Luke 18:1-8

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Brothers and sisters in Christ grace and peace to you from God our Father and risen Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.

Many of you may be thinking or feeling this, so I want to throw it out there right away. The gospel reading that is before us today is difficult. To be honest, it might be one of my least favorite texts in the entire bible. I want you to know that you’re not alone in any of those thoughts or feelings. But you know what, there are many things other than these few verses of scripture that I don’t think we will ever understand either, especially in this life.

I mean, why do doctors and lawyers call what they do practice?

Why is abbreviation such a long word?

Why is a boxing ring square?

What was the best thing before sliced bread?

How do they get the deer to cross the road only where those yellow signs are posted?

And my guess is that all of us have days when we feel a little bit like Norm from one of my all-time favorite sitcoms, Cheers. Norm walks into the bar and Sam the bartender asks him, “How’s it going, Norm?” To which Norm pretty matter of factly says, “It’s a dog eat dog world out there, Sammy, and I’m wearing Milk Bone underwear.”

So if these eight verses of scripture from our gospel reading today are the only verses from the bible that you have ever heard, I won’t be surprised if you are looking for the nearest exit so you can get out of here as quickly as possible. Or maybe you’ve claimed to be a follower of Jesus your entire life, but after hearing today’s parable from the gospel of Saint Luke – you feel like throwing your arms up in the air and shouting to God, “You know what God, I give up! I just don’t get it.”

Don’t give up too quickly though, the gospel reading today might seem a little challenging, but at the heart of it, I think it’s also very encouraging. Prayer is central to Jesus ministry and teaching throughout Luke’s gospel. So the question that I’ve wrestled with while preparing for today is, what is Jesus trying to say about prayer through this challenging parable.

Prayer, after all, is one of the core disciplines or practices that Christians are invited to focus attention on in their life in Christ. And I would claim that we are to take spiritual practices like prayer way more seriously than simply viewing them as something we’re invited to do if we are able to squeeze it into our day or feel like doing it from time to time. As people who claim to be followers of the risen savior Jesus, I believe that we are expected to live out spiritual practices like prayer in response to God’s love for us through Jesus Christ.

And I can’t say this strongly enough, when I say that I believe spiritual practices are as significant to our life in Christ as is breathing or eating to our physical body. If we’re ever going to experience life in Christ at its fullest as brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, believe it or not, we actually need to participate. But too often, spiritual practices like prayer fall by the wayside just like others do – regular worship in community gets in the way of seemingly more important activity or we think that serving our neighbor is too much of a burden to us or giving of our resources is really not necessary for making a difference in the world or taking time to experience rest once in a while is only for the lazy.

You and I are distracted by many things. If you’ve ever felt like you don’t pray enough or think you don’t know how to pray in the right way or maybe it’s something that you’ve given up on a long time ago because you feel that you just aren’t very good at it, Jesus says to you today, “pray always and do not lose heart.”

One of the great teachers on spiritual practices over the last thirty years or so is Richard Foster. He formed an organization called Renovere’ many years ago that travels around the world teaching people like you and me about spiritual practices and how to incorporate them into our daily life. Actually, they’re going to be at the University of Mary right here in Bismarck in a few weeks teaching about that very thing at a conference called Renew. I encourage you to check it out – I’m planning to be there. Anyway, Foster writes this about prayer – “To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives.” [Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, pg. 33]

Foster claims that prayer transforms us. Transformation through prayer is one thing, but before we get there we should probably take a step back and consider Pastor Kathryn Huey’s thoughts on prayer. Because she wonders, “how many of us Christians are ‘deeply engaged’ with Christianity. Jesus wanted his followers to do more than pray as a habit or a requirement.”

Prayer, for followers of Jesus is not like remembering to brush your teeth each morning. Barbara Brown Taylor suggests that prayer, “keeps our hearts chasing after God’s heart. It’s how we bother God, and it’s how God bothers us back.” Like the widow in today’s gospel reading – be persistent in your prayer. And by persistence all of your prayers should not be about asking for your favorite football team to win a game. If prayer is transforming us, the prayer that we offer to God better involve more than winning football games.

And I also believe that if we are truly transformed through prayer in our life in Christ, our response to the deepening relationship with God that takes root in our hearts through prayer should cause change in us that everyone around us will notice.

Pastors Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne recently wrote a book together called “Red Letter Revolution” The subtitle to this wonderful book is “What if Jesus Really Meant What He Said?” Pastor Shane reflects about the transforming change that prayer can cause in God’s children. He says, “I’ve learned that prayer is not just about trying to get God to do what we want God to do but about getting ourselves to do what God wants us to do. Training ourselves to be the kind of people God wants us to be.

A lot of times,” Pastor Shane says, “we use prayer as a way of excusing ourselves from action. You know, when you share a deep dilemma you face and someone says, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ often they are really sincere and don’t know what else they can do. And we do need to prayer for each other. But sometimes when someone says, ‘I’ll pray about that,’ it is code for ‘I’m not going to do anything else for you.’ So we have to be careful that prayer and action go together. If we hear someone asking for prayer over and over because they need work done on their leaky roof, we should keep praying, but we might also get off our butts and get some people together to fix the roof! When we ask God to move a mountain, God may give us a shovel.”

