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The One God Helps

By Jared Warner

Willow Creek Friends Church

September 28, 2025

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If you would like to read the transcript in English or Swahili click here

Kama ungependa kusoma nakala kwa Kiingereza au Kiswahili bonyeza hapa

Luke 16:19–31 (ESV)

¹⁹ “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. ²⁰ And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹ who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. ²² The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, ²³ and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. ²⁴ And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ ²⁷ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— ²⁸ for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ ²⁹ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ ³⁰ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ ³¹ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”

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Today we meet with Jesus as he again interacts with the religious leaders. For the past couple of weeks we have listened to Jesus’s parables. He spoke about the lost sheep and the lost coin as the Pharisees watched the sinners and the tax collectors draw near to him and have a meal. He then told the parable of the the lost son. Last week he focused his attention on his disciples and he shared the parable that I said I really disliked, unfortunately the Pharisees overheard what Jesus said and they too did not care for what was said. They particularly took offense to the statement, “You cannot serve God and money,” as Luke commented that they were lovers of money.

I sat this week with the passage we read not really knowing where I should begin, and I realized that I cannot begin without backing up just a bit. The Pharisees were getting upset with Jesus, they looked at him, they watched him, they observed who he spoke to and who he ate with. They were watching every move. And then they overhear him teaching his disciples, that parable I dislike and it sets them off. They begin to ridicule him. But Jesus is not the quiet man that we often imagine. Jesus speaks up.

I want us to go back to verse 14 and look at something. “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, ‘You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.”

I want you to imagine the scene. See the passion and the anger pulsating on the face of Jesus, as they ridicule him over their interpretation of the sayings of God. Then out of seemingly no where he gives a one liner. “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.”

Why did Jesus say this at that moment?

I want us to just sit with this for a moment. I assure you that I am not speaking out against anyone, I myself can be included in that statement. But Jesus said those words for a reason. It immediately shut everyone up. They were getting up in arms about how Jesus was eating dinner with the sinners and how it was not right for him to do so. They were giving him a lesson about how amazing they were. How righteous they were. How much better they were in comparison with everyone else around them.

They were ridiculing Jesus about his interpretation of the law. And he shut them up with that one statement. Why that statement?

We have a great deal of attention within religious circles about marriage. And quite frankly I have gotten tired of listening to it. We have lifted marriage up to a status of near idolatry. Not just marriage but the acts sanctified within marriage. But with all this talk and focus do we remember what it was actually for?

Often when we discuss marriage we go back to Genesis, and we talk about how Adam was created from the dust of the earth and how God breathed into his nostrils and gave him life. We then jump on ahead and we say that Adam was alone and so God caused him to fall asleep and from one of Adam’s ribs God created Eve. Its a great story but one we often miss the nuance to. God fashioned out of Adam’s side not rib, it literally means that God split Adam in half and he created a rescuer, not merely a help mate. A rescuer. God did not fashion marriage he built a community of rescuers. A dynamic due so to speak. He split humanity in half and he called the two halves rescuers. Eve is not there to satisfy Adam’s carnal desires, she is there to keep Adam from dying. And the same could be said in the opposite direction.

Marriage is about community, it is about survival. It is a recognition that I need help. But the religious leaders had twisted it along with everything else about the Law of God, and suddenly it has nothing to do with the need for mutual assistance and instead it is about selfish satisfaction and carnal desires. What was once help and rescue. What was once something that would ensure survival had become a tool of manipulation.

Jesus says this to the fuming Pharisees and they shut their mouths, and he begins to tell another parable.

“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.”

This is a unique parable. It is the only parable that Jesus gives where a character is given a name, that name is Lazarus. This is an interesting name. Eventually it will be the name of the man that Jesus raises from the dead, but that is later. The name Lazarus was during that time period the third most common name of men in that area, and it is the name of the second high priest of Israel. And the name means the one God helps.

Why did Jesus choose this name for this man? It is the stereotypical man. The common man. The everyday man in Israel is not the man sitting in fine linen eating a feast, but its Lazarus.

In this period of time there were basically only two classes of people within a society. There were rich and poor. Slave or free. Rulers and the ruled. There was really no such thing as a middle class, this is largely a thing of modern invention, so when we look at this parable we need to see it for what it truly is. The man in purple is a rich man, someone in governmental stature since only certain people can ware purple, and man that live according to his means.

