The Gospel of Grace for Wounded Sojourners

Sermonic Reflections on Hope in Christ

Albert J.D. Walsh

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781625646262
• eBook ISBN:
  9781630873288
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

In this collection of sermons, Dr. Albert Walsh, after more than three decades of pastoral ministry, presents the gospel message as the Christ-centered proclamation of hope for all those who sojourn along the path of life. Walsh's sermons speak directly to those who hold faith in Christ, but they also speak with force to those who are searching for the meaning and purpose of life as the gift of a gracious God. This collection of sermons offers the reader a word of genuine hope in times of trial, struggle, and in the face of the innumerable sufferings--both small and great--we so often experience in life. These sermons cover the whole of the life of Christ from his incarnation to his death, resurrection, ascension, and promised return in glory to offer spiritual enrichment for all.

One

Luke 15:1–6

The Shepherd King

All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to (Jesus). And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them!” So He told them this parable: “What man among you who has 100 sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’”

The teaching of Jesus and in particular as recorded in the gospel according to Luke, smacks of the ironic, the otherwise puzzling and disarming. Luke’s gospel is packed with the contrary and the turn-about. And yet, so it seems to me, the nature of Scripture as a witness to the Word of God is, as a form of communication, a word that’s contrary to all words, while at the same time redeeming, elevating, and complementing all other forms of human expression. Scripture itself, even as a God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16), inspired text, cannot be divorced from the commonalities of normal human communication, and all of the problems associated with the limitations of language. So believe me when I say I mean no disrespect to Jesus; but I find that, as a teaching tool, the parable of the lost sheep is about as outrageous as one can get! It’s illogical to imply that a responsible shepherd is one who’d leave the majority of his flock behind in the open field in order to set out in search of one wayward lamb.

On hearing this parable of Jesus we might simply shrug our shoulders, thinking nothing of the suggestion that a shepherd would leave the majority of his charge unguarded, in order to search for a simpleton who’d wandered off–God’s knows why or to where–ending up lost in the threatening wilds. But that’s simply because shepherding isn’t the chosen profession of any one of us here in this sanctuary this evening. However, the shepherds present in Jesus’ first audience would most likely have sneered at the idea that someone would deem such actions, as those represented by the character in this parable, the behavior of a responsible shepherd. This was, after all, how they made a living! It was generally the case that shepherds were hired hands, and even though generally speaking they were rough characters, they’d never think to risk the loss of an entire flock in the ridiculous attempt to search-out and save the life of one crack-pot lamb who’d wandered off into a hostile terrain. No shepherd in his right mind would’ve wanted that kind of foolishness on his professional résumé! Still, the implications of the parable can be lost on us simply because we’re distant from and unfamiliar with the world of shepherding.

So, let’s reframe. Imagine you have a jewelers shop on South Street, Philadelphia, and you’ve hired someone to manage the business for you. One morning your newly hired manager opens the shop only to discover that the smallest and least expensive diamond is missing from its case. Does he phone you to ask how you might want him to handle this loss? No, he leaves the shop, and all cases holding the majority of your most expensive gems, unlocked and unguarded.

And he sets out to comb the streets of the city searching for the one lost lower-cost diamond. Now you’re notified by the Philadelphia police that your store has been burglarized, and every precious gem in the store, stolen.

You rush to the shop only to see your hired manager coming toward you with a beaming smile, “Don’t worry,” he says through a confident grin, “I’ve found that lost little gem!” Do you commend him and join him as he celebrates the find, or do you fire him for being foolish, if not negligent, in the performance of his professional duties? Or shift the image again.

Suppose you’re shopping one evening at the Mall and as you get into your car, you hear the sound of a clink on the ground. At last check you had four pennies in your pocket; it would appear that one of the four has fallen to the ground and isn’t immediately apparent to your scanning in the darkness. So, you hop in your car and drive away. That night you can’t sleep a wink, worrying, thinking obsessively about that one penny. It’s three in the morning; you’re out there alone in the Mall parking lot, down on your hands and knees with a pocket flashlight looking for the lost penny; and you find it!

