not question or criticize this woman. I believe that God loves her, and wants to hold her in his arms, forgiving and caring for her in the midst of her pain and sorrow and remorse. That is grace freely given. That is the force that should be act work in our lives each and everyday as followers of Christ. When we believe, when we experience Grace, we are led to share that experience with others, to do the works of compassion, mercy, reconciliation, and love that express that grace. Because I have experienced this grace, God's mercy, I too can forgive. Because God has welcomes me into the kingdom, I can welcome the stranger into my life. I can reach out and touch the life of the one who has been lost. I can reach out and invite those that seem spiritually dead, to experience the new life that is given through Jesus Christ. To go out like the shepherd with the lost sheep, the woman who lost her coin, my grandfather who rescued his sheep, is what we are called to do. Because God loves the lost, and is willing to risk everything to bring them home, we can go forth to seek the lost of our society and share God's love with them.

When we do, we will be changed. To experience God's grace brings risk. To experience God's grace means to hear laughter where other hear only sorrow and pain. To experience God's grace is to show love and acceptance instead of judgment and rejection. We are called to preach by our own lives the experience of God's embrace where others preach only God's condemnation. It is to look at the world very differently from some of our brothers and sisters. Our world needs people who have experienced this transforming grace. We need people who are less concerned with rules and regulations willing to go beyond the norms of society and share God love for all people. When we do this we celebrate and rejoice in the love God for all creation. So rejoice, give thanks and sing Raise your banners on high, for the love of God in Christ Jesus. Amen

Reverend Westmoreland
September 16, 2007