This rich man, this leader of men, was just living his life and there was a poor man named Lazarus laid at his gate. The wording here is a bit too tame as the word we have translated as laid means to throw or to cast. The idea is that this man Lazarus was discarded or tossed aside. The image that Jesus is trying to convey is that this man was trash, had absolutely no value to the community. He was of so little value that the dogs licked his sores.

The dogs is a strong picture as well. Dogs in ancient times were not the nice pets we have today. They were packs of scavengers roaming around, semi domesticated but not exactly safe. They were outsiders ready to take whatever they could. Because of this the outsiders of the community were often called dogs as a derogatory term, even Jesus is recorded as using this in conversation. This does not mean we should be free to use derogatory language but there are moments where a well placed word will shock us to attention. In this story Lazarus is lower than low. He is trash. He is so worthless that even the outsiders, the gentiles are above him.

This man is thrown out, discarded, but where is he thrown? He is at the rich man’s gate. There are two classes of people the rulers and those that are ruled over, the masters and the slaves. And in this society the gate was the court of justice. This indicates that Lazarus was a subject of the rich man.

We like to say that Jesus does not speak about politics. This is not exactly true, Jesus speaks about social justice all the time, the problem is that our cultures are different. This is a story about miscarriage of justice. Lazarus, the one God Helps, is literally tossed out like trash before the court of justice and those that have the ability to help are unaffected.

The poor man dies and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at this side. The tables are now turned and the rich man is in torment, and the man that was once neglected is satisfied. He cries out for mercy, he cries out to Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water to cool his tongue. He knows this poor man’s name in death but was unmoved in life to even drive the dogs away. But notice what is said in response there is a commanding verb that is so often used in scripture. Remember.

Remember

As I was growing up I remember this passage being used to scare me into turning my life to Christ. The pastor would use the words of Jesus to prove that Hell was real and that the fires were as well. I do not know if this is the point of the story but there is something here that is important. That word remember. “Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.” I do not know if hell is hot, I have never been there and I personally do not have any desire to visit. But there is something very ominous about remembering.

This man knew Lazarus, yet did not help. He knew his name, he allowed him to be tossed at his gate and he did nothing. Remember Abraham says to his child. Remember all that you had available to you, and yet you did not help. And now when the tables are turned suddenly you remember the name. Only when you are in trouble, only when you are now facing torment do you seek mercy. Where was that mercy before?

“And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.”

I was once taught to draw the four spiritual laws on a napkin when I went to Ukraine. I would draw on that napkin the great chasm that could only be bridged by the cross of Christ. I have often reflected on the things I was once taught. I have thought about how this passage has been used to point to heaven and hell. And then I remember verse eighteen.

Why does Jesus talk about divorce and remarriage between the parable of the deceptive servant and this parable about Lazarus and the rich man?

Marriage was created to provide help. Man needed a rescuer so God gave him Eve. And together they were to make the world God created into the living temple for God. But something happened. They were distracted. They had a desire to become something they were not intended to be they fell and out of that fall separation entered the world. The great divorce.

From the time of Cain, humanity has sought their own form of rescue. We build cities and civilizations, we build tools of war and domination. We see wealth and power all to secure our rescue for ourselves. But this only creates a deeper an wider chasm. When the one God helps is laying at the very gates we had constructed. Oh but send Lazarus to tell my brothers, send Lazarus to warn the world of its own destruction? But we already know. We already know that we are creatures of great destruction if left to our own devises. We will destroy because we want more. Abraham told that rich man, “they have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.”

What is the message that Moses and the Prophets say? Hear O’ Israel the Lord your God is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your strength and love your neighbor as your self.

From the beginning God created us to love one another and to love him. We were created to build a community based on shared labor and profit, two sides of one whole. That is what we reject. And we reject it every day when we fail to see that of God in the person at our gates. When we say that some do not have the rights that others poses we reject that of God. When we say one deserves more or less we reject God. When we say that I have built a city, a business, a family on my own. We are rejecting that of God. God is the one that provided the help, and we are the ones that God helps. We can acknowledge that now or we can see it later. But we will all eventually remember. Did we hear them? Did we see them? Or were we too focused on our own cloaks of purple?

