Today's Gospel

Resist the Culture Shift

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Luke 15:3-7.

"So Jesus told them this parable. 'What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors saying to them, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost." Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance."

Each day we're looking for a word or phrase or an idea that jumps out at us. The idea that jumps out at me today is that I'm not sure Jesus' assumption is true in modern times. And his assumption is, "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one, would not leave ninety-nine and go look for the other one?" I think in our consumer society, in our disposable society, I'm not sure this is true.

I mean, I don't have sheep, and I assume not many of you have sheep either. But we got stuff, right? And we lose one. Well, what do we do? We order another one and be delivered tomorrow in another cardboard box that seemed to endlessly flow into my home and yours too, I suspect. So I'm not sure that Jesus' assumption that he was so confident in making 2,000 years ago holds true today. And that represents a shift in the human spirit. It represents a shift in the priorities of humanity. And I don't think it's a good shift. I don't think those priorities place us closer to God and His will. I think that they have shifted away.

And so I do believe there is something to reflect upon there. How has the human spirit shifted, changed? How have our priorities shifted, changed collectively? And because of that, when the priorities of a culture have shifted away from God, we are going to be influenced by that. We are going to be affected by that. And we need to be mindful of that so that we can resist the influences that shift us away from God so that we can resist the influences that take us out of alignment with God. That's the idea that jumped out at me today.

Maybe the idea that jumped out at you was the rejoicing over the one sinner. Maybe the idea that jumped out of you was the idea of there will be more joy in heaven. It's a beautiful idea, right? There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. What jumped out at you? How are you going to carry it into your day? Have a great day. Remember, don't just be yourself, be the-very-best-version-of-yourself, all that God created you to be.