The Shepherd's Pursuit

This sermon was preached by Pastor Ted Carnahan on the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 14, 2025.

Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I don't usually take much notice of news-grabbing headlines in my preaching, mostly because, if you pay attention, there's always a news-grabbing headline of some sort. And once you do that, then you become always subject to criticism about why you chose to speak on some things and not on other things. "Why don't you care about me?"

Of course, though, this is a little bit different. In the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, today we have an opportunity to hear something that might otherwise have been difficult for us to hear.

And that's not because I agree with everything that Charlie Kirk ever said. That's not true at all. On many topics I find myself myself nodding along and agreeing and seeing in his words the practical application of his Christian faith to tough political issues of our times. And I'd say, though, probably I actually agreed with, I don't know, maybe 70% of the things that he said.

But his death brings some things into sharp focus for us. Here we have a good man, a husband and a father, who was liked by everybody he spent time with, standing on his principles, standing on his Christian faith, going to places where he often was in the minority (as far as opinions go) and offering a fair debate to all comers.

In fact, oftentimes you can see in his videos him shushing the crowd to allow people to speak before then engaging them in debate. And he was motivated by his Christian faith and was offering public dialogue.

And that public dialogue he offered for a particular reason. He said so on multiple occasions that the reason he offered public dialogue was because if we stop talking to each other, that's when violence happens.

But despite his commitment to not engaging in violence and trying to dissuade it, he was brutally murdered in a terrible and public way.

Questions in the Face of Tragedy

What can we say about all this? How can an innocent man come to such an end? Where is a good God in this situation?

Into these questions comes the teaching from Jesus today in St. Luke's Gospel, a gospel which, incidentally, was planned years ago to be read on this particular day, but which offers us, I think, tremendous insight into this situation.

Jesus is spending time in this passage with "tax collectors and sinners," and it scandalizes the Pharisees. Tax collectors would have been seen as traitors to the Jewish people. "Here you are, you call yourself a Jew, but you are going to live among us and you're going to farm us for taxes?"

In fact, tax collectors got a really bad rap because not only were they sometimes violently extracting taxes from people on behalf of Rome, but the way that they got their bonuses was if they could extract more taxes than what was owed, then they got to keep the rest.

People hated tax collectors even more, I think, than we hate people who work for the IRS today.

And then the other group of people that he was spending time with was "sinners." And that was a blanket term that was meant to cover a wide variety of people. But we know that these are people who would have been notorious to the Pharisees for not scrupulously, carefully, nitpickingly keeping the law of God in all its details.

And so the Pharisees are quite angry. They're very upset. And they confront Jesus for spending time with those people. "Why would you spend time with those people? They are wicked people. They are evil people. They are no good, very bad people. Why, Jesus, would you spend time with them and not with us?"

Now, they don't say that explicitly, but that is coming along with that, especially in context of his confrontation from a week or two ago where he's invited to a dinner of the Pharisees, and he ends up being kind of an awkward dinner guest.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

And so Jesus responds to their question. "Why is it that you spend time with tax collectors and sinners?" by telling them two parables, two stories.

The first is the parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd is in the wilderness with his sheep, and he's got a hundred sheep. And when one of them goes astray, that shepherd leaves the 99 in the wilderness and goes after the one.

And the way he puts it is this. "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep, when one goes astray, would not leave the 99 and go after the one?"

And the answer to that question is, Jesus, that's stupid. How many of you would say, you know what? I'm going to leave my sheep (not in a pen, out in the wilderness where there's lots of wild animals) my 99 sheep, and I'm going to go try to find the one?

That is not smart. That is not correct by the world's way of thinking of things. I would be afraid to lose more sheep.

I know very little about sheep, but what I do know is that sheep will kind of wander off and have a mind of their own. And if you don't keep them together, they're going to go someplace else. I would want to be there and at least make sure that we hold on to the 99 instead of going after the one.

But Jesus tells this parable to say something extraordinary and strange about himself. That he would leave the 99 in the wilderness to search after one.

The Parable of the Lost Coin

And then he tells us the parable of the lost coin. And the lost coin, the woman has ten silver coins. That would be very valuable in those days. And she loses one of them, so she sweeps the whole house until she finds it.

It was her fault. She lost it. She found it. And now that she's got her coin, she calls together people to rejoice. It's a picture of the angels rejoicing in heaven.

And that's the answer to their question. Because Jesus says, I am the shepherd who goes after the one. I am the woman who sweeps the house and leaves no coin behind.

Jesus spent time with those people because they're the ones who needed him most. And today, we all can recognize that we need Jesus just like them.

