Sunday, September 14, 2025
Proper 19C, 2025
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10
When my daughter, Kate was 3 years old her aunt and I took her to the mall in Atlanta and lost her. We were on the second level at Macy’s and took our eyes off of her for about 5 seconds and she was gone! Of course we panicked. Kate’s aunt, a quick thinker, told me to watch the escalators near by while she checked the changing rooms. We didn’t realize we were both walking away from where Kate was hiding by doing this. I kept one eye on the busy escalator and kept glancing back at the round rack full of clothes where we had been when she went missing.
Then, 2 very long minutes later Kate came out from the middle of that round rack and started looking for us. But I saw her first and ran back to her. Then I found her aunt.
The lessons this morning are all about getting lost and found. When I think of getting lost from God, I always remember the feeling of panic I had that day when I lost my child.
In this reading from Exodus, the Israelites molded a calf from gold which they thought would become their new leader since Moses had been absent for a long time. They got lost in their idolatry.
And these preliminary verses from Paul’s first letter to Timothy serve as an example of our favorite hymn, "Amazing Grace" because the Apostle Paul recounts his own dramatic transformation from a persecutor of Christians to a believer enabled by the "exceeding abundance" of God's grace. It is is a thanksgiving section within the letter’s opening (a common feature in the Pauline letters), but rather than the usual thanking of God for what God has done through Christ in and for the various churches (see Romans 1:8; 1 Corinthians 1:4; 1 Thessalonians 1:2), here the gratitude is intimate, from Paul to Christ for what God has done for Paul.
The Gospel reading today is another example of Jesus turning things upside down. Jesus is accused of welcoming sinners and tax collectors to the dinner table. The Pharisees are after him again for not avoiding the less desirable members of their community.
Jesus tells two parables in response to their criticism of him. One is the familiar favorite image he paints of the good shepherd leaving the 99 and going into the wilderness to find the one lost sheep. We love this story. Whenever we hear it, we like to imagine Jesus himself coming to us when we are lost and bringing us back to the fold.
The parable of the woman who cleans her house until she finds a lost coin seems to me the opposite of the story of the widow’s mite. Instead of suggesting that she give away all of her wages, the limited funding she has to feed her family, Jesus suggests she work hard to find and keep this coin.
In both parables there is rejoicing reminiscent of the Prodigal Son for whom the father has the fatted calf butchered and served up for a feast to celebrate. Another bible story reminiscent of Amazing Grace. Jesus reminds us again and again that when we back slide and then repent and then get found there is much rejoicing in heaven. Amazing indeed.
But if we dig a little deeper we can see that these parables are not so much about getting lost as they are about changing the culture of division and marginalization. That sheep didn’t just wander away, he was sent. That coin didn’t just go missing, it was taken! These are metaphors of the powers-that-be over-taxing the poor.
But rather than get angry, start a war or blame the oppressors for their lostness, Jesus teaches his followers here to be grateful that God will never leave us lost but always come looking for us.
How can we act on this lesson and seek out others who are lost rather than blame them for our troubles?
This reminds me of a Family Circus cartoon. Do you remember that strip? It was created by Bill Keane. I remember this one running gag in that strip in which the mother would be standing there scowling, holding some broken vase or some such household disaster and all the children would be standing looking up at her with overly innocent faces proclaiming, “Not me”! And there would be a ghost in the background that apparently only the children could see named “Not Me” floating around causing all sorts of mayhem. This is the classic image of blaming others. This is scapegoating.
The term Scapegoat has a fascinating history. Today the word is used to refer to one who is wrongly blamed for something, but it originated with an actual goat.
There was an ancient Jewish tradition in which they believed that God ordained a particular day during which the entire nation of Israel would set aside work, and during which the priests would atone for the sin of the whole nation. This is still practiced and known as Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. What is not still practiced is the ritual of the scapegoat.
