[00:00:00] Foreign welcome to the Collective Table where we celebrate the intersections of Jesus, justice and joy.
[00:00:14] This podcast is brought to you by Oceanside Sanctuary Church.
[00:00:18] Each week we bring our listeners a recording of our weekly Sunday teaching at Oceanside Sanctuary, which ties Scripture into the larger conversations happening in our community, congregation and even the podcast.
[00:00:31] So we're glad you're here and thanks for listening.
[00:00:44] Well, good morning.
[00:00:45] If we haven't met, my name is Janelle Coker. I am one of the co lead ministers and before we get into our Bible patch passage today, I wanted to sit with this video for a moment.
[00:01:02] Perhaps you have seen it before, but if you haven't, what you are watching is the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
[00:01:15] Derek Redmond was the runner who tore his hamstring in the midst of the race.
[00:01:23] He had been training for that race for his pretty much entire life.
[00:01:30] After he tore his hamstring, you will see his dad break through security all the judges and go out to his son.
[00:01:45] He asked his son if he wanted to continue.
[00:01:50] He told him it was okay if he didn't. But Derek said he wanted to make it to the finish line.
[00:01:58] So Jim, by the end of that race, was almost carrying him to the end while countless judges came out and said, this is against the Olympic rules.
[00:02:17] So I'd like us to keep that image in our mind as we read our passage for today.
[00:02:27] And this kicks off yet another I know we've done this before, but yet another series on the parables of Jesus.
[00:02:38] We are Christians.
[00:02:40] We follow the example of Christ.
[00:02:44] And Christ, for the most part, taught truth through parable, through story.
[00:02:52] And so we will pick up on some parables that we didn't talk about last time.
[00:02:59] And today is no different. We're starting with Luke 15 about our lost sheep.
[00:03:09] So let's read together. I'm actually going to start in verse one. I think you'll start seeing it maybe in verse three or four. So Luke 15 starting in verse one.
[00:03:22] Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathered around to hear Jesus.
[00:03:28] But the Pharisees, that would have been the religious teachers of the time, and the teachers of the law, muttered, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.
[00:03:43] Then Jesus told them this parable.
[00:03:48] Suppose one of you has 100 sheep and loses one of them.
[00:03:53] Doesn't he leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
[00:04:02] And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home?
[00:04:09] Then he calls his friends and his neighbors together and says, rejoice with me. I have found my lost sheep.
[00:04:18] I tell you that in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 persons who does not need repentance.
[00:04:32] So will you pray with me before we get into this?
[00:04:38] God, we just come before you on this beautiful Sunday morning.
[00:04:45] We ask that you guide our hearts, that you provide the news that we need to hear, that each listener would take what they need to take today.
[00:05:02] In Jesus name, amen.
[00:05:05] So I have had the privilege of spending some time with this parable over the last few weeks, and I personally noticed that I have fallen into a few pitfalls when I read it.
[00:05:22] So before I even get into maybe what I'm seeing about this parable and what I think might be a good takeaway, I thought we could talk a little bit about pitfalls that we might find ourselves into when we are reading ancient text.
[00:05:41] So pitfall number one.
[00:05:46] We read this text from a modern American perspective.
[00:05:53] So we often see winners and losers, those who stay and those who stray.
[00:06:04] We look at the strong, the survival of the fittest. We even read this as well. Who's righteous?
[00:06:13] Am I righteous? Am I the sinner?
[00:06:18] Even our language as English speakers, for most of you, I would assume most of you are English speaking as your native language. If you're not, you may have a bit of a different perspective on what I'm going to share.
[00:06:33] But around 2018, I listened to an amazing podcast from Hidden Brain. I don't know if anybody, anybody listens to Shankar Vedankin. Anybody? Anybody?
[00:06:45] I love it. He has different folks on that are educators and researchers, and he had a researcher on from Japan who is not only a scientist and a researcher, but also a linguist.
[00:07:01] And she talked about the power in our everyday speaking and how it shapes how we see ourselves, how we see each other, and how we see our world.
[00:07:14] So she will. She talked about accidents. When we have an accident in English, say we were walking by a table and we knocked over a vase. And I, I go to one of you, I say to Jeremiah, oh my gosh, I knocked over the vase on the table.
