God's Lost Sheep by the Rev. Noel E. Bordador

God's Lost Sheep
by the Reverend Noel E. Bordador

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, " This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." Then Jesus told them this parable: "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, "Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Luke 15:1-10

September 14 is a feast day for us, Holy Cross Day. It is actually an ancient feast celebrated by many Christian churches, and commemorates chiefly the consecration of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem almost 1700 years ago. The church was built by Emperor Constantine and his mother, Helena, on the site of the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord. Its consecration was held on September 13, 335, and on the 14th, a relic of the Cross was presented for public veneration.

Fifteen years ago, I had the opportunity to live in a convent in the Old (walled) City of Jerusalem not too far from the church itself, and so daily, sometimes more than once a day, I would go and pray there. But am disappointed with the church.

The church is under the jurisdiction of six different churches, which historically, did not always get along with each other, so much so that almost a thousand years ago, when the Holy Land fell to Muslim rule, the church’s keys were entrusted to two Muslim Palestinian families to prevent the Christians from fighting for control of the church. Until this very day, you can witness the ceremonial opening and closing of the church by these two families. Conflict can still erupt among the Christian groups at any moment, and it is almost laughable to know that often, it is the clergy of these various groups who are the first to throw a punch. The Church itself is carved out into small fiefdoms or ghettoes, each group with its own Altar-Table so that the Christians who come there from all over the world never get to worship together at one Table of the Lord. The rule is you don’t eat at the Table of a church community to which you do not belong; and some of those communities are really strict because they feel they need to protect the purity of their faith. That church can be an unwelcoming place.

In today’s Gospel, we hear of the criticism concerning Jesus: “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Lk 15: 1). Another criticism in the Gospels is “Look at him- a glutton, a drunk, a friend of…sinners” (Mt. 11:19; Lk 7:34). Apparently Jesus loved to eat and drink and did not practice segregation in the Greco-Roman and Jewish cultures which did practice segregation on the basis of gender, social class, politics, race, national origin, and even moral purity.

In the Hebrew Testament, one of the primary images of God’s Kingdom is a banquet, a table-fellowship, prepared by God’s Messiah (Is. 25:6) for his people. So when Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God, he used table-fellowship as the primary sign that the Kingdom has come… That’s why we have a Table here and in every church to remind us that we are at the cusp of the Kingdom. Here, earth and heaven meets, here mortals and angels intersect, God and humans live and love together.

The issue becomes when we think that God’s table-fellowship is only for a certain select and elect. We can make a fatal mistake of thinking that God’s gracious love is limited and has to be rationed to the worthy few. But the Gospel today challenges that misperception by saying that those we consider “impure” for whatever reason are given priority at the banquet prepared by God. They have First Class seats in the house precisely because they are the one who needs mercy and salvation. God leaves the 99% pure over that one who is impure. It is interesting that Jesus (humorously?) likened God to a shephered who lost sheep, or a woman who lost money. Have we not felt some of the time as if God dropped us and lost us along the way of life? But the great news of the Gospel is what the great Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591) once said, “If you are seeking God, how much more is God seeking you!” (Living Flame 3:28).

The other misperception we might have is that to come to the Table of Jesus, we need to work hard to earn it… About a year ago, while is Paris, I wanted to see the Basilica of Sacre Coeur, where a favorite saint of mine, the 19th c Saint Therese of Lisieux visited while she was a child. Because the church sits on on top of a hill, we had to climb a stairs of 220 steps which took forever, and took the wind out of me. Later, someone said that I should have taken the elevator/escalator. Well, no one told me about that, or else, I would have! Saint Therese wanted to be a perfect in the eyes of God because she thought God would love her all the more if she did things perfectly, until she discovered that no matter how hard she tried, she would always fall short- and she became dejected…until one day, she realized that her salvation did not depend on her by taking the long winding staircase of perfection to God. Rather, her salvation was God's doing. God would send her an elevator- like one of those she saw in Paris as a child- and that elevator to God was none other than the arms of Jesus who descended to her “nothingness” and then lifted her up to God when she couldn’t climb up to him no matter how much she tried. Our salvation is God's doing of love, and it will be God who descends to us in an elevator of love- namely, Jesus.- when we won't or can't go to God on our own.

One last point. We are not merely welcome at the Table of Jesus. Something else is supposed to happen. Here, Jesus gives himself to us in the Sacred Bread and Drink so that his spiritual DNA now flows in our bodies, in our souls. Here, we are transformed so that everything in us that opposes God is overcome. As Saint Therese said (paraphrasing her): “The Lord is not satisfied until he descends to our nothingness and transforms that nothingness into fire” (Story of a Soul). The Lord our Elevator descends to where we are and elevates our human nature that we might become god. Here, around the Table, we become Christ for as Saint Augustine (+430) says (Easter Sermon 227), “… We become what we receive [here].”

Hospitality is a means, however, to something else. It is a means to mission. Having made in the likeness of Jesus in this Table, we become Jesus and we are thrust into the world to be Jesus, so that our eyes become the eyes of Jesus that see the suffering of the world, our ears are Jesus’ ears to hear the cries of the poor, our feet becomes Jesus’ feet to walk to places of pain, our lips are his to proclaim love, and our hands are his by which we bless the world, In Nomine Patris+ etc.

Main Menu

Back to Articles