Luke 15:1-10
“Which One of You…?”
Preached Sunday, September 14, 2025
Which one of you, when you lost a 25 dollar coffee gift card that you got for your birthday, and you’re worried it got thrown out with the birthday cards, would not carefully comb through the trash and recycling bins until it was found? And once it was found, who among you would not buy drinks for everyone who came into the coffee shop that morning to celebrate together?
Which one of you, when your child lost their school binder, would not, together with them, search the whole house for it, looking under the bed, and in the laundry piles, and sort through all the papers on the kitchen table and when you finally find it, would not throw a party to celebrate for their whole grade?
Which one of you, say you owned a small book shop that had 2000 books in it, if you lost one box of paperbacks, would not conduct a thorough search of every nook and cranny of the store until you found them, and then throw a block party with a sale to celebrate?
The answer to this is…uh…probably none of you!
I’d be sad to lose a 25 dollar coffee gift card. God knows I spend too much on Starbucks and at some local coffee places, but to buy coffee for everyone who came in that morning to celebrate? It’s a nice gesture - sure, and my last church did that as an outreach opportunity at a local coffee shop but it was planned generosity. To do it to celebrate finding 25 dollars? I’d be spending a lot more than I found.
A school binder may be important but it can be replaced. Teachers can be talked to. Work can be made up or minor consequences faced. A parent and a child may still deem it important enough to search the whole house for it…but when it’s found? A party for the whole grade? Heck, even a party for the whole class would still be over the top and much more costly and much more work than replacing a binder.
And the last one, well, to my knowledge none of us here today are the owners of a small book shop. As someone who owns a lot of books, if you are, please see me. I want to go and buy more books from you. But I thought it was important to give an example with someone’s livelihood. So if you were to imagine you owned a small bookshop…surely the loss of one small box of merchandise would not outweigh the cost of a party and a sale!
With these modern day examples in mind, let’s hear Jesus’s words anew:
“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’”
“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’”
A person who has 99 sheep is a person of modest means. To put 99 at risk by leaving them to go search for one…well, it is doubtful that many shepherds would do that. And beyond that, by throwing a party once the sheep is found, the cost of the party would have outweighed the cost of a lost sheep.
And a woman with ten coins, she lights a lamp - not as easy as flicking on a light switch - using up the resource of oil - to give a diligent search for the one lost coin. 10 coins, or drachmas, would have been equivalent to ten days wages. She is searching for the equivalent of one day’s labor. She finds it! She then throws a celebration - of which the cost of hosting and feeding her neighbors and friends, would have cost much more than the one coin lost and found.
When Jesus says, “which one of you” or “what woman…” to the crowd - he is not expecting anyone to actually say, “Me! Me! I would do that!” Quite the opposite. They would look at each other and think, “Are you crazy, Jesus?” That’s over the top, extravagant, wasteful… But Jesus is saying, in essence - “None of you may be this kind of person. But I am.”
And that, honestly…probably doesn’t help Jesus’s reputation! In Luke 7 Jesus is called a “drunkard and a glutton” - he’s always at a party. The Gospel of Luke has at least five accounts where he’s at different dinner parties and he uses the examples of parties not just in this parable but in others as well - he even calls heaven a big lavish wedding banquet. What can I say - Jesus went where the people who needed his message were - and that was often at a party. Our God in Jesus is revealed to be a joyful God who knows how to have fun. I am actually going to re-iterate that because we so often lose this image of Jesus: Our God in Jesus is revealed to be a joyful God who knows how to have fun!
And in the telling of this parable, Jesus is inviting those who are throwing accusations at him, to move from grumbling to joy.
Our Gospel lesson started this morning with setting the context and the audience of this parable: “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” And so Jesus told them the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin…and actually the lost son as well, although our Scripture reading this morning didn’t continue on.
They were grumbling…because Jesus was including those they excluded. Tax collectors were generally reviled and, of course, “sinners” is a blanket term here but not applied to the “good upstanding community” that the Pharisees and the scribes saw themselves as part of.
Jesus in turn tells them what kind of man he is - and what kind of God is revealed in him:
God revealed in Jesus tells us that God is joyful and looks for every and any chance to celebrate.
God revealed in Jesus tells us that God welcomes all - and even especially - those on the outskirts of society.
God revealed in Jesus tells us that God is the Good Shepherd who cares for each and everyone of his sheep - including and especially the wayward ones.
