Sermon for the 3rd Sunday after Trinity, 2020

Homily for Trinity 3, 2020

Fr. Tony Melton

Image: One of the authors that has challenged my thinking is Rosario Butterfield. I was immediately intrigued by her story of coming to Christ. She was living with her partner while teaching at Syracuse University as a Feminist Literary scholar. At the time, she was thoroughly opposed to Christianity. That is, until a local Christian invited her over to dinner with his wife and family. She reluctantly accepted the invitation with the intention, justifying it as valuable for research for her next attack on the Faith. But that is not what God had in mind for her. “I waded through the unusually thick July humidity to the front door, and I knocked. The threshold to their life was like none other.  The threshold to their life brought me to the foot of the cross.” This family reached out and gathered her into the refreshment of their God-filled home, and she soon repented, converted, and devoted her whole life to Christ.

Need: Did you know that over half of people who are non-Christians have never had a serious invitation into a Christian home or to worship God in His Church?

Subject: Our subject, as always, is to better understand the nature and character of God, so that we can conform ourselves to Him. We will see from the texts appointed for us this morning that we worship a Gathering God.

Text: Our primary text today is the Gospel for this morning, the Parable of the Lost Sheep, but we’ll also take a brief look at the Old Testament lesson from Jeremiah.

Preview: What we’ll see is that the God of the Bible consistently reaches out to those who are lost and gathers them in.

In the Old Testament lesson from Jeremiah 31, we can see that God gathered the dispersed. God gathered the dispersed. The Israelites had been ejected from their land, first by the Assyrians and then the Babylonians. They lived under terrible oppression, and were known as the Diaspora, from where we get our word, “dispersed.” The LORD said through Jeremiah, “Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth…He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.” This is the heart of the God that we worship. He does not leave His people dispersed and disbanded. He does not leave humanity alone and oppressed. He makes a way that we should walk in, and in that way He helps us to walk, until we find our way back. God gathers the dispersed.

The theme continues in the Gospel, where we see that God gathers the despised. The parable of the Lost Sheep begins with this context, “THEN drew near unto him all the Publicans and sinners for to hear him.  And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.” What does this show? That even within a nation that had returned to their land, there were still some in exile from their people. They were not dispersed, but they were despised. Yet, here too, the heart of the God that we worship was to gather in those who were cast out, who were left off. There was no societal distance too far for God’s love to cross. There was no shame too heavy for God’s love to bear. God gathers the despised.

But most particular to our context, I think, is the parable of the lost sheep. God gathers the disoriented. Last week, I spoke to you about Northwest Atlanta as a place which has lost its way. The sheep was not ejected from its flock, nor was it despised. It was simply disoriented. It had lost its way. It had once known the shepherd, heard His voice, but the sheep took its eyes off the shepherd, and began to focus on something else. Soon, the sheep didn’t know where it was or how it got there. Yet, here again, the heart of the God that we worship was to gather in the disoriented. The Good Shepherd didn’t say, “99 is still pretty good.” He seeks the ne who gets away and brings them back. Do you remember a time where you lost your way, and God came and found you? I do.

Now you might be saying, “Okay, Fr. Tony, God gathers in the dispersed, despised, and disoriented. So what?” Fr. Josh recently recommended a book recently which applies to life some of the principles that have made Chickfila so successful. One of the things that jumped out to me is how much the culture and mission of Chickfila comes from the personality and story of Truett Kathy, the founder and long-time CEO. What he held dear, the company held dear. What he repeated, the company repeated. And how he treated people, the company treated people. A successful mission and culture came from imitating a great man like Truett Kathy. How much more should we take our mission and culture from the character of God who made us?

I know you hear me tell you that we are in a Gathering Phase, that we need to gather. This is not so that we can be a big church. It is so that we can be a faithful church. We must be a gathering people because we worship a Gathering God. So when we reach out and gather in those that are far away from home, the new neighbor, the recently divorced, the immigrant or refugee, we are acting like our God and Shepherd who gathered the Diaspora and brought them back. And when we reach out and gather in those who are ostracized or despised, because of their lifestyle, or race, or past mistakes, or political party, or career, we are acting like our God and Shepherd crossed societal boundaries to receive sinners and eat with them. And when we reach out and gather in the millions of people who wander through this life, chasing promotions and vacations, but have lost sight of the flock of God, then we are acting like our God and Shepherd who sought out the one who lost its way. The most obvious application to learning of our Gathering God, is to be a Gathering People.

But secondly, we are to be a rejoicing people. We learn from the parable that God gathers, but then we learn that God rejoices after He gathers. All of heaven rejoices when one is brought back into the fold. We ought to rejoice, too. One of our greatest joys should be when someone is re-gathered into the Kingdom of God. But we should also rejoice that we have been gathered, for who among us has not strayed from God? And yet here we are, sinners that Jesus has accepted, and invited to sit down at the Holy Table with Him. The heavenly meal is the place to which God gathers us, that we be no more displaced, despised, or disoriented, but find our home, our family, and our Shepherd through the Gospel and in His Church. Amen.