September 14, 2025 "Which Comes First?"

14th Sunday After Pentecost

Exodus 32:7-14

Psalm 51:1-10

1 Timothy 1:12-17

Luke 15:1-10

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

grace and peace to you

from the one who is always searching for us. Amen

Our readings for today

kind of remind me of that classic philosophical question:

 which came first, the chicken or the egg?

But instead of debating the first emergence of a barnyard bird

our readings ask the question:

what comes first? Mercy or repentance?

 And like the chicken and egg debate

arguments can be made for both,

though it becomes clear pretty quickly which side God falls on

 with humans, especially religious humans, taking the other side.

Luke sets the stage for Jesus teaching in parables

 by telling us that tax collectors and sinners

were coming near to listen to Jesus teach,

and the scribes and the Pharisees watching this were grumbling

 “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

they are clearly of the belief

that repentance must come first

 before engagement with God and the religious community

(I mean look how unholy they are! If they had any respect for God they’d be behaving differently!)

 and that it is the responsibility of the sinners

 to know they are in the wrong

 (perhaps with the help of some already religious and righteous people who are good at pointing out the flaws of others)

and once they know they are in the wrong

it is up to them to clean up their act

and then return to God and the community

and proceed to fit in and act right,

and mercy comes in at the point of rejoining the community

 after having cleaned up their act. 

And before we lay this way of thinking

entirely at the feet of the scribes and pharisees,

let us remember that this perspective is alive and well today,

from the obvious examples

like repentance being required before baptism in some communities

 to the more subtle examples like saying “well why don’t they just come to church?”

just expecting others to know that they need God and community

and to do the work of seeking it out.

 I know I have been guilty of this one.

And it’s understandable how we might think this way

because that is how groups that gather around ideologies form in society at large

 - you believe something,

act a certain way

and therefore are part of a group of people who do the same,

who believe that this (whatever it is)

 is the right way and seek to reinforce it

and convince others to act in this way too

 and a particularly effective strategy for coalescing a group of people,

at least the people already in the group,

 is to have a common adversary,

 “at least we’re not those  people” thinking. 

In fact we have reached a particularly pernicious form of this in our society today,

 particularly in the political realm

where now it is not enough that people belong to a certain party,

or hold a certain ideology,

but that those who are part of a different party

or who hold different ideologies

 are not just seen as wrong but as a threat,

 where it seems there is no longer even room for repentance

 leading to an increase in political violence as we saw this week.

This is not normal,

this is not okay,

and it is definitely not what God desires

 and it is not how God acts or calls the followers of God to act.

Because for God what comes first is mercy.

“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?” Jesus asks his critics

knowing that many,

when assessing if it would be worth looking for the sheep or coin,

 would decide that it was not worth the time and the labor

or the risk to the other sheep to bring the one back,

regardless of the fact that it was not the sheep or the coin’s fault that it was lost

- that responsibility is very clearly placed on the respective owners.

 And of course it is even less likely

that upon finding the sheep or the coin

 that they would invite their neighbors over for a party to celebrate

 but that’s just what Jesus has the shepherd and the woman in the parables doing,

 concluding “Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Now it is very common when interpreting these parables

 to attribute the role of the one searching and celebrating to God

 and this mostly works

 because of the many other instances of God acting in this way,

 of seeking and celebrating before any repentance.

 We see this in God’s dealings with the Israelites

 bringing them out of slavery into freedom

and providing for them in the wilderness.

 The portion of the story we get in our first reading today

 is a bit of a rocky patch in that relationship,

God has brought the people to Mt. Sinani

 and gathered them around to watch

 as God gives them through Moses the law,

 and they agree to follow the law,

 and then God invites Moses to come up the mountain again

while God puts the law on stone tablets,

 and so Moses goes up the mountain

 leaving the people at the base,

and it takes awhile,

so long that the people give up on Moses

 and ask Aaron to make a golden idol for them to worship,

almost immediately breaking the covenant,

 and God, aware of this

tells Moses to stand back,

 he’s going to destroy these people

 and make a covenant with Moses instead.

 And Moses reminds God of all the promises God has made,

 all the times that God has reached out first

 and guided the ancestors

 and God relents,

 God chooses mercy,

and gives the people more time in the wilderness

 to learn the ways of God.

Even as the people move into the promised land

 God continues to reach out first,

 to offer mercy as the people continually go astray.

 Now this is where placing God

 in the role of the shepherd and the woman in the parables breaks down a bit,

it is clear in the parables that they are responsible for the loss of the sheep and the coin,

but I don’t believe that God is responsible for losing anyone,

 that being said I also don’t think it’s always someone’s fault if they get lost,

 there are other factors at play in the world-

 but exploring all that is for another sermon,

 the point is that people get lost,

 find themselves separated from God

 and are unable to return of their own accord,

they need to be found,

brought back, and celebrated,

 before they can begin to change their lives.

 As commentator Matthew Myer Boulton remarks “How will they truly change their lives unless God gracefully finds and embraces them in the first place? Grace doesn’t follow repentance — grace makes repentance possible!” (https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2019/9/10/rejoice-with-me-salts-lectionary-commentary-for-fourteenth-week-after-pentecost) 

We see this ever so clearly with Paul.

As Saul he actively persecutes followers of Jesus

 because they do not think like him,

he has gotten all the way to the point of violence,

present at the killing of Stephen,

and he is continuing on this path

on the way to Damascus

when Jesus appears to him

and it is such a transformative experience

 that the Saul who was breathing threats and murder against The Way

 repents and is transformed into the apostle Paul

who even years later in his first letter to Timothy

 is still marveling over his experience of grace saying

 “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost.  But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience as an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

What comes first, mercy or repentance?

For God it is mercy

and as those who have received the mercy of God

 we are called to offer mercy first as well,

to look around and count the sheep and the coins,

 to notice who is lost,

 to search high and low for them,

 and when we find them

 rejoice,

as God has rejoiced over us. Amen