This program year in Sunday worship we’re addressing the overarching theme of “Finding Our Way”. A banner hangs in the narthex stairwell reminding us of this spiritual journey we are on together including symbols for milestones along the way. This fall, we start our process of finding our way with a walk through the Gospel of Luke. As we reflect on the biblical history of Jesus’ life and ministry, may HIS story, become OUR story. “Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn’t know where to find them. Leave them alone and they will come home, wagging their tails behind them.” The popular children’s nursery rhyme “Little Bo Peep” can be traced back in oral tradition to the latter half of the 1800’s. Most literary scholars agree that the rhyme originally had nothing to do with a pretty shepherdess in white lace and bloomers, but actually was a metaphor for smuggling operations in Sussex, England. Tourist attractions southeast of London still depict the sordid history. A guard station (which still stands) known informally as Bo Peep was used to house customs officers and sometimes to imprison the smugglers themselves. Little Bo Peep herself refers to the customs officers, the sheep are the smugglers and the wagging tails are the contraband (probably barrels of rum and/or brandy). Unfamiliar subsequent verses to the poem describe this situation in further detail. It was common for smugglers to abandon their contraband and hide if they heard the customs men were onto them. So when hot pursuit seemed futile, customs would patiently sit back and wait. When the heat subsided, the smugglers would resurface and resume visible operations. Law enforcement was more effective if they patiently waited for the sheep/smugglers with their tails/liquor to eventually expose themselves. Listen again, “Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn’t know where to find them. Leave them alone and they will come home, wagging their tails behind them.” Whether it’s Mother England’s imagery or Mother Goose’s imagery, the poem is rather graceless if you think about it. Here we have a shepherd with lost sheep who decides to ignore and neglect them until alone and dejected they finally return with hanging heads and tails only to be chastised. Jesus offers a very different image of shepherding in our gospel lesson for today. As our passage from Luke begins, Jesus is swarmed by tax collectors and lowlifes who have come to listen. This drives the religious crowd nuts because they have no respect for tax agents whom they regard as collaborators with the oppressive Roman Empire, and they have even less regard for the disreputable who break not only moral laws, but also the laws of Jewish ritual purity. Venomously, the Pharisees and the scribes grumble, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:1-2). In response, Jesus tells a couple of parables. The first is a story about a shepherd with 100 sheep who loses one, and then leaves 99 in the wilderness to go after the one that is lost. It doesn’t sound like very sensible shepherding, but it certainly illustrates the shepherd’s love for each and every sheep. “Just so,” says Jesus, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (v. 7). The second parable is about a woman who has 10 silver coins, each one worth about a day’s wage. It’s not a huge amount of money, but it’s quite precious to her, so when she loses one of the coins she lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and then searches carefully till she finds it. “Just so,” says Jesus, “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (v. 10). Tony Campolo, professor emeritus at Eastern University, is a noted Christian speaker and author. In his book The Kingdom of God Is a Party, he describes a marvelous experience of his while speaking at a conference in Hawaii. After a lengthy flight, Tony checks into his hotel to get some sleep. Unfortunately, his internal clock wakes him at 3:00 a.m. The night is dark and the streets are asleep, but Tony is wide awake and his stomach is growling. He gets up and prowls the streets, looking for a place to get an early breakfast. Everything is closed except for a grungy dive. He goes in and sits down at the counter. The burly cook comes over and asks, “What d’ya want?” Well, Tony isn’t so hungry anymore, so eying some donuts under a plastic cover he says, “I’ll have a donut and black coffee.” As he sits there munching on his donut and sipping his coffee at 3:30 a.m., in walk eight or nine provocative, loud women. They plop down at the counter and Tony finds himself uncomfortably surrounded by this group of smoking, swearing prostitutes just finished with their nightly rounds. He gulps his coffee, planning to make a quick getaway. Then the woman next to him says to her friend, “You know what? Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m gonna be 39.” To which her friend nastily mocks, “So what d’ya want from me, a party? You want me to get a cake, and sing happy birthday to ya?” The first woman says, “Aw, come on. I don’t want anything from you. I mean, why should I have a birthday party? I’ve never had a birthday party in my whole life. Why should I have one now?” Well, when Tony Campolo heard that, he made a decision. He sat and waited until the women left, and then he asked the guy at the counter, “Do they come in here every night?” “Yeah,” he answered. ”The one right next to me,” he asked, “she comes in every night?” “Yeah,” he said, “that’s Agnes. She’s been comin’ here for years. Why do you want to know?” “Because she just said that tomorrow is her birthday. Do you think we could maybe throw a little birthday party for her right here in the diner?” A smile crept over the cook’s chubby cheeks. “That’s great,” he says, “yeah, that’s great. I like it.” He turns to the kitchen and shouts to his wife, “Hey, come on out here. This guy’s got a great idea. Tomorrow is Agnes’ birthday and he wants to throw a party for her right here.” His wife comes out. “That’s terrific,” she says. “You know, Agnes is really nice. She’s always trying to help other people and nobody does anything nice for her.” So they make their plans. Tony says he’ll be back at 2:30 the next morning with some decorations and the man, whose name turns out to be Harry, says he’ll make a cake. At 2:30 the next morning, Tony is back. He has crepe paper and balloons and a cardboard sign that says, “Happy Birthday, Agnes!” They decorate the place from one end to the other. Harry had gotten the word out on the streets about the party and by 3:15 a.m. it seemed that every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place. At 3:30 on the dot, the door swings open and in walk Agnes and her friend. Tony has everybody ready. They all shout “Happy Birthday, Agnes!” She’s stunned, her mouth falls open and her knees start to buckle. When the birthday cake with all the candles is carried out, she totally loses it. Now she’s sobbing and crying. Harry, who’s not used to seeing a prostitute cry, gruffly mumbles, “Blow out the candles, Agnes. Cut the cake.” So she pulls herself together and blows them out. Everyone cheers, but Agnes looks down at the cake and without taking her eyes off it, slowly and softly says, “Harry, is it all right with you if ... I mean, if I don’t ... I mean, what I want to ask, is it okay if I keep the cake a little while? Is it all right if we don’t eat it right away?” Harry doesn’t know what to say so he shrugs and says, “Sure, if that’s what you want to do. Keep the cake. Take it home if you want.” ”Oh, could I?” she asks. Looking at Tony she says, “I live just down the street a couple of doors; I want to take the cake home, is that okay? I’ll be right back, honest.” She gets off her stool, picks up the cake, and carries it high in front of her like it was the Holy Grail. Everybody watches in stunned silence and when the door closes behind her, nobody seems to know what to do. They look at each other. They look at Tony. So Tony gets up on a chair and says, “What do you say we pray together?” And there they are in a hole-in-the-wall greasy spoon, half the prostitutes in Honolulu, at 3:30 a.m. listening to Tony Campolo as he prays for Agnes. Tony recalls, “I simply prayed that her life would be changed, and that God would be good to her.” When he’s finished, Harry leans over, and with a trace of hostility in his voice, he says, “Hey, you never told me you was a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to anyway?” In one of those moments when just the right words came, Tony answers him quietly, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning.” Harry gives him the once over, and then in mocking disbelief he says, “No you don’t. There ain’t no church like that. If there was, I’d join it. Yep, I’d join a church like that!” A church like that is what Jesus also longed for… • When the lost is found; • when the broken is healed; • when the alienated is reconciled; • when the sick is made well; • when the oppressed is lifted up; • when the prisoner is released; • when the hated is loved; • when the lost sheep is diligently sought and welcomed into the fold and affirmed with head held high…then we glimpse a little bit of heaven on earth and the angels rejoice!