God revealed in Jesus tells us that God is persistent and diligent in caring for and searching for each and every one of us.
God revealed in Jesus tells us that God gives no heed to the cost of lavishing love and joy on each of us.
God revealed in Jesus tells us that God who finds the lost and celebrates without restraint.
God revealed in Jesus tells us that God is inviting us to move from grumbling to joy. From being concerned with “the right kind of people” to welcoming and including all.
Friends, I know my job as a preacher is to preach the Good News to you - to proclaim the Gospel. But this morning I have a bit of bad news for you…did you know that church people, “the right kind of people”, us here today…do you know that we have a reputation for being grumblers? It’s easy for us to think we would be at the party with Jesus, or with the choirs of angels erupting at the Good News of the lost sinner being found…but if we’re being honest, a good number of us would be grumbling with the scribes and the Pharisees.
We grumble…that that one ministry team is spending money on x, y, or z.
We grumble…that the pastor is spending too much time on that ministry area and not this ministry area.
We grumble…the church is starting to welcome those kinds of people (maybe like tax collectors and sinners..)
We grumble…that things aren’t like they were several decades ago.
We grumble… because we’d rather the church would look more like the church of yesterday than the church of today or the church of the future.
We grumble, we nitpick, we complain. It’s very common in churches - because it’s contagious too. One dose of negativity and complaining can spread like wildfire. The Good News is - Jesus invites us to move from grumbling to joy. And joy is more contagious than grumbling. Joy is also more inviting than grumbling. Grumbling gives the church a bad name - who wants to be part of a community that is filled with negativity? But the Good News - that our God is a God who celebrates you without restraint, who searches for you regardless of cost, who rejoices in you being present in Christian community with one another, who welcomes you - and goes out of the way to be welcoming to you? That is Good News that people need to hear. And it is the Good News we are working together to proclaim as a Christian community!
Jesus is inviting the scribes and the Pharisees and us here today…to look more like Jesus. To move from grumbling to joy. To be more vile in our embrace of all people.
Some history to explain what I mean by “be more vile.”
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, started as an upstanding and well-regarded clergy person. He was a fellow at Oxford. He was a proper Anglican clergyman. And then…he found that his message of adherence to his faith, to preach to those marginalized by society, to care for the last lost and the least, and to spread this message to as many people as possible - even outside the church doors…he found this started to affect his reputation. People started to grumble. And John had to decide - do things the “proper” and “right” way - or become more vile - more base - more common - for the Good News of the Gospel.
When John Wesley made a decision to preach outdoors - again, doesn't sound that radical to us but was considered paramount to a sin, paramount to eating and drinking with tax collectors, he wrote in his journal - "At four in the afternoon, I submitted to be more vile and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation..."
Here is an example of the grumblings that were happening as Wesley sided with those that were considered sinners and outcasts by society - and in one particular case, was supporting a man who was accused of and imprisoned for homesexuality. This complaint about Wesley was printed in the newspaper:
“Wesley and his Oxford friends’ eccentricities might…be tolerated - their excessive religious observance, their closed group intensity, their self-denial and strict code of living reminiscent of some of the wayward Puritan sects of the previous century. Even their lowering themselves to undertake good works in the prisons and workhouse was not beyond the pale. But it seems that when they took up the advocacy of a man accused of homosexual crimes they crossed the boundary between the bizarre but tolerable to the reprehensible.” (Reference: Wesleyan Vile-Tality by Ashley Boggan)
Can you hear the grumbling?
I’d like to take a moment and take the grumbling and change it to joy…
Wesley and the group that formed the first Methodists…they took living out their faith seriously! They prayed and studied the Bible and took Communion regularly with one another! And they humbled themselves to be in solidarity and serve with the last, the lost, and the least - those in prisons and workhouses and even those mistreated and abused for who they are. They used their voices to give voice to the voiceless and they did this all while proclaiming the Good news of Jesus Christ! They took to the streets - standing on the corners and preaching to large crowds - Jesus welcomes you! Jesus rejoices over you when you turn to him! They made themselves more vile for the sake of the Gospel and all of heaven threw a celebration!!
Oh that such things would be said about us here at Boardman United Methodist Church. May we be more vile in sharing the Good News. May we lower ourselves to what was previously unthinkable to welcome all who need the Gospel. May be filled with the joy and celebration that modeling Christ’s radical embrace brings.
Which one of you would…? May we all.
Amen.
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