There was an ancient Jewish practice that became a ritual of the slaughter of two goats on Yom Kippur. Two goats were chosen for the ritual and the High Priest drew straws sending one to a quick slaughter for a sacrifice to God and the other to carry the sins of the people. Originally the goat was just cast out in the wilderness symbolically carrying the sins of the people away and left there to die. To prevent its return to human habitation however, the goat was led to a cliff outside Jerusalem and pushed off its edge. Later they added a more abuse on the goat who was ritualistically beaten, and then slaughtered on the altar much in the same way Jesus was wounded on the way to His death.
From this Day of Atonement ritual comes our modern term, “scapegoat.” The goat was believed to be possessed with a demon who’s name was something that sounded like the word scape. This was their way of gaining atonement.
We still scapegoat people. Families, exclusive groups, fraternity and sorority pledges, and larger cultures all have a tendency to choose and abuse a member of their group as the scapegoat. This comes from our human tendency of the need to blame others rather than admit our own sins.
Jesus was the ultimate scapegoat in his crucifixion. And in his resurrection he put an end to any need for scapegoating. Jesus is our atonement. But we don’t really believe in substitutionary atonement anymore. As in a “Jesus died for my sins therefore I am free to do as a please” sort of theology.
Rather, we believe in practicing resurrection in our daily walk with Jesus and in our kindness to others. We are grateful for his sacrifice but we are called to live it out serving others in his name, the destitute, the poor, the sick the lonely - and the scapegoats.
In these two parables we have examples of the ultimate option to scapegoating. Instead of a goat we have a lost sheep. Jesus suggests that we should go and find that sheep, rather than torture her or abandon her.
The point Jesus is teaching the crowd here is to move away from the old ways of sacrificing animals. He is inviting them to live a different way of life. It is not about ridding ourselves of things that should be lost, it is about finding and getting found. Rather than project the guilt of our sins on the scapegoat, we are invited through this lesson to consider turning and finding our own way home. And we are reminded of our call to seek out others rather than wait to get found.
I have been thinking about that old movie this week, The Green Mile. It was based on a novel by Stephen King which tells the 1932 story of the block supervisor of the Cold Mountain Penitentiary death row, played by Tom Hanks in the movie. This prison is nicknamed "The Green Mile" for the color of the floor's linoleum.
The story begins with the arrival of John Coffey, (played by Michael Clarke Duncan), a 6 ft 8 tall, powerfully built black man who has been convicted of murdering two little white girls. We learn as the story unfolds that John Coffey possesses inexplicable healing abilities and toward the end of the story, when it was too late for John Coffey, we learn that he was trying to revive those girls when he found them and that another prisoner in the story was the real murderer. John Coffey heals several characters before he is executed and he dies, an innocent man.
This character is a Christ figure. An innocent man who heals others and is then executed for crimes he didn’t commit. John Coffey is also a scapegoat.
Somebody had to pay for the death of those little girls and it is sometimes easier to blame the first responder than spend the effort of investigation. He is like Jesus in this way and also in his healing abilities, his kindness and gentleness. He also refuses to defend himself and goes willingly to his death.
John Coffey is not like Jesus in some significant ways though. He did not resurrect, he did not teach or preach. He was more like a lost sheep who was not rescued.
Jesus calls us to seek out the lost sheep among the community, but we must first consider the ways in which we have been found.
Paul spells this message out in his first letter to Timothy with these words, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-- of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me . . . Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.”
We get found not so that we can get fixed and go to heaven. We get found by Jesus so that we can model for all those other lost sheep how to get back on track and follow the Good Shepherd in this life.
Rather than waiting for Jesus to rescue us, let’s consider the other options and the things we can do to participate in the rescuing of all the lost, lonely, marginalized people all around us, all the time. It doesn’t matter how old you are or how physically able. We can go out and help others find their way to Christ because he first found us.
So, go get found friends. And do some looking around you for the people in your life who need to get found too.
Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Kathy Kelly