You return home, appreciative for having found that one penny! To share your joy, you plan a wild party at the Four Seasons, to the tune of $12,000, inviting all the people you know, and not a few of your neighbors. Is that the behavior of a rational person? Do you honestly believe your family, friends, and neighbors wouldn’t wonder about your sanity, think you’d lost your senses, or were suffering from some form of mental breakdown?

The shepherd in search of one lost lamb is nothing short of ridiculous in the eyes of the world, his world and our own. In fact, we don’t act that way, do we? I envision those shepherds who first heard this teaching of Jesus thinking the parable a farce, and the rabbi, Jesus, odd for thinking this way. That is until somewhere inside they came to the realization that He was, as they say today, on-to-something. They were—to the person—each of them, in some inexplicable fashion lost and in need of being found. And found not just by anyone, but by someone like the shepherd in the parable. What would it mean to be in the care of someone who loved like that shepherd, someone willing to risk looking ludicrous for any and every expression of this kind of penetrating and extravagant love?

Dare they hope with heart and soul—even for a moment—that there could be a love like that in the whole of the universe? No, that would be too much to ask, wouldn’t it? In particular if this were a likeness of God; God would never do such a thing—would He? Even though the behavior of the shepherd does seem ludicrous, even when we realize that Jesus is talking about what God intends to do in and through Christ; that still doesn’t seem to lessen the feeling that such behavior, as represented by this shepherd, is incongruous—at best.

Yes, it’s actually incongruous, but only because the love of God is contrary to all that we experience of love in the world of human expectations and interactions. It’s not a love born of this world, and it’s not a love sustained by this world, and it’s not a love natural to this world. The love of God is different from any and every expectation we have of love as disclosed and experienced in the ways of the world. And yet, I can’t help but feel that we’re not so different from those who first heard Jesus tell this parable. We want to believe that when we’re lost, such love will come searching to save us. We want to know that we’re valued in just that way and to the same degree, don’t we? If you’ve never been lost, then I suppose there’s no way you’ll ever understand how important it is to know that there’s Someone who will never give up until you’ve been located, lifted up in love, and brought back to the safety and security only such love can create and sustain.

The story is told of the elderly man whose sole possession to survive Katrina was his fishing boat. He spent four days without sleep, riding above the flood waters and seeking to save those stranded on roof tops. Somehow his name became public, and the lost souls of hurricane Katrina, left stranded on their roof tops, managed to write signs that read “We’re trusting that George will come to save us!” Several months later everyone learned the true identity of the man for whom the signs were intended. The media swarmed when he was found and asked him why he kept on seeking to save others; he said, “Because every soul is of value to God and therefore to me!”

If you’ve never been lost in your life then I doubt this extraordinary teaching of Jesus will make much sense to you. But I’m certain there isn’t one person in this room who hasn’t been lost at some point in his or her life, left to languish in some arid place, or stranded above the rising tide of life’s threatening flood waters, hoping against hope that someone would care and come looking for you and in love. I doubt that there’s one soul in this place who would survive for long if he or she believed that his or her life was of little or no value to anyone, anywhere, for anything. I’m certain it makes a difference in the world for each of us to know that regardless of the circumstance, or how it is we come to find ourselves lost, the love of Almighty God will never give up the search to save us, to bring us back, to bring us home to His divine heart.

I like to think that sometime later that day, long after the crowds of people had dispersed, and all had returned, each to his or her own home, those who heard Jesus teach this parable suddenly remembered the words of the prophet Ezekiel (chapter 34) and, discovered the words of the prophet took on a whole new meaning in light of the teaching of Jesus. Maybe we too can hear them as if for the first time. And perhaps if you’re feeling lost in something even now, you’ll hear the voice of One who’ll never give up until He has found you and carried you to safety, because He values you as much as He does any other single lamb of His fold.

