Gratitude & Faith

 

ray:  Holy One, our hope and trust are in You.  We quiet our soul so we might listen.  We calm our mind so we might comprehend.  We still our bodies so we might take notice. May we experience the holy in the here and now, where You dwell with us.  May we know we are not alone in this journey of faith.  Quiet our souls, our minds, our bodies, and break open our hearts to Your love, O God.  Amen.

Gratitude & Faith

 

I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before. “Your faith has made you well” is one of those verses from Scripture that has done as much harm as good.  Many of you have given thanks to God after recovering from an illness or an accident or an injury.  But just as many people, perhaps even you or a loved one of yours have not recovered, even though you prayed as hard and as often as you could.  You may have assumed that there was something wrong with your prayers or even wondered if your faith wasn’t strong enough.  Too often we think of faith as being all about cause and effect – you pray for something, and it either happens  or it does not happen.[1]

This story about ten lepers who are healed points to a more profound understanding of faith.  On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples come across ten men with leprosy.  It is difficult to exaggerate the social alienation of these ten men.  They lived in total isolation – banished from their homes, from the loving touch of spouses, children, parents, or friends.  They were separated from their faith communities. Any human contact.  Everything familiar. They had open sores, oozing with puss.  People feared that even to cross the shadow of a person with leprosy was to risk getting infected.  So they lived alone, away from any community.  Sometimes, as in this case, they banded together to become a small company of misery. 

Jesus heals the lepers without any fanfare.  ‘“Go and show yourselves to the priest,” He says.  And as they went, they were made clean.’  Nothing is said about their faith.  In fact, nothing about faith is attached to the healing. Jesus is completely uninterested in their religion.  He sees them in need of healing and so he unceremoniously heals them.

We do not know where nine out of the ten go but we do know that this one man; a foreigner, and a despised one at that, comes back to bow down at Jesus’ feet and worship and give thanks.  A Samaritan of all people. A social and religious outcast, one who would be judged a heretic by most people in his time, epitomizes this kind of godly life and attitude.  He demonstrates a faith that lays hold of God, that cannot and will not remain silent in response to what God has done in his life.  He publicly, spontaneously, and joyfully directs his thanksgiving to God.  Being grateful is not a precondition for being healed by Jesus; all the lepers find themselves cleaned as they show themselves to the priests.  However, the Samaritan turns around and comes back.[2] 

In the New Testament, “turning back” or “turning around” is a description for the believer’s reaction to Jesus’ work and it has a deep theological meaning. In fact, to repent means to turn back or to turn around. It describes a movement of the whole person, initiated by God’s grace, a redirection or orientation toward God.  Jesus words, “Your faith has made you well” refer not just to the medical healing which has already happened, but to the holistic healing of this human being.[3]

Luke wants us to see that the healing of the Samaritan is not only a medical cure from a severe disease and the restoration of his social status, but also a redirection of his life and faith. A complete change; a 360 so to speak. With his prostate position at Jesus’ feet and his giving thanks, the Samaritan demonstrates a faith that is complete because it includes thankfulness.  The Samaritan is not grateful because it is his duty to be grateful, but because of his experience with Christ and now his faith in Christ.  He is thankful because Jesus had mercy on him.[4] 

The man recognizes the gift he receives when he saw and experienced it and he returned to say thank you.  When Jesus said, “Your faith has made you well,” it sounds like by Jesus’ definition, faith and gratitude are very closely related, that faith without gratitude is not faith at all, and that there is something life-giving about gratitude.

I think that Jesus is teaching us about faith.  Faith is about living a life of gratitude – a grateful sort of faith that made this man from Samaria truly and deeply well.[5]  Perhaps we could even go so far as to say that to practice gratitude is to practice faith.  If faith is not something we have, but something we do – something we  live – then in living our faith we express our complete trust in God.  How then can we not practice gratitude; when we know that God, the giver of all good gifts, holds all of life in his providential hands.  When we practice gratitude, we find that faith is given in abundance, overflowing our grateful hearts.[6] 

Gratitude has something to do with our faith.  We recognize who is blessing us and why we are blessed.   The physical circumstances of the person praying become less important.  It is the thanking that saves the grateful leper, and such thankfulness is available to everyone in all circumstances.  One can give thanks for our pleasant experience, while another thanks God for giving strength and perseverance during a hardship. 

