Sunday, September 14th 2025
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Series C (Proper 19)
Text: Luke 15:1–10
Sermon Audio
As we gather… It can drive us crazy when we lose something, even if it is something relatively unimportant. We search high and low for the item until we finally find it. This Sunday, we reflect on the Fathers love for me and for you. We’re the ones who are lost, and there is greay joy when we are found. Jesus uses two parables to illustrate that: a lost sheep and a lost coin. The shepherd leaves the 99 to find the lost sheep and the woman burns precious oil to find a silver coin. In both cases there is rejoicing at the finding of what is lost. Some people may think that it’d be awkward to join a church again or to check out a new congregation. Our response as Christians is to rejoice that they’re here and welcome them in just as our Heavenly Father has welcomed us in through His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.
There’s a reason that you have a baker’s dozen, that is, thirteen rolls, because you know one might get burned or one might fall on the floor and have to be tossed out. Nationwide, many guess retail giant Wal-mart loses 1% to 2% of its inventory to shrinkage, that is merchandise that is stolen, lost, or spoils. That’s 3 billion dollars of loss each year. Yes, billion with a b. Executives at Wal-mart of course regret this loss, but at a certain point, they say it’s the cost of doing business and move on with their lives.
“So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?” Would we really, Jesus? That lost sheep is just a write-off, 1% of an otherwise healthy profit. It was probably already a wolf’s lunch or dead on the bottom of a ravine.
““Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?” Is this really something a woman would do? The coin was worth a day’s wages, maybe two hundred dollars in today’s money. It’s not insignificant, but you still have nine other coins. It’s not like the lost coin will sprout legs and walk away, why burn precious oil to find something that will show up eventually? In fact, 1. (oops!) Who would even notice a lost sheep or coin?
But we know this isn’t about sheep or coins. The beginning of our text from Luke tells us, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”” The things that are lost are not things, but people. Jesus is using these parables to express the need to care for even tax collectors and sinners, those who would be considered the lowest of the low in their culture.
But it’s so easy to feel like a cog in the machine. Who would care about me? My department is having its budget cut once again. Do they really expect me to do just as much with 15% less? My husband’s so busy with work, we hardly have any time together between watching the kids, doing chores, and other activities, does he even notice me?
Since moving to La Crosse, I left all my friends at home. Sure, there’s plenty of things to do here and plenty of people, but I often feel alone in a crowd. Yeah, I’m making friends, but if they knew the real me, they’d stop wanting to hang out or return my texts. I’m just one student among twenty thousand in town. I’m a number on a spreadsheet; I’m tuition helping the university’s bottom line.
My golden years are feeling a bit more like lead than precious metal. It certainly feels like my feet have lead weights tied to them. If I have to tell another doctor about my heart problem only to get the same exact tests run with the same exact inconclusive results, I’m going to pull my hair out—or at least what’s left of it. For so long I’ve wanted to retire, but now I’m just tired. I have all the time in the world and I’m using it to nap. My kids hardly call me, and why should they? I can’t keep up, and I’m pretty boring.
I think this Gospel text resonates with us because we often see ourselves as the lost sheep or coin. But if we’re honest, we’d say why bother with the lost sheep or coin? It’s not worth the shepherd’s effort. It’s not worth the oil in the woman’s lamp. Why should anyone care about me? 2. (ugh!) There’s better use of your time.
A shepherd had been raising sheep on his family’s land for generations. Many of his neighbors went out of business and sold their land. For a while the land sat unused until one day an agribusiness consolidated the plots and made it into a ranch for one thousand heads of cattle.
It was just the shepherd’s plot left, and the rancher would have the whole area. The rancher tried to sell the shepherd on his ranching business. He pulled up in a Hummer and drove around the ranch to impress the shepherd.
The rancher bragged that the ranch used state of the art security monitoring systems, ranch hands would do periodic drone flybys to check on the wellbeing of the cattle spread out over the thousand acres. RFID tagged cattle allows for the veterinarians to give the bovines consistent care from birth to slaughter. The profit margins are much higher than shepherding, and for the low price of your pasture, you could receive shares in the business which would quadruple anything you could make chasing sheep around a pen.
The shepherd thought for a moment than said, “Sir, you may make more money than I do. You can scan an RFID tag to get the bull’s serial number and approximate cash value, but I do things differently. My sheep hear my voice and they know me. I know them by name. How many of your cattle do you know by name?”
Jesus said elsewhere, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,” When seeking lost sheep, it is never about the bottom line. It’s about not knowing where Nimbus the ewe went off to. When it comes to the lost coin, it’s worth burning the midnight oil because if you wait too long, it might get covered up by trash and thrown out. 3. (aha!) Jesus calls the lost by name and loves them. JESUS DOESN’T SEE NUMBERS, HE SEES PEOPLE, CALLS THEM BY NAME, AND LOVES THEM.
When it comes to seeking the lost, it isn’t about some vague person somewhere out in the crowd. It is about Jesus finding Ted. It is about Jesus finding Julia. It is about Jesus finding me. It is about Jesus finding you.
It may feel as though we are cogs in a machine and replaceable parts, but the Lord loves each and every one of us, and loves us in a unique way because He has made each of us to be one of a kind.
To be certain, Jesus died for the sins of the world. He died for the tax collectors and sinners. He also died for the Pharisees and scribes. He died for the sins of Ted. He died for the sins of Julia. He died for my sins. He died for your sins. He went to this world to find each and every one of us, calling us by name.
He rose again proving that death has no power over Him, and He looks forward to the day when He will also raise you from the grave, call you by name, and rejoice over you because He loves you. “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
It may be that your husband doesn’t notice you. It may be that you’re one young person among the many in La Crosse, lost in a crowd. You could be longing for the days where you were younger and healthier, and you feel lonely. No matter who you are, the Lord Jesus Christ has called you by name and wants to bring you home on His shoulders rejoicing.
Many of us have been baptized, and in baptism, the Lord calls you by name. “Ted, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Take a moment to fill in your name silently to yourself, “ , I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” It is through this means of washing that the Lord has called us by name, and He keeps calling to us.
If you haven’t been baptized yet, please consider taking an adult instruction class leading up to baptism to receive this gift of hearing your name called out and having Jesus claim you through these waters. 4. (whee!) Jesus calls me by name and loves me.
It is my hope that this congregation can be a place where you belong. You are not a number in database, but you are an individual. You are not a walking dollar sign, you are a precious child of God. This congregation can be a place where everyone knows your name. This congregation can be a place where we rejoice in your successes, comfort you in your failures, and welcome you in when you feel rejected and alone.
Jesus said, “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”” This congregation is a place where sinners come to repentance, turning from sin, and there is rejoicing that what was lost is now found by Jesus Christ. Your life has meaning. You matter. Jesus loves you. That is something that is worth rejoicing in, and that’s something worth our time. 5. (yeah!) We rejoice when Jesus finds us.