Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them! So Jesus told them this story: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! Luke 15:1-7
Paul Leeland, resident Bishop of the Western North Carolina Conference of the
United Methodist Church[1] told the story of his seminary days in Baltimore
to a gathering of preachers. When he
arrived at the seminary there were no TV’s in the dorm rooms, and no coffee
machines. He quickly secured a coffee
pot and a small portable TV for his room so he could drink coffee each morning
as he listened to the news and got ready for classes. He said it didn’t take long for four floors
of seminary students to find out there was coffee and TV on the third floor, so
his room was seldom private.
One day he heard the local news anchor lament
that in a certain neighborhood, notorious for racial tension and violence,
first responders, police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel were
slower responding to calls than in other more secure parts of the city. Later that day Leeland and a buddy went to
check out the area. They lingered a
little too long and these two young, white men, after sundown were lost in a
seedy section of town. Now the eventual
bishop was bright enough to recall that even in Baltimore the sun sets in the
West (which was the direction of his dorm room), and so he figured if he just
kept the car moving in that general direction he’d be safe, and find home. About the time he figured that out, the light
at the next corner turned red. His car stopped
right in front of a group of young men who were having a good time teasing each
other. But when they saw the
out-of-place white seminary students, they encircled the car with menacing
looks and a frightening presence. With
the obvious interpersonal skill and quick-thinking of a Methodist Bishop, Paul Leeland turned to
his buddy and said, hey, jump out and ask our new best friends how we can
get out of the city. His buddy said, (well, never mind what he
said…they may have performed an illegal launch through a red light, but they
lived to tell the story).
Reflecting on the story Bishop Leeland said that,
like the lost sheep in Jesus’ story Paul Leeland was also lost in
Baltimore. The Bible word for lost
really means out of place.
Even out of place people have value.
He was still a husband, father, and pastor at a little Methodist
church. But none of that mattered when
confronted with a mob surrounding your vehicle.
A sheep that’s lost provides no wool for its master. The lost coin in next story that Jesus told
could purchase no food or olive oil to feed the household. Lost is out of place until it is found!
And that is the whole point of the missional
mindset of a church. People who are
lost, out of place, cannot function as they were created…as a sheep providing
wool, a vine providing fruit, a human engaging in relationship with Creator
God. Out of place must be found.
We must never lose sight or hope of being the
locators and lovers of the lost.
In the name
of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…Amen!
Go to VIDEO
[1] Bishop Leeland at Macedonia United Methodist Church,
Take Thou Authority event, September 19, 2019
[i] Title Images: Courtesy of Pixabay.com.
All Scripture quoted is from The New Living Translation (unless otherwise stated)
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