There are many things I would like to say regarding this parable. Most of the things I want to say would likely cause division. But I keep coming back to verse eighteen. Why is it there? Why is this whole chapter in the Gospel of Luke. I just really do not like this chapter in general. But why does Jesus in the middle of all the weirdness include that one statement about divorce and remarriage?

I think it has to do with our idea of greener pastures on the other side of the fence. We think if only this or that would change in my life then I would be satisfied. If only this or that person was elected. If only. Lazarus is already at the gate. And we are him. We have suffered, we have gone through pain we have experienced loss. But we are not that person any more. We are also the rich man feasting at the table. We look out at an trip over the man tossed at the gate and we mutter and curse that they are there. We see without seeing and we hear without listening. Abraham told that rich man, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” We believe that Jesus did pass from death to life. We believe that He did bridge that gap across the abyss. We believe, or do we?

Unaware Until It Hurts

By Jared Warner

Willow Creek Friends Church

September 21, 2025

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Click to read in Swahili

Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili

Luke 16:1–13 (ESV)

¹ He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. ² And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ ³ And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ ⁵ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸ The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. ⁹ And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. ¹⁰ “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. ¹¹ If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? ¹² And if you have not been faithful in that which is anther’s, who will give you that which is your own? ¹³ No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

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I have struggled with this parable over the years. Since being here at Willow Creek I have given a message on this passage at least three times. Each time I have told you how much I struggle with this parable. It seems to go against everything we say we believe, and yet here it is in the pages of scripture. I actually think Jesus intended for this parable to leave everyone scratching their heads. I think he did this to show us that what we believe in our heads do no always play out the way we expect. I think he left this parable morally questionable to show us that life is messy sometime. That there are times where what appears to be right on the surface might not be right in the eyes of God, even when we can support it with scripture.

This hits us right in the gut of righteousness. Jesus in this parable is praising someone that has been participating in fraud. How do we process this? How do we come to terms with this moral discord?

This points out the weakness of some of our fundamentalist and evangelical ideas. We like to say that we believe the Bible to be the inerrant word of God. We claim that scripture never contradicts itself, we claim that if the Bible commands we should follow with unquestioned devotion. This passage challenges us in these areas, because we have to let the words soak into the crevices of our brains because we cannot simply look at the surface. Why would Jesus praise someone who has clearly participated in something every ounce of our being says is wrong?

I am going to encourage us to think about some things today. I am going to say some things that will probably make us squirm a little bit, but I want you all to know before we move forward that I love scripture, I love God, I love the church, and I love the testimonies of passed down within the various branches of the Society of Friends. I am going to say these words because I believe that if we do not wrestle with some of these things we will not be able to move forward because we are being held captive by our self-imposed perceptions.

The first thing I want us to wrestle with is the commandments we find in scripture, the Law. Most of my life I have believed that the commandments are absolute. I always read the, “thou shalt nots” as being non negotiable. I want to be very clear the commandments are very important, all of scripture is. The more I have studied the more I read I found that there is something interesting about the words and the meanings. If we were to look at law today, you basically need a degree to even read a simple contract. Which is good if you are in the legal field. Our laws are written in specific ways. There are articles, sections, subsections each defining and specifying aspects of what is intended. And if an aspect is not found in these massive tomes, chances are it is not illegal. The commandments in scripture are not written like this. It is as if they were intended to be left vague. Take some of the ones that seem pretty easy, “You shall not steal.” I bring this in because it pertains to today’s passage.

You shall not steal, seem very straight forward. You should not go into a store and take something off the shelf and take it home without obtaining permission through a transaction. In the context of the commandments in Exodus 20, it appears to make complete sense. But in the ancient cultures the commands were not known as commandments instead they were teachings. The idea of commandments as we understand them comes from Greek philosophy. Prior to Alexander the Great’s conquest east through Turkey, Israel, down through Egypt and throughout Persia, and to what we know today as India there were legal codes in every culture, but the idea of a system of law that the western world eventually came to know as Rule of Law, was largely unknown. What we see as the ten commandments in ancient times would have been called the sayings, or the teachings of God. What does this mean? There is more to this law, there is more to this commandment than simply taking something without permission.

