This Sunday is my last with the Savernake Team. With God’s usual amazing timing, the Team is welcoming their new Rector, just as I take up a similar post with Exeter Diocese. You will be very welcome to join me at St Katharine’s Church for the 11am Holy Communion Service.

Three words.

‘What three words?’ is a question I often ask mourning families to describe their loved one as I help them to prepare for the funeral. At first they find it difficult to think of any, then they pick one or two, and before long we have a whole list of adjectives. The first three words of our first reading today are

I am grateful

1 Timothy 1:12

St Paul continues with lots more words describing just why he is so grateful, and to whom. Unsurprisingly he is grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, a sentiment most Christians will share, especially at Easter perhaps when we are reminded of the Cross, or perhaps just now as we celebrate the Harvest, by singing ‘Come ye thankful people come’. We might express our gratitude when something goes surprisingly well, when something negative turns into a positive: how grateful I have been this week, when the wind caught my car door and ended up scratching the neighbouring one, and the note that I left was received with thanks, and no further action!

Paul is grateful for his second chance in life, the chance to get to know God properly and fully through Jesus, to be forgiven for his sinful behaviour in persecuting other Christians, to be treated with mercy and love.

what3words is also an app which enables us to pinpoint an exact location, It is more accurate than a postcode, more precise than satnav. If you were to type technical/exchanges/verge into its search engine you would be directed directly here. Three words to tell you exactly where you need to be.

Our second reading, our gospel passage, comes from Luke 15, it is a grouping of three different parables, although we are only blessed by two of them today. The first is the story of the Lost Sheep, the second the Lost Coin and the third, the Prodigal Son.

The Lost Sheep is a well known Bible story, there are great children’s stories and songs retelling it:

We know that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, leaves the 99 in search for the one, because every single one of us is important. As I re-read the passage today I was reminded of how gratitude runs through the story. Not just the gratitude of the sheep who was found as we might expect, but of the shepherd. The shepherd is so thankful, so full of gratitude that he has found his rogue sheep, that he throws her a party.

Really? The one who does the saving, the rescuing, not the one who is rescued? We would expect gratitude to be shown by the endangered one now found safe. Surely the sheep would want to show gratitude for her safe return? Instead we see the shepherd celebrating. Jesus once again turns everything on its head. The sheep has been found and now, in the arms of the shepherd knows exactly where it is, safe and sound, and shown so much love and mercy, that the sheep is being celebrated. Wow. If it was my little lamb who had wondered off I might want to ground them until they could learn to be trusted. Yet, the Good Shepherd throws such a party, such a display of love that the sheep will never want to run away, the sheep will know not just that its safe, but loved and valued. Christianity doesn’t always give that message. What I am hearing quite a lot of lately, particularly from conservative Christians across the pond, is the message that if you aren’t ‘like me’ you are not good enough to be a Christian, you are not welcome unless you change. This is not the message of the parable Jesus preaches.

The other parable is less ‘human’ in that in focuses on an object rather than a being, the message is still the same: gratitude in being found.

The woman in the story has lost a coin. This is not the same as having lost some loose change in the sofa. This coin is not just of value, it is indicative of her own worth. The specific value of the coin is a drachma, equivalent to a day’s pay, or perhaps two for a woman. If the coin is a tenth of her entire finances, that is indeed a sum worth looking for, however, the focus on it being a woman who has lost a coin suggests that she has lost one of the ten coins which would have been given to her on her wedding day and worn in a headdress. Its significance would be that of an engagement or wedding ring, or both combined. Both her coins, and our engagement rings would have been not just something traditional or beautiful, but something of value should the woman ever fall into desperate times. Traditionally, an engagement ring would have been worth a month’s wages.

The woman brings in light, she sweeps the house clean, she does not give up until the coin is restored, until her dignity and identity are also restored. When she celebrates she is celebrating not just the found coin or its monetary worth, she is celebrating her own restoration. And there may be something to say here for our culture as women’s rights are seemingly being eroded.

Jesus tells these stories to anyone who will listen, but essentially to the religious leaders of the time who are grumbling. The religious leaders who are the gatekeepers for worship and community, those who can declare who is in and who isn’t. The Pharisees who would stone to death a woman caught in adultery whilst ignoring the man she was found with, the Pharisees who upkept rules denying women from speaking in public, from being educated, from being seen anywhere if they were bleeding. Much of this may be contemporary culture not just religious, and of course there were no women amongst the Pharisees. Everything is handed to the Pharisees, they do not have to seek for a coin for fear of the shame of losing something so precious. They have status and employment, and yet they grumble. There is no gratitude with them, indeed they would begin each day with prayers which included the Shelo Asani Isha blessing, prayers which are continued to this day.

Blessed are you, O Lord our G-d, King of the Universe, who has not made me a woman.

Shelo Asani Isha

More thoughts on the subject can be read here.

The Pharisees, along with other Jewish men and boys would give thanks that they were not born a woman, or a slave, or a gentile. Jesus, however, shows love and mercy and acceptance to all the above, and the Pharisees do not like it. Jesus, a Jewish man should be grateful not to be a woman, slave, gentile, Jesus should keep away from them. Yet Jesus, like the Good Shepherd searches out those who have gone astray not to punish them, but to welcome them home, Jesus, like the woman who lost the coin, shines his light and cleanses the bruised, restoring dignity. Jesus calls to him the Pharisee who had spent his life perusing others, and transforms him into an apostle.

We can be grateful for who we are compared with others who seem spiritually weaker than we are, or we can be grateful that God sees us for who we are and shows us love and mercy. We can turn our backs on others, or celebrate with them at the heavenly party Jesus throws.

Do we want a faith of rules and regulations, or parties and celebrations?

Read the Bible passages in full here and here:

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