Medical science is recognizing the difference that a person’s attitude can have on their well-being.  A person with a positive attitude; an attitude of gratitude and an ability to be thankful for the good things in their life can have overall better health and a better chance of healing than someone with a negative attitude and an inability to see the good.  Even in the midst of a great crisis there are things we can be grateful for if we are willing to see them.

When we practice gratitude, it changes our life because it changes our outlook on everything.  Gratitude even changes the character of a congregation.  When Christians practice gratitude, they come to worship not just to “get something out of it.” But to give thanks and praise to God.  Stewardship is transformed from just fundraising to the glad gratitude of joyful givers.  The mission of the church changes from ethical duty to the work of grateful hands and hearts.  Prayer includes not only our interventions and petitions, but also our thanksgivings – the things we are grateful for.[7] 

We easily get caught up in our problems – the things we are worried about, the things we need, the things going wrong.  It’s so easy to do.  The media floods us with bad news and information about all the problems in the world.  We worry about our family and our friends.  We have problems at jobs, with our finances.  Here in Fairfield we are having problems with crime.  There is a lot to worry about.  But it clouds our ability to see all we have to be thankful for. Each and every day.

Our families and friends.  Our jobs and homes.  A new day.  The birds singing, the sun shining, the rain.  Food on the table, a roof over our heads.  I could go on and on.  All these things come from God.  So much to be thankful for if we remember to look; to think; to say thanks. It changes our attitude.  It changes our mood.  It changes our outlook.

Ten lepers were healed but one received something more because of the gratitude he felt and expressed toward the one who healed him.  His whole life was changed; not just his physical health.

“Go on your way; your faith has made you well” is no longer a problematic saying, even when physical healing does not come.  Instead, it is a description of a life of blessing for each of us and for the church; as we go on our way.  We can rejoice and give thanks.  For in giving thanks in all things, we find that God, indeed, is in all things.[8]  Let us pray:

 

Generous God, Giver of all Gifts.  Today we just want to say thank you.  Thank you for blessing us beyond our imaginations. Help us to recognize all that is good in our lives and to remember that it all comes from you.  In Jesus name, Amen.

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[1] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Season After Pentecost, Proper 23. Luke 17:11-19.  Pastoral Perspective. Kimberly Bracken Long.  P. 164.
[2] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Season After Pentecost, Proper 23. Luke 17:11-19.  Theological  Perspective. Margit Ernst-Habib.  P. 166
[3] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Season After Pentecost, Proper 23. Luke 17:11-19.  Theological  Perspective. Margit Ernst-Habib.  P. 166
[4] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Season After Pentecost, Proper 23. Luke 17:11-19.  Theological  Perspective. Margit Ernst-Habib.  P. 166 and 168.
[5]  Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Season After Pentecost, Proper 23. Luke 17:11-19.  Pastoral Perspective. Kimberly Bracken Long.  P. 166.
[6] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Season After Pentecost, Proper 23. Luke 17:11-19.  Pastoral Perspective. Kimberly Bracken Long.  P. 166.
[7] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Season After Pentecost, Proper 23. Luke 17:11-19.  Pastoral Perspective. Kimberly Bracken Long.  P. 168.[8] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Season After Pentecost, Proper 23. Luke 17:11-19.  Pastoral Perspective. Kimberly Bracken Long.  P. 168.

 

Pay Attention

Rev. Debbie Cato
Luke 16:19-31
Fairfield Community Church
September 25, 2022

Let us pray:  Give us your Spirit of wisdom, O God, so that we may hear your Word speaking through the Scriptures with ears that understand, and hearts moved to love.  Amen.

 

Pay Attention

 

Rich man Dives he lived so well.

Dip your finger in the water, come, and cool my

Tongue, ‘cause I’m tormented in the flame.

And when he died he went straight to hell.

