The Really, Really, Really Attentive Shepherd
Proper 19
Luke 15:1-10
Sometimes the
titles that we have assigned to Jesus’ parables really get us off track. The two parables we heard this morning
are usually called the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost
Coin. Some of you may have heard
in the past that it would be better to call them the parables of the “found”
sheep and coin. And that would be
somewhat better, but it’s still not great.
Because the
parables aren't primarily about the sheep or the coin. The sheep and the coin don’t do anything in these
parables. They certainly don’t repent. To turn these parables into allegories
about a sheep or a coin that repents totally misses the mark.
In her book on
Jesus’ parables (Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi), Amy-Jill Levine focuses on how Jesus’ parables would have been
heard by first century Jewish listeners.
It is unlikely a first-century Jewish listener would hear [these] two parables and conclude that they have something to do with sheep repenting or coins confessing. Sheep eat, sleep, poop, produce wool, and give milk—but an awareness of sin or a sense of eschatological salvation is not part of ovine nature.
The sheep and the
coin are totally passive in these parables. They are just props.
It is the shepherd and the woman who are active, who are the focus of
the stories.
A commentator
writing on these parables notes (David Schnasa Jacobsen, HERE): Action
verbs predominate for the shepherd --- leave, go after, finds, lays it on his
shoulders, rejoices, comes home, and calls together his friends. The same holds
for the woman: light a lamp, sweep the house, search carefully, finds, and
calls together her friends.
Jesus’ parables
are meant to startle us, to bring us up short. They start in a familiar place but end with an unexpected
twist. They invite us into a
familiar world and then reorient our vision.
So what is
startling about these parables? What
is unexpected?
That the missing
sheep and coin are noticed, that
their absence is recognized.
Equally unexpected is that this one sheep and single coin are worth
moving heaven and earth to find.
I don’t know how
much experience you have with flocks of sheep. I see them every summer. Try to picture a flock of a hundred sheep. Sheep tend to look like rocks; it's hard to tell them apart from a distance. They congregate in clumps here and
there. Sometimes a sheep or two
will wander off or from one clump to another or a group will head off in search
of grass.
Now imagine you’re
the shepherd. Maybe you stop for
just a minute to help one sheep in some sort of distress, or you look away from
the flock for a minute to see if a wolf is coming over the ridge, or maybe you
take a short nap in the heat of the day.
Are you going to notice that one of the 100 has wandered out of sight?
That’s what most
startling about this parable. That
the lost sheep is noticed, missed.
That’s not the world we live.
Where one unremarkable individual among 99 others is missed. But it’s the world Jesus invites us to
enter in this parable.
And not only is
the one sheep missed. It is worth
extraordinary efforts to find.
We might retitle
this parable: “The really, really,
really attentive shepherd who cares.”
The shepherd
cares for the individual, but also appears to want the flock to be restored as
a whole. This may be a bit of an
interpretive stretch. But it seems
like the individual sheep is worth looking for not just as an individual sheep
but also for its importance to the flock.
The flock is incomplete without each individual sheep.
One puny,
unremarkable sheep among a hundred others. A sheep interested, presumably, only
in its next meal. Not caring
whether it is lost or found. One passive,
essentially lifeless, totally indifferent coin of modest value. Both are missed. And, apparently worth extraordinary
effort… extraordinary effort that
they may be found and restored to their place.
This powerful
desire of the shepherd and the woman to find what is lost… Theologians call it prevenient grace. The word “prevenient” means “that which goes before.” Prevenient grace or mercy is divine grace (care) that precedes human decision. It exists prior to and without reference
to anything humans may have done.
God’s grace is extended to us before
we do or think or act or anything.
It’s not dependent upon our choices or actions in any way. It’s only about God’s care for us.
We are always
being sought. Whether we think we
are valuable or worthless, significant or insignificant, faithful or faithless,
penitent or prideful. We are
always being sought. In these
parables, the seemingly small or insignificant is missed and worth
extraordinary efforts to find.
And once the
sheep or the coin is found, then the celebration begins.
