October 12, 2025
Luke 15:1-10
Introduction
“This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Maybe it’s just me, but does this line of holy scripture sound like it’s straight out of a Monty Python sketch? “Now look here… Go tell your master we have been charged by God with a sacred quest for the Holy Grail. If he gives us food and shelter, we will permit him to join us.”
“No. Go away. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries! And if that wasn’t bad enough wasn’t bad enough… This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them. Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!”
But this isn’t the only connection we can also make. The shepherd and the woman of the parables today are also on a sacred quest. Not for the Holy Grail, but for wholeness and completeness. And that’s what our text for today is getting at.
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So let me ask you… If you were to imagine your life as whole and complete what would that look like for you? What would it mean for you today? What qualities or characteristics would describe a whole and complete life?
Now, let me ask… Are you living a whole and complete life? If not, what keeps that from happening? What is missing or has been lost? What would it take for you to live a bit more wholeheartedly today?
I’m confident we all want wholeness and completeness in our lives. I believe that’s God’s desire for us. And our text for today supports that belief because living a whole and complete life is what Jesus was getting at when he said earlier, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” The longing and desire for wholeness and completeness are revealed in today’s Gospel by the shepherd who goes after the one lost sheep until he finds it, and by the woman who searches carefully until she finds the one lost coin.
Typically, we often make the lost sheep and lost coin the focus of today’s Gospel. We even call today’s Gospel “the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the lost coin.” But what if we thought of them as parables of wholeness and completeness? And what if the repentance that brings joy to heaven and the angels of God is about finding and recovering the lost parts of ourselves? Because isn’t that what really happens to the shepherd and the woman—they lost something incredibly important and valuable to them, then search until it’s found? And when they find what was lost, they are so filled with joy they can’t help but call their neighbors to tell them the good news—what was lost…has been found. What was fractured and incomplete is now whole and compete.
Move 1
When Jesus tells these parables, the shepherd starts with one hundred sheep, and the woman had ten coins. But to see and hear these parables as being about wholeness and completeness, what we need to understand is that those numbers are about more than simple quantities. And we can grasp that understanding when we realize that the lives of the shepherd and the women were whole and complete until something was lost.
And then with that understanding, we next need to go deeper into this understanding and realize also it’s not just any sheep nor is it just any coin. It’s this particular sheep, and this particular coin. They are not commodities to be replaced or written off. Rather they are unique aspects essential to a life of wholeness and completeness for the shepherd and the woman. So, when you hear “sheep” or “coin” don’t simply picture a sheep and a coin. Instead, picture that which is important to you; that which is essential to your life; that which you would do anything necessary to keep in your life. That is what the “sheep” is to the shepherd. That is what the “coin” is to the woman.
Without that particular sheep… without that particular coin… their lives are now incomplete, diminished, and less than whole. Something fundamental to their life is missing and they know it. A deeply unique aspect of their very being has been lost, and everything stops—everything—until it is found. That’s what we need to understand about these parables and what Jesus is getting at when telling them.
Now, with that understanding, I want to ask… Who among us doesn’t know what it’s like to have a fundamental to part their life go missing?
Move 2
What’s missing in your life today? What parts of yourself have been lost? What are you searching for? When have you had a restless longing, a sense that there was something missing? Have you ever looked in the mirror and wondered where the joy, enthusiasm, vitality of your life went? What was behind those feelings? Has something been lost in a friendship, your marriage or parenting, your work, maybe your retirement years? When have you wanted to get a relationship, or a situation, or even your life turned around?
That’s a longing for wholeness and completeness. And such a longing comes because sometimes we lose parts of ourselves—and we can lose parts of ourselves for any number of reasons. We lose parts of ourselves to grief and sorrow; to the pain and wounds of life; or when life becomes overwhelming and confusing. We can certainly lose parts of ourselves as we age and get older; when we become empty nesters; when we move to a new community.
The reasons are limitless, but what enters into our life when we lose parts of ourselves is always the same— uncertainty, exhaustion, and ambiguity. Sometimes we lose ourselves to fear, anger, jealously, wanting to be right, the judgments we make of others and ourselves, refusing to forgive. Sometimes we lose ourselves to success, gaining approval, meeting the expectations of others. Sometimes the lost part of ourselves is faith, hope, a dream. It is so easy to lose a piece of ourselves and it can happen in a thousand different ways.
