Sermon – “Called to Repentance” – Luke 15:1-10

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Church
Sermon – “Called to Repentance” – Luke 15:1-10
September 12, 2010

Today I will be continuing with my series of sermons on our calling from God. God calls us in many ways through the world we live it, through scripture, and through our dreams and consciences. We respond to God’s call with prayer and service. Last week we looked at God’s call to discipleship and considered its great cost. Today we will look at God’s call to repentance, which when we respond, brings God great joy. We will investigate what repentance is, and what God’s response is to repentance. But before we embark on this journey let us pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

This morning I will be doing more of a Bible study than a sermon. So you may want to open your Bibles and leave them open to Luke chapter 15 while we go through the scripture together. This technique will be familiar to the men who attend the Friday Morning 6am Breakfast at Our Place Restaurant because we have been studying Jesus’ parables for several month and this is how we have been doing it. So open your Bibles to Luke 15 and let’s take a look at the first ten verses beginning with the first two.

Luke 15:1-2 NIV Luke 15:1 Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

The setting for our scripture today is around a table, probably a great feast. The religious leaders of the day, the Scribes and Pharisees are concerned because Jesus is eating with the least desirable people. The tax collectors and sinners were people who notoriously disobeyed God’s law. By eating with them Jesus was tainting his own reputation.

Several years ago there was a Catholic priest who would go into a local bar in Bethesda MD every Friday night for Happy Hour. He led a Bible study in the back room of the pub. People would order their drinks at the bar and then go into the back room with the priest to study scripture together. The priest called this “Theology on Tap” and it is still happening in many Catholic dioceses today. I remember thinking, as a Presbyterian, how awful it was for a priest to hang out in a bar and for people to be drinking while studying the scripture. But now I realize that this is the perfect place to go to communicate God’s call of repentance to sinners.

Repentance does not mean “I am sorry for something I have done.” That would be “regret”. Repentance literally means to turn around. You are walking in one direction and you turn around to go the other way. The call to repentance therefore must go those traveling the wrong way calling them to turn around and go in the right direction. And to issue this call Jesus, or the followers of Jesus, must go to where the sinners are and give them God’s call to turn around. The Pharisees and the Scribes just didn't understand that eating with sinners is just where Jesus was supposed to be.

Now let’s look at verses 3 through 6. This is a story Jesus told to illustrate God's desire that we all repent. This story is the familiar Parable of the Lost Sheep.

Luke 15:3-6 3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.'

You have four chicken houses with over a hundred thousand chickens, and you discover that one has escaped and you follow its tracks from the door of the chicken house into the woods. You enter the woods. There you spend three weeks hunting for that lost chicken while ignoring the needs of all the other chicken who are suffering without food and water because you are wandering around in the woods. Would any of you chicken farmers do something stupid like this? Of course not! But God would. God is so passionate that everyone be saved that God will search for every one that is lost no matter how many more have already been saved. God is compulsive about this. God wants all sinners to repent, turn around, and follow God’s lead. So God would leave all of us sitting here if it would mean that one person in Pocomoke would turn away from sin.

This image of God searching for the one lost sheep is a powerful one for the church. For two thousand years, the church has adopted as its own symbol the shepherd’s staff. In some denominations the shepherd’s staff is literally carried by the bishop signifying his role in gathering up the lost sheep. In our Reformed tradition we call Ministers of the Word and Sacrament “pastors” which is just another way of saying “shepherd”. I have placed next to the communion table this morning a picture from the Beaver Dam dining room. It is a picture of Jesus as the good shepherd cradling the lost sheep in his right hand and carrying his shepherd’s staff in his left. This picture, at one time, graced many Sunday school classrooms across America. The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd must always be in our minds

This brings us to verse 7 where Jesus explains meaning of the parable of the lost sheep. Let’s take a look at what it says.

Luke 15:7 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

And so we see that the reason we need to repent, to turn from our evil ways and follow God. It is so that God and all the angels of heaven may rejoice with a great feast, with singing and dancing because a sinner has been saved. And we in worship are privileged to join in the celebration with God and angels along with those who repent. This is really good new that turning from evil ways lead to a great festival with God.

Now let’s turn our attention back to our Bibles and take a look at the next parable in Luke, the Parable of the Lost Coin, verses 8 – 10.

Luke 15:8-10 8 "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

You have been laid off and you are down to your last few bucks. There is just a one more night at this rundown hotel before your money runs out and you are living in your car. Every day you count your money and pray for a job. But today you are ten dollars short on rent for this dingy room. You search everywhere for an extra $10. You walk into every business in town, asking to do anything they need for $10 with no result. You stop in every church asking for $10 – nothing. You are so desperate you actually think about stealing the $10. You want that $10 more than anything. God wants everyone to turn from sin and be saved more than anything.

The image of God as a woman sweeping the floor is not one that a male dominated church has emphasized over the centuries. We usually don’t think of God as a woman. An elder once complained when I used the pronoun “she” while referring to God in one of my sermon. But Jesus wants us to understand God both as a man and as a woman. That’s why he gave us these two parables. And the great symbol of God as a woman is the broom. No one has ever painted a picture of God as a woman with a broom weeping the floor even though many of the prophets talked about God with the metaphor of sweeping. But here in the Gospel of Luke the broom is of equal weight with the shepherd’s staff. Both the broom and the shepherd’s staff go together to form an image of women leaving their houses and men leaving their herds to participate with God in finding the lost.

Jennifer Copeland, the Methodist minister at Duke University, once told a story about a prominent woman. She had been the first woman to hold a senior level in her organization. There threw a lavish party for her. And all the women coming to the party wanted to bring a symbol, a divine symbol, because they were all Christians. So they all brought brooms. Some bought new brooms just for the occasion, others just picked up an old one from the kitchen cabinet. The brooms signified their freedom from an ancient stereotype. With a broom God not only searches for the lost, but she also cleans away the dirt. Imagine, if you will, God using her broom to sweep away all the dirt and sin that has accumulated throughout our lives.

Worship is the time when we join with God and the angels of heaven in rejoicing over the repentance of sinners, and that why it is so important for us to talk with sinners and invite them to receive the blessing of forgiveness if they turn from their evil ways and turn toward God. Each time this happens we are entitled to join with God in rejoicing. So get out your shepherd staffs and your brooms and let’s get to work finding the lost and rejoice with those who repent.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for this wonderful image of God with a shepherd staff and a broom searching for lost sinners. Let us join in the search and help up to proclaim the good news of forgiveness for those who repent. Then let us celebrate with you every time and sinner turns from sinful ways and turns to you. Amen.