Dip your finger in the water, come, and cool my

Tongue, ‘cause I’m tormented in the flame.[1]

 

Today’s parable is captured in this African American spiritual.  Christian tradition sometimes called the rich man Dives, a Latin adjective meaning rich.[2]  The rich man lived so well, yet now he is the one begging, looking up and wanting a handout, desperate for a drop of water to ease his fiery torment.  Hearing the melody in our heads enhances the sense of divine retribution lavishly portrayed in this parable.[3] 

 

Rich man Dives he lived so well.

Dip your finger in the water, come, and cool my

Tongue, ‘cause I’m tormented in the flame.

And when he died he went straight to hell.

Dip your finger in the water, come, and cool my

Tongue, ‘cause I’m tormented in the flame.

 

 The story of Lazarus and the rich man is full of contrasts and reversals. The poor man is named, while the rich man is not.  The rich man is dressed in purple and fine linen, like royalty, while the poor man is “dressed in” sores.  The rich man feasts sumptuously, while Lazarus, looking up, longs to be satisfied with what falls from the table.  The rich man has a proper burial, while Lazarus is carried away by angels.  By the end of the story, Lazarus, the poor man, is looking down from heaven, and the rich man is the one  looking up, begging.[4]

The socioeconomic divisions between the two characters is obvious.  Two men; one rich and one poor.  The two do not interact.  There is a clear division of status.  There is a clear boundary between the two. We can all probably relate more to the rich man than the poor one.  After all, who would want to be the hungry one lying in someone’s doorway?  Most of us would not want to imagine such need and in truth, we cannot imagine being that desperate.  So we choose the rich man’s perspective.[5] 

Now there is nothing to lead us to believe that the rich man is disdainful or mean or hateful toward Lazarus.  This is not an evil man. The rich man simply does not notice Lazarus.  Lazarus is sitting at the rich man’s gate day after day.  Every time the rich man leaves his home, he passes by Lazarus and yet the man does not even notice him.  He’s oblivious to the need right in front of him.  He’s oblivious of this poor man, sitting at his gate, day after day.  Lazarus’s empty stomach and life are gnawing at him, and his gaze is set on the household of the rich man, where all he wants are leftovers – or even less, the crumbs.  He gets nothing.  The only ones who notice him are the dogs, who, in a grotesque show of how low a human life can go, lick the oozing wounds of the poor man.[6]

If you read the Spokane newspaper or listen to the local news at all, you are aware of the growing problem of homelessness in Spokane and you are aware of the issue of Camp Hope and the City’s efforts to close the camp and relocate all the people that have made Camp Hope their home. Few see the residents of Camp Hope as people – as beloved children of God.  Rather they see them as a blight; a problem to get rid of; an eyesore to move some place out of sight.  Some place where they can’t be seen.  Some place where we don’t have to pay attention.  Where like the rich man, we can drive past our city gates without catching a glimpse of the poor and unhoused.  Those begging for help and not getting what they really need.

I was in our post office a couple of weeks ago and there was a teenager in there trying to get mail although he didn’t have the PO box key with him.  Steve was on vacation and there was someone filling in for him.  I heard her say to him, “You still can’t find your key?” He had come in before, wanting his mail, without a PO box key.  This young man smelled worse than anyone I had smelled in a very long time.  He clearly had not showered in a long time and it looked like he was wearing clothes that he had slept in and worn for a number of days.  I immediately recognized that he was homeless and on his own. I wanted to see if I could help him, but he disappeared before I got my package and was able to talk with him.   

We are not exempt from the poor because we are rural.  The homeless are among us – they are just harder to see.  Harder to notice.  They are not sleeping on our streets, camping on the doors of our businesses, begging for help like you see in Spokane.  I wonder where that young man sleeps at night.  Where he finds food – if he finds food. He has made me think about those experiencing homelessness here in Fairfield – something I had not thought about because I don’t see them.  I find myself praying for him and others I don’t know about.  I can’t stop thinking about him and my regret of not talking with him before he disappeared. 