The concept of teachings or words of wisdom is important. The teachings of scripture are intended to be a framework or guide to build our lives, not legislation. The commandments are an introduction to a discussion on how we interact with each other. The word is translated properly, it means do not steal, but it also can be extended to deception and trickery. Interestingly it can also mean kidnap. So when the teacher of the law comes to the children and the adults and reads this word of wisdom. It should start discussion. It begins with you should not take something that is not yours without permission. Then the teacher might say but what if you sell it to someone, do you still have any say in how it is used? Then they might ask again, what if you knowingly sold someone something that you knew was broken? Or what if you change the terms after a transaction occurred?

Suddenly the word of wisdom becomes a bit more unclear, it gets a bit messy. What was once so simple, simple enough a child could understand is now so complex that we need training and scholars to determine what the meaning is. This is why scripture is fascinating, why religion is frustrating, and why Jesus often debated with the Scribes and Pharisees. These were the people, the scholars that discussed the teachings. They were the ones that directed how people within that community would justify activities with one another. But there is one simple way that we can get to the heart of the teachings of scripture.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was he said two things. The first is “Hear O Israel the lord your God is one, you shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And the second is like the first, love your neighbor as yourself.”

The core or the heart of every teaching is to love God, or love your neighbor. The teachings on theft, lying, adultery, and murder are all good. They are the most important teaching and commandments in life. Why would Jesus or any of the scribes and Pharisees argue about these things?

Who is your neighbor?

Which brings us to today’s parable. The manager was in trouble, he had been charged with wasting his master’s possessions and the master wanted an accounting of his work. We can go many different directions with this passage. In the past, I took the time to figure out the value of everything listed in the parable. As I considered it, I came to the conclusion that the amount owed was approximately 1/3 of the value of a year’s crop. Which is typically the same standard used today. And when I spoke then I said that the manager was basically reducing the rent for the tenants, allowing them to keep more of their profits, and thus becoming very popular in the eyes of the community. I still think that is a worthwhile explanation. But perspective is key. What if we look at things from a different perspective?

We are not told how these people became indebted to the master. This means that there could be any number of explanations or scenarios we could read into these words. I grew up on a farm, I am familiar with the customs surrounding agricultural land rental, so of course as I read this my mind places this story on a farm, but it does not have to be on a farm. He could be a man living in the city, or in a manor house. How did he become rich? He could just own an abundance of land, or maybe he was a merchant shipping cargo across the empire. We do not know. But scripture contains teachings about debt, that we can refer to.

I looked up debt in the Lexham Bible Dictionary and it said, “Most of the biblical treatment of debt is within the civil law of ancient Israel, and all biblical instruction concerning debt is in a context of charitable, benevolent lending to relieve distress. Commercial lending, in which a business borrows cash to finance its operations, was well known in the ancient world but does not appear in Scripture.” This mentions the civil law of ancient Israel, which we might not understand. Christians have divided the teaching of the Old Testament into various categories: ceremonial, civil, and moral. We do this because we need to know how people who are not part of Israel, but are grafted in, follow God? We do not have a temple so the laws dedicated to that were categorized as ceremonial, and are not generally applicable. The moral laws are familiar. They apply to justice and are pretty much what CS Lewis would call natural law. Meaning basically every human and culture has these laws in some form. The civil law is the gray area. At times they seem as if they do not apply but at other times the teaching within are useful. This is why Paul taught his disciple Timothy that “all the law is useful for instruction.” And this is why scripture can be used to justify both sides of almost any argument.

The civil law in scripture are often presented not as specific list we can point to, instead they are usually found within stories, psalms, or discussions. Debt falls in this category. Remember the core of the teaching of God are to Love God and Love our neighbor. Civil law or the civil teachings are to show us examples of how do this.

The primary teaching on debt is that repayment must be made. Failure to repay a debt is wickedness. If it is not settled the what was offered as collateral. And if they could not even give the collateral, the individual, could be sold into temporary slavery. God cares about the repayment of debts. We could stop there, and we could tell all the people complaining about student loans to just pay the bill, but there are more teachings. Basic necessities could not be taken for collateral. The one that owed the debt had to bring the collateral to the lender going so far as saying that the lender could not enter the house to find items of value to take for themselves. Suddenly the teachings take a different turn.

