24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
14th Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 19

The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:

First Reading: Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Psalm 14:1-7
Second Reading: I Timothy 1:12-17
Gospel Reading: Luke 15:1-10

The liturgical color for the day is: Green

Would we do those things?  Would we go to that effort for one lost sheep and one lost coin?  Hardly. 

These are not stories about us and about what we would do, and they really are not stories about a shepherd and a woman.  No—it is more of a story about God.  It is about what God would do.  It is about what God does.  It is about who God is—this is what God does!

Do you see the extravagance in the stories of the lost sheep and the lost coin?  There is in them a going well beyond…there is in them a going to the extreme…there is in them a going the extra mile to find the lost—and then the rejoicing and celebration that comes along with it.  To us, one sheep would hardly be worth all that.  To God, one sheep is worth all that and more.

We are that one sheep.  We are that one coin.

According to these stories—both the shepherd and the woman celebrate when they find their respective lost treasures.  The image is of a party; a banquet; a celebration. 

God is celebrating; holding a banquet; rejoicing; thrilled—when we turn toward the spirit within us. 

God takes delight in us. 
God loves us beyond our reason. 
God is seeking after us. 
God is inviting us to the celebration of love.

Extravagant. Seeking. Celebrating.  That is God.

—

Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
Chief Imagination Officer
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk