A Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. Patricia Gillespie

Exodus 32:1,7-14
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10
Psalm 51:1-18 or 51:1-11

I have a lot of lists.

I have a two-page list of things to be done. It's color-coded by churches and it is re-prioritized daily. Every day I check off maybe twenty things, and almost every day twenty more appear to replace them. Many items on the list are urgent and most are critical in someone else's life. Occasionally I sacrifice my day off to get the list down to one page. Occasionally I ask trusted friends to help me sort priorities.

I have several prayer lists. These are first priority for me as priest. Even so, I feel guilty about not giving them the attention they deserve.

And I carry with me everywhere, deep in my heart, a list that I review almost daily. I think all good and honest pastors carry such a list, though we all wish we did not. The list is very heavy and very beautiful and excruciatingly painful. It is the list of lost sheep - beloved people who have wandered out of my life or my churches.

Shepherding is not easy work We all do it one way or another – it is about caring for others. But sheep - the people we care for, our family and our friends - sometimes wander off or make golden calves for themselves or they get hurt or mad and leave. And we lose them.

"What one among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until you find it?"

This is a crazy question. And any shepherd or businessperson hearing it knows it. They'd answer that it's bad business to risk losing ninety-nine to save just one. Jesus asks us a lot of crazy questions. The parable continues with its real point – that when the lost sheep is found, there is great rejoicing. Of course there is no mention that in the mean time all the other sheep have got mad and left because the shepherd is neglecting them.

Jesus does, however, practice what he preaches. He leaves the ninety nine and tends to the one: He'd put down the whole sack of silver so he can sweep until he finds the missing dime. Remember the story of Jesus and Jairus' daughter? Jesus leaves a whole crowd of people needing healing, to heal one little girl. And there is another time that everyone is looking for him, but he goes on to the next town to preach. We never hear what the ninety-nine or more who were not visited and not healed had to say about Jesus. I can bet that Jesus had his share of complaints about pastoral neglect.

Like all those following Jesus, I want Jesus to listen and miraculously fix my problem, whatever the problem of the day might be. Most days I find myself among the ninety-nine, holding my list of losses, waiting for what I need while the shepherd chases after someone else. That can make it hard to share in the rejoicing when the lost sheep is brought home and I'm still hugging my problem.

Instead of staying home feeding good sheep, those who try to keep the faith, Jesus is out with those wandering sinners, the tax collectors and prostitutes. If Jesus were our rector, our pastor, I bet those of us here in church wouldn't see much of him. He'd be out in the streets chasing after the unchurched. Who cares about the sheep back home? I wonder how long it will be until those shepherdless sheep build a golden calf to worship.

But the ninety-nine sheep at home have something that one lost sheep does not. Those sheep still in the flock have each other. The Good Shepherd doesn't leave anyone alone. Just as Jesus, when he knew he was leaving, said to Peter, "Feed my sheep." Jesus expects his followers today to care for each other. Jesus gives us friends and community to help us through the hard times, those times when we are hurting. You, too are a shepherd: You can befriend someone who is feeling alone or lost, frightened or hurting. And when the struggle is your own, you can look to others to help you through. When it feels as if Good Shepherd is off on a pastoral call somewhere else, the sheep become shepherds to one another. And a well-fed flock that cares for each other is not only ready to party when the Shepherd returns with a lost sheep, but might do a bit of chasing after lost sheep themselves.

Each of us carries a list of hurts and failures - the lost sheep of our lives - but we don't have to carry the burden alone. The Good Shepherd has given us the all gifts we need to share in both the shepherding and the rejoicing.

One way or another, we are all shepherded home and beloved. The angels are filled with joy. The party is for us.