If they happened to get to the point of debtors slavery, this too was only temporary. Israelites could only enslave other Israelites for a maximum of six years, or until the Year of Jubilee whichever came first. And they were not allowed to charge interest to their countrymen.

I want us to think about these teachings for a moment. The world teaches us that the lender has control over those that are owed to them, and there are constant penalties that continue to compound. The teachings scripture provide for debt are largely focus on the rights of the one in debt, not on the one giving the loan. I think this is the place we need to be in as we consider the parable that Jesus shared.

This steward mismanaged the master’s possessions, this is true. We are not told how this happened, or even what he did exactly. The story eludes to the possibility that there was a liquidity problem. The master needed something and when he went to look for it, his stores were empty. One could also potentially assume that perhaps the manager was providing loans in the master’s name while collecting a form of interest. Or perhaps the manager gave loans to people knowing they were not in a position to repay the debts. Perhaps the community in which they lived was in an economic recession and the various businesses were on the verge of what we would call bankruptcy. There could be many ways to look at this, and none of them are very good for the manager.

This manager is in a panic. Everyone is about to find out how corrupt he has been. He has made a life for himself taking advantage of those around him in some way. He has participated in theft, he has broken the commandment, strayed away from the teachings of God. And everyone will soon know the full details of his sin. What does he do?

He calls all the business associates together one by one, he brings each person with an outstanding debt. And he begins to make amendments to the contracts with each of them. He has the power to do this as the manager. As far as anyone knows he is still working for his master. The signatures on the deeds only contain two names his and the one that owes the debt. If both parties agree on new terms it will hold up, unless the master can prove otherwise.

He brings them in. He asks them how much do you owe? And they tell him. This is not a conspiracy because the one that has the debt is not aware of the manager’s position, nor are they aware of the debt owed by the others. As far as they are concerned the master’s steward was directed to make these revisions.

This man then tells the man owning one hundred measures of oil to write fifty, why fifty? We do not know. Maybe that is how much he had already paid or how much the man has on hand. Another man owes a hundred measures of wheat and his bill was adjusted to eighty. Again we do not know the reasons behind the numbers. But we know the results. What was done could not be changed, and the master is aware of the trickery but no longer has reason to escalate the situation, without bringing shame to his name.

Now we get into the parts that become strange. Jesus seems to praise this dishonest manager. He seems to condone his misdeeds. “The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”

Jesus is telling us that the economy of this world is a tool. It is a tool of human desire, human need, and human expression. The study of economics is the study of human nature and action. Those in the world, or as Jesus says the sons of this world, look at these things, they study it and they know what the people want. They then use this information to grow their wealth and power within the world. To the world everything is economy based. Just look at the news. Every day they share the Dow Jones Industrial average. Every time the news of our nation is broadcast that number will be in the report somewhere. It does not matter if it is ABC, MSNBC, or Fox News, they all give us this information. The next thing most news reports will mention is the price of fuel. And during the election for some reason we all needed to know what the price of eggs were. What do these things tell us? They are all indicator of the state of our society. How much it costs to live, and if making a living will be easier or more difficult. But these are only indicators, because economics studies how we live, the economy is the field we work in, and currency is the tool of that livelihood.

Jesus says, “The sons of the world are more shrewd, or wise, in dealing with this generation than the sons of light.” We as the faithful, are unaware, we are ignorant of the conditions our society are facing every single day of their lives. And we have become ignorant because we have placed more importance on the indicators and the tools. We have become more absorbed by the transactions instead of the hands of the participants.

I like economics. It was one of my favorite subjects in school. My primary focus was on crop science and genetics, but I had enough economics classes that I probably could have also obtained a degree in economics if I wanted to. The other surprising thing is I also too several art history classes. I have a very eclectic background in my journey for knowledge. But what is this quest for knowledge except asking questions and attempting to find answers? And as I have made this journey I have found that there are times where we are asking the wrong questions. That is the case when I have looked at this parable, over the years. I have been asking why Jesus seemed to praise the dishonest manager. Why would Jesus seemingly promote fraud among his disciples. I have been asking the wrong question.

