What Matters Most?(19Feb2012)
Sharing the Presence M2 (Luke 15) 12 02 19
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu (with Sabine Lague giving testimony before the offering)
Title: What Matters Most?
Text: Luke 15
BIG IDEA: People who are lost to God’s love matter deeply to him and will matter to those of us who follow him.
Recently our three-year-old son Joey was invited to a couple of birthday parties of friends who are at his pre-school. We don’t know either of these families well, but I am acquainted with one of the moms of one of the birthday boys. Sakiko wanted me to find out what the son might want as a gift. I e-mailed her directly and asked, “What should we get your son for his birthday?” She e-mailed back and said, “I am sure he would enjoy anything that you would get him.” Sakiko said, “You shouldn’t have asked so directly.”
When I approached the second mother at a group dinner, I made the same mistake and asked, “What do you think we should get your son for his birthday?” I could see that she was demurring and Iremembered Sakiko's advice, so I said, “Oh, I should not have asked so directly. Tell me, what is your son interested in doing?” The mother said, “Well, he really likes Lego these days, so if you got him a small box of Lego he would be really happy.”
Sometimes when we are buying a gift for someone that we do not know well, it can be hard to know what they are really interested in and therefore what would be a good gift for them. Sometimes, even for people that we know quite well it can be hard to get that person a gift because they don’t have a clear passion for something, a real hobby, or something that they are really interested in.
Isn’t it great when someone tells you directly and honestly what they are passionate about?
In the pages of Scripture it is very clear what God is interested in. In the parables of Jesus that we are about to look at we are going to see what matters most to the living God.
Pray:
If you have your Bibles please turn to Luke 15:
So, here’s the context in vss. 1-2:
The Parable of the Lost Sheep
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law, who were these highly devout people who strictly observed the Scriptures, were muttering about Jesus because he welcomes tax collectors and sinners and eats with them. The tax collectors were seen by the Hebrew people as being traitors in bed with Rome because they would overcharge their fellow Hebrews—they could tax them at 70 or 80 percent in some cases, give Rome what was required, and pocket the rest.
In the Middle Eastern Hebrew culture of Jesus’ day for a person to eat with another was no casual thing. It signified friendship. It was a sign of acceptance.
Now, we tend to think of Pharisees today as people who are self-righteous hypocrites.
In Jesus’ day, however, the Pharisees were people who sincerely wanted to live a life that was pleasing to God. They were very bright. For the most part they were highly educated lay people. They were the respected, devout lawyers of their time. They were aware that the reason they and their people, the Hebrews, were living in a kind of exile in their own land, that is they were living in exile in the sense that they were under the foreign domination of Rome in their homeland, because, according to Deuteronomy, their people had disobeyed God and therefore they were being judged by God.
So the Pharisees were passionate about keeping the law of God as they understood it. In fact, they had atomized God’s law into 613 rules, 248 commandments, 365 prohibitions, and bolstered these rules by 1,521 emendations. For example, to avoid defiling the Sabbath, the day of rest, they outlawed 39 activities that might be considered work. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were very concerned about keeping every part of God’s Word.
The Pharisees had a practice of lowering their heads and not even looking at a woman to avoid any kind of sexual temptation. Some of the Pharisees were known as "bleeding Pharisees" because they bumped into walls and pillars while looking down.
Jesus was also passionate about keeping God’s Word, but his focus was different from the Pharisees. The Pharisees believed that keeping God’s Word meant that they would be completely separate from the sinful sinners of their world, so as not to be defiled by them. Their holiness led them to exclude the people of this world. Whereas, for Jesus, holiness, being truly set apart for God, meant he would offer God’s welcome, love, and presence to people.
He goes on to tell three stories which show us what God is most interested in—what matters most to the heart of the living God.
In each of three stories something valuable is lost.
In verse 4 Jesus says:
4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
The Parable of the Lost Coin
8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
So, in the first parable, the shepherd loses something of real value to him—sheep--and searches for the sheep.
The second parable a woman loses a coin – something that's worth a day's wages and searches out the coin.
Have you ever lost something of value to you and so went on search for that thing?
