Jesus begins, “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?” Jesus asks his audience to imagine themselves as the one tending the flock. ![]() The words with which Luke concludes this parable support that interpretation: “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.”Īnd yet, Luke’ introduction to the parable suggests not that we are the lost sheep, but that we are the shepherd. Our sin has led us astray, and God loves us so much that God will leave all else behind to find us and bring us home. We usually imagine that the shepherd is God, and we are the sinful lost sheep. Similarly, we think we know what these parables will tell us even before the reading is complete.īut Luke’s telling of the Parable of the Lost Sheep is not so straightforward. You know the experience even before it happens. It’s like visiting your grandmother’s house: Turning into her driveway, you already feel the warmth of the quilt on the bed, the smell of the cookies baking in the oven. As with so many of Jesus’ parables, we’ve heard this one so many times, and it has become so familiar, that as soon as we hear its first words, we superimpose assumptions on the story. Today we read the Parable of the Lost Sheep. Each time, I have imagined what it would be like to serve in this inspiring place. Then and several other times in the intervening twenty-eight years I have sat in that holy garden and talked to my father-in-law. If I was going to marry her, she wanted me to meet her dad. Jill brought me here because her father, John Benson, is interred in St. The first time I walked onto this campus was in 1994, when Jill and I were newly engaged. Mark’s has long been a parish that I have observed from afar and admired, as you have lived your faith so vividly and in so many ways. I became an Episcopalian in this Diocese more than a quarter century ago. Jill was raised at Trinity here in Little Rock, and we met and fell in love up the road at Hendrix College in Conway. My mother is from Jonesboro, my dad is from McGehee, and all of my siblings still live in the Natural State. As many will know, the return to Arkansas is a homecoming for us. ![]() It is a blessing and privilege to be with you this day! For the past several months, meeting first with the search committee and then with the vestry, finally arriving in Little Rock and knowing more deeply your wardens and parish staff, Jill and I have readied ourselves for this very day.
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