Attention: Sheep Outside the Fold May Not Be Lost
Do kids still take quarterly report cards home for a responsible adult person’s signature? The one I cannot forget was my sixth grade fourth quarter card. Wouldn’t you be excited if your year end report was all A’s and three 100’s? Not me. I was devastated. For three semesters I never missed a spelling word, but the last semester I missed ONE WORD. As I walked home all I could think of was that one error. I had been almost perfect.
Welcome to Pastor Gloria’s Sunday Message!
That same discouraged feeling seems to be a major concern for organized churches when they don’t keep up their attendance scores. It is called bringing in the lost. Going door to door has not always been about politics; it is also about looking for people the church feels need to get right with God so they will go to heaven, not hell, when they die. I have always wondered how the outside community around a church feels if they hear members clicking their tongues about the evil “secular” community.
From the church’s perspective, loving the lost neighbors is all from the heart. God loves them, after all, but apparently they need to see the error of their ways in order to receive that love. Winning souls for Jesus is the subject of board meetings, Sunday School planning, Vacation Bible School materials, and missionary conferences. The sin word crops up again and again. Revivals are scheduled and expected to prick the consciences of visitors. Salvation is the focus. To the church, it stands to reason they are the ones called by God to help.
Please, if you feel like an outlier reading this Sunday Message, do not click the X yet. I don’t think you are the reason the church needs revivals or evangelistic activities. Church outliers, by definition, are not lost. Statistics show a whole lot have left for their own emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual well being. Others are outside because that is where they know they are welcomed, loved and valued. And many have never even stepped foot inside a church for the same or similar reasons. None of those reasons are to be lost or in sin.
Recently I looked up sin for its short original Greek (hamartia) and Hebrew (khata) meanings. According to The Bible Project, failure or missing the goal are reasonable ways to understand it.
More spiritually referenced, the article suggests the term means if we are created “in the image of God,” then not missing the mark is dependent on how we understand our neighbors and treating others with respect the way God would treat them. It means relating to people as who they are, not judging them for what they do or how the committee on church evangelism labels them.
Let us reconsider my sixth grade report card failure. It makes a great illustration for three parables Jesus used, the parable of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the prodigal son. When they are retold, community is most likely to take a hit by religious zealots who interpret them to mean the coin, the sheep, and the son were like people who do not know God. Yes, I admit all three things were missing because something had gone wrong, but the stories are all about celebrations for when each was returned. Ever think about how they became lost?
Luke 15:1-7 All the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus to listen to him. The Pharisees and legal experts were grumbling, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose someone among you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them. Wouldn’t he leave the other ninety-nine in the pasture and search for the lost one until he finds it? And when he finds it, he is thrilled and places it on his shoulders. When he arrives home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Celebrate with me because I’ve found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one who changes both heart and life than over ninety-nine righteous people who [think they] have no need to change their hearts and lives.
Does anyone think my years of devastation because of that one misspelled word have been justified? I may have felt lost. I am sure someone else was disappointed and wished I had not made that mistake, too, but I wasn’t lost. I wasn’t failing the class or being held back from entering the next grade. I didn’t need to be evangelized about the error of my ways. I don’t even think I needed forgiveness. It was just a misspelled word. Clearly, I did not want to face people who might think less of me. To be truthful, if I could have run away that day, I really would have, but I faced that missed mark and brought the report card home.
Some of you may have heard a very old related song, “The Ninety and Nine” (lyrics below), about the same story in Luke 15. I always thought it was about the wicked people who are running around without God and need all of the people inside the church to go out searching for them and bring them in. It does tell a story of something like that, but what happened to my interpretation one day listening to the radio play that song shifted my initial thoughts.
I realized the shepherd must have understood the pain of the missing sheep; therefore, risked everything to go find it, to check and see if it is okay. It wasn’t because the sheep did wrong and ran away. I thought about how we often do not understand the pain of those who are not in the circle of the ninety-nine and instead act, or react, according to a particular script. There has been personal heartache and undeserved and costly consequences in my own life by well-intentioned (maybe?) but misguided people in the church over my off-script pursuit of individuals and groups who are marginalized. Remember, sheep outside the fold may not be lost… but they might be in need. They probably do not need a sermon. They may just need a hug.
Listening to that song anew, I could only think of the many of the ninety-nine who never knew how dark were some nights, how deep were some waters, and how rough and steep the path has been for those trying to help wandering, hurting sheep.
Look around. Who is in need and missing from your community?
The Ninety and Nine by Elizabeth C. Clephane
There were ninety and nine that safely lay in the shelter of the fold
But one was out on the hills away,
Far off from the gates of gold.
Away on the mountains wild and bare;
Away from the tender Shepherd’s care.
“Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine;
Are they not enough for Thee?”
But the Shepherd made answer: “This sheep of Mine
Has wandered away from Me.
And although the path be rough and steep,
I go to the desert to find My sheep.”
But none of the ransomed ever knew
How deep were the waters crossed;
Nor how dark was the night the Lord passed through
Ere He found His sheep that was lost.
Out in the desert He heard its cry;
Sick and helpless and ready to die.
But all through the mountains, thunder-riv’n,
And up on the rocky steep,
There arose a glad cry to the gate of heav’n,
“Rejoice! I have found My sheep!”
And the angels echoed ‘round the throne,
“Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!”