The other day, I accidentally dropped $60 on the floor of IGA. After I got home I realized I had dropped it and could guess where I dropped it. I went back to the place where I dropped it and it was not there. I was feeling anxious, self-loathing – how could I be so careless? I’ve heard that if Bill Gates drops $100 bill it's not financially in his advantage to waste the energy to stoop down and pick it up. I thought I'm not Bill Gates. I was doubtful that I would find it, but still hopeful. I went to the place in the store where I thought I had dropped it. No sign of it. I went to the lost and found counter. I said I dropped three $20 bills – they were green with a picture of the Queen on any chance anyone turned it in? No sorry. I didn’t find it. (BTW, were any of you in IGA on Tuesday by chance? No—I’m done.) But the point is that for me the lost $60 was something worth searching for.
So the first two parables are about a lost sheep, and a lost coin—things that are worth searching for.
The third parable is about something that is much more valuable and therefore much more worthy of a search—Jesus tells a parable about a son who becomes lost to his father and family.
In this story, the father has two sons and the younger son approaches his father and asks if he would give him his share of the inheritance now. In the culture the younger son by asking for an inheritance was saying in effect, “I would be better off, Dad, if you were dead so I could get your money now.” The father, instead, out of love for his son sells off much of land holdings. He gives the money to his son and the younger son goes to the equivalent of Vegas and spends his money on partying, drugs, and prostitutes
As was true of the shepherd who had lost his sheep, and the woman who had lost her coin, the father who had lost his son desperately longs to find him.
Jesus’ was directing the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son at the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who are criticizing Jesus for his being friends with tax collectors and sinners.
In each of the parables, something is lost—a sheep, a coin, a son, something of great value to someone – something that is worth searching for.
A former teacher of mine, Tim Keller, in his book, The Prodigal God, points out: “There is a striking difference between the third parable and the first two. In the first two, someone goes and searches diligently for what is lost. The searchers let nothing distract them or get in their way, but in the third story, the story of the lost son, we are expecting someone to go out and search for him.” In a sense, the father looks for him, because the parable tells us that while he was still a long way off, he spots him and then sprints toward him to embrace him. It’s likely that he walks to the edge of his property each day and scans the horizon in search of his son. But beyond that, there is no active search for the lost son.
The listeners in Jesus’ day may have asked the question: “Who should have gone out and searched for the lost son?” Jesus and the Pharisees and the teachers of the law should have known the Scriptures well. They should have known that in the first book of the Bible, in Genesis, there is a story of an elder brother and a younger brother, Cain and Abel, and in that story God tells the older brother, “You are your brother’s keeper.” The older brother should have been searching for his lost brother.
Edmund Clowney tells the true story of a young person who was a North American soldier, missing in action during the Vietnam War. When the family could not get any word from the soldier through any official channel, the older son flew to Vietnam, and risking his life searched the jungles and the battlefields for his lost brother. In spite of the danger, he was never hurt because those on both sides heard of his dedication and respected his request. Some of them simply called him “the brother.”
This is what a true elder brother in the parable would have done. He would have said, “My younger brother has been a fool. Now his life is in ruins. I will go and look for him and bring him home.”
And Jesus by telling the Pharisees and the teachers of the law through these stories, and more through his own example, the Pharisees, calls those of us who claim to know the Father that we are to seek out women and men, boys and girls, who are lost to the Father’s love in some way and help them find their way home…help them find their way to the Father’s house. Lost, not in the sense that the Father does not love them, as the parable clearly shows, but lost in the sense of being disconnected from the direct experience of God's love.
As was true for Jesus, sometimes there is a cost, if we associate with people who are considered on the spiritual or moral margins of life, by other “older” brother or sister types (as in Luke 15) who are more traditional. As was true for Jesus, people who are more traditionally moral may look down on us.
Some time ago in a sermon I made a passing reference to attending a party where there was a lot of drinking for the purpose of an illustration on some something that was happening in our culture. Monday morning I received a scathing e-mail from someone that I do not know, asking how I, not just as a Christian, but as a pastor, could go to a party and enjoy spending time with such obviously disgusting depraved people. I am sure this person was very sincere to believe that true holiness means that we separate ourselves from people who are obviously sinners. But, according to Jesus, true holiness, which means being set apart for God’s purpose means that we love and embrace people that some of our brothers and sister types consider sinners. True holiness is about showing God’s mercy, love and passion to those who are lost in his love, for Jesus, as true of Sabine, it was about sharing the presence.
