16 Pentecost
1 st Timothy 1:12-17, Luke 15:1-10
Last week NPR aired on This American Life a show entitled The Devil in Me. This American Life is a 60 minute experience. There's a theme to each episode, and a variety of stories on that theme. It's mostly true stories of everyday people, though not always. Ira Glass the host introduces the second act this way.
"Of course we all have things inside us, impulses and thoughts, we'd rather not have. Otherwise 12 step programs and self help books and organized religion would not do such a thriving business. But sometimes the voice in our heads does seem like a voice. Addicts talk about this. "Just one drink, you deserve it, you can handle it."
The producer Nancy Updike started asking around about whether people really thought they were under a spell of an inner voice and -it was like people had been waiting all their lives for someone to ask them this question. She heard from serial cheaters, road rage addicts, food-aholics. People told her,
"I certainly know the voice you're talking about."
"The voice is irresistible."
"Totally out of control. It's got this life of it's own and I can't tame it anymore."
"Up until recently that voice has made me a very poor man."
"I actually have a name for the voice, I call it Stan. Stan is a guy who tells me to have the extra glass of wine. Stan is the guy who tells me to smoke.
"I remember finally realizing just how finely calibrated the voice was to every nuance, every part of my feelings including the feeling that I didn't want to smoke cigarettes and I might just as well have another cigarette cause tomorrow you're going to quit.
"Go back to bed for just five minutes, just five, Five more minutes and you'll feel just great."
The voice within. We're not all as able to objectify that voice. Most of us do really know it is our voice but we do nevertheless hear it. Modern psychology has recognized the value of self talk for all kinds of things. Are you a bad test taker? Before the next test just keep reminding yourself how bright you sounded in the class discussion last week. Ready to give up on that taxing work-out just keep reminding yourself wat a great athlete you are. That pizza your kids are eating smell good before your going out to eat. Just tell yourself it's soaking in grease. The voice within.
And then there are the voices from outside that become our inner voice. The slight from a friend that convinces us we're unlikeable. The berating from a boss that keeps us believing we're unworthy. The article in the fashion magazine that implies we're ugly. We live in a world of noise. Sound bites nip at our ears. Silent words call out to us from book pages and video screens. Rhetorical questions bombard us. Conflicting statements challenge us and wreak chaos from every direction. Our heads are noisy with all these voices.
I remember sitting on a small island in Lake Superior and being amazed at how quiet it was. Just the sound of the breeze through the trees and the lapping of water on the beach. No billboards, no traffic, no radios or TV, no cell phone reception, no people. Silent. Quiet. It's only in those places of quiet that we ever really realize how noisy the rest of the world is.
Our scriptures this week are noisy with all these voices, all these sounds of the world Jeremiah hears the voice of God saying, "My people are foolish, they are stupid children, They are skilled in doing evil but do not know how to do good."
The Psalmist speaks, "Fools say, "There is no God." He says "The Lord has looked down from heaven upon us all and found us all faithless, there is none who does good; no not one." Paul says "I was a blasphemer, a persecutor and a man of violence."
Sometimes I find as we gather at the communion table that the place is noisy with all our inner voices. There's a voice that says, "I am hurting, " another that says "I've been bad," "I've done poorly,' "I AM GUILTY," I am in despair" "I am faithless", "I've forgotten" "I am tired", "I am grieving", "I'm not worthy," "I am weak", "I've been selfish," I've been thoughtless," "I haven't tried enough", "I'm not good enough"....The place is noisy with those voices when we gather at the table.
The Pharisees say "This fellow welcomes sinners and dines with them." The murmuring of the scribes and Pharisees is about table fellowship which was always a critical issue in Jesus' day. To eat with another person was a sign of deep kinship. According to the Pharisees to stay righteous one should only eat with a select group of properly qualified people. In the eyes of the Pharisees, Jesus ate with all the wrong people.
So Jesus told them stories.
"Which one of you having 100 sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? Just so I tell you there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
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?
Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
You know what's weird about this though? Does the sheep repent? Does it see the shepherd, hang its head and put it's tail between its legs and slink solemnly behind the shepherd home. No not at all Our story says, "When the shepherd has found it , he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And then when he gets home he calls together his friends and neighbors to rejoice with him.
And the coins, do they repent? Hardly.
The only possible action in this story that could be defined as repentance is the finding of the lost. So repentance can only be defined as our willingness to be found.
We come to the communion table today with all kinds of voices in our heads. Those voices are saying all kinds of things. It's a noisy place up here. But when you come today, quiet those voices for just a while.
Be still.
Hear only the voice that says, "This is my body and blood, given for you, for the forgiveness of sins." Receive that body and blood reveling in being found. And when you leave, leave with only one voice in your head and hear Jesus say, "Rejoice with me!"
Amen