Third Sunday after Trinity, 2003
Luke 15:1-10

Half-Price books in Dallas used to be a sprawling, two-story labyrinth. Beth and I enjoyed visiting this bookstore when we lived in Texas. On one occasion, Beth was downstairs rummaging through the children's books, while I was upstairs absorbed in theological tomes. She was looking after baby Mark, and I was guarding toddler Malachi. I allowed him to explore the upstairs as long as he stayed pretty close to me. But at one point my attention was diverted to an extra interesting shelf of books. When I finally looked around, he was nowhere to be seen.

First I searched the aisles near me, then the bathroom and drinking fountain area where he liked to play, then the stairway and downstairs, then outside and around our parked van. I retraced my steps; still no sign of him. As the minutes ticked by annoyance turned to fear then fear to a full panic. My two-year old was gone! Someone kidnapped him! A monster had snatched him! Why didn't I keep my eye on him better? How could I have been so careless? What are they doing to him? These were my thoughts as my heart was pounding. I went upstairs once more to where I had first lost sight of him and there he was, playing with a bug on the floor. I ran and hugged him, elated and relieved. To this day I don't know how he was able to elude me for perhaps fifteen minutes, but the feeling of fright I will never forget.

In the Gospel reading for the Third Sunday after Trinity Jesus describes two people who had lost something dear to them (Luke 15:1-10). In two simple parables, Jesus paints a picture of God and man, being lost, and salvation. Let's examine these points one at a time.

Jesus first paints a picture of God the Father. The shepherd owns 99 other sheep, but he is so distraught over the loss of the one, that He sets out to find her. The poor widow woman has lost a coin, yet the loss agonizes her. These are depictions of God. He is seen grieving, seeking, finding and rejoicing. He is a personal God. Jesus thus rules out every theory of God that makes Him impersonal. Occasionally, you will encounter those who promote God as some numinous force, world spirit, or planet soul. However, you will never see a numinous force grieve, smile and speak. The God of Scriptures is personal. His self-existence is in the fullest sense personal by reason of the Trinity. The Three Persons of the Trinity have had perfect fellowship with each other throughout eternity. The same thing cannot be said for the silent pantheisms of the New Age, nor the cold beings fabricated by Deism or Enlightenment rationalism. We have a God who can be known as a person, who can be spoken to, who speaks and has spoken through His Son Jesus, and continues to speak through His Word. A God who loves, grieves, rejoices, and saves. This is the portrait of God that Jesus grants us.

Jesus also paints a picture of man. The woman and the Shepherd love and value the things they have lost. The woman lights her candle and searches her hut diligently. This would have taken some time. It was common among the poor of Judea to cover their cottage floors with a thick layer of dried reeds in order to counteract the dampness of the earth. Thus there would have been any number of nooks and crannies where the coin could have ended up. She makes quite a commotion as she combs through every crevice and corner. Finally she sees a gleam of silver and her toil is rewarded.

The Shepherd has lost a single sheep of His flock. He disregards the distance and darkness to search for her. He wanders the countryside listening for the faint bleat, scanning the soil for any track or clue that will lead him to the whereabouts of the lamb. At last, He finds her, and his joy is boundless. He lifts her up on His shoulders and carries her back to the safety of the fold. Do the coin and sheep mean we should love coins and sheep? No! They are figures that represent humankind. These parables point to the Christian doctrine of the preciousness of each and every individual. Holy Scripture tells us that human beings have a sanctity and dignity extending right back to creation itself. In Genesis 1:26 the Triune God says, "Let us make man in Our image..." This is a tremendous truth. It is man alone who is the image and likeness of his Creator! Of all God's creatures, man has a uniqueness, a supremacy, and a value which is god-like. Man is the summit of creation. His very being carries the image of God. He has an immortal soul, a rational mind, a spirit designed for worship, a conscience that knows right and wrong, a need to have a personal relationship with a holy God, and a potential to progress from glory to glory in God's likeness as man obeys the Lord and becomes more like Christ. These are some of the elements that comprise his God-like image. No other animal in zoo or aquarium holds the image of God. Animal life is not sacrosanct. Man is; he is special. True, the image has been blurred by the Fall, yet the fall into sin did not blot it out. This is the understanding of humanity that is woven into the fabric of Christian Western Civilization. Non-Christian societies do not have a high estimation of man's worth and dignity. Eastern religions and paganisms put man and animals on an equal footing. Evolution gives paganism a big boost. The religion of evolution claims that homo sapiens have advanced farther along in evolution than other species, nonetheless we are all animals just the same. The modern animal-rights movement embraces this idea.

Some of you remember when St. Luke's did some radio advertising on KRLA. As a token of their appreciation, KRLA invited their advertisers to an afternoon cruise around Newport Harbor. Beth and I had the privilege of boarding and dining on the ship. We met many people. At one point, we were speaking to Hugh Hewitt and another talk show host who promotes Veganism and PETA, (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). The conversation soon came to this question of the difference between humans and animals. We were standing on deck. Hugh pointed to the water below and asked the Vegan, "If a dog and Beth both were drowning, and you could only rescue one of them, who would you jump off to save?" He didn't know. The choice was too difficult. In his mind it was a toss-up. A Christian with a Christian worldview would never be ambivalent when confronted with such a choice.