The names Jerry Falwell the fundamentalist Baptist pastor and Larry Flynt the publisher of the pornographic magazine, Hustler, provoke strong reactions from some people in our culture for different reasons. Both for different reasons are likely regarded as “lost.”
They were adversarial and often debated each other on shows like Larry King.
In the 1980s, Larry Flynt's pornographic magazine Hustler carried a parody advertisement of for the alcoholic beverage, featuring a fake interview with Falwell in which he admits that his "first time" was incest with his mother in an outhouse while drunk. Falwell sued for $45 million in compensation alleging invasion of privacy, libel, and intentional infliction of emotional distress
But the following story, shared by Falwell's son Jonathan, describes a moving conversation between them years ago. Jonathan traveled with his dad to Florida where the senior Falwell was debating Larry Flynt, Jonathan recalls:
Mr. Flynt asked my dad if we could give him a ride back to Lynchburg in my dad's private jet. Dad said yes so we traveled to the airport and boarded a beautiful black and gold Gulfstream III. As we flew to Virginia, I sat across from dad and Mr. Flynt as they had a long conversation about sports, food, politics and other ordinary topics. I was amazed and bewildered because they kept talking like old friends. After we dropped off Mr. Flynt in Lynchburg, I asked dad, "How come you could sit on that airplane and carry on a conversation with Larry Flynt as if you guys were lifelong buddies? Dad, he's the exact opposite of everything you believe in; he does all of the things you preach against; and yet you were treating him like a member of your own church. Why?"
Falwell turned to his son, “Jonathan,” he said, “there may be a day when Larry is hurting and I want to keep the door open on our relationship and be available to serve him if I can.”
(Perhaps Larry Flynt wanted to keep the door of friendship open to Jerry Falwells with hopes that Jerry might chill out a bit).
After the death of Falwell in 2007, Larry Flynt released a comment regarding his friendship over the years with Falwell.
"I hated everything he [Jerry Falwell] stood for, but after meeting him in person, years after the trial, Jerry Falwell and I became good friends. He would visit me in California and we would debate together on college campuses. I always appreciated his sincerity.”
I know parents whose children are making lifestyle choices in relationships, drug use, or walking way from God in ways that break their heart… but, if possible, they want to maintain a relationship keep the door open.
There are important people in my own life whose views or life lifestyles are very different from my own, but I want to maintain the relationship and the connection to share God’s love, share the presence (and I find that I receive God’s blessings through people who don’t believe in God’s existence—another sermon).
One of my favourite stories at Tenth that I tell at our newcomers diner is about a woman who was walking through Stanley Park on a rainy day. She ended up running into a pimp that she knew. She began to pour out the woes of her heart to this pimp, all of her personal problems. When she took a breath about 15 minutes later, the pimp said, “I don’t think I can help you, but why don’t you try going to Tenth Church?”
God has called us to be a place of welcome for all. I love it when I hear someone from a particular lifestyle background, such as a sex trade worker, someone of a particular sexual orientation, or an atheist, feels that they wouldn't be welcome here, but the friend who brought them says, “You need to meet Ken personally, or get to know some people in our community.”
I would love this to be a community of welcome for all, including people who are lost in a scandalous way, and those who were lost in a self-righteousness way like the Pharisees.
As was true of Sabine, Jerry, many parents, and I pray me and community like Jesus we are called to love and maintain a connection with people so we can share the presence, share God’s love with them.
As we love and maintain our connections to people who are lost to the Father’s love, they make their way a little closer to God, like the shepherd in the parable, like the woman who lost the coin, like the father. We can experience joy as a person makes their way toward home.
When I was working in Japan for Sony in Tokyo, I began to preach from time to time at my small church. The pastor was eighty years old and was looking for someone to pinch-hit for him from time to time. As I anticipated one day going to seminary and entering vocational ministry, I eagerly volunteered for this opportunity. My grandmother in Tokyo heard a rumor that I was preaching. She was both intrigued and amused. She remembered me as a little brat whose favorite book was the Sears Christmas catalog and she recalled I used to always ask her, “Grandma, how can I be rich when I grow up?” More out of curiosity than anything else she decided she would come and hear me preach…. She had not been to church in over two decades. On a cold, wet February morning she rode the Tokyo subway and buses for over an hour to come to our church.