I have learned that the commandments are deeper than right and wrong. Instead they are a conversation about how we are to interact with the people around us. Of course we should not steal. But we should also not be deceptive in our business dealings. Nearly every company participating in our economy is deceptive. They lower the quality and keep the price the same. They decrease the size per unit while not reflecting that decrease in their price. Or more recently you own the hardware but you do not own the software to make the hardware work. And the company can change the functionality of that software at any point and force you to pay more or subscribe to unlock the features. If you do not believe me just go to a lumber yard, and measure a 2×4 is it really a 2×4? We as a culture condone theft every day calling it good business practices. We even praise individuals that are the best at this sort of deception. But the commandments are concerned with something more, something deeper. They are concerned with humanity and how we interact with each other.

Jesus tells this story to his disciples as they leave the company of tax collectors and sinners. He tells this story shortly after the scribes and Pharisees grumbled about Jesus receiving and eating with the tax collectors and sinners, and how or why they were aware that Jesus was among that company is a bit suspicious. While he was in the company of the crowds he shared the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son that had gone out to the far off country. As they leave and are alone, he tells his disciples this parable. What does that tell us?

The study of economics is the study of human behavior. Through it we can find what is most important to the members of our society. We can build an understanding of who is participating and who is not and from that understanding we can promote change within our society. Jesus told this parable at this time to these people because he wanted his disciples to know where the true indicators of the health of a society were. It is not among the people that have it all, it is with the people often neglected and demonized within a culture. He is telling them to look at the sinners what are they doing and focused on, what are they exploiting and how are they being deceived? They are the one that see a need within the community and they hope to gain wealth. This is not necessarily wrong, but what do people consume? Why are they consuming it? And should we as bearer of the name of God engage?

This week we are still gripped with tension over the events that have unfolded around us. We are still struggling to come to some sort of understanding as to who is responsible and why things have happened the way they did. Today’s parable is one that does not sit well with me. I do not like it. I think it is one of the worst portions of scripture within the bible. But it is important. It is important because we live in a world that is the way it is. What questions are we asking, why are we asking them? Are we even asking the right questions? Who are the sinners of our society? Who are the hated tax collectors? What are they focusing on? Are they making money on it? Are they hurting or deceiving others to make this gain? Where is the money coming from? Are their interests different than our own? What are we missing?

All too often we are blinded by ourselves. We do not know the questions to ask, and because of that we get answers that do not help. We want to blame the dishonest manager, but that man in the parable saw something that the master missed. The people of his community were struggling and he was unaware until it affected him personally. Let us learn to see the needs of the people, and ask how we can share righteousness into it.

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You Have Been There

By Jared Warner

Willow Creek Friends Church

September 14, 2025

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Click to read in Swahili

Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili

Luke 15:1–10 (ESV)

¹ Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. ² And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” ³ So he told them this parable: ⁴ “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶ 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 that was lost.’ ⁷ 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. ⁸ “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? ⁹ And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ ¹⁰ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

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As many of you can imagine, this has been a difficult week. Our nation is all riled up. Our faith communities are riled up. Pretty much everyone I know is riled up in some way or another. We cannot really blame ourselves too much because this week was the anniversary of tragic events that happened twenty-four years ago, that defined an entire generation. My eldest son was two when the plane hit the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. His entire life we have been involved in a war on terror. If I could have joined the military at the time, he and I would have had the opportunity to have served in the same war a generation apart.

I have thought about that this past week. The war on terror has cooled, when the forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan. It has cooled, but in many ways it is just as hot as it has ever been. I remember the early years of the conflict, I remember well because I had just entered ministry and I stood in a pulpit and expressed as a Friends pastor how I supported the President’s decision to invade Iraq. At the time I felt as if I was being brave. I felt patriotic and bold.

That was the first couple of years that I had been a pastor. I learned a great deal at the time. I mainly learned that I did not have a clue to what I had said yes to when I answered that call. I was young, energetic, and passionate. I invited the students over to our house and we would have bible studies and I was proud of the men that left to go serve. Two of them went to serve in the military they followed the encouragement of their pastor, they followed the encouragement of their peers and their parents, and I am proud of them. One of them serves in a different way, one of those students from my first church is a pastor in Oregon. That really is not a bad record.

