Episode 482- The Lost Sheep - Voices In My Head (The Rick Lee James Podcast)

Welcome back to Voices in My Head, the official podcast of me, Rick Lee James. I'm so glad that you're here with me again this week, and I have a shorter episode that I hope you're still going to enjoy. Uh, today I'm I'm kind of in between guests on the show. Things have been very busy, had to do some rescheduling. Hopefully very soon we're going to have the great musical artist Elias Dömer on the show. He has some great new music, a new album out. And also this week, if all goes as planned, I'm going to be having Brent Peterson on the podcast to talk about his new book, The Backside of the Cross. But for this week, it's going gonna be a little bit shorter episode. Here I am once again in the middle of the night recording because life as a hospital chaplain doing my residency this year, it is quite busy. So I find myself running at midnight because it's the only time I seem to have in between work and homework and doing the busy work of working at my church, trying to have a little bit of time with my family. So tonight's podcast is gonna be fairly brief, but it's just some things I've been thinking about based off of the lectionary passage from this past Sunday, actually, which was from Luke chapter 15, verses 1 through 10. So I'm just going to share a couple of thoughts with you on that. Let me read first Luke chapter 15. It says this with the first 10 verses: Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And before I go any further, let me just explain a little bit. I'm sure many of you that are listening know this, but tax collectors and sinners, they were a very specific group of people, and they were coming to Jesus in this passage to listen to him. The tax collectors were, were traitors. They were Jewish people who were collecting from other Jewish people at rates that were higher than what were actually owed. And they were in service to the Roman Empire. And so they were getting rich off of their fellow Jews who were in absolute poverty. And that they would do this against their own people for the favor of the Roman government, which had them captive, uh, they were considered traitors among people. These were outcasts. They were wealthy outcasts, but they were outcasts. And then sinners was not just like we would say, oh, that person's a sinner. Sinners is a very specific category to people who are ritually and ceremonially unclean. It might even be people, as I understand it, like lepers who were not allowed to enter into the temple because their ailment made them unclean. It may have been no fault of their own. It's not like they did something. But they were considered people who were sinners because they couldn't come into the temple the way that others could. They were deemed unworthy. So we get into Luke 15, and it says once again, now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming there to listen to him, him being Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, this fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable: Which one of you, having 100 sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost! Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. Or what woman having 10 silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it. When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost!' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. So Jesus was deemed guilty by the Pharisees and the scribes. The people who were the religious leaders of the day. I guess we could equivalent them to the church, the people of God, the in-crowd, the people that are in church every Sunday. They never miss a day. They're always there when the doors are open. These may be what we would call the holiness people. Well, they were grumbling because Jesus not only welcomed sinners, But he eats with them. Not just a matter of, "Oh, let's go grab a quick snack." It's no. When they had a meal, they shared time together. They shared space. They shared stories. They talked. They laughed. Maybe they argued. But when you eat together, you spend real time with each other. So that's when Jesus tells this parable. And it's a parable that doesn't honestly make a lot of sense. If somebody ever tells you parables were simple stories that peasants could understand, made simple for us to help us understand the kingdom of God, you might want to say to that person who says that to you, uh, maybe you should look at parables again, because they were actually stories that were fairly familiar to the people that Jesus changes the ending to. Most times they expect the story to go some one way And then Jesus seems to flip it on its head, making it not make sense to their context and to their minds, making them not have more answers but making them ask questions, bigger questions. So that's what we have here. Jesus tells this parable about 100 sheep, 99 of which are not lost. They're with the shepherd. But one has wandered off and is lost. And the shepherd— Jesus makes it sound like any shepherd would do this, but I don't think any shepherd would do this. He leaves the 99 and he leaves them in the wilderness where it's dangerous to go and find just one who is also lost in the wilderness. Isn't that interesting? You know, sheep are supposed to follow the shepherd. They're supposed to go after the shepherd. But these particular sheep, they're content in their foundness. They seem to be all right where they are. And so when Jesus makes a move to go after that one who is no longer in the fold, because it's just not complete if one is lost. And Jesus isn't content to lose that one. I think maybe what we're supposed to see in this story, that instead of the sheep following the shepherd, they stay behind. And it's interesting, when Jesus does find it, that one lost sheep, he lays it on his shoulders and he rejoices. And then he comes home and he calls together his friends and neighbors, and he says to them, Rejoice with me. But it's interesting, isn't it? It doesn't say he returned to the wilderness to the other 99 where they were now lost. It says he returned home and he rejoices over this one that was found and was willing to be carried back.

Wow.

I wonder how we're supposed to feel about if we were part of the 99 that are left behind in the desert and the shepherd goes after that one straying one. What would Jesus be telling us? Are we part of that 99 that stayed behind in the wilderness where it's dangerous, or are we the one that Jesus goes to recapture. Or maybe we're someone that's not in the parable. Maybe we're one of the other sheep. Maybe 98 stayed behind and maybe one goes with Jesus and says, "I want to help you." Who knows how many ways Jesus may have told this parable? Who knows the way it may have sat with the people? But I bet you it made them ask questions. About their identity and about their identity as believers. Who were the people who were really lost? Who were the ones who were found? And then the next parable, which I'm not even planning on getting into here, but who were the lost coins? I do know this about these parables though. Jesus seems to not have anger and rage with those who are considered lost, he seems to rejoice over them because they are in just the right place to be found. Whereas those who seem to consider themselves found may in fact be the most lost of all. How many times I've struggled with that, wondering if those of us in the church at times are those who are more lost than than those who we consider lost. Maybe we've stopped following Jesus as he goes out to find that one lamb. Food for thought this week. Well, hopefully next week on Voices in My Head, we'll have some guests with us, and I look forward to bringing those to you. But this week was a short devotional episode, just some things I've been thinking about partially as I walk these halls of the hall— of the hospital where I work at. Meeting all kinds of people. I think I meet a lot of lost sheep along the way. I think I meet crowds of people who don't maybe realize they're lost, but maybe they are. Maybe I'm one of them. Well, may the Lord help you and all of us this week as we continue to journey. May you be present to yourself. May you be present to the Presence, which we call God. May you be present to others, and may you help others be present to the Presence. Thank you so much for listening to Voices in My Head this week. God bless you.

Thank you for joining me here this week on Voices in My Head. I hope you'll visit me on my website at Rick Lee James. RickLeeJames.com, where you can find out more about me, get my music on vinyl and CD, follow my blog, and even schedule me for a concert or a speaking engagement. Better yet, even a book signing in your neighborhood. You can find all that and more at RickLeeJames.com. Also, it would mean a great deal to me if you could write a review of this podcast on iTunes. The more positive reviews that we receive, the more visible this podcast will be online. And now for the benediction: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. God bless you, and thank you for listening to Voices in My Head.