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1 day this week I was walking near the Leisure Exchange and a car drew
alongside. The driver was trying to find Nelson Street. Like many others
he was trying to find his way around the streets of Bradford, and he was
lost! (I wondered why he asked me when they were lots of other people
around. Then I remembered I had my dog collar on so I probably looked
trustworthy and reliable.) But I wasn't reliable - I was useless and all
I could do was reassure him he was in the right general area. I called
over to another passer by - a rougher looking character who didn't look
either v trustworthy or v trusting - as though he thought he was about
to be lured in to a trap. But he DID know where Nelson St was and gave
directions.
In Luke's story this morning there were two groups of people. There were
the Pharisees and Scribes, who, like me should have been able to show
people the way, but couldn't. But they thought they could, and (unlike
me) were not willing to ask for help. The second group were the 'Tax Collectors
and sinners' - the rougher looking lot who were thought of as less reliable
and trustworthy. (Incidentally, the term used by Luke, 'The Sinners' was
a catch-all phrase which referred to those who were poor, uneducated and
therefore didn't know what God's law required of them - write-offs as
far as the religious experts were concerned, and they couldn't understand
why Jesus would want anything to do with them.) Both groups were listening
to Jesus but not all of them were hearing him. The first group - the respectable
religious leaders were lost but they didn't know they were so they were
NOT looking to Jesus to show them the way. The second group were lost
and knew it. They were listening to Jesus properly because they knew they
needed to be shown a better way of living.
When a married couple are out in the car looking for an unfamiliar destination
it can cause a little tension. Some men complain that their wives can't
read maps; but many women complain that their husbands won't read maps,
nor admit that they're lost when they are! It's a pride thing. And there's
the key! Pride can make us stubborn, which makes us deaf which keeps us
in ignorance.
And that I think is why there is a party in heaven over 1 sinner who repents.
The angels know how hard it is to break through the pride of human beings.
Our pride keeps us in the place where we say, "I'm not lost - I know
what I believe and where my life is going, I don't need anyone to tell
me."
This was Paul's problem - when he was still Saul the Pharisee. Like the
other Pharisees, he knew the Scriptures - he knew how God worked and it
wasn't through a carpenter's son from up north. But he says he acted in
ignorance - his pride had prevented him from seeing and believing. Look
how he describes himself in his letter to Timothy: 'I was formerly a blasphemer,
a persecutor and a man of violence.' But then God had mercy on him - he
was lost and was found. And that must have been quite a party in heaven!
This is the first thing that I take from our passages this morning. I
know I'm a sinner and nowhere near the standard Jesus sets. I know I have
more to be shown and to understand. But I also recognise something of
the Pharisee in me - there's a danger of harbouring a smug sense of pride.
I'm a religious professional and understand more than many! So am I truly
open to be shown new things by God, to be shown the ways in which I am
lost and need re-directing? My self-satisfaction and pride may block me
from new ways of thinking and seeing things. In other words, am I really
letting Jesus' teaching re-shape my attitudes and therefore my behaviour?
If I am too proud to look at the map, I may make up my own route and that
is dangerous. So I need, not only the recorded teachings of Jesus to direct
me, I need also to check out my interpretation of them. I need to turn
round to others and say: 'is this the right way to be going?' Jesus gathered
a group around him and now speaks through His Body. It is important that
we don't go it alone but check things out with others in the Body.
And the next thing I take from the passages is this… The whole point
of being shown the way is to act. If the driver was shown the way to Nelson
St and drove off in the opposite direction it would have been pointless.
Once Paul had repented, i.e., turned around and headed in the opposite
direction, he set about showing others the right way too.
That is the irony about the Pharisees and Scribes. They were grumbling
about the riff-raff that Jesus mixed with and yet they had failed to show
them the way -and that was despite the fact that the Scriptures they claimed
to know so well, pointed them to care for the outcast and sinner.
They grumbled when they should have engaged with them.
So now an uncomfortable question for you and for me. Who are those we
grumble about? Even in secret? I'm hesitant to name any groups, so I'll
let the Holy Spirit bring to anything. There ARE those we find difficult
or uncomfortable to be with. Those, who like the Tax Collectors and Sinners
don't follow the rules, don't see things as we do.
I see Jesus turning his attention to them, leaving the ninety-nine who
are OK to go after the one who is lost.
And I understand him to be inviting us to do the same. We are commissioned
to continue the work he began. If we spend too much time with the ninety-nine
we may never go looking for the lost. There is a terrible danger that
we occupy our time with church matters so much that we've no time or energy
left to engage with the needs of the community around us. How relevant
is the Cathedral to those who live on its doorstep? It bothers me and
I don't have ready answers. But I am being invited (and so are you) to
at least address the question, however uncomfortable it may be. Last week
we heard a little about Hope Bradford. It is part of a national move to
encourage 2008 to be the year when churches across the UK ask themselves
how they offer Hope to their area. Rather than grumble about Bradford,
about the poverty, lack of community sense, and falling numbers in church
we are being challenged to BE a source of Hope to those around, to the
lost, the frightened, the disaffected. How? I don't know! Well there are
some v good ideas being planned but we are still a little lost. And what
better place to go when lost, to go back to Jesus. Back to asking for
directions, so back to praying. This month is a prayer month - thirty
different churches in Bradford have agreed to take a day each and make
prayer happen for those 24 hours. We have Sept 24th as ours - a week tomorrow.
Prayer is something we can all do. It is not for experts - all we have
to do is admit we are lost and come to God asking for His help.
So you have a simple flyer - please look at that now…
Let me leave us with a challenge - I include myself in this. Every time
we catch ourselves grumbling, having a moan about the state of our city,
or our neighbourhood, either in word or thought, how about turning that
grumble into prayer? Turn the grumble over to God, swallow our pride (better
still repent of it) and admit to Him that we need directions. If more
of us turned our grumbling into prayer, who knows where we might end up?
Let us pray.
Good Shepherd, thank you that you come looking for us when we are lost;
show us the way forward and teach us to truly trust your leading. Amen.
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