God's Lavish Love

A few years ago my husband and I went to the Folk Art Center for the Fall Festival. There was a shepherd at the Festival shearing sheep. He demonstrated separating out a sheep to shear. The sheep were in a tiny fenced area. When the shearer entered the area all the sheep ran to a corner as far as they could get from him and faced in the opposite direction. He grabbed the nearest sheep and left the area. None of the sheep did anything to help their baaing brother as the shearer pulled him away nor did they even look his way.

You see sheep have been over-domesticated. They are totally dependent on the shepherd for their care and survival. You can never leave sheep unattended. Should one accidentally lie down in a field such that his shoulder is against a rock, he won’t get up – ever. He’ll starve to death first. A shepherd has to pick him up for him to move. To shear a sheep the shepherd places the sheep’s shoulder against his shin, almost in a sitting position, and the sheep is totally immobilized just by the positioning. That way the shepherd has a free hand to shear with.

Brian preached about the Pharisees seeing Jesus eating with tax collectors, prostitutes, and other undesirables. When they objected, Jesus reminded them that the shepherd would leave the ninety-nine of the flock to find and bring back the one lost sheep. Indeed, the Shepherd would celebrate the return of the one more than the presence of the ninety-nine. Then Brian asked, what was the crisis in the Scriptures?

There were lots of answers. One was the loss of a sheep was a crisis. Indeed, when a sheep is lost and found, the shepherd often breaks the legs of the sheep and carries it on His shoulders while it heals. That way the sheep learns not to stray and it forms a relationship with the Shepherd.

But the real crisis was the frustration, disillusionment, and anger of the Pharisees over Jesus spending so much of His energy and time on those that according to the Pharisee’s measure were unworthy. The Pharisees were like the sheep at the Folk Art Center. They were used to hiding behind their religious dogma, in a group, in a corner. They were not interested in their lost brothers and sisters. They had become so used to feeling safe by following rules on their own that they couldn’t save themselves by following the Shepherd’s lead, even when He was there to pick them up and set them aright.

Brian described God as a Shepherd with lavish love for His sheep. He was willing to give His life for them. He doesn’t wait for a prodigal son to beg forgiveness. He rushes to that son with His ring and a robe to embrace him. He does not wait for the sheep to come home. He goes out and finds him, brings him home, and celebrates his return. He is a Hound of Heaven. We can leave the Shepherd, but the Shepherd will not leave us.

In the parable of the Prodigal Son and the story of the lost sheep Jesus ends with a celebration. The world will know us by our love and by our party. At the end of the service yesterday we had two tiny liturgical dancers who reminded us what love and party looked like. If you missed the dance, be sure to join us next week. God’s grace is spontaneous at Haywood Street Congregation and it pops out in the most magnificent ways.