[00:07:37] Even though you're assuming that it was an accident, right? And I say this to you, Jeremiah, I have placed myself as a perpetrator of this accident.
[00:07:51] In Japanese, her native language, it would be translated more, the vase broke itself, or in some language, maybe the vase fell from me.
[00:08:07] And without that agency, the accident becomes more of an accident than a whole.
[00:08:14] Did the accident. Do you see the little difference?
[00:08:18] The Little tone there of blame, of shame.
[00:08:23] So let's talk about Derek Redmond.
[00:08:25] Did he tear his hamstring or did his hamstring tear in 1992? There were plenty of news organizations that said he overtrained.
[00:08:41] He wore a different pair of shoes.
[00:08:45] He didn't eat his Wheaties.
[00:08:50] When we speak in this way, we don't always see the complete picture of what's happening.
[00:08:59] And I think that that can lead us into pitfall number two.
[00:09:04] And pitfall number two is something that I know is you're going to say, but wait a minute. Didn't Janelle tell me to put myself in the story a couple of times ago when she gave a message? And I did.
[00:09:16] So there's always a balance here.
[00:09:20] But when we personalize scripture and make it all about us, we lose sight of the story.
[00:09:32] Okay, blame and shame can be big for me. How? I don't know about you guys, but whenever I read this story and this was the biggest pitfall that I fell into, it's like I superimpose my face on the little lamb's face that Jesus had to leave all the other sheep for and walk over because I was doing something terrible and carrying me on his shoulders back. And I. And there's some navel gazing there that I think is. It's okay to be introspective. It's okay to say, are there actions that I take that separate me from the love of God?
[00:10:13] That's okay. But if we stay there, we lose sight number one of this parable. And I think what Jesus is trying to get at here, but we also lose sight of. Of ourselves in the grand world of God and that blame and shame that we sit in as we navel gaze and constantly think about how horrible we are and how we can change. And oh my gosh, I don't think I said the right thing. And I tried to pick the best answer. I tried to pray about it, but then it didn't work out. So obviously I'm not hearing from God.
[00:10:55] All of those things actually lead us to more separation from the love of God.
[00:11:03] And if we look at sin as separation from God, separation from what good things God has for us, I think it gives us a bigger idea of what sin really is.
[00:11:23] So today we're not going to just personalize this passage and skip through that. Jesus is talking to a bunch of snooty religious leaders talking about 99 who might be righteous and only running right to the center and imagining ourselves there. I'm not saying you all do that, but I'm up here talking, I do that.
[00:11:49] Look at the whole picture.
[00:11:51] Who is Jesus talking to?
[00:11:54] What is Jesus talking about?
[00:11:56] It's very important to do when we read these words.
[00:12:01] Finally, third pitfall, I think we can read these parables. And as we're going through the parable group that we'll be talking on these next several weeks with some great teachers, I think we can lose sight of Jesus actually being a personality.
[00:12:23] We just look at the words, we imagine them very literally. We don't imagine that Jesus has been speaking to important people since he was 12.
[00:12:36] Clearly he had some gravitas, clearly he probably had a sense of humor because you don't get far from with a crowd without a few laughs here or there.
[00:12:48] And so let's imagine Jesus with a little more personality, with a little more pointedness. Why is Jesus telling this parable?
[00:12:59] Well, he's just had fingers wagged at him because he is hanging out with tax collect collectors, with sinners, and all of the lawmakers are like, what's he doing over there if he thinks he's going to be talking about love or the law? And so he gives this story.
[00:13:19] So I'm going to read it with a little more gravitas, hopefully.
[00:13:24] So he's looking at these religious leaders who probably had followers themselves. And he says, suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and you lose just one of them.
[00:13:40] Wouldn't you just leave all 99 in an open field in the wilderness and go after the one for as long as is necessary to find them? And then when you find them, you use your body to lift them up and put them on your shoulders and walk them back home. And then you call everyone and you say, my sheep has been found and you have a party.
[00:14:11] I think this was a foil to what was really happening.
[00:14:16] I can feel, dare I say, some sarcasm dripping from Jesus's tone.
[00:14:25] This is not how it was.
[00:14:29] Scarlet letters were given out like crazy at that time in history.
[00:14:35] This is not what religious leaders did.
