Fifteen years ago today was a milestone for our country that lives on in current memory. Many of you might remember the pictures and reports from 15 years ago. It’s hard to imagine now that everyone who is not in high school was born after that event.  The attacks are now history apart from experience for the youngest generation among us.

If you remember, during those times, rescue workers searched and searched for survivors amid the ruins. One of our former pastors here, Pastor Steve Lee, was on the ground shortly afterward as a Christian chaplain to those first responders, praying with them, helping them, sharing the Gospel of Christ amid a horrible situation. I remember the sadness of the days afterward, while still looking for so many people buried in the rubble, hoping against the odds that they were still alive. And the joy that was felt by so many across to the country when someone was found alive.

If there was joy in such a thing as this, it is almost beyond imagining the joy that felt in heaven over one sinner who repents. When our Good Shepherd pulls us out of the rubble of this sinful world, the angelic crowds rejoice. The saints in heaven rejoice! This is what Jesus’ ministry is all about – calling sinners to repentance and faith in Him. “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32)

And so Jesus has to explain this to those who think they need no saving. The Pharisees and scribes were grumbling because Jesus was eating with sinners. These people didn’t deserve to have Jesus there.  The Pharisees felt don’t deserve the attention of a rabbi, much less of God in the flesh. And so Jesus speaks to them in parables explaining that the lost, the least, and the lowest are those from whom the Son of God came.

Two parables we hear this morning, the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin. Both have the same point – Jesus goes out in search of the lost. When Christians speak of “the lost” they are almost always referring to those outside the Church. The phrase is used especially when talking about mission and evangelism. The Church—it is said—is to seek “the lost.” To be missional is to focus our efforts beyond the walls of our church, beyond the people here gathered and toward the reaching of “the lost.” Rather than “preach to the choir” or concern ourselves only with “the ninety-nine,” a church that is faithful to its mission must foster a “zeal for the lost,” so that “our hearts would feel a burden for the lost.”

On the one hand, this gives expression to something very important, namely, that Christians need to lift our gaze to those who are hurting, to those who need to hear the gospel. Too often the church gets stuck looking inward, directing all its efforts toward the self-sufficiency of its own community rather than seeing and living outward. We are called into a sacrificial life looking always to those who are in need, those who are suffering, those who are lost. But you see, that’s not really what Jesus is talking about here.

Consider why Jesus is telling these parables. These parables are the answer to the grumbling of the Pharisees and the scribes who are offended that Jesus receives sinners and eats with them. And so the “lost” in the parables—the lost sheep, the lost coin—are clearly these people that are drawing near to hear Jesus—these tax collectors and sinners, whose repentance brings joy into the heavenly places. And who are the 99? Who are those that Jesus leaves behind? They are the “righteous persons who need no repentance.” They are the Pharisees and the scribes, of course—these that grumble against Jesus’s association with the lost. These parables are set to condemn them, to make their grumbling stick in their throats.

So, consider the implication: the line between the lost sheep and the ninety-nine, the lost coin and the other nine is not between Christians and non-Christians, between churched and unchurched. The line is set between those who, on the one hand, draw near to hear Jesus, who repent, those who need Jesus, those with whom Jesus chooses to have fellowship; and, on the other hand, those who have no need of Jesus, have no need to repent, and are secure in their own righteousness. We make a serious error when we speak as if that line simply divides church members from non-members, “us” and “them,” “churched” and “unchurched,” “in-reach” and “outreach.”  There is only “reach”, reaching the world with the Gospel of Christ, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 

To the contrary, Jesus continually challenges any attempt to label and categorize people for the sake of governing our attitude toward them. Thus, earlier in the Gospel of Luke when the lawyer asked Jesus earlier “who is my neighbor?”—Jesus would not allow him to use the label on others and instead, through the parable of the Good Samaritan, answered: you are the neighbor, you go be the neighbor, so that everyone is an object of your love.

We can all repent and consider anew how we might reach out again to those who have neglected the gifts of Christ. We can pray for them by name. We can make an effort to get to know them. We can also work at making our congregation more welcoming and more supportive by becoming more attentive to the needs of one another. Then, we can stand alongside the world—not over against it—and bear witness to this Jesus who has come only for sinners—He has given Himself for us all. Only then will the world be able to look at the church and begin to see in our midst “this man who receives sinners and eats with them.”

We should know, however, that some of the guilt that we feel in this regard is false. We should be willing to take an honest look at ourselves and repent, but at the same time we should not give too much credence to the excuses made by those who despise Christ’s gifts. All of the elect will be in heaven no matter how bad we fail to reach out to them.  No one goes to hell because we were bad at evangelism. No one goes to hell because you didn’t do enough outreach.  All the elect of God will be in heaven.  In same way, no one goes to heaven because of our efforts – the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to call, gather, and enlighten His Church.  It is Christ who saves sinners.

Ultimately, each person will have to answer for his or her own sins. For the person who trusts in Jesus, who has answered for the sins of the world by His death on the cross, he or she can take comfort that that same Christ has risen to secure his or her own resurrection on the Last Day.

It is our privilege to proclaim this saving Gospel to the world. And we can do it in the freedom of the Gospel knowing that the Holy Spirit will work through His Word to do these things.  We can express the joy we have in Christ, support the church’s work of training pastors and missionaries to do this in specific thing.  Of supporting our pastor, the teachers of our school, the workers in daycare to do this very thing. We have a young man in our congregation who wants to go to the Seminary in a couple of years – this is a worthwhile thing to consider.

Jesus seeks the lost. There is no easy answer or program or solution, but we should not despair or wring our hands. We have the Word of God and the means of grace. We should seek reconciliation with those who have left us. But if they won’t forgive and rejoin and be reconciled to Christ, we take comfort that God has reconciled us to Himself by the death and resurrection of His Son. God will take care of His Church. He continues to search out the lost, and He will pull His people from the rubble of this sinful world.