The Ole' "Come to Jesus" Sermon

I had the opportunity to read scripture and have lunch w/ a dozen or so people at the Friendship Mission, here in Montgomery. I wrote last time that this was my first time getting to share some scripture w/ homeless men and women. I really wasn't sure exactly how this would or should go and what part of scripture we should read.

We read through most of Luke 15 -- the stories about lost things -- a sheep, a coin, and a son. After we read it I asked them what they thought about these stories, what did they notice about them. Quite a few folks had things to say and one man, I believe his name was Earnest said, "I just can't believe that the dad doesn't ask for an explanation or yell at the son for what he's done." Yeah, that's weird! And we talked about how no smart shepherd leaves 99 sheep alone in the wilderness to chase after one lost sheep and no woman would tear her whole house down just to find one lost coin. These are strange stories!

But that is exactly what God is like!!! God just loves lost things and won't stop until God gets back what God is searching for. And the whole occasion for these stories in Luke 15 is that the churchy type folks are grumbling that Jesus welcomes sinners and eats w/ them! Shouldn't he just stay in the synagogue w/ the people who love to call themselves "God's people?" I mean we went to the trouble to build these lovely buildings and all Jesus seems to do is stop by periodically to say things that make us want to throw him off a cliff! And then he's off again to hang out w/ the sinners!

All of us at the mission were amazed by the God these stories describe. I got the feeling that this was a different kind of story than the folks at the mission were used to hearing. This wasn't the standard, "Hey sinners, come to Jesus!" sermon. Instead we simply read the Gospel and discovered that the Good News is not that we can come to God if we get our act together, but instead that while we are still a long way off, God in Christ has come to us! And Jesus still loves to do this same thing today and I get to see it when I take myself out of my office. I really need to do that more often!