The Corruption of Sin

The world this week showed us that it is thoroughly corrupted by sin. That we may be made in the image of God, but that image is blighted by sin. It's absolutely eclipsed by evil.

In a world where we have real choices to make, some people choose darkness instead of light. And what we need to do is to point fingers and blame. That's what the Pharisees want to do. And that's what we want to do too sometimes.

But here's the thing: When you really get down to it, when you dive into the teachings of Jesus, we discover that if we think we're the religious good guys, if we think that we're the Pharisees, we're actually the sinners.

Where we start to prop ourselves up and to pass judgment on God's willingness to pursue those who are lost, that's when we ourselves are the ones who are lost.

When we think we're the good guys, we're actually the sinners. When we think that we are the 99, we're actually the one.

We're the betrayers. Our sin separates us from a holy and good God. And that's one of the hardest things for people who are new to church to realize.

In fact, those who stand on the outside of the church to pass judgment rarely fully understand that what we're doing here in church is not celebrating that we are good, but rather we are gathered together to thank God that even though we were the one coin, we were that one sheep, that Jesus instead was willing to rescue us.

You are not the hero of your story. Jesus is the hero of your story. You're not the misunderstood good guy. You're a sinner who apart from God deserves nothing but death.

But Jesus came to offer salvation to those who would repent and believe in him.

The Meaning of Repentance

And the funny thing about repent, we know that repent is a Greek word that comes from a Greek word. It means to turn around and go the other way.

And we sometimes get the wrong idea about this word because we say, well, okay, if I'm going this way, if I'm going to repent, that means I'm going to take myself and point myself towards God.

We think that somehow this Christianity thing is a self-improvement project that if we put ourselves on the right path, that's going to earn God's favor. And that just puts us in the driver's seat over and over again.

But notice what's happening in the parable: Jesus goes after the one sheep. And when he finds the one sheep, what does he do? He doesn't say, "now, you naughty sheep, follow me. I'll take you back to the flock."

Have you ever tried talking to a sheep? They're very bad listeners.

Even if you could convince a sheep to start following you, it won't follow you for long. It's going to turn around again and it's going to be heading in the wrong direction again.

No, what does Jesus do here? The good shepherd takes the sheep and says, I will turn you around and I will point you in the right direction.

And then he scoops that sheep off the ground and throws it over his shoulders and carries it back to the flock. He carries it back to the flock because I don't even trust my own choices, my own repentance to get me back into the sheepfold.

And Jesus doesn't either, but he gives me the repentance that I have as a gift. And he carries me back to the flock.

Jesus is the one who seeks after you. The shepherd who seeks out the one lost sheep, in spite of that being the worst thing to do. The woman who sweeps her whole house looking for the one lost coin.

But when she finds it, she acts like she won the lottery. Because thank heaven, I have found my coin.

And he's been looking all over for you, sinner. And here you are. He's found you.

And so he offers you himself. Himself bleeding and dying on a cross. Because those who trust him by faith, receive the outcome of his victory. They receive life and salvation through his cross and resurrection.

We who deserve death and hell, instead, by the blood of Jesus Christ, are made whole and free. When you trust his promises, he will bear your sins. He has shed his blood for you on the cross.

Remembering Charlie Kirk's Faith

And the truth is, more than anything political, that was Charlie Kirk's big thing. Yeah, he was known for being the founder of a big political organization on the right.

But the thing that he wanted, in fact, he was asked just a few days before his death, what he wanted to be remembered for, if ever he were to die. And he said he wanted to be remembered for his faith and his courage.

Which is why we, as Christians, can confidently say that Charlie Kirk, for all of his flaws, even for the fact that he was a sinner, just like you and me, is more alive today than he was before his death.

Because he was sought by Jesus and found by him. And now that he has died, he's at peace with Christ.

He was a sinner just like you. Just like me. But because he knew Jesus Christ, he was saved to eternal life by God's grace.

That's what he stood for. More than all the political stuff. He wanted to "make heaven crowded."

By the simple discipleship of those who would be rescued and carried on Jesus' shoulders.

• Every hour, turning back to God and offering yourself as an offering to him.
• Each day, remembering that you are a sinner who needs a savior and willingly giving your life over to his direction.
• Each week, coming to church and hearing his promises, receiving his gifts, remembering his great love.

By turning back to God in Christ, reading and hearing his word, receiving his gifts, this is how we live the Christian faith day to day.

May God rejoice over you as a lost sheep, now found. May God celebrate with the angels in heaven over you, a lost coin now recovered.

And may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds strong in Christ Jesus our Lord. To life everlasting. Amen.