The Story of the Lost Herd
Good Morning Friends,
Last Friday some African missionaries from Madagascar shared some time with a small group of us at our Mission and Justice meeting at Presbytery. I helped to send trees there a year ago and have maintained an interest in the place because they are in the same growing climate as South Florida. The fact that 80% of the plants in the country are unique to Madagascar fascinates me. The fact that the place is being deforested moves me. The place is not like the movie.
There are five million members in the Presbyterian Church of Madagascar, but still they are a minority. Moslems are the majority. There is turmoil in the country but Christians and Moslems seem to get along there. Perhaps it is because they both fight a common injustice. Perhaps it is because in their religious history in Madagascar both have roots in Animism. I do not know. The missionaries showed lots of pictures and one was of some Presbyterian Malagasy women called Shepherdesses. They do outreach to the lost women of the country. They dress all in white and frankly look like nuns. They are a creative minority changing culture. But even though I thought that was great that they would go after the lost, it got me to thinking about the ninety-nine. Don’t you think they should get a better shake? Maybe there is more to this parable than meets the eye. Maybe it is also The Story of the Lost Herd.
Scripture: By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends.” Their grumbling triggered this story. “Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me! I’ve found my lost sheep!’ Count on it—there’s more joy in heaven over one sinner’s rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.
Luke 15:1-7 (MSG)
Message: Excuse me but can you find yourself in this parable? Sure we get it that Jesus came for the lost. We know our place. If I say, “I was lost.” You say, “But now am found.” Right you got it, we are well trained. But aren’t you the least bit pissed that Jesus has not been carrying you around on his shoulders? Most of us are under achieving sinners. We are told not to get lost and we stay with the herd. We are the good sheep, at least the few of us left…. In June, in a talk to an ecclesiastical congress of the Rome diocese, Pope Francis, the Pope of Mercy, recalled the story of the Good Shepherd, who leaves his 99 sheep to search for one that is lost. Then he suggested that in today’s secular culture, the shepherds of the Catholic Church confront a very different problem. “It’s the 99 who we’re missing!” he said. “In this culture, let’s face it, we have only 1. We are the minority!” The same is true for Protestant churches. The same was true for Jesus. So many of his generation had been killed as infants. The legions of Rome controlled his country. In this parable the rejected Messiah was the one leaving the safety of the herd. So here we arrive at where we started and discover this place for the first time. Here the lost sheep becomes the Pascal lamb served up at the celebration. Here we face the life that is lost in our choosing to live a certain way. Here the circle of life meets history repeating itself. Friends, will we ever gain wisdom or is it too lost in a sea of information hidden in a parable? Maybe the focus of the three parables about the lost is not about being lost at all. That is just the title as a strategic diversion. Maybe these stories are about reasons to celebrate with people who make us uncomfortable… In Madagascar it is Outreach to the poor through education, Evangelism through personal witness and Reconciliation with a focus on creative environmental change. Friends, it is a sin not to discover joy. It is a sin not to love. Sometimes not sinning is uncomfortable.
Pray we realize that the 99 are the ones really lost for they are the ones not with Jesus. Pray we realize that this parable is about God asking us to do those things that make us uncomfortable. Pray we realize that the lost lamb is Jesus come full circle. Pray we realize that the lost coin is the one without Caesar’s image. Pray we realize that the lost son represents all those that were killed so that power could be retained. Pray we rejoice in the creative minority. Pray God have mercy on the lost.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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