The overriding assumption in the animal rights movement is the notion that man and animals share the same status and value. What an evil ideology! They reject the Christian doctrine of the image of God in man that places a yawning chasm of separation between man and the rest of creation. If their goal is to become good stewards of creation, prevent the gratuitous killing of animals, or if their aim it to condemn cruelty to creatures, then we support them, because this is precisely what Christianity teaches. But their goals drive them far beyond that. Their intention may be to improve care for animals and raise their dignity, but if they abandon the separation between man and animals they actually end up degrading man, as they lay the foundation for human butchery and extermination.

The late Anglican scholar Philip Hughes goes right to the point. He writes, "To explain man in terms of evolution is actually to brutalize him and to open the door for the ungodly conclusion that man is, after all, but an animal, and therefore virtually as dispensable as any other animal ­ that first-degree homicide is not deserving of the death penalty, and that for the improvement of society the lives of unwanted or disadvantaged babies may be extinguished by abortion and infanticide; and euthanasia administered to the aged, the handicapped, and the unproductive members of the race. As we know only too well from the history of the twentieth century, it is a view of man which has encouraged even the justification of genocide for the sake of purifying the human stock. Such are some of the evil consequences of subverting the truth that man, whatever his affinities with the animal realm, is radically distinguished from all other earthly creatures by the fact that the alone has been created in the divine image and is intended by his constitution to be a godly creature."

Yes, man is uniquely precious and that is the truth that Jesus is teaching in His parables. That is why the woman desperately craves the coin; the shepherd searches the hills for his sheep. God seeks men and women because they possess value, they are His image, and He loves them. These are pictures of God and man suggested in our text. Christ also gives us a picture of being lost in these parables. The lost coin and the straying lamb depict the condition of the unredeemed. To be lost is to allow sin and unbelief to lead you astray from your true purpose in life. You were created to love God your Creator, worship Him, and enjoy Him forever. But in your unsaved condition you suppress the knowledge and truth of God that you see in nature, and in Scripture; you shut out the divine image that is stamped in the very core of your being; and you actively, relentlessly suppress that truth in unrighteousness. You are lost and you are alone. You wander with no purpose in life. Alienated from God, cut off from any roots in the family of God, you live an isolated and lonely life.

Being lost, therefore means willful departure from the path of Christ who is the way, the truth, and the life. It is a roaming in the regions of rebellion that lead to eternal punishment. Let us not imagine that straying from God is completely innocent or accidental. The majority of those who veer off course, head the wrong way because they want to. Theirs is a calculated decision based on self-centeredness. It is a God-defying declaration of independence from Him who is the only source of truth, light and life. Now here is a question: If unbelievers are driven by rebellion against God, does that permit us to become harsh towards those who wander in hardhearted rejection of truth? No. We must never forget that we were in the same place. To the unbeliever we must humbly say, "What you still are, I once was." The Pharisees and Scribes were outraged that Christ associated with sinners. They accuse Him, "He eats with sinners." And that is what gave rise to these parables. Jesus wanted to counter the pharisaic attitude toward the ungodly.

It doesn't matter if you were saved at any early age, or have never fallen into major sin, you know the sin and idolatry of your heart. You and I have all strayed; we have spoken lies and blasphemy; we have defied the Lord and rebelled against Him. Thus to every sinner, the ungodly, the immoral, the idolatrous, the dishonest, the drunkard, the blasphemer, we can truthfully say as St. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:9: "That is the way I was; but I was washed, I have been sanctified, and I have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 6:9-11). It is only by God's grace and mercy that we ourselves are saved.

In other words we should have great love and compassion for the lost. Not because they are innocent, not because they are victims of circumstances beyond their control, but because they are valuable, God loves them and furthermore, we as well once wandered in the same dark swamps of sin and rebellion.

Lastly, Jesus paints a picture of the attitude of God towards the lost. The poor woman searched for her coin, the shepherd sought out the wandering lamb. In fact, the Shepherd took extreme measures. He temporarily abandoned the ninety-nine to look for the one. Both the herdsman and widow did not have a casual "take it or leave it" attitude, and neither does our Father-God. He sent His only-begotten Son to seek and to save the lost; more, to die on the Cross in their place. God's disposition toward His creatures in their fallen state is one of love and grace, and indeed longing. The doctrines of election and predestination are good teachings, but they should never be used to erase this aspect of God's yearning to save the lost. The teaching of the parables is clear. The shepherd rejoices, the widow rejoices, the angels and hosts of Heaven rejoice; yes, God Himself rejoices to see one lost person repent of his sins and respond in faith to Jesus Christ.

God is not dispassionate in this matter of salvation and neither should we be. Along with God and the angels, we are jubilant! We celebrate especially whenever one is baptized. Baptism is performed in the Church, once in a lifetime, before God and witnesses, with sacred vows, in the name of the Trinity. Baptism is the outward, visible sign of the inward, spiritual washing of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. It is the external mark of being born again. It is the sacramental stamp of our being graciously rescued from spiritual perdition.

The shepherd called together his friends and invited them, saying, "rejoice with me." The woman called her neighbors and did the same. If there is joy in the presence of the angels in Heaven, then our praises ought blend with those celestial trumpet fanfares, those shouts of hallelujah, that dancing of angels, and the joy of our Heavenly Father. May the Lord today incline our hearts to imitate His love and compassion for the lost, and to join the rejoicing of the throng above whenever a lost sheep is found.

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