God's Last Words

“World’s Worst Bet”
Luke 15: 1-10 (NRSV)

Two men from Alabama loved to fish. They went on a trip to Canada and decided to try ice-fishing.

They traveled to a Lake that was famous for its ice-fishing and went in to the bait shop to get the very latest ice-fishing tackle and bait. The owner explained that they would need an ice auger. It was very expensive but the men did not hesitate, they bought the auger to drill holes in the ice.

In a short while they had gathered the equipment they would need and arrived on the ice. They began to prepare for a great day of ice-fishing.

About 2 hours later they returned to the bait shop and asked for another auger. The store owner was confused and asked, “What’s wrong with the auger I sold you?”

“Nothing,” the men answered, “it works fine.” “Then why do you need another one?” the store owner asked.

“It’s cold out there. The holes keep freezing after a while, and we haven’t been able to fish yet. At the rate we’re going, we’re not even going to get the boat in the water before dark.”

A man who was never known for his intelligence returned home after a night out with his friends. He seemed slightly upset. His wife asked him what was bothering him. “Oh, I lost a hundred dollars,” the man answered. His surprised wife asked, “How did you lose that much money?”

“We watching the football game at the Firehouse,” he told her, “and I thought the Redskins were going to win the game with a field goal on the final play of the game. I was so sure I bet Bill fifty dollars that they would score. They didn’t score.”

His wife thought for a moment and asked, “But that’s only 50 dollars; I thought you said you lost one hundred dollars?”

“Yeah I know. I was so disgusted that I lost, I made a second, double or nothing, wager with Bill.” “I thought you said it was the last play of the game?” his wife responded.

“It was,” said the man, “so we bet on the instant replay.”

Hear our Gospel Lesson from Luke 15: 1-10:

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?

When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner that 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? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’

Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Two novice carpenters were trying to build a garage, and one was attaching the siding. He would pick up a nail, look at it, then hammer it in. Then he would pick up another nail, look at it, and throw it away.

His friend watched, as over and over his friend looked at each nail, and either hammered it in or tossed it over his shoulder. Finally the friend walked over and asked, “Hey, why are you throwing away half our nails?”

“The points were on the wrong end,” the man explained. “You bozo,” bellowed the friend, “Those nails are for the other side of the garage!”

Sometimes we all get caught doing something pretty dumb and realize all of us has a high “bozo” factor, but we usually hope no one’s watching. Notice how Jesus’ reply really didn’t respond to the accusation? Why do you think he didn’t??

The answer was given by the late Bishop Fulton J. Sheen when he said, “To create the world cost God nothing; to save it from sin cost His Life Blood.”

Friends, everyone Jesus encountered during His earthly ministry was a sinner and a total bozo in His eyes. When we are confronted with the perfection of Christ how can we ever be anything other than what we are.

I have a comedy album from the 1970’s by a group called the Firesign Theater  about living on planet earth that’s called, “We’re all bozos on this bus.”

Please realize I am not using this derogatorily but as a way to laugh at the futility of humanity’s failure to do and see things the right way, God’s way.

The story is all about how politics and government are going to grow and develop into a faceless machine that will treat us all as “bozos” who are incapable of making decisions and who will all need to be taken care of. Not a bad summary of our times in some ways is it?

Friends look around, are we making progress toward peace? Are we making progress toward solving world hunger? Are we making progress in upholding the concept of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?” Isn’t that what was promised by the utopian “Great Society” ideals of the sixties and in today’s Liberal party promises?

Certainly there may be a reduced chance of a nuclear Armageddon but what are the chances we are heading for a social one? Human ideology is at war in our world and will not rest until there is a winner that mimics or fulfills biblical prophecy.

Yet those of us who are Christians and have faith in our Creator know that human schemes and ideology will fail because the outcome was already played out on that cross 2,000 years ago.

But the bozos on the earth bus are like our friend who lost the money because he bet on the instant replay. You know, I know, God knows, Jesus knows. But they are just willing to bet that God will be wrong somehow or someway.

There is only one thing that makes this good news!

I’ve always heard the phrase “God loves the sinner, but hates the sin” and we are called to do the same. Because God is love, I am convinced that He truly loves all his creation, even the sinners (as stated in Romans 5: 8). But we also read in Psalm 5: 5 and Psalm 11: 5 that he hates the workers of iniquity, and those that love violence. How do we reconcile this?

In Colossians 1:19-20 Paul wrote,

“For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in (Jesus) and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on Earth or things in Heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross.”

This doesn’t mean everyone will be saved because of the cross, but that all the sins of mankind were paid for there. Not everyone will accept the Grace offered by God through Jesus Christ. Refusing this grace certainly will be a fatal act that requires God to give that person what they ask for – a world without God.

Remember, John the Baptist called Jesus,

“The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29). 

That’s why whosoever believes in what the Lord did for us there will not perish but have eternal life.

That’s why all of Heaven rejoices when even one sinner repents and reconciles with God.

Not accepting that grace from God is just about the worst bet in the history of humanity.

We Christians know the outcome won’t ever change. God does love sinners and bozos, everyone. Amen.