Time moves and at the time tensions were high. I was a young pastor, and I had absolutely no pastoral training at the time. And a church member came to me and said that her husband and her were getting divorced. I did not have any words to say. I could not comfort or encourage. And not long after that happened the church fell apart and closed. I realized at that moment I needed help.

I did not want to see another church close. I did not want someone to come to me with a hurting heart and not have words to say. I drove to Wichita and I enrolled in a master’s program at Friends University so that I could obtain the tools that I was missing.

As Friends we do not have strict requirements for much of anything. If you sense a call to ministry that is all that is required. If a church or meeting recognizes that call in you life you might be asked to become a minister among them. There is no requirements other than faith. I felt secure in that calling. I believed that God would give me the words to say if I had faith. But I quickly sensed that I did not have any framework to begin some of these conversations. I did not know how to council a student in a decision to join the military, I did not know the questions that needed to be asked. I did not know how to speak to a couple struggling in their marriage, to be honest I did not even know what marriage really was at that time since Kristy and I were in the honeymoon stage of things.

I needed help.

I started in my master’s program. I began learning theology. I learned the basics of counseling. And I learned a great deal. In all of that learning the thing that I learned the most was that I still did not know a thing. I everywhere I turned I was bombarded by more and more struggle.

Wichita is an interesting place. It is one of the largest population centers in the United States for Armenian refugees. I was going to school in this city not long after the war on terror began. I watched good American people harass and bully this group of people that had lived peaceably in this community for decades. Their children only knew Wichita as their home, they only spoke English, and they were devout Orthodox Christians. Their grandparents left their homeland to escape persecution from other religious groups and the communists. Yet because their skin tone resembled the skin town of our enemies, they were harassed.

I struggled with this. I knew some of the people, I knew why they were in Wichita, and I knew their faith. I loved these people and the more I learned about them the more I loved them.

That same year I also took a couple of classes I had church history, and introduction to theology. And the professor of these classes did something that was different than any other class I had taken before. We had the lectures and all. We read more books than I realized could be read in that amount of time. But each week we were required to write a paper answering and giving council to a person or group using the various theological positions fundamentalist, liberal, reformed, Lutheran, Trinitarian Incarnational, and since I am a Quaker our own theological traditions. Each week I would read theology, scripture, history, these deep questions about life the universe and everything and I had to give an answer, along with footnotes discussing why this or that theological position was relevant.

I wrote these papers. I read the books. And I watched Armenian Christians scrub racial slurs off the sides of their businesses and houses.

This past week, these are the things that have been going through my mind. My own emotional response to an attack on my country. My call to ministry. My counsel to young men wanting to be brave. My lack of knowledge to help. And the utter ignorance of racism. Two men went off to serve their country. They both served honorable, but one returned home and took his own life. I have served in three churches. Two have closed their doors. I have reflected this week. And there are times I feel as if I have wasted everyone’s time.

These were the things going thing that were going through my mind all week. All the papers I wrote in theology class. The papers dealing with how we would use our understanding of faith to walk with a family through various issues. How would you as a missionary encourage an new believer, who had multiple wives? How we would respond using our theological perspectives if a Jewish family had knocked on our door in during the era Third Reich. How we should respond to our employees during a strike as a devout Christian? And in the same moment I was listening to the news.

I have reflected a great deal this week. On the day that most of this reflecting had taken place, it was Albert’s birthday. God had blessed my family with something to celebrate when the rest of the nation was mourning. But Albert did something that he did not know would encourage his dad so much. He gave me a card for his birthday. In that card he said “Thank you for 12 fun years living. 9 great hockey seasons and being a great dad.”

I thought about all of these things this week, as I considered this week’s passage. “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’”

I looked at this passage in light of my reflections and I began to replace the characters as I began to pray. I began to replace the tax collectors with other people that I might not like. It takes some practice to think of someone other than a tax collector that you might not like but try it for a moment. Who do you see? Then I replaced the Pharisees and the scribes, I did not put some random person in that place, instead I placed myself. I put myself in that place because so often I do think that I know what is best. I think I know what it means to be a good Christian, at least I hope I do since I am a pastor.