What Jesus is trying to bring into focus is not that the man was rich. Money itself is never the issue.  I think you have heard me say that before.  Nothing in scripture says money is bad.  Nothing in scripture says that having a lot of money is bad.  Jesus never says that being rich is bad.  It is always about what we do with what we have.  It is about the heart.

In this parable, the issue is he does not pay attention to the need right in front of him.  He does not even notice this poor man sitting at his gate every day, starving and sick, needing help. The issue is he does not lend a hand to Lazarus. He is so caught up in his own world of wealth and extravagance that he doesn’t bother to notice those around him.  Those who don’t have all that he has.  Those who need help. Those that he could easily help if he just paid attention to his surroundings; to what was happening right at his own gate.  He had a chance everyday to do something to help.  But he didn’t.  Whether he really didn’t see him – which seems unrealistic.  Whether he didn’t think it was his responsibility.  Or whether he just didn’t care, we don’t know.  It seems the reason doesn’t matter to Jesus;  what matters is that he did nothing.

For the rich man, the ending is fatal. It’s too late.  He failed to pay attention to the need right in front of him during his lifetime.  A need he could have easily done something about.  He had the means.  He had the ability.  He merely had to open his eyes, pay attention, look with compassion, and then act.

 And that’s what is required of us.  To pay attention.  To open our eyes.  To look with compassion.  To see beloved children of God and not problems that belong to someone else.  To understand that everyone has a story.  Something that got them to the place that led them to poverty and homelessness.  Something behind the drug addiction and mental illness that you might see on the surface that turns you off; makes you feel like they don’t deserve help.  That you don’t need to help.  Something behind the smell and the filth of not being able to bathe and take care of personal hygiene needs

We forget that each person was once a sweet child like Mason or Wyatt that we love to dote on.  Something traumatic happened in their life that caused them to take a dramatic turn and eventually end up on the streets in desperate straits.  When  you hear their stories, you can begin to understand why they have the issues they have.  It makes you really thankful for your own life.  These are the least of these. In Matthew 25, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’

Most of us are not wealthy.  I’m certainly not.  But we have far more than those we see or hear about that live on the streets; that are hidden in our own community.  We have enough to spare.  Jesus is asking us to pay attention.

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells us he is Lazarus:  He is that one lying at our door hungry and thirsty.  He is imprisoned and cut off from “decent” society.  He is the marginalized one that you can just as easily walk by.  That is God’s Christ who stands at our wall, knocking.  When we answer, we may not find someone who looks like us, but we may very well find someone who looks like our God, if we are paying attention.[7]

There’s an old story that I want to share with you.  You may already know it.  There was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before he began his work. Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both directions. 

Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching.  As the boy walked, he paused every so often and as he grew closer, the man could see that he was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the sea.  The boy came closer still and the man called out, “Good morning!  May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young boy paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves,” the youth replied. “When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.”

The old man replied, “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.”

The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!”

 

The needs in our world are tremendous.  It can feel overwhelming.  None of us alone have the resources to meet all the needs or even to meet all the needs of one person.  That’s not what Jesus is asking of us. But he is asking us to act.  To reach out in compassion.  To pay attention to the needs before us and do something.  Let us pray:

 

Compassionate God,  The needs of this world are so great and we are often overwhelmed. So we do nothing.  We expect social service agencies and the government to take care of the homeless and those living in poverty when Jesus taught us that we are to care for the least of these. Give us eyes to see the needs around us and a heart of compassion to prayerfully do what we are able to do.  In Jesus name, Amen.

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[1] Feasting on the Word.  Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 21.  Luke 16:19-31.  Homiletical Perspective.  G. Penny Nixon.  P. 117
[2] Feasting on the Word.  Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 21.  Luke 16:19-31.  Exegetical Perspective..  Charles Cousar.  P. 117
[3] Feasting on the Word.  Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 21.  Luke 16:19-31.  Homiletical Perspective.  G. Penny Nixon.  P. 117.
[4] Feasting on the Word.  Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 21.  Luke 16:19-31.  Homiletical Perspective.  G. Penny Nixon.  P. 117.
[5] Feasting on the Word.  Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 21.  Luke 16:19-31.  Pastoral Perspective. Helen Montgomery DeBevoise.  . P.116 & 118,
[6] Feasting on the Word.  Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 21.  Luke 16:19-31.  Pastoral Perspective. Helen Montgomery DeBevoise.  . P.118,
[7] Feasting on the Word.  Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 21.  Luke 16:19-31.  Pastoral Perspective. Helen Montgomery DeBevoise.  . P.120.