The concept of “kingship” is no less foreign to most, if not all, of us; we’re sufficiently removed from the experience to have as much difficulty making sense of the exact nature of that office as we do that of “shepherd.” Perhaps we could explore the way in which kingship was commonly understood in the time of Christ, and that would provide us with insight regarding how Christ’s contemporaries would’ve understood such association, but would not necessarily help us attain greater clarity. It should be enough to state that, while kingly rule in the time of Christ was often associated with corruption of power and misuse of the status conferred upon the “king” or “Caesar” by virtue of the office held, Christ’s kingly rule is measured with the qualities of justice, mercy, compassion, and love. Like the shepherd in the parable, whose behavior is contrary to the reality of shepherds in the experience of the people in the time of Christ, the kingship—or Kyrios rule—of Christ poses a striking contrast to all other forms of rule at that time. We would associate the kingly rule of Christ with harmony, joy, fullness of life for all residents of His kingdom, and a foundational love for His “subjects” that is evident, not so much in His demands placed before them, as in His own servitude—leading by example. What we have in our Lord is a “Shepherd King,” wherein there is no contradiction between one form of service and the other, where an incomparable love is the basis upon which this King desires to enrich the lives of His people, as well as the establishment of a mission to nurture all of His “sheep” in the “green pastures” of His compassion and grace. As “King” Christ lays claim to those who are His subjects; as “Shepherd” Christ maintains a watchful eye over each and all who are members of His fold.

He is our Shepherd King, and His Lordship can only be measured to its depth in terms of His mercy and love for the likes of us—we are His people, the sheep of His pasture! When the people of Israel felt that they’d been lost to God, this is what the Lord said through the voice of His prophet Ezekiel:

See, I Myself will search for My flock and look for them. As a shepherd looks for his sheep on the day he is among his scattered flock, so I will look for My flock. I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered . . . I will bring them out from the peoples . . . and bring them into their own land . . . I will tend them with good pasture . . . I will tend My flock and let them lie down . . . I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bandage the injured, and strengthen the weak. (Ezekiel 34:11–16)

In His promise as proclamation is His Word, in His Word is His presence, and in His presence we are embraced in, enfolded by, an eternal love. These are the trusted words of our Shepherd King; this is the promise that’ll never fail us; and this “love Divine, all loves excelling” is the foundation of our expression of love for our Christ in this Lenten season. Amen.

Two

1 Corinthians 1:4–9

Nothing is Lacking

I always thank my God for you because of God’s grace given to you in Christ Jesus, that by Him you were enriched in everything—in all speech and knowledge. In this way, the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you, so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; you were called by Him into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

On this, the first of four Sundays marking the holy season of Advent, it’s more than fitting that we should focus on, what has been called, by a variety of descriptions, the Second Coming of Christ, the return of Christ—or more frequently in Christian tradition—the Second Advent of Christ. This morning we join Christians throughout the world and the Church catholic in a remembrance of the first advent of Christ as the basis for our conviction that Christ will also one day return. This is not...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Foreword - Drake Williams III
• Introduction
• One: Luke 15:1–6, The Shepherd King
• Two: 1 Corinthians 1:4–9, Nothing is Lacking
• Three: Philippians 2:5–11, The Admirable Exchange
• Four: Luke 2:1–14, Holiness in Human Flesh
• Five: Mark 15:16–32, Haunted by the Cross of Christ
• Six: John 20:24–25, "Setting the Record Straight"
• Seven: John 20:27–28, Rejoicing in the Wounds of Christ
• Eight: John 2:1–3, Celebrating a Kingdom
• Nine: John 15:4, Fruit of the Vine
• Ten: Matthew 19:13, The Touch of Christ
• Eleven: John 21:4–5, Morning Came
• Twelve: John 13:34–35, Our Heritage
• Thirteen: Mark 1:38–39, He Came Preaching
• Fourteen: John 18:36, Christ's Kingdom
• Fifteen: Luke 21:25–28, Faint from Fear
• Sixteen: Luke 2:51–52, He Obeyed His Parents
• Seventeen: Luke 4:16–19, The Claim of Christ
• Eighteen: Luke 4:28–30, How do we hear Him
• Nineteen: Luke 9:30–31, Another Exodus
• Twenty: Luke 4:1–13, The Devil You Say!
• Twenty-One: John 2:1–12, Why Wine?
• Conclusion