Dear Christian friends:

An inner city church, located in an area of downtown where there were few residents, was forced to make a decision. A large corporation was offering considerable money for their site, on which the corporation wanted to put a parking lot. The money would enable the church to move to another part of the inner city where they would find many more people to serve. Even though this was exciting to some of the members of the congregation, other members were resistant to the idea. They argued that the church was guarding of a building whose history and architecture reached back into the early part of the nineteenth century. Denomination history had been made in that building at that location, and some of the great leaders of the denomination had passed through its doors.

Eventually the congregation decided to sell the place and move to a new site and into a new building in the inner city bursting with people. The pastor who led the congregation through all this upheaval said, "We had to decide whether we wanted to be in a museum or in a mission." They couldn't have it both ways. It meant either staying at their old site, glorying in their past and serving a few people, or giving up their past and organizing to really serve many people, some in dire need. They chose mission status over museum status.

In the Gospel lesson for today, which is our text, we find a similar struggle. The Pharisees and the law teachers were in favor of a museum type church. They wanted attention given to those people who were stable, pious and not a problem if invited to join their country club church. However, Jesus wanted to serve all kinds of people, including the unstable and those who might give problems.

It is not only ancient congregations with historical buildings and sites that are in danger of being in a museum rather than in a mission. Churches as new as Mt. Calvary are also in danger of having attitudes that opt for museum status rather than mission status.


To be in mission we need to love all kinds of people, especially the lost.

When the Pharisees and law teachers saw that Jesus was ministering to crooked politicians and gross sinners, they complained, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." (verse 2) They were not so much offended that Jesus ate with them but that He preached the gospel to them, considering them worthy for God's kingdom. They taught and believed that only Israelites were worthy of God's salvation and only those Israelites who kept their strict rules, laws and ceremonies. They, were self-righteous and, so, could not identify with other sinners.

So Jesus proceeds to tell them the three well known parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. The first two are part of our text. In these parables Jesus tells about the great love of the persons for that which was lost and their great joy upon finding the lost. At the end of the first parable Jesus adds these significant words: "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." (verse 7) Every person is dear to God whether in the sheepfold or lost, just as a child is always precious to its parents whether lost or safe at home.

So, we Christians should love and value all kinds of people, especially the lost, just as heaven does. And we will if we remember that we were also among the lost at one time, and yet God loved us and in great mercy found us, as we sing in that most popular hymn:

"Amazing grace! How sweet the sound! That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see!"

We need to identify with the lost. When hurricane Andrew swept across South Florida a few years ago, destroying the area around Homestead, the first people down there to help were those from the Charleston, South Carolina, area who had experienced the misery of hurricane Hugo a couple of years before, and they came with big tractor trailers loaded with the right stuff. Empathy for the lost is what we need, and we will have it if we have known ourselves how it feels to be a lost and condemned sinner redeemed by the love and mercy of a gracious God.

This love and mercy of God was demonstrated in the life of Francis Thompson. As a boy he dreamed of becoming a priest, but later on, laziness and indifference kept him out of the seminary. He enrolled in medical school, but failed there also. Soon he was hooked on opium which almost destroyed both mind and body. Next he became a beggar in the slums, making a little money shining shoes and selling matches. Finally, through the help of a poor girl, he was introduced to some people who recognized his talent and helped him change his life.

He died in 1907 at the age of 48. During his last few good years, he became a poet and wrote one of the best known religious poems in the English language: "The Hound of Heaven."

Thompson saw himself as of no account, running from God, but God like a pursuing hound, continued to chase after him until he was brought to the knowledge of "amazing grace." After that realization he just had to tell the world of God's eternal goodness in his famous poem.

Like a hound chasing a rabbit, God runs after the lost sinners to bring them the good news of His love. And He wants to use us in this chase. He needs a church in a mission, not in a museum.

A church in mission must also be committed to work diligently and have strategies for mission.

In our text we have the example of the shepherd who left the ninety-nine sheep secured and traveled over hill and dale searching and searching until he found his lost sheep. And we also have the example of the woman who lost one of her ten coins. She lit a lamp, swept the whole house, and searched carefully until she found it. (verse 4, 8) Notice also, the woman's strategy for finding the lost coin.

We also need to work diligently, and we need to have strategies for mission in seeking and finding the lost. We already have good plans and strategies here at Mt. Calvary. We have a preschool, day care, summer safari, a parochial school, and a Sunday School. We also have a ministry to the deaf and to the Chinese. But we need dedicated, committed people who, like Jesus, love all kinds of people, especially the lost and those who might give us problems.

One Sunday morning Mary and Ann were sitting in church quietly crying. About one year before the pastor had asked them: "Will you teach Sunday School?" Mary said, "Yes," and then she studied a lot to make her lessons interesting for her class of girls. She also went out into the neighborhood inviting the children to come to their Sunday School. She succeeded in getting one little girl to join her class and through the girl the parents were led to attend Bible Class and the worship services. On this Sunday the ten-year old girl and her parents were being baptized. Mary was so happy she cried tears of joy.

Ann, however, had refused to teach in the Sunday School. She had confided in Mary that she didn't want to spend the time and trouble that it would require. And she did not lead anyone to Jesus. Ann was sad and cried in shame and in regret.

May God give us all His grace that we here at Mt. Calvary may always be a church in a mission and not in a museum.

Amen.