[00:14:39] And so then all of a sudden we're taking a passage which we've been taught maybe to read, which is all about the one sinner that strayed. And now we're looking at the righteous.
[00:14:55] Far be it for me to think that there are 99 totally righteous people here, right?
[00:15:04] He's being a little pointy.
[00:15:07] And I think it's okay to point that out, to imagine Jesus with some personality.
[00:15:18] So if we take all of these pitfalls and we look at this passage, we have some things to consider.
[00:15:28] Number One, Jesus certainly isn't giving shepherds a lesson in how to tend sheep.
[00:15:36] So anytime I do get up here, I always want to find out a little bit of the history. And sheep herding has changed a little. There are more drones now in sheep herding than there certainly used to be. But sheep are still left out in the fields to graze. And there are still sheepherders that take sheep on hills and valleys and through public lands to find grass and graze and eat throughout the world.
[00:16:11] And there are some very specific reasons why sheep stray.
[00:16:17] They haven't really changed.
[00:16:21] For one reason that sheep don't stay with their herd is because they're sick or injured.
[00:16:29] Secondly, they're in an area where grass isn't plentiful in one location.
[00:16:37] So they have to move about the field and further and further out to gain sustenance.
[00:16:47] And maybe as they continue to walk, one continues to walk and find a little patch here and a little patch there, they raise their head and the herd has moved on without them.
[00:17:03] Sometimes the herd rejects a lamb.
[00:17:06] There's a congenital defect.
[00:17:09] There is maybe mom died in labor and so there's no animal to take care of the others.
[00:17:22] Or sometimes they get stuck in the mud, in a bush, in a crack, in a crevice.
[00:17:29] Sheep, by definition, want to usually stay in a herd. Finally, a wolf, something like that, comes in through, chases one. It gets away, but now it's a mile away from its herd.
[00:17:50] It would be very common for a shepherd to look for its lost sheep, but not by leaving the 99 vulnerable.
[00:18:01] This is crazy.
[00:18:05] This example seems ludicrous if you are a sheepherder.
[00:18:14] So this leads me to, if we are talking about sin in this passage and sin is spoken of here, what is separating us as people from God?
[00:18:34] And what is sin?
[00:18:36] The very basic definition of sin?
[00:18:40] There's some debate around this, but would be missing the mark.
[00:18:45] There are a ton of reasons why we miss the mark.
[00:18:49] I mean, sometimes I will look down the path of doing good and go, not today, but for the most part, I think, just like me, we're all trying to do our best, but sometimes we live in systems that don't allow for that.
[00:19:12] And I believe that not only is this about a personal sin, which we were all taught in the 70s and 80s and 90s, it was all about Jesus being your boyfriend. And it's just about you and Jesus and nobody else.
[00:19:29] And that is a lie.
[00:19:32] It is always about others, not just about you. I know I want to be the main character in every story. Too, but you're not allowed to be. We are an organism. We are together.
[00:19:52] So what are some of the structural ways in which sin is present?
[00:20:00] Well, let's talk about racism.
[00:20:03] Let's talk about poverty, people having to stray to get to their patch of grass.
[00:20:11] Exclusion, injustice.
[00:20:15] These harm people cause them to feel separated from the goodness that God has for them because they've been excluded from the herd. Because the systems that were created are in themselves sinful.
[00:20:35] How about trauma or inherited wounds?
[00:20:40] Some of us grew up in a way that is painful to talk about.
[00:20:46] And we have some walls up.
[00:20:49] We self medicate, we're trying to go to therapy, but we still have horrible anxiety.
[00:20:57] And that causes us to be separated from all that God desires from us.
[00:21:11] We have relationships that rupture.
[00:21:16] It's not always our choice.
[00:21:18] I know some of you have felt that you've had to leave other churches or other places because you were left out or you just didn't see the love of God being practiced.
[00:21:31] That's painful. Some of us have left families. Some of us have had marriages break up.
[00:21:40] There are systems in which things are hard, in which while we're on that hamster wheel, we're having to participate in something that keeps us from fully experiencing God.
[00:22:01] So again, I'm not asking you to not look at yourself, but I am asking you to look at a bigger picture.
[00:22:14] The father of liberation theology, Gutierrez says something that I think is really important.
[00:22:22] He says systems that exclude and name some as outside are also those systems that let others live in the illusion of being found.
