If you are a guest or here for the first time today I want to extend a special welcome to you. It is great to have you here today and I hope you feel at home.
Well now, how many here this morning have seen the Pixar film Finding Nemo? It’s up there in my top ten all time animated pictures and it’s about a young clown fish called Nemo who lives in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. And Nemo’s father loves him very much – perhaps, if truth be told, a little too much actually. He expends huge energy keeping his precious son away from every possible danger as every good parent should, but he just becomes way too overprotective. Nemo begins to feel smothered, he comes to resent it and tries to assert his independence. One day Nemo, in a display of frustration and protest, disobeys his father and swims out beyond the reef...
…Where he is unexpectedly scooped up by a diver and taken away on a boat. He ends up in a dentist’s aquarium overlooking Sydney Harbour. But Nemo’s father loves little Nemo so much that he sets out on an incredible adventure braving underwater mines, whales, sharks, jellyfish and other dangers to seek and save his son.
To cut a long and exciting adventure short, Nemo eventually hears about his father’s search for him, jumps out of the aquarium and down a drainpipe that leads to the open sea – just where his father is, having all but lost any hope of finding his son. There is so much emotion and joy when Nemo is saved and reunited with his loving father.
Finding Nemo currently stands as the third highest-grossing animated film of all time. There are good reasons why so many people love Finding Nemo. It is the story of being lost, and then found. It is a powerful tale of the determination of a caring father so it’s a story that can help you get a handle on what God feels about you.
Jesus told a story a bit like Finding Nemo in Luke’s gospel.
"If you had one hundred sheep, and one of them wandered away, wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine others to go and search for the lost one until you found it?”
Actually, that’s a good question. Does it make great deal of sense to leave 99 sheep to go and find just 1? What if you come back having found the one you lost only to find that the 99 you left behind are no longer where you left them? I wonder if the story Jesus told about the lost sheep is a bit like an Irish joke.
Paddy O’Riley is on top of the hill counting his £10 notes. “One, two, tree, four, foive…” At the end of the count he notices that one of his £10 notes has gone. “Where’s me last £10 note?” he says and runs down the hill looking for it. Finally he finds it and runs down to the local pub. “Oi’ve foned me last £10 note!” he says. I’ll boy y’all a point o’ Guinness.” “But Paddy,” they say. “What about the other 99? You had 100 £10 notes this morning.”
*Look of complete confusion - then epiphany moment*
So Paddy says to himself, “Ah! Paddy O’Roiley, yer stoopid eegit, you’ve ornly gone and forgot all de odder sheep!” So Paddy runs up the hill again as fast as he can looking for all the other £10 notes he had left behind!
It’s a crazy story isn’t it? But that’s the point. That’s how over the top God’s love is for you. He loves you. His father heart is searching for you and he never gives up.
Jesus says, “When he finds his sheep he joyfully carries it home on his shoulders. Then he calls together his friends and neighbours and says “Celebrate with me because my lost sheep is found. In the same way, heaven will be happier over one lost sinner who returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!”
This is a story that tells us what God is like. He doesn’t stand at a distance, arms folded, and blame us when we wander away. He doesn’t wash his hands of us when we mess up, saying that we’re just too much trouble. When we are a long way from God, he goes out to us. When we are lost he seeks us out.
We stress over things we lose – or might lose. A wallet or keys or travellers cheques. But it can be worse. If we lose a job, we might lose the house. Someone said to me a few months ago, “The person most special to me has cancer and I am frightened I’ll lose them.” When I was about 5 I wandered off and lost my parents on a crowded beach. I thought my world had ended.
But the most precious thing we can lose is our own soul – to be far from God and not knowing how the way back. And that is what Jesus means here in this story.
People say “Well I don’t feel lost at all. I’m happy in life. I’ve got everything I need. I don’t need God.” I think that’s why Jesus used the example of a sheep in the story. Does this animal look anxious and stressed about being lost to you?
Sheep just don’t agonise very much over existential matters. The sheep probably didn’t realise it had a problem until the shepherd found it and brought it back to where it should have been. When it saw the shepherd it probably thought to itself, “What does he want?” But once it was back with the fold it probably thought, “Oh yeah, this feels better.”
But I want you to notice a small detail in the story because it’s vitally important. Jesus says at the end, “I tell you… there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
God loves people even when they mess up - and he goes out of his way to seek them out. But it’s not all one way. Jesus says there’s rejoicing in heaven over one sinner… who repents.
We don’t use the word “Repent” very much in modern English but it basically means to turn round. Jesus says here that the other side of the coin of being a found sheep is turning back to God. In other words, God does his part but we have to do ours as well. God is always calling you and me to stop thinking “I can do life all on my own” and start saying “I want Jesus; his love, his grace, his truth, his life at the centre of all I do.” The first time that happens there’s a party in heaven because heaven loves it when lost sheep get found, when sinners (and we’re all sinners) repent.
It’s too early for Hermione and Ben and Catherine to turn their life around like that. They’re too young to understand this now. But when they get a little older, and more aware of spiritual things, they will have to make a spiritual decision for themselves – like we do as adults. Because baptism doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car mechanic.
Your job as parents and godparents is to do all you can to help these children make that right choice. Pray for them, love them, tell them about Jesus, and bring them to church – there’s loads of great things for kids here.
Jesus said there are only two roads. There’s a wide lane highway with bright lights that leads to destruction and a narrow winding path that leads to eternal life. There aren’t any other alternatives. Two roads. This is a question for everybody here today: which are you on? Is it time to turn round and get on the only road that leads to eternal life?
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 13th March 2011
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