I replace these characters and I sat for a moment with them. People I do not like, that I have fundamental disagreements with drawing near to Jesus. People I do not want to associate with because I am better than them, wanting to hear what Jesus has to say. And Jesus is interacting with them and eating with them.

Can you see that in your mind? Jesus sitting with the biology professor teaching our students about evolution instead of Creationism? Jesus sitting with a candidate for office, laughing and talking as he pours some more coffee into their cup? Jesus passing a plate of food to a Muslim? What if they were having that conversation in a different language? What if that person should not even be there?

I sat and I reflected on these things. And I realized quite quickly that I am the person in the story. I am the Pharisee and I am the sinner. I have been on both sides of the table and at times I am both at the same moment. We have all been there. We know this in our heads. We know that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, and that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. We know this and yet so easily we can grumble. And so easily we might say we should not go to the table because I do not qualify.

Jesus looked at these grumbling religious leaders and he told them a parable. “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?”

I do not know how many of you have stopped to think about this deeply. But as someone that has grown up on a farm I understand the power of this story. As someone that has owned a pet I get the gravity of what Jesus is saying. When you have been given the responsibility over the life of another living being something changes in our mind.

We once owned a chinchilla. These animals are some of the fluffiest creatures on the earth and you just want to cuddle them, but ours was not very cuddly. It wanted to be free. We did everything we could to get the thing to play with us, but it only wanted to run away. It was fast and it always like to find the hardest to reach places to hide. One day we tried to get the chinchilla out to let him run a bit, but before we could do it safely he hopped out of our hands and crawled up into our couch. We were frantic. We could not sit down because we did not want to squish him. We did not want to move anything because if we lifted anything up he might get caught in the mechanism and get hurt. For hours we sought to figure out as way to get in to find this silly little fluff ball.

We had to find it, we were responsible. We needed to feed it. We needed to make sure it was safe. Nothing else mattered. This is what Jesus is speaking about in the parable. Ninety-nine sheep are just fine but one is missing. Is it in danger? Is it lambing and having trouble? Has it fallen in a hole? All these things could happen because sheep are pretty annoying creatures. They just put their heads down and eat until they have lost all bearings and then they get scared and run for no reason and usually end up somewhere worse.

But the shepherd is responsible. The ninety-nine are safe, but that one needs help. They consider everywhere they had been in that day and they retrace their steps. They look in the ditches, in the little caves, under the shrubby bushes scattered throughout the pastures. They will continue to seek out this lost sheep until it is found and brought safely back.

Jesus then continues his story, “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 that was lost.’”

We might not know the full extent of this rejoicing. When we finally got our chinchilla back into his cage I was not calling my neighbors, I was grumbling. But there have been times where I did rejoice. The child who lost their dog and just found it again rejoices. When the one cow that wondered away from the herd was found and she had a new calf with her. I rejoiced. When my uncle was on vacation and the fences broke under the weight of ice and all the cattle were back safely in the pasture and the fences were put back up there were high fives going on, because everything was back to where it was supposed to be, and I was not going to have to explain why there were less cattle to my boss.

We rejoice because it is as it should be. Everything is safe and secure.

But then I sat in my chair again. And a thought went through my mind. Am I among the ninety-nine or the lost one? And if I am part of the ninety-nine and I watch as the shepherd goes after that one what do I feel?

Jesus is concerned with that lost one. The ninety-nine are safe at this moment but that one is in danger. That is where Jesus’s focus is in that instant. This leads us to Jesus’s second parable. “or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when sh has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’”

In American culture this parable seems a bit abstract. For one, we do not care much about coins in our currency. If we have coins we usually just throw them in a jar or something until it gets full and we take it to the bank to get some bills instead. But in this first century culture these coins were significant. They are likely this woman’s dowry. Some have said that when coins were given with a dowry they would incorporate them into the woman’s veil so that it could be on display. If this is the case if she lost one of those coins it had dire social consequences. For a woman to spend her dowry would mean that there was trouble. Either something was wrong with her husband and he was unable to work, or he had made a bad financial