16th Sunday after Pentecost – Year C (Luke 15:1-10)

This reflection is being posted earlier than usual. At the suggestion of one of my readers I am using this opportunity to get a week ahead. That allows preachers who are ahead of the game, and there are some, to get a look at my thoughts in a timely fashion.
We have often heard it said that God’s ways are not our ways and, generally speaking, we are glad of that. There are times though, when God’s ways seem blatantly unfair. This parable is an example. In particular I am talking about those of us who count ourselves among the ninety-nine sheep who are left feeling at best underappreciated and, at worst, abandoned. Which one of you, Jesus asks, would not leave the ninety-nine sheep to go off in search of the one who got lost. Well no one in their right mind. Two in the hand is worth one in the bush. Why endanger the whole herd to go out looking for that one sheep that obviously has nothing worthwhile to contribute to the herd’s gene pool?
In my reflections for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost, I suggested that Jesus does not have much use for rugged individualism. This Sunday’s parable reminds us of the other side of that coin. Jesus does care about individuals. The shepherd risks the ninety-nine to save the one and though the text is not explicit about this, it implies that the woman spends her other nine coins on a party to celebrate the one that was lost. The extravagance of both the shepherd and the woman seem to us, at least, to be misplaced and ultimately, unfair. It is only when we recognize ourselves as the one sheep or coin that we can come to understand the incredible depth of God’s love and mercy poured out for each of us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.