She sat in the second to the back row on the right hand side of our small chapel… I got up and I gave a short message on the work of the cross from Galatians, Chapter 2, and sat down. The 80- year-old pastor came up to the podium and said, “Brother Shigematsu… after that kind of message, you should have given an invitation.” He continued, “Come up here and give an invitation…”
I was unprepared… embarrassed… The mood in the little chapel grew tense… and awkward… but I had recently watched Billy Graham… on video… so I just plagiarized him… I said, “If you are here and don’t know Christ, if you need to make your commitment or re-commitment to Christ, I want you to stand up and come… by coming you’re saying in your heart, ‘I commit myself to Jesus’.”
As we sang the closing hymn I looked up after the first stanza, no one was coming… my heart was sinking. We sang the second stanza… no one moving. After the third stanza, one woman began to move her way to the aisle and came… We sang the final stanza, I closed the hymnal. I looked up and there were 17-18… people. My grandmother was among them….
With tears streaming down her face, she said, “This is the happiest day of my life.
I thought I was a Christian, but today for the first time, I understood why Jesus Christ died on the cross for me.”
I often think of that day—one of the great days of my life, because it was the day my grandmother experienced peace with God.
Even one of my sisters who is an agnostic, said “This alone made your two years in Japan worth it.”
When we welcome someone in our lives, love them, share the presence, and point them to Christ, it may be not our grandmother, but it may be somebody’s grandmother, somebody’s son, somebody’s daughter, somebody’s sister, somebody’s dad…somebody’s “person.”
When we see a son or a daughter who is lost to the living God experience home-coming, not only is it a gift to them, but it is a gift to God. Because what matters most to God are his sons and daughters, and when they come home, like a shepherd who finds his lost sheep, like a woman who finds a lost coin, like a mom who finds a lost daughter, he throws a party in heaven.
Prayer…
If you are here and are lost to the Father’s love, please know that he and Jesus, your true elder brother, welcome you home.
Receive his love and a new beginning.
And if you know the Father’s Love, is there someone with whom you can share this love…someone you can pray for?
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu (with Sabine Lague giving testimony before the offering)
Title: What Matters Most?
Text: Luke 15
BIG IDEA: People who are lost to God’s love matter deeply to him and will matter to those of us who follow him.
Recently our three-year-old son Joey was invited to a couple of birthday parties of friends who are at his pre-school. We don’t know either of these families well, but I am acquainted with one of the moms of one of the birthday boys. Sakiko wanted me to find out what the son might want as a gift. I e-mailed her directly and asked, “What should we get your son for his birthday?” She e-mailed back and said, “I am sure he would enjoy anything that you would get him.” Sakiko said, “You shouldn’t have asked so directly.”
When I approached the second mother at a group dinner, I made the same mistake and asked, “What do you think we should get your son for his birthday?” I could see that she was demurring and Iremembered Sakiko's advice, so I said, “Oh, I should not have asked so directly. Tell me, what is your son interested in doing?” The mother said, “Well, he really likes Lego these days, so if you got him a small box of Lego he would be really happy.”
Sometimes when we are buying a gift for someone that we do not know well, it can be hard to know what they are really interested in and therefore what would be a good gift for them. Sometimes, even for people that we know quite well it can be hard to get that person a gift because they don’t have a clear passion for something, a real hobby, or something that they are really interested in.
Isn’t it great when someone tells you directly and honestly what they are passionate about?
In the pages of Scripture it is very clear what God is interested in. In the parables of Jesus that we are about to look at we are going to see what matters most to the living God.
Pray:
If you have your Bibles please turn to Luke 15:
So, here’s the context in vss. 1-2:
The Parable of the Lost Sheep
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law, who were these highly devout people who strictly observed the Scriptures, were muttering about Jesus because he welcomes tax collectors and sinners and eats with them. The tax collectors were seen by the Hebrew people as being traitors in bed with Rome because they would overcharge their fellow Hebrews—they could tax them at 70 or 80 percent in some cases, give Rome what was required, and pocket the rest.
In the Middle Eastern Hebrew culture of Jesus’ day for a person to eat with another was no casual thing. It signified friendship. It was a sign of acceptance.
