In this particular passage, sinners and tax collectors were gathering around to hear Jesus – which of course, the Pharisees noticed right away. One of them tries to start a rumor to get Jesus in trouble. He says, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” With the Pharisees, it was always about being right, about following code, about keeping clean and kosher. To cavort with sinners was one thing, but to eat with them was downright offensive.

The rumor, it turns out, was true. Jesus does welcome sinners with open arms. In fact, Jesus goes on to tell a couple of stories about how much God loves sinners – blasphemy in the eyes of the righteous. Jesus’ stories in parable form are meant to be surprising bits of good news. They’re the kind of story that even the Pharisees found themselves nodding along with until they discovered that he was going to make them eat their own words.

As he hears the Pharisees spreading their disdain, he begins to tell the crowd about a shepherd who has a flock of a hundred sheep. One of the sheep gets lost. If you were the shepherd, what would you do? Jesus makes it painfully clear that you go back for the one, even if the initial reaction on our part would have been to keep a more careful eye on the 99. Jesus paints a rather exaggerated picture of what happens in finding that one sheep too. The shepherd returns with it over his shoulders – rejoicing. He even calls for a party when he comes home. He invites friends and neighbors to tell his story of finding the one lost sheep. I wonder if the friends and neighbors in this story would worry more about his one lost mind – it’s one sheep for heaven’s sake!

Now in case we didn’t get it the first time, Jesus tells a second story like it and a third that we won’t get to today. The second story is about a woman who has two small coins that aren’t worth much. When she loses one of them, she lights a lamp, sweeps her house, and searches carefully until she finds it. Once again, when the lost is found, she calls together friends and neighbors because she found her lost quarter. Does this make any sense?

The Pharisees, upon hearing these two unlikely stories about the lost things being so important maybe got it, maybe didn’t. But I bet that the tales were not lost on the sinners who were also listening in, especially when Jesus wraps it up by saying, “Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Those who were counted as nothing are now something in God’s eyes.

These are stories about God’s love and they surely weren’t what the Pharisees wanted or expected to hear. For many years they were the chosen ones. They had God’s favor. They knew God’s rules, God’s intentions, and seemed to have God wrapped up quite neatly in their own little box. Jesus blew apart the box. Jesus re-wrote the rules. Jesus fouled up the rumors that were supposed to keep him quiet. You see, Jesus knew God’s heart, and the Pharisees forgot that God was merciful and kind. They forgot that God had chosen them when they were a tribe of wandering nomads. They forgot that God’s rules were meant to show them how to get along in a time of utter chaos in the desert. They forgot that God has a soft spot for sinners and not much patience with human arrogance and pride.

For the sinners, they understood the rejoicing right away. They could see why you would invite your friends and have a party when the lost sheep or the lost coin is found. Jesus’ metaphor was not lost on them. They understood something that the Pharisees had put away long ago Repentance as understood in Luke’s gospel is an obligation to be sure since it leads to the holy life. The Pharisees knew the concept of offering sacrifice and doing the rituals that were marks of repentance, but the sinners knew something fuller, that repentance was also a gift or an opportunity. With God looking for us so diligently, there’s a chance that the lost ones might just get found. There’s a gift in being brought back to the fold. There’s celebration when the coin is seen as precious no matter what its face value.

In our own consumer world, we tend to think like the Pharisees. We perceive looking for the lost as a waste of time. Most of our products today have a “planned obsolescence” which means that over time, most products are designed so that they will lose value until they are completely worthless. Not so with God. If I’m hearing the parables right, Jesus is saying that the lost are worth MORE than the found. You don’t celebrate because there are 99 righteous persons who don’t need repentance. You invite in friends and neighbors because of the one strayed sheep who finds its way home.

So would you rather be right or happy? In this scripture lesson, those who were right were not pleasant. They were mean-spirited. The happy ones were the sinners who saw forgiveness in Christ Jesus as a tremendous gift – worthy of a party. Look at this passage later on today and count the times it uses variations of the word “rejoice” and then look at who gets to do the “rejoicing.”

Too many Christians today come off sounding like the Pharisees rather than the crowd of sinners hanging around with Jesus. We like to be right. At Presbytery meetings, you can almost guarantee a spitting contest over who’s got the better theology or is on the right side of any debate. We hear it in the news as denominations scramble for their share of the Christian market. We do it to ourselves when we fight for what’s right in our church rather than looking at how we can all gather around the gentle words of Christ. Jesus gives us an “out.” We can look at the world a little differently and remember that the angels rejoice whenever even one lost soul finds forgiveness.

Forgiveness is tough though, because the reality is we want to be both; we want to be right AND we want to be happy. Forgiveness sometimes feels like it’s on the “lose” side of the win-lose equation. It may mean having to admit that we’re more like the sinners, that we’ve not always been perfect, and that we need something Jesus has to offer. Being righteous has its appeal. It means never having to admit that we’re wrong.

But again, Jesus has a flair for the dramatic in his storytelling. A shepherd who has a hundred sheep – really may not care about the one that was lost. A woman who has lost such a small amount of money probably wouldn’t spend half the day searching her house for it unless she had OCD. But God sees the value of the small details according to the point that Jesus is obviously trying to make.

Our theological heritage is helpful on this count although many have misunderstood what would likely be labeled as the pessimism found in Reformed Theology. Our predecessors in the Presbyterian family tree were adamant in proclaiming the sinfulness of all human beings. They were obsessive in reminding us that it is by God’s grace alone that we have any shred of hope of being either happy or saved in the end. There’s nothing we do to earn our place in God’s heavenly kingdom. That’s worth celebrating! We can’t find pleasure in the merit of our own “right” actions. We find joy and want to tell our friends when we’ve really been found by God, loved by our Creator. Letting go of our desire to be among the righteous isn’t easy, but when we do, there will be cause for celebration in the heavens.

Amen.