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“It's Party Time!”
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Psalm 14:1-7; Luke 15:1-10;
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Rev. Sandy Nuernberg
Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church, Cambridge, WI
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time -
Worship in Cam-Rock Park 2
Theological Education Sunday
September 16, 2007
Please pray with me: O
God, we give thanks that your Son, Jesus Christ came into the world to save
sinners, and we ask for your Spirit to descend upon us as we embrace your
Word and know of your love for us. AMEN.
As we reference both texts this
day in our Epistle and Gospel, we find Jesus being chastised for not only
welcoming sinners, but eating with them (v. 2).
This grumbling is addressed by Paul where he puts himself in place of the
sinner, big time. Paul’s life was indeed, as we read in Acts and the early
church, that of a sinner, disobedient and unjust; Saul was telling them not to
believe the good news of the gospel. Yet, Saul became Paul, and at Damascus we
know the rest of the story of his becoming an advocate of the Good News of the
Gospel.
Really, if we are honest with
ourselves, the story in Luke is of those ‘outsiders’ and those ‘insiders’, not
only in Jesus’ day but in our day. Along with my sisters, I joined a group at
the Masonic temple in La Crosse, Job’s Daughters, you may have heard of or
belonged to this young women’s group. My Mom, at the time, was an Eastern Star,
and she, being a Sunday school teacher, naturally, wanted to have her girls in
this organization, learning of the faithfulness, suffering, but the hope, the
love of Job. There were ‘rules’; one requirement was to be a daughter of an
Eastern Star; Job’s Daughters was a group not involved in church in any way. But
I felt then and now, what if my friends wanted to be in this group–could they?
Or even today, forty years later, when it is not acceptable to have ‘private’,
‘by invitation only’ organizations--what gives here?
Jesus ate with outcasts or
outsiders, didn’t he–the sinners, tax collectors? Our text says they ‘cozied’ up
to him to listen to him too (v.1). Low and
behold the so-called insiders, the Pharisees or ‘phonies’ as one scholar I read
called them, and the scribes who supposedly knew the law, watched and grumbled,
seeing but perhaps not believing Jesus could find himself comfortable with these
outsiders. It reminds me of those thinking ‘their’ law abides, those fans at
sports events cheering for themselves as winners, or Presbyterians at committee
meetings thinking others don’t know their tactics; I believe Jesus knew, in all
honesty what was happening. In his parables of the lost sheep and lost coin,
Jesus was trying to wake up these insiders who thought they knew everything, to
be accepting of the outsiders, even with their differences and disagreements,
and to be a part of them; to eat with, listen to, most of all, love them. God so
loved the world, that God brought Jesus into the world to be the Good Shepherd,
to find the lost sheep and bring them back to the fold.
Isn’t that our role as disciples?
Isn’t it our God-given nature to want to help the lost, the ‘black sheep’ of the
family, as sometimes we call anyone on the boundaries. You know, and I know that
as ministers of our flock, as pastors we do this don’t we? We want ‘all’ to have
a voice, and then we can rejoice! Our church missions rest upon our efforts to
assist those in need. Interestingly, the parables are of a man and a woman,
Jesus uses familiar numbers-one hundred and ten, those for wholeness and
completeness when everyone, all the coins are found. But amazingly, instead of
proclaiming that, yes, the lost sheep and coin are found, and going on in a
usual way, Jesus says, it’s party time! Jesus uses the words rejoice and joy
four times here–they partied is what they did! Both the man and woman called
their neighbors and friends together and rejoiced!
We did have a grand event
yesterday at the church in celebrating the marriage of the Johnsons, Renee and
Randy. It was a gala festival and we know that at these time periods of
weddings, there is faith and love, and all family and friends are included for a
time to REJOICE! We rejoice this day with food and fellowship, knowing that we
celebrate all who are made in the image of God, outsiders and insiders alike–as
sinners and as sheep of God’s wonderful fold.
The gospel for us as Christians is
to have these time periods to rejoice and savor our victory of God’s steadfast
love of/for us. In our feeling lost and alone, in our thinking we are outside
and everyone else is inside, it is truly God who is with us and his Son Jesus
Christ, the Son of Man, is the good shepherd of us as we are his sheep. If we
follow, if we ask, we are never forsaken; even in conflict, our invitation is
towards God’s grace and that we can rejoice that Christ came into the world in
the flesh as God’s Son to save sinners, all sinners–that’s me, that’s you,
that’s all of us. Let us REJOICE and have a party about it!
Thanks be to
God. AMEN
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