Now, we tend to think of Pharisees today as people who are self-righteous hypocrites.
In Jesus’ day, however, the Pharisees were people who sincerely wanted to live a life that was pleasing to God. They were very bright. For the most part they were highly educated lay people. They were the respected, devout lawyers of their time. They were aware that the reason they and their people, the Hebrews, were living in a kind of exile in their own land, that is they were living in exile in the sense that they were under the foreign domination of Rome in their homeland, because, according to Deuteronomy, their people had disobeyed God and therefore they were being judged by God.
So the Pharisees were passionate about keeping the law of God as they understood it. In fact, they had atomized God’s law into 613 rules, 248 commandments, 365 prohibitions, and bolstered these rules by 1,521 emendations. For example, to avoid defiling the Sabbath, the day of rest, they outlawed 39 activities that might be considered work. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were very concerned about keeping every part of God’s Word.
The Pharisees had a practice of lowering their heads and not even looking at a woman to avoid any kind of sexual temptation. Some of the Pharisees were known as "bleeding Pharisees" because they bumped into walls and pillars while looking down.
Jesus was also passionate about keeping God’s Word, but his focus was different from the Pharisees. The Pharisees believed that keeping God’s Word meant that they would be completely separate from the sinful sinners of their world, so as not to be defiled by them. Their holiness led them to exclude the people of this world. Whereas, for Jesus, holiness, being truly set apart for God, meant he would offer God’s welcome, love, and presence to people.
He goes on to tell three stories which show us what God is most interested in—what matters most to the heart of the living God.
In each of three stories something valuable is lost.
In verse 4 Jesus says:
4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
The Parable of the Lost Coin
8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
So, in the first parable, the shepherd loses something of real value to him—sheep--and searches for the sheep.
The second parable a woman loses a coin – something that's worth a day's wages and searches out the coin.
Have you ever lost something of value to you and so went on search for that thing?
The other day, I accidentally dropped $60 on the floor of IGA. After I got home I realized I had dropped it and could guess where I dropped it. I went back to the place where I dropped it and it was not there. I was feeling anxious, self-loathing – how could I be so careless? I’ve heard that if Bill Gates drops $100 bill it's not financially in his advantage to waste the energy to stoop down and pick it up. I thought I'm not Bill Gates. I was doubtful that I would find it, but still hopeful. I went to the place in the store where I thought I had dropped it. No sign of it. I went to the lost and found counter. I said I dropped three $20 bills – they were green with a picture of the Queen on any chance anyone turned it in? No sorry. I didn’t find it. (BTW, were any of you in IGA on Tuesday by chance? No—I’m done.) But the point is that for me the lost $60 was something worth searching for.
So the first two parables are about a lost sheep, and a lost coin—things that are worth searching for.
The third parable is about something that is much more valuable and therefore much more worthy of a search—Jesus tells a parable about a son who becomes lost to his father and family.
In this story, the father has two sons and the younger son approaches his father and asks if he would give him his share of the inheritance now. In the culture the younger son by asking for an inheritance was saying in effect, “I would be better off, Dad, if you were dead so I could get your money now.” The father, instead, out of love for his son sells off much of land holdings. He gives the money to his son and the younger son goes to the equivalent of Vegas and spends his money on partying, drugs, and prostitutes
As was true of the shepherd who had lost his sheep, and the woman who had lost her coin, the father who had lost his son desperately longs to find him.
Jesus’ was directing the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son at the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who are criticizing Jesus for his being friends with tax collectors and sinners.
In each of the parables, something is lost—a sheep, a coin, a son, something of great value to someone – something that is worth searching for.
A former teacher of mine, Tim Keller, in his book, The Prodigal God, points out: “There is a striking difference between the third parable and the first two. In the first two, someone goes and searches diligently for what is lost. The searchers let nothing distract them or get in their way, but in the third story, the story of the lost son, we are expecting someone to go out and search for him.” In a sense, the father looks for him, because the parable tells us that while he was still a long way off, he spots him and then sprints toward him to embrace him. It’s likely that he walks to the edge of his property each day and scans the horizon in search of his son. But beyond that, there is no active search for the lost son.