Maybe the greatest loss is a loss of connection to depth and the sense that we belong to, and are a part of, something larger than, and beyond, ourselves. When that happens, we lose ourselves to the banal and superficial. And when that happens the temptation for us is to settle for a life less than whole and incomplete. But that’s not what I want for you or myself, and it’s not what I want for this congregation or our community.
The woman refused to settle for a 90% life and the shepherd refused to settle for a 99% life. And because they refused to settle, they set themselves on a quest to be whole again—to have their 100% life. That is the lesson Jesus is giving in these parables. Jesus is saying, “Don’t settle for an incomplete life. Don’t settle for a life that is not whole.” Set let’s not settle.
Move 3
The shepherd “goes after [the lost sheep] until he finds it,” and the woman “searches carefully [for the coin] until she finds it.” Until he finds it, until she finds it… they persevere. Until he finds it, until she finds it… they don’t give up or settle for a partial life. Until he finds it, until she finds it… they look for their life until they find it. And they did. They found it and so will we.
That is the promise to each of us in today’s Gospel. You and I will find wholeness and completeness. Our community, our country, will find wholeness and completeness. Sometimes that means lighting a lamp, sweeping, and searching our own house. Other times the search takes us to the wilderness and the risky and untamed parts of life. But regardless of what needs to be done or where we need to go to do it, we first have to commit to doing it. The quest for wholeness and completeness requires us to first not settle for a 90% life, or even 99% life. And second, this quest requires us to persevere by acknowledging we desire and deserve completeness and wholeness—just as all of God’s children do because that is what God’s wants for all God’s children.
Wholeness and completeness are not something we simply pray for, and hope God will bless us with. Wholeness and completeness are what we pray God will remind us of what we have been created for and that God will lead us to find.
Conclusion
I don’t know how or when the finding will happen for you, me, or our community, or our country, but I know it will happen. I’ve experienced it in my life, and I’ve seen it happen in the lives of others—many of them right here in this room. That finding returns us to ourselves. It returns us to who God created us to be. And it ready’s us for the next time we find ourselves fractured and incomplete—because we know that happens right? The searching and finding is an ongoing process because even living the life God intends for us is an ongoing process. We don’t simply achieve wholeness and completeness and the rest of our days are perfect. Losing parts of ourselves is part of life. Which means finding ourselves again, and not settling, must be part of our lives too.
The Pharisees could only focus on who Jesus sat and ate with. And because they did, they were broken, fractured, and incomplete. Their self-righteous judgement kept them from seeing what life could be. Their fears convinced them to never take a risk for anything else. Their self-satisfaction caused them to settle for what they had instead of seeking what God would give. That way of life will never be whole or complete—it will always be lost.
So may we strive to be like the shepherd and the woman of today’s parables. Because each time we lose a part of ourselves, and then do the hard work of searching and finding so that we are whole and complete always brings forth joy and celebration that what was lost is found, what was broken has been made whole, and the life God intends is being lived. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, October 12, 2025
Creator God, source of all life and beauty, we come before you today with hearts that long for wholeness and completeness, as well as a life that reflects your divine intention for all your children.
We confess we often live in fragmented and broken ways; in ways that break us apart and cause us to lose ourselves due to anxieties, distractions, and the pressures of the world—which always results in us allowing our lives to be defined by brokenness and by being less than complete, while forgetting the abundant life you offer through your Son, Jesus Christ is always waiting for us to find it again.
Forgive us merciful God, for the times we have tried to fill the empty spaces within us with that which does not satisfy and leads us only further away from the life you intend for us.
We pray you take the shattered pieces of our hearts and spirits—our hurts, our fears, our disappointments, are banal reasons to settle— and ask that you would mend every crack and fill every empty space with your healing presence, your grace, and your strength to risk and persevere.
Gracious Shepherd, you came that we might have life and have it abundantly. We pray you will lead us in paths of righteousness, guiding us away from the broken places and toward the green pastures of your purpose.
By the power of your Holy Spirit, empower us to surrender our incomplete selves to you, trusting that you are the restorer of souls.
Fill us with your love, joy, and peace, so that our lives may become living examples of the abundant life found in Christ Jesus.
And then, use our past brokenness for your glory, transforming our wounds into testimonies of your grace and restoration that always leads your children to whole and complete lives.
We ask that you would hear now the prayers deep within our hearts and spirits that we now lift to you in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of our Shepherd who will never let us stay lost, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray saying, “Our…”