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Ep. 28: I’ve Got 99 Problems but Ewe Ain’t One or Proper 19C / Ordinary 24C / Pentecost +17

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For Sunday, September 15
Proper 19C / Ordinary 24C / Pentecost +17

Show Notes after the break (click read more) 


SHOW NOTES -  9/15/2013

I’ve Got 99 Problems but Ewe Ain’t One

Opening Music: 99 Problems by Hugo (edited)

Luke 15:1-10
1 Timothy 1:12-17

Check-in

  • Mexican Independence Day Sept. 16
  • Rosh Hashanah- Jewish New Year - Sept 4-6
  • Lion and Lamb Festival - Rachel is my new BFF
  • 15,000 VISITORS!

Primary Scripture -– Luke 15:1-10  - Two parables of something lost and found

  • Radical Hospitality and extravagant welcome
  • Two Parables: Sheep and Coin
  • God’s Nature
    • Not Fair
    • God cares for each person without exception- does not matter how lost or how far we wander
    • Not about valuing one sheep over 99 or one coin over 9
      • NOT OCCUPY WALL STREET 99 v 1
      • There is wholeness (shalom) and there is brokenness
    • We are the most valuable thing in God’s life
      • Shepherd - sheep are security, life and livelihood
      • Woman- coins are security and livelihood
      • Fathers- sons are future, security and livelihood
      • God - we are most important - all of us
  • Our Nature
    • Blame - the sheep wanders away, but the woman loses the coin - whose fault is it?
      • Not the point- the question is not about being lost, but about being found!
    • Waiting to be found
      • Call to repent
      • We are all worthy, according to God, of being searched for and found
      • Not passive- call to repent
    • Jealous
      • Call to joy at being reunited
      • Jesus comes to save the lost, to reward the faithful
      • Think the older brother of the Prodigal son (right after this story)
      • Parable of the Jewish farmer (100 cattle, 100 sheep, 1 eye)
  • Are we lost and waiting to be found or should we be the one searching for the lost? (cf Luke 11:9)
    • A word of comfort to the sinner
    • A word of challenge to the Pharisees and Scribes
  • Andrew Peterson’s, Loose Change, “Even just a penny is a treasure”
  • “I think that these parables can be read as jokes about God in the sense that what they are essentially about is the outlandishness of God who does impossible things with impossible people, and I believe that the comedy of them is not just a device for making the truth that they contain go down easy but that the truth that they contain can itself be thought of as comic.” Fred Buechner

Secondary scripture - 1 Timothy 1:12-17

  • Authorship - probably not Paul, but one of Paul’s followers late in the first century.  Among other reasons, it is difficult to imagine Paul calling himself a “blasphemer.”  He was admittedly guilty of much, but not that.
    • Should this be a part of the sermon?
      • Yes. Depending on the Context.  
      • Don’t keep textual criticism a secret, but don’t focus on it, and do it with humility.
  • Hymn suggestion: “Immortal, invisible, God only wise”
  • Paul’s story is presented as a model of transformation.
    • Begins as the lowest of the low, ends in the glory of Christ
    • “If I can do it, you can do it.”
      • Or better: “If God can do it for me, God can do it for you.”
    • God uses the sinner to do great things, not for the glory of the sinner, but to the glory of God.
    • Paul’s authority as someone worth teaching is that he has “been there”
      • Recovery ministries - almost always led by those advanced in the program, recovering themselves.
  • Resist “Story topping” or “Sin Topping”
    • All transformation is celebrated.  Not just those that were “really bad”
    • Pastoral vulnerability? Do you share your story (if you have one?) If so- PREPARE and know what you are going to say and DO NOT make it all about you- it is about God’s grace

Closing -
TY: listeners, Opening music, Dick Dale and the Deltones “Misirlou”
Closing music,Paul and Storm, “Oh No”

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