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 who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
Commentary
What struck me more than anything else in today's reading was the following: “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” I have to confess that when I read those words I get a little bit sulky. I mean I understand what a joy it is to have a sinner repent. But more than for ninety-nine righteous people? What's the point of working so hard then?
Some of my attitudes are apparently still pretty childish. At an intellectual level, I know that God loves me unconditionally and just the way I am. But at the same time, I find myself reacting as if I have to earn my way in to heaven, and therefore, if I do, there should be a little joy in heaven as a result.
I think the problem with this way of thinking is that it is based on a belief in a degree of separation that simply can not coexist with a spiritual life. Wanting to be the subject of a little joy in heaven assumes that there is a me and that there is a heaven. Two separate concepts. Me and Heaven. Sort of like me and DisneyLand.
Well, if that isn't it, what then? What is this heaven in which there will be joy. I would suggest that heaven is exactly those 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. Heaven isn't a place with paid cheerleaders to applaud you as you walk through the gates. No heaven is that cloud of witnesses that you have made yourself part of by your love. The joy for you is inseparable from your joy for God, and yourself, and all the other brothers and sisters. When you live in love, you live in the body of Christ, and you live in heaven. There is no separation between you and God, or heaven or each other. That is the spiritual life.
I think what trips us up in the quote above is the concept of “joy over”. When I hear those words, my mind automatically goes into the boxes game. There is the person experiencing the joy and the person for whom the joy is felt. But if we get rid of the paid cheerleaders there is no one left to experience the joy other than ourselves. WE ARE HEAVEN. Unless we choose not to be. C. S. Lewis expounds on this concept at some length in one of his stories. As I recollect, we all go to hell on our death, but every week there is a bus which takes anyone who is interested for a trip to heaven. It doesn't cost anything. You just have to get on the bus. When you get to heaven, all you have to do is get off. At the end of the day, you can either get back on the bus and go back to hell, or stay in heaven. That simple. The catch is that in C. S. Lewis's mind, most of us will choose to get back on the bus. We just can't be happy without all of the walls that keep us in our own separate space.
So back to our reading. I would suggest that if we succeed in loving ourselves in to heaven, we will have grown past the point of needing any separate reward. We will already have a reward beyond anything we can now imagine, simply by being part of heaven itself.
One last thought I would like to share. Having put this down in one stream of thought, it seems so obvious that I can't understand why it has taken me so long to get it. So, it also seems probable that some of you got it at a very early age. In which case, you have been very lucky. The challenge for you is to imagine what it must be like NOT to have this understanding, and to try your best to share your insights with others.
Amen
What struck me more than anything else in today's reading was the following: “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” I have to confess that when I read those words I get a little bit sulky. I mean I understand what a joy it is to have a sinner repent. But more than for ninety-nine righteous people? What's the point of working so hard then?
Some of my attitudes are apparently still pretty childish. At an intellectual level, I know that God loves me unconditionally and just the way I am. But at the same time, I find myself reacting as if I have to earn my way in to heaven, and therefore, if I do, there should be a little joy in heaven as a result.
I think the problem with this way of thinking is that it is based on a belief in a degree of separation that simply can not coexist with a spiritual life. Wanting to be the subject of a little joy in heaven assumes that there is a me and that there is a heaven. Two separate concepts. Me and Heaven. Sort of like me and DisneyLand.
Well, if that isn't it, what then? What is this heaven in which there will be joy. I would suggest that heaven is exactly those 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. Heaven isn't a place with paid cheerleaders to applaud you as you walk through the gates. No heaven is that cloud of witnesses that you have made yourself part of by your love. The joy for you is inseparable from your joy for God, and yourself, and all the other brothers and sisters. When you live in love, you live in the body of Christ, and you live in heaven. There is no separation between you and God, or heaven or each other. That is the spiritual life.
I think what trips us up in the quote above is the concept of “joy over”. When I hear those words, my mind automatically goes into the boxes game. There is the person experiencing the joy and the person for whom the joy is felt. But if we get rid of the paid cheerleaders there is no one left to experience the joy other than ourselves. WE ARE HEAVEN. Unless we choose not to be. C. S. Lewis expounds on this concept at some length in one of his stories. As I recollect, we all go to hell on our death, but every week there is a bus which takes anyone who is interested for a trip to heaven. It doesn't cost anything. You just have to get on the bus. When you get to heaven, all you have to do is get off. At the end of the day, you can either get back on the bus and go back to hell, or stay in heaven. That simple. The catch is that in C. S. Lewis's mind, most of us will choose to get back on the bus. We just can't be happy without all of the walls that keep us in our own separate space.
So back to our reading. I would suggest that if we succeed in loving ourselves in to heaven, we will have grown past the point of needing any separate reward. We will already have a reward beyond anything we can now imagine, simply by being part of heaven itself.
One last thought I would like to share. Having put this down in one stream of thought, it seems so obvious that I can't understand why it has taken me so long to get it. So, it also seems probable that some of you got it at a very early age. In which case, you have been very lucky. The challenge for you is to imagine what it must be like NOT to have this understanding, and to try your best to share your insights with others.
Amen