Over the past months in the Sunday lectionary, our gospel readings have featured some of Jesus’ parables—simple stories on the surface, but with hidden depths. They are about God, about us, and about the surprising ways grace breaks into the world. This week, Luke’s Gospel chapter 15, features a shepherd and his sheep, a woman and her coin. At first, it sounds like practical advice about searching and persistence. But look closer: the context matters. Jesus was being criticised by the religious leaders for welcoming and spending time with people who did not follow their interpretation of the law. In response, he tells these parables.
Many of us have heard these stories before, often framed as a call to mission. But here, Jesus isn’t talking only about our work. He’s revealing his own. He is the shepherd who searches. He is the woman who won’t give up. He is the father who runs to meet his wayward son. These parables aren’t only about our search for God. They are about God’s refusal to stop searching for us. And when the lost are found? Heaven erupts in joy. Repentance as described in the parables, isn’t climbing our way back into God’s favour. It’s about being carried home. It’s about letting grace do what we cannot. That’s where the Pharisees missed it. They thought they were already righteous, already fine with God. But their self-sufficiency blinded them to their need for grace. And still, Jesus doesn’t give up. His love is relentless, extravagant, even reckless by human standards. God’s logic is not our logic. When grace finds us, heaven celebrates—with laughter, dancing, and overflowing joy.
The parables leave us with a question: how will we join in? Not because salvation depends on us, but because joy is incomplete until it’s shared. That’s the calling of the church: to be a community of seekers and welcomers. As we begin a new season of creation this September, it is a time of focussing on true joy found in our hope in Christ. Not the kind we manufacture, but the kind God gives when we remember again and again that we are found. Every time we gather at the Eucharist, every time we encounter grace, the angels in heaven rejoice.