The listeners in Jesus’ day may have asked the question: “Who should have gone out and searched for the lost son?” Jesus and the Pharisees and the teachers of the law should have known the Scriptures well. They should have known that in the first book of the Bible, in Genesis, there is a story of an elder brother and a younger brother, Cain and Abel, and in that story God tells the older brother, “You are your brother’s keeper.” The older brother should have been searching for his lost brother.
Edmund Clowney tells the true story of a young person who was a North American soldier, missing in action during the Vietnam War. When the family could not get any word from the soldier through any official channel, the older son flew to Vietnam, and risking his life searched the jungles and the battlefields for his lost brother. In spite of the danger, he was never hurt because those on both sides heard of his dedication and respected his request. Some of them simply called him “the brother.”
This is what a true elder brother in the parable would have done. He would have said, “My younger brother has been a fool. Now his life is in ruins. I will go and look for him and bring him home.”
And Jesus by telling the Pharisees and the teachers of the law through these stories, and more through his own example, the Pharisees, calls those of us who claim to know the Father that we are to seek out women and men, boys and girls, who are lost to the Father’s love in some way and help them find their way home…help them find their way to the Father’s house. Lost, not in the sense that the Father does not love them, as the parable clearly shows, but lost in the sense of being disconnected from the direct experience of God's love.
As was true for Jesus, sometimes there is a cost, if we associate with people who are considered on the spiritual or moral margins of life, by other “older” brother or sister types (as in Luke 15) who are more traditional. As was true for Jesus, people who are more traditionally moral may look down on us.
Some time ago in a sermon I made a passing reference to attending a party where there was a lot of drinking for the purpose of an illustration on some something that was happening in our culture. Monday morning I received a scathing e-mail from someone that I do not know, asking how I, not just as a Christian, but as a pastor, could go to a party and enjoy spending time with such obviously disgusting depraved people. I am sure this person was very sincere to believe that true holiness means that we separate ourselves from people who are obviously sinners. But, according to Jesus, true holiness, which means being set apart for God’s purpose means that we love and embrace people that some of our brothers and sister types consider sinners. True holiness is about showing God’s mercy, love and passion to those who are lost in his love, for Jesus, as true of Sabine, it was about sharing the presence.
The names Jerry Falwell the fundamentalist Baptist pastor and Larry Flynt the publisher of the pornographic magazine, Hustler, provoke strong reactions from some people in our culture for different reasons. Both for different reasons are likely regarded as “lost.”
They were adversarial and often debated each other on shows like Larry King.
In the 1980s, Larry Flynt's pornographic magazine Hustler carried a parody advertisement of for the alcoholic beverage, featuring a fake interview with Falwell in which he admits that his "first time" was incest with his mother in an outhouse while drunk. Falwell sued for $45 million in compensation alleging invasion of privacy, libel, and intentional infliction of emotional distress
But the following story, shared by Falwell's son Jonathan, describes a moving conversation between them years ago. Jonathan traveled with his dad to Florida where the senior Falwell was debating Larry Flynt, Jonathan recalls:
Mr. Flynt asked my dad if we could give him a ride back to Lynchburg in my dad's private jet. Dad said yes so we traveled to the airport and boarded a beautiful black and gold Gulfstream III. As we flew to Virginia, I sat across from dad and Mr. Flynt as they had a long conversation about sports, food, politics and other ordinary topics. I was amazed and bewildered because they kept talking like old friends. After we dropped off Mr. Flynt in Lynchburg, I asked dad, "How come you could sit on that airplane and carry on a conversation with Larry Flynt as if you guys were lifelong buddies? Dad, he's the exact opposite of everything you believe in; he does all of the things you preach against; and yet you were treating him like a member of your own church. Why?"
Falwell turned to his son, “Jonathan,” he said, “there may be a day when Larry is hurting and I want to keep the door open on our relationship and be available to serve him if I can.”
(Perhaps Larry Flynt wanted to keep the door of friendship open to Jerry Falwells with hopes that Jerry might chill out a bit).
After the death of Falwell in 2007, Larry Flynt released a comment regarding his friendship over the years with Falwell.
"I hated everything he [Jerry Falwell] stood for, but after meeting him in person, years after the trial, Jerry Falwell and I became good friends. He would visit me in California and we would debate together on college campuses. I always appreciated his sincerity.”