Maybe when Jesus said, “Pray always and do not lose heart.” He really isn’t all that interested in whether we are always praying in the right way or in the right location or even for the right things. He simply wants us to pray and to not be surprised when we are transformed by it. Brothers and sisters in Christ, for what do the children of God pray…?

Luke 15:1-10 • September 14-15, 2013

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Brothers and sisters in Christ grace and peace to you from God our Father and Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.

Jesus is having dinner with some pretty shady characters yet again who are lost and want to be found. Although, I’m not sure they recognize that they want to be found yet. You know who I’m talking about – tax collectors and sinners. Or in today’s world we might refer to them as Democrats or Republicans, bankers or corporate executives, politicians or even your boss, maybe even your mother-in-law.

There are times when you and I think quite highly of ourselves. We are the best, most perfect members of the community and we need to file a complaint with Jesus about what he is doing. I mean, why in the world is he hanging out with those people? Those people who are really good for nothing. Why is Jesus treating them like they are his long-lost friends? You and I shout out to Jesus, “Jesus, why are you eating with those people?”

And we don’t seem to have stopped confronting Jesus and asking questions like that even after after 2,000 or so years, so Jesus continues to remind us that for God, nobody is outside the fold, nobody is lost without any hope of ever being found.

In the first parable today, Jesus shows us that this shepherd will do anything to bring one lost sheep home – hike through the roughest terrain, push his way through the thickest forest, listen for snakes and other dangerous animals along the way. This shepherd will look relentlessly for that one lost sheep. The one with the black spot on her right shoulder, the one with the twitch in her right eye and her third toe-nail on her back left foot just slightly longer than the others. And when he finally hears the “baa” of that lost sheep, he lovingly puts it on his shoulders and carries it home to be with the rest of the flock. Along the way, one of the neighbors inevitably asks, “Why did you risk leaving ninety-nine to go looking for just one?” To which God replies, “Let’s have a party. This one that was lost, has been found. Rejoice with me.”

After teaching this parable about lost sheep, Jesus looks at the people who have gathered and asks, “Do you get it?” Nope, so he offers another parable. This one about a woman and a lost coin.

A woman has ten coins, but lost one. Remember she still has nine left. Losing one probably isn’t going to send her into the depths of poverty. But still she insists on searching for this one lost coin like it will. She turns her world upside down until she finds the coin. The neighbors think their friendly neighbor lady has lost her mind and cry out, “Why are you bothering to turn your whole house upside down for one measly coin?” To which God replies, “Let’s have a party! This one that was lost, has been found. Rejoice with me.”\n“Now do you get it?” Jesus asks.

You see brothers and sisters, God is on a mission to drag every one of us into the party – saints and sinners alike. You know who I’m talking about – people like you, people like me. This Jesus eats with anybody, because everybody is lost and needs to be found.

Jesus rarely called people sinners, instead he called them lost. I like that. Lost sounds more like concern, not condemnation. Some days we feel more lost than found, more wrong than right. Every one of us acts like unthinking sheep who have wandered off from time to time. Every one of us has felt helpless to the weight of gravity like a lost coin falling on a dusty living room floor.

So many things can make us feel lost – the loss of a job, debt that we wonder if we will ever be able to pay off, the unending pain of a broken marriage or dysfunctional family, the sudden death of someone we love. \nYou and I feel lost when we realize we don’t do what we want to do. You and I fell lost when we get what we thought we wanted and end up finding out that it’s still not enough. And worse yet, when we discover that we may not even know what we really want.

The shepherd is walking through death defying obstacles to find that one lost sheep. The woman is diligently sweeping the dust out of the way, shining light into every dark corner of her world in order to find that one lost coin. God keeps seeking us, trying to show us what life in Christ is really like. God looks for us – through caring people – brothers and sisters in the body of Christ; through sacred stories in scripture that connect us together with God’s story; through prayer offered for others and for ourselves; through worship together in communities of faith. God is hope that pursues us, comfort that gathers us home, and love that embraces us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to pay attention to the whispers of God. And I do not believe anyone is deaf to the sound of God’s voice – not even the most defiant people who claim that God can’t possibly exist.

The parts of us that get lost or cause us to wander probably won’t go away – our short tempers, or judgmental statements toward our neighbor; our quest for more wealth or unending drive for self-promotion; or our burdensome schedules that drive us away from taking time to grow in relationship with God.

God knows that we have problems letting go of everything that we need to let go of, of doing all that we think we should do, and of becoming all that we think we should become. When in fact, what we need to do most of all is nothing. What we need to do most of all is let ourselves be loved by God. To allow ourselves to experience God’s unconditional love, mercy, and grace in every part of our life.

Because you know what, God cares passionately about your well-being and that you and I find our way home. God is always on a quest for those who are lost – lost sheep, lost coins, lost insurance agents, lost politicians, lost teachers, lost mothers, lost fathers, lost daughters, lost sons, lost people just like you, and just like me.

Whether you and I always know it or even really believe it, you and I are here today in worship because we know what it’s like to be lost. My hope and prayer for all of us today, is that we also experience what it’s like to be found. Our stories are full of experiences of wandering off yet being sought, being wounded yet healed, confused yet cared for, broken-hearted yet loved, foolish yet forgiven, lost yet found.

Feeling lost? May you discover once again this week the love and grace of a God who is always searching for you no matter how far you may have wandered. Always entering the darkest corners of your life with the light of a savior named Jesus. Always reaching out with wide open arms of unconditional love and unrelenting grace. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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