Trinity 15, Ordinary 24
Unexpected Treasures
by Anne Le Bas
The lost sheep. Now, theres a nice story, and a familiar one too. I expect
most of us first heard it when we were children. No collection of childrens
Bible stories would be complete without it, usually illustrated with a rather
syrupy picture of a kindly shepherd carrying a fluffy lamb on his shoulders
across a flower-strewn meadow.
It seems such a simple story, but I wonder whether we really understand it as
well as we think. I wonder whether we hear it in the way that Jesus first
hearers would have done.
Very few of us, Im guessing, have any serious experience of farming. To most
of us, sheep are just endearing creatures we like to get a glimpse of on a
country walk, symbols of a pastoral idyll. They arent a familiar part of our
everyday lives. It is very easy for us to have sentimental picture of them. But
Jesus was speaking to people who knew about sheep, who kept them and
depended on them. Im sure they cared about their welfare, and felt sorry
when they were in pain; but they werent pets. They were their livelihood,
their clothing and, yes, their food too. When Jesus tells a story about sheep
he knows that.
To them, this man who goes to look for his lost sheep wouldnt have done so
primarily out of sentiment. Its not that this was a particularly cute sheep, one
that he was especially fond of. He searches for it because it represents a
significant proportion of his wealth. It is interesting that Jesus doesnt describe
him as the shepherd; he describes him as the owner one who has a hundred
sheep. Each one of these sheep is a valuable asset to him - not just in
emotional terms, but in hard financial terms too. He cant afford to lose one.
He is even prepared to put the other ninety nine at risk leaving them in the
wilderness to fetch this one back. That doesnt seem very sensible if he
really wants to protect his property; maybe he will come back to find that
they have all wandered off too, but finding this one sheep, who he knows is in
trouble now is worth that risk. If he has to rescue the rest later hell cross
that bridge when he comes to it, but he cant just shrug his shoulders and
say easy come; easy go one sheep here or there will make no difference.
The second story Jesus tells makes the same point, but it makes it even more
clearly. A woman loses one of her ten silver coins, and she turns the house
upside down to find it. Finding that coin was vital to her. These coins were
probably the only money she possessed in her own right. They were her
insurance against disaster. They might, one day, be all that stood between
her and starvation. Of course she looked for the one shed lost.
Jesus puts these stories in the form of questions. Which one of you, wouldnt
go and look for the sheep youd lost? What woman wouldnt sweep every
corner of the house to find that stray coin? They sound like rhetorical
questions, ones he doesnt expect an answer to, but I wonder what happens
when we actually try to answer them. Think about it. What kind of person
wouldnt bother to search for these lost things?
The answer is, Someone who felt they didnt really need them. Someone who
had plenty more where they came from and simply wouldnt miss them.
We accumulate a lot of lost property here in church glasses, watches, pens,
gloves and umbrellas. They sit at the back there waiting for their owners to
reclaim them, but often no one ever does. Why? Presumably because its not
worth the effort to them. Theyve got another umbrella at home, they didnt
really ever like those glasses anyway. If it is something thats really important
to them, though the camera with the irreplaceable wedding photos on it
you can be sure they will be in touch very quickly.
The truth is that if something matters enough to us well shift heaven and
earth to find it again. Its only the things we think are expendable, disposable,
easily replaceable, which are unclaimed. Which one of you, asks Jesus
wouldnt go and look for something youd lost? The one who doesnt care
whether they get it back or not. The one who thinks they can get along fine
without that sheep, that coin, thank you very much.
Its not like that for the people in Jesus stories, though. The sheep farmer
needs that lost sheep. The woman needs that missing coin. And God, says
Jesus to the Pharisees, needs those tax-collectors and sinners whom they
have been so quick to reject. He needs them to be part of his kingdom, just as
much as he needs the Pharisees. He needs them because they have something
to give. They are of value. Its not just that God feels sorry for them, but that
without them his kingdom will be missing something it needs to have. He cant
build it just with the respectable and righteous or those who think they are.
It wont be complete. It will have gaping holes in it. There is something which
these tax-collectors and sinners bring which is essential to the whole.
That was shocking to the Pharisees, it may seem pretty strange to us too, but
I am sure it is true. And I think it is as just as important for us to hear this
message as it was for them.
Most peoples lives run into difficulties sooner or later, whether through their
own fault or because of something that happens to them. Like that lost sheep
we feel isolated, confused, vulnerable. But one of the hardest things to deal
with in that situation is often the sense that you havent got anything to give
anymore, nothing that people want anyway.
Once, people sought you out, wanted to be with you, wanted your skills or
your opinions, but now it is as if you are irrelevant to them. They might feel
sorry for you and want to help you get back on your feet out of compassion
for you, but they dont seem to need you. The space you used to occupy in
your workplace or your family or your social network closes over as if you were
never there.
Yet my experience, at least, tells me that often those who have gone through
those dark times have gifts to give that are unique and precious. Speaking as
someone whos been through divorce I know that the people who helped me
most in that time were those who had been there too. The least helpful advice
came from the happily married. It wasnt their fault. They meant well, but
what did they know of the landscapes I was going through?
- I recall too, a man who phones for a chat now and then, whom I met first
during my ministry in Gosport. Hes a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, from
an appalling family background in a rough part of Glasgow. When I first met him
he was a homeless drunk who used to turn up in local churches begging for
money. But about twelve years ago he hit rock bottom and with a lot of help
from Alcoholics Anonymous, he came off the booze and drugs and has stayed
sober ever since. I met him again not long after this turn around, in the local
supermarket where he was working as a bag packer and after that we often
had little pastoral chats over the frozen peas. Eventually these developed
into a regular times together when hed come to talk to me about his life . Hes
stayed in touch as I have moved around, and I can honestly say that he is
one of the bravest and most inspiring people I have ever met. Its not a rags-
to-riches fairy tale with everyone living happily ever after. His substance
abuse has permanently damaged his health and he struggles with all sorts of
physical and mental problems. Often he isnt well enough to work, but he
carries on getting up in the morning, doing what he can for himself and for
others. Sometimes it doesnt seem like much of a life to me, but hes
enormously grateful for what he has. Hes had to reflect deeply on himself in
order to find the strength he needs to keep going and whenever we talk I
come away feeling richer, knowing that I have been on the receiving end of
something very precious and very holy. He is a man whose wisdom and
gentleness shines out through the cracks in his life like a beacon it is a real
privilege to know him. But to many others, Im sure that he must seem like just
another welfare-dependent drain on society, someone to feel sorry for, but
not someone who has anything much to give to the world. How wrong they
are!
The Pharisees in todays Gospel story, says Jesus, arent just behaving
callously towards certain sections of their society. They are also missing out
on some of Gods greatest gifts, the treasures he wants them to have, and
they are missing out on finding Gods own presence too. After all, where is God
in these stories? Hes not on the hillside with the good sheep, hes out there
hanging off the edge of the cliff with the one who has strayed. Hes not sitting
in the front parlour quietly counting the coins he knows he still has; hes in
some dark and forgotten corner of the house amid the dust and the cobwebs
looking for the one that has rolled away. If we want to be with him, to find him
at work and to share in that work, then thats where we need to start looking;
in the dark and lost places of our own lives, and in the dark and lost places
that others find themselves too.
God will go to any lengths to find us, even to the cross, even into the
darkness of death, uncovering unexpected treasure where we just thought
there was wasteland. Who knows what we are missing if we wont go there
with him? Amen.
(Comments to Anne at
ajlebas@GMAIL.COM.)