One of Ninety-Nine

Rev. Debbie Cato
Luke 15:1-10
Fairfield Community Church
September 25, 2022 

Let us pray:  Let the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. As we approach your Word, may we be ready to receive the message you intend for us today. Amen.

 

One of Ninety-Nine

 

A New York Times travel article in April, 2008 on pubs in Oxford, England titled “A Pub Crawl through the Centuries” commented that “a good pub is a ready made party, a home away from home, a club anyone can join.”  Scott-Bader-Saye, author and Academic Dean and Professor at Southwest Seminary says, “One can imagine the Jesus of Luke 15 sitting in such a pub, eating and drinking with “anyone” to the chagrin of the proper and the pure. To be more specific, in Luke 15, Jesus is eating and drinking with “tax collectors and sinners” while the “Pharisees and the scribes” are grumbling about the company he keeps – actually the company he seeks out.  In response to this muttering, Jesus tells a series of “lost and found” parables that have to do with homes and parties and letting anyone in.  Who is in and who is out, who is lost and who is found?  What does it mean to be saved by Christ and what does it mean to be the community of Christ today?”[1]

Would you be surprised if I told you that as I read this and as I studied, I kept thinking about our values and our meeting last Sunday when we put action to our values?  The Holy Spirit, who is heavily involved in my sermon preparation, kept bringing to mind that we will be going out into our community.  We will be welcoming our new neighbors with welcome baskets full of information about our community and letting them know they are welcome at our church.  We will be serving a meal to our fire department and EMT volunteers to say thank you for all they do to keep our community safe.  We will adopt PCAL residents who need some TLC and extra help and be prayer partners with them, extending our relationship beyond just what I do on Tuesdays.  We will have monthly game nights at the community center and serve a meal, providing fun activities for families throughout our community and an opportunity for us to get to know our neighbors.  Janel is going to help us match one-on-one with the preschoolers and pray for them throughout the preschool year, building those relationships with their families.  We are going to serve and eat lunch a couple of times with our preschool families to deepen our relationships – really get to know them.  Let them know we care about them.  We are going to do community service projects on the 5^th Sundays as a way of worship. In the spring we will do a hayride food drive and tail gate party, supporting our community food bank and building community all at the same time.  Everyone will be included.  Everyone will be in.  And in the process of all these fun activities, we will learn what it means to be the community of Christ today.

So, can you picture it?  The crowds are pressing in around Jesus to hear his teachings. All kinds of people make up this community that have come to hear him teach.  They gather around Jesus for a variety of reasons:  the disciples to receive instructions; the Pharisees and Sadducees to keep tabs on Jesus’ radical teachings; and the people who do not really belong anywhere because they have lived so much of life on the fringes – the edge of society.  In this passage they are described as the tax collectors and sinners, which mean that they are the people no one else wants to hang around with, for fear that their reprehensible reputations would implicate the good reputations of the other. Somehow these outsiders have crowded into the community to listen.[2]  This is a rather interesting guest list but here they are, all eating dinner with Jesus and straining to hear what he has to say. 

I can imagine the whispering.  “Wh0 invited them?”  “Doesn’t Jesus know who they are? Doesn’t he know what they do for a living?”  “Who is Jesus, really?  He talks about godly things, but he eats with those kinds of people.”

Maybe Jesus can hear the whispers.  Maybe he can sense the division growing in the crowd.  But He begins to talk about the nature of God in ways that everyone gathered together that day will be able to understand.  He uses economic terms, talking about things they value.  He wants them to think about what is most important to them.

First, Jesus talks about the shepherd who is responsible for one hundred sheep. When the shepherd discovers that one of the sheep is missing, he leaves the rest of the sheep, all the ninety-nine sheep that are safe, and goes out searching for the one lost sheep.  He will not rest until that one lost sheep is found.  He values the health and safety of each and every sheep in his flock.  Not one sheep has more value than the other. Finding the lost sheep, the shepherd brings that sheep back into the safety of the fold of the flock. Then he calls his neighbors to celebrate.  The lost sheep is back where it belongs.

Then Jesus tells of the woman who has ten silver coins. This is hard-earned money she has scraped together and saved to feed her family.  If she loses just one of those coins, Jesus says, she will light a lamp, sweep the house, and diligently search for that coin until she finds it. Those coins are how she will support her family and we can all understand the value of providing well-being for our children and family members.  Likely, her coin was a drachma, worth the price of a sheep or one-fifth the price of an ox.  When she finds it, she is overjoyed.  She calls her friends to celebrate finding the lost coin. 

Think of that thing that is most precious in your life and what it would be like to lose it, whether through carelessness, or intent, or theft.  Something on which you place extreme value goes missing.  You would be devastated.  You would search and search and search until you found what you had lost.

God is like the shepherd who values each sheep in the flock, like the woman who accounts for every silver coin in her purse.  God treasures every child of the family.  When one goes missing, God goes into search mode.  God’s nature is love, and love looks like one who goes out tirelessly searching, because the one who is lost is so lost that she cannot find her way back home.[3]

I wonder who we will find as we go about our community?  Who will answer the door when we knock with a welcome basket?  What we imagine when we start something like this is enthusiastic surprise and delight at the door that we would think to welcome them in such a wonderful way.  “Thank you!” we imagine.  “How nice of you to do this for us.”  We imagine them being thankful.  We even  imagine them coming to church the next Sunday and joining our church family.  This could happen.  It’s possible.  But I hope that’s not why we are doing it.  We could be met at the door with a less than welcome response.  A skeptical response.  We may not get a thank you.  We may feel like the family “didn’t deserve our gift.”  Like they are “that kind of family.”  I hope that’s not why we are doing it. Every single new neighbor we meet is a beloved child of God, loved beyond measure by the Sovereign God who created them.  And we are charged to love them as well.  Who is in and who is out, who is lost and who is found?  What does it mean to be saved by Christ and what does it mean to be the community of Christ today?[4]

I wonder who will come to our monthly meal and game night at the Community Center?  If I was a betting person, I would bet there will be families that we meld with better than others.  Families that are “like” us and families that are different.  There will be kids that we gravitate toward and kids that we don’t.  We will be tested.   Why are we doing this?  Every single person, every single child and youth that shows up is a beloved child of God, loved beyond measure by the Sovereign God who created them.  And we are charged to love them as well.  Not because we find them loveable but because God loves me.  Who is in and who is out, who is lost and who is found?  What does it mean to be saved by Christ and what does it mean to be the community of Christ today?[5]

With everything we do, we will be challenged to love.  We will have to continually ask ourselves, “Why are we doing this?”  Is it for self-gratification or is it to be Christ in our community?  To be the church?  To do the things that we are charged to do because God’s grace and love flow over us each and every day?  Because when we were lost, Christ came looking for us?

Who is in and who is out, who is lost and who is found?  What does it mean to be saved by Christ and what does it mean to be the community of Christ today?[6]  Let us pray.

 

Loving and compassionate God.  Thank you for searching for us when we get  lost.  As we move forward with the things you have laid on our hearts, help us to let everyone in; to love without condition; to do without expectations.  Help us to find the lost in our community.  In Jesus name, Amen.

 

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[1] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 19.  Luke 15:1-10.  Theological Perspective.  Scott Bader-Saye.  P 68.
[2] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 19.  Luke 15:1-10.  Pastoral Perspective.  Helen Montgomery DeBevoise.  P 68
[3]Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 19.  Luke 15:1-10.  Pastoral Perspective.  Helen Montgomery DeBevoise.  P 70.
[4]Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 19.  Luke 15:1-10.  Theological Perspective.  Scott Bader-Saye.  P 68.
[5] Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 4.  Proper 19.  Luke 15:1-10.  Theological Perspective.  Scott Bader-Saye.  P 68.

[6] Ibid