Scripture: Luke 15

When something is missing,
G-O-D becomes the D-O-G

There was a time when a dog was considered a vile animal. In Jesus’ day stray dogs roamed around and ate garbage and were thought of as undesirable animals.

The religious Pharisees had a prayer: “Thank you God, that you did make me a woman, a dog or a Samaritan.”

In this 15th chapter of Luke there were some who were marked by society as undesirables gathering around Jesus listening intently to what Jesus had to say. The religious people saw it and started talking. “Who does this Jesus think he is? Being seen in public with the riff- raff of society is political suicide. He even eats with such sinners.”

In the scripture for today, we find Jesus addressing the religious people with stories of a shepherd who is missing a sheep, a woman who is missing a coin and a father who is missing a son.

The sheep saw greener pastures, the coin fell victim to the natural force of gravity, and the son made a choice.

The shepherd was not content until he got that sheep back again and when he found it there was great rejoicing.

The woman would not rest until the coin was found and when she found it there was a great party.

The father eagerly paced the floor each day and strained his eyes to look down the road rehearsing in his mind what he would day and preparing for the day when his son returned. When the son returned the father threw a great party.

In our language there are three letters when arranged just so may spell God; reverse their order and they spell dog.

We know there are dogs today treated like a god. They have the best care the best place to live, and they get major parts of their owner’s time.

There are also times when God is like a dog, a blood hound, in fact. God is on the hunt, following our sent, determined to find what is missing, us, and restore us to his family.

Francis Thompson an English poet who lived in the 1800’s wrote a poem “The Hound of Heaven”. In it he says that although we may run, God will not lose sight of us and will pursue us with endless energy throughout all our rebellions and will not give up until the lost sheep is found, the lost coin retrieved and the lost son returned. When that happens there is great joy in heaven! God is happy.

In this chapter Jesus describes this God who is the “Hound of Heaven”, as the shepherd who directs his extreme attention toward retrieving the lost sheep, doing whatever it takes to bring it back to the fold.****

God, the “Hound of Heaven”, is like the woman who goes to extremes taking out all the furniture, rolling up all the carpets and painstakingly taking sifting through the mat of dried palm branches,, layered between the dirt floor and those carpets, so she could make her chain of coins complete again.

God, the “Hound of Heaven”, is like the father who allows the son free-will, but then welcomes him home restoring him to his former position, when he comes back seeking forgiveness...

And every time the lost sheep is found, the lost coin is found, the lost son is found, the angels in heaven throw a party and congratulate God on the achievement of God’s amazing grace.

Friends; God, the Dog, is after us.

We can go and do what we choose, but we won’t have a moment’s peace while the Hound of Heaven pursues us night and day, again and again presenting his mercy until we respond to his love and are found, restored to the fold, rejoined to the chain, brought back to the Father’s household. .

The straying sheep got in trouble when it chose greener pastures. The coin got pulled down into the carpet padding when it fell from the chain, the son got mixed up in problems beyond his ability to cope, and none of them could rescue themselves.

But the shepherd was not going to let one of his sheep go!

The woman was not going to wear a headband with a coin missing!

The father was not going to quit praying and hoping and waiting and planning for the son to return.

The shepherd did not butcher the sheep in anger when he found it.

The woman did not keep the coin that fell from the chain separate from the others.

The father did not make the son sleep in the barn and did not beat him and treat him like a slave.

God does not pursue us in anger, “You just wait until I catch up with you. You are going to be sorry.” When we stray from God, God is not interested in punishing us by putting trouble in our way. We can get into trouble on our own. The consequence of our bad decisions is our punishment.

But even when we are in trouble, God is there. When we cry out to God, we can be assured that God is there ready to pluck us from whatever has lured us away.

Like the lost coin, there are those times in life when we may fall away from God through no choice of our own. There are circumstances that may snatch us away, like the coin was a victim of the law of gravity.

The poor coin just happened to be at the right point in the link of the chain at the right time and the forces around it caused it to fall.

God can see when we are missing from the place we should be, just as the woman knew something was missing. She hauled all the furniture out, and rolled up all the carpets and sifted through the dried palm leaf padding and swept the dirt floor, until the light shinned on that coin and she stooped over to pick it up again. She found the coin. Her heart leaped for joy!

God is not going to let us go when circumstances cave in on us.

When we fall victim to some situation, when some grief or trouble has come upon us, we may feel that God is not paying attention and that somehow we have been forgotten by God. We cry out to God for help. We may even be angry with God because this has happened to us or to someone we love.

God will go to that terrible place, no matter how many layers of problems stuff is piled in on us. God will peel away whatever trouble or grief that has us covered up and God will find us.

The light of God’s love will shine on us and we will be found and restored to God, as that woman restored the coin to her head band.

Like the lost son, we may be in a situation where we have chosen some other way other than being connected to our God.

It doesn’t matter if our choices involve the foolhardiness of using our resources and time for partying with our friends to whatever level of degradation that has taken us, God wants us back.

God will allow us to get as far away from God as needed in order for us to choose to come back to him.

Even though we may bear the consequences of our poor choices and actually serve the time in jail or we have to live with what we have done to our bodies, even if we have to live with knowing what we have done will never be forgiven by the person we hurt, still God is there wanting us back.

Notice that the father in Jesus’ story patiently waited confident that the day would come when the son would return. When he came back the father ran out to meet him with great joy in his heart.

God knows where we are. God can see the distance between him and us. God waits patiently offering us opportunities to return to him. When we return God runs to meet us with the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus, that blankets us with God’s mercy.

Sometimes when we get a great distance away from God, we lose sight of whose we are.

God never looses sight of us. God remembers we belong to him. God gave the ultimate price; the death of God’s Son on the cross to pay for our sins, to buy us back. God does not lose sight of that kind of investment.

When the son saw his sin, “Look at me, I am in terrible trouble, nothing to eat and alone.” He made a wise decision. “I’m going back to where I am loved. I am going back to my Father”. Our God is waiting to welcome us back.

God welcomes us back, not as deserving punishment, or a second class citizen, not as a slave who must earn his way, but as the child in whom he delights.

Remembering that Luke is saying these stories were told specifically for the religious, the Pharisees; which son needs to repent and seek the father’s forgiveness; the one who used-up his inheritance, or the one who refused to rejoice with the father when the prodigal returned?

Jesus hoped that the religious would see, both sons needed repentance and the father’s forgiveness. One son saw his sin and was restored and one son saw only his brother’s sin and did not join in at the joyful reunion.

These sinners seated around Jesus were there to learn and they would repent of their sins and ask forgiveness and God would restore them to the family. What would the older son do?

There was no joy in religion among the Pharisees. Jesus was saying in these stories, that we have joy when we create joy in heaven. When we repent of our sins and when we seek God’s forgiveness, and when we grant that same forgiveness to others we have joy in our hearts.

No longer are we the religious with a long list of rules and sad faces, but we are people of joy, redeemed sinners. Whether we are the son who strayed away or the son who has always been near to the Father, we know if joy is the goal, repentance must be the first step.

Luke 15
Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. 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. Does he not 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 looses one. Does she not 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."

Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, "Father give me my share of the estate." So he divided his property between them.
"Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there aquandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he begin to be in need. So he went and hire himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything
"When he came to his senses, he said, "How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men." So he got up and went to his father.
"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

"The son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son."
"But the father said to his servants, "Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." So they began to celebrate.
"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. "Your brother has come, he replied, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound."

"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, "Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends, but when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!"\"My son," the father said, "You are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was last and is found."
(From the New International Version of the Bible.)

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