[00:22:40] So let me say that again.
[00:22:42] Systems that exclude and name some as outside are the same systems that allow others to live in the illusion of being found.
[00:22:59] So let's go back to Derek Redman and his dad.
[00:23:09] That was in 1992.
[00:23:12] Most people don't remember who won the gold, the silver, the bronze of that 400 meter race.
[00:23:25] In fact, even those that were sitting in the stands and watching that race. One of the things you don't get to see on the video that I shared was after his dad. I don't know what the third time said to one of those refs, one of those judges, stand back.
[00:23:43] The entire crowd stood up and began to cheer Derek forward.
[00:23:52] They were there for competition. They were there to see what country was the strongest. They were there to see who was going to get the gold.
[00:24:05] But they learned a completely different lesson.
[00:24:09] They learned a lesson of what the love of a father can do to help get a son where he needed to be.
[00:24:21] And that video has, especially now with the Internet, has been shared over and over and over again because parents from all over the world get to watch it and talk about what it means to be a parent that radically loves their kid.
[00:24:47] And I think this was the lesson that Jesus was teaching those that were listening and us today.
[00:25:00] So every time I'm up here, I try to imagine, what is it that should be the biggest takeaway.
[00:25:12] And Jen came up for communion and so beautifully shared her heart and feeling like there is so much difficulty in the world right now.
[00:25:27] We all have pocket devices that beep us every time something terrible in the news happens.
[00:25:36] As the manager over the manager of our pantry, I am scared to death of all of the cuts to snap.
[00:25:47] We witness food insecurity here every day. I am scared to death and I am constantly asking, what can I do?
[00:26:02] And that's one of the issues, right? As we sit around and we think, what can I do?
[00:26:13] We read a story about a 60 year old woman who's in her garden and married to a U.S. citizen who is taken by ICE.
[00:26:26] And we think, well, we live in Oceanside.
[00:26:31] I don't know anybody like that. What can I do? I don't know what I can do.
[00:26:38] And with progressive Christianity, often we say, like, it's more complicated than like, let's say American nationalistic Christianity. Like, that seems more simple.
[00:26:51] But I'm gonna be able to give you something simple.
[00:26:55] What you do is radically love. Every day when your kids are having a little bit of a tantrum because you've been grocery shopping and they're so bored because grocery stores are not made for 2 year olds and you don't yell at them and you go, hey, let's just get through this. And then dad will spend some extra time with you on that game that you love to play as soon as we get home.
[00:27:26] And the checker watches you do that, watches how you radically loved your kids. And she remembers when she, the day before, lost it and told her kid to shut up.
[00:27:41] She just learned something.
[00:27:43] You just planted seeds.
[00:27:46] When you go to a party and you see somebody lonely off in the corner, maybe not quite fitting in, and you say, come on over here, sit with us, I'm Janelle.
[00:28:00] You are planting seeds of love that others are watching, others are learning from.
[00:28:08] When you cast your vote and you look down the ballot not at who's a Republican or an Independent or a Democrat, and you say who is leading with radical love, you are showing your family, you are showing your parents maybe what's important to you, that you are voting with who you know Christ to be.
[00:28:41] So when you feel hopeless, when you feel like throwing up your hands, when you feel like navel gazing and just thinking about how crappy you are, that you can't do more, just bloom where you're planted. As my mama would say, find places where you can love radically.
[00:29:06] I have one more to say.
[00:29:08] If you are walking into the Walmart and there's somebody who's unhoused and it's raining outside, you do not have to ask yourself, should I buy them a raincoat?
[00:29:22] If that's on your heart, are they using drugs?
[00:29:27] Did they get themselves there that way?
[00:29:31] Imagine maybe that there's a system, it's more complicated and it's okay to just buy him the coat if that's what's on your heart to do.
[00:29:43] Okay, so I'm going to call up onto the stage our worship band and will you just pray with me, God of love?
[00:30:05] I'm going to be honest that I don't always know how love's going to fix all of this.
[00:30:16] I don't always have faith that radical love is going to do the trick.
[00:30:26] But I ask God that you grow our faith today, that you remind us to participate in this subversive place of kindness and call us to believe that this has the power to change everything.
[00:30:54] In Jesus name we pray.
[00:30:56] Amen.
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