I know parents whose children are making lifestyle choices in relationships, drug use, or walking way from God in ways that break their heart… but, if possible, they want to maintain a relationship keep the door open.
There are important people in my own life whose views or life lifestyles are very different from my own, but I want to maintain the relationship and the connection to share God’s love, share the presence (and I find that I receive God’s blessings through people who don’t believe in God’s existence—another sermon).
One of my favourite stories at Tenth that I tell at our newcomers diner is about a woman who was walking through Stanley Park on a rainy day. She ended up running into a pimp that she knew. She began to pour out the woes of her heart to this pimp, all of her personal problems. When she took a breath about 15 minutes later, the pimp said, “I don’t think I can help you, but why don’t you try going to Tenth Church?”
God has called us to be a place of welcome for all. I love it when I hear someone from a particular lifestyle background, such as a sex trade worker, someone of a particular sexual orientation, or an atheist, feels that they wouldn't be welcome here, but the friend who brought them says, “You need to meet Ken personally, or get to know some people in our community.”
I would love this to be a community of welcome for all, including people who are lost in a scandalous way, and those who were lost in a self-righteousness way like the Pharisees.
As was true of Sabine, Jerry, many parents, and I pray me and community like Jesus we are called to love and maintain a connection with people so we can share the presence, share God’s love with them.
As we love and maintain our connections to people who are lost to the Father’s love, they make their way a little closer to God, like the shepherd in the parable, like the woman who lost the coin, like the father. We can experience joy as a person makes their way toward home.
When I was working in Japan for Sony in Tokyo, I began to preach from time to time at my small church. The pastor was eighty years old and was looking for someone to pinch-hit for him from time to time. As I anticipated one day going to seminary and entering vocational ministry, I eagerly volunteered for this opportunity. My grandmother in Tokyo heard a rumor that I was preaching. She was both intrigued and amused. She remembered me as a little brat whose favorite book was the Sears Christmas catalog and she recalled I used to always ask her, “Grandma, how can I be rich when I grow up?” More out of curiosity than anything else she decided she would come and hear me preach…. She had not been to church in over two decades. On a cold, wet February morning she rode the Tokyo subway and buses for over an hour to come to our church.
She sat in the second to the back row on the right hand side of our small chapel… I got up and I gave a short message on the work of the cross from Galatians, Chapter 2, and sat down. The 80- year-old pastor came up to the podium and said, “Brother Shigematsu… after that kind of message, you should have given an invitation.” He continued, “Come up here and give an invitation…”
I was unprepared… embarrassed… The mood in the little chapel grew tense… and awkward… but I had recently watched Billy Graham… on video… so I just plagiarized him… I said, “If you are here and don’t know Christ, if you need to make your commitment or re-commitment to Christ, I want you to stand up and come… by coming you’re saying in your heart, ‘I commit myself to Jesus’.”
As we sang the closing hymn I looked up after the first stanza, no one was coming… my heart was sinking. We sang the second stanza… no one moving. After the third stanza, one woman began to move her way to the aisle and came… We sang the final stanza, I closed the hymnal. I looked up and there were 17-18… people. My grandmother was among them….
With tears streaming down her face, she said, “This is the happiest day of my life.
I thought I was a Christian, but today for the first time, I understood why Jesus Christ died on the cross for me.”
I often think of that day—one of the great days of my life, because it was the day my grandmother experienced peace with God.
Even one of my sisters who is an agnostic, said “This alone made your two years in Japan worth it.”
When we welcome someone in our lives, love them, share the presence, and point them to Christ, it may be not our grandmother, but it may be somebody’s grandmother, somebody’s son, somebody’s daughter, somebody’s sister, somebody’s dad…somebody’s “person.”
When we see a son or a daughter who is lost to the living God experience home-coming, not only is it a gift to them, but it is a gift to God. Because what matters most to God are his sons and daughters, and when they come home, like a shepherd who finds his lost sheep, like a woman who finds a lost coin, like a mom who finds a lost daughter, he throws a party in heaven.
Prayer…
If you are here and are lost to the Father’s love, please know that he and Jesus, your true elder brother, welcome you home.
Receive his love and a new beginning.
And if you know the Father’s Love, is there someone with whom you can share this love…someone you can pray for?
posted by Shigematsu at 2:08 PM
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