Over the summer I read an article about the book Kon-Tiki and decided to rent the movie. It seemed infinitely faster than reading the book. Kon-Tiki came out 3 years ago, a remake of the 1950s original. It was really good but if you rent it, make sure you rent the English version, unless you speak Norwegian. You see, Kon-Tiki is the true story of a guy named Thor Heyerdahl, an anthropologist from Norway who set out in 1947 to cross the Pacific from the coast of Peru to the Polynesian Islands to prove that people could have settled these islands long before Columbus sailed to the new world. And he proved it, if you know the story, by sailing over 4000 miles across the Pacific with a crew of 5 other men, in a raft made of logs tied together with rope, much as a group of sailors might have done 1000 years ago.

When I first looked at our Gospel lesson for this morning earlier this week, as I read the words of Jesus about the shepherd who has a flock of 100 sheep and, when he loses one he leaves the other 99 to go and find the lost sheep, I thought of a scene in Kon-Tiki. The 6 men are in the middle of the ocean and in the midst of a strong wind that is pushing them along at a good clip. One of the guys falls off the raft and as he tries to swim back to the raft it becomes obvious that he cannot swim as fast as the raft is being carried along by the wind. The others try to throw him a life preserver tied to a rope but the wind blows the float right back into their faces. The lost sailor is quickly losing ground and they are losing sight of him in the waves. At that point one of the other men jumps in the water with the life preserver and swims back toward the lost sailor and saves him. All 6 guys are once again safe and they all arrive safely on a Polynesian Island after 102 days at sea.

Suppose one of you has 100 sheep, Jesus says in today’s Gospel, and you lose one of them. Wouldn’t you leave the 99 in open country, in other words in a safe place, and go after that lost sheep? And when you find it wouldn’t you rejoice and invite your friends to rejoice with you? Now, here’s the application, and it is a powerful one, a heavy one. IN THE SAME WAY THERE WILL BE MORE REJOICING IN HEAVEN OVER ONE SINNER WHO REPENTS THAN OVER 99 RIGHTEOUS PERSONS WHO NEED NO REPENTANCE. Now, more on these 99 so-called RIGHTEOUS PERSONS who need no repentance later.

Jesus also describes a woman who has 10 coins to her name and she loses one in the house somewhere. She conducts an extensive search until she finds the coin and then she, too, celebrates with her friends. Note the element of hopelessness in these 2 parables. The lost sheep would never find its way back to the safety of the flock on its own. In fact, when the shepherd finds the sheep he carries the sheep back on his shoulders. Because the sheep isn’t even good at following a leader who is right there in front of him. Now that’s helpless! The sheep was as helpless as the sailor who couldn’t swim as fast as the raft, which was his only lifeline to survival.

We tend to get frustrated with people who have problems making their way in the world. WHY CAN’T THEY JUST HELP THEMSELVES? WHY CAN’T THEY JUST PULL THEMSELVES UP BY THEIR OWN BOOTSTRAPS? I’ve heard a commercial on the radio a couple of times recently that has to be making a lot of people in our own neighborhoods just grind their teeth. It is an advertisement for a medical facility who handles rehabilitation for patients who are Medicaid qualified. In other words, people who cannot pay any of their own medical bills. The ad is a conversation between a grown daughter and her elderly mother, who just happens to have a thick accent. The daughter is relaying how mom will be well-taken care of in this facility. And while she recovers there will be ramps built by the agency in her house to make it wheelchair manageable. And when she returns home there will even be a welcome basket of goodies provided by the agency.

I can just imagine all of the people angered by this ad who say to themselves, “I have always paid my bills and my taxes and the government has never given me a welcome basket!”  I believe we all want to live in a country where help is available for those who, through misfortune or business failure or failure of health cannot help themselves. But most of us become quite resentful when we become aware of people who take advantage of social programs through fraudulent means, or because of just plain laziness. We’re resentful because we get up and go to work every day. Or because we manage a household and do without when necessary in order to live within our means. Borrowing money we couldn’t afford to pay back just wasn’t up for consideration.

But there are helpless and powerless people out there in the world and it really isn’t their fault. There are people with addictive behaviors, mental deficiencies or illnesses, people who for lack of a better description just aren’t wired for living successfully in this world, or people who had the misfortune to be living in and raising a family in a place like war torn Syria and are currently running for their very lives. If your capacity for compassion in this world is running low these days because you just can’t distinguish anymore the needy from the greedy, consider this. When it comes to salvation, to getting right with God and making ourselves acceptable to Him, none of us can save ourselves. There is no self-help program that will open heaven’s gates for us. We can’t think our way to Jesus, we can’t work our way to Jesus, we can’t even clean up our act enough to get to Jesus. Faith and eternity is a gift. That’s why St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans: “AT JUST THE RIGHT TIME, WHEN WE WERE STILL POWERLESS, CHRIST DIED FOR US.” Salvation is not something we can do for ourselves. It’s been done for us.

This theme is so important to St. Paul because he saw the dangers of people believing they were among the spiritually elite. That attitude is built on pride, and it won’t stand for long. You will fall, and you will fall hard. That smugness on your face will eventually turn to shame, and then tears. Jesus doesn’t need any more smug, self-righteous followers looking down on the rest of God’s people.

There was a woman named Mildred, a widow, who lived in a small town and was the self-appointed church gossip. She went too far one day when she spread the word that George, a new church member, was an alcoholic because she saw his truck parked in front of the town’s only bar one afternoon. George was a man of few words, so he didn’t explain or defend or deny. Instead, late the next evening, George quietly parked his pick-up in front of Mildred’s house…and left it there all night!

No Jesus doesn’t need any more smug, self-righteous followers looking down on others. These would be the 99 folks Jesus mentioned who don’t need to repent. Yeah, right. This was the chief problem with the Pharisees. They were leaders in the community and blameless to a fault, except for one serious flaw. They let their love of religion get in the way of their love for people.

Friends, we are not among the 99 righteous who don’t need to repent, right? Which means we are among the lost. It’s ok to admit it. We all need to be rescued by the shepherd from time to time. It’s easy to lose our connection to the strength of God’s presence. And it’s cause for celebration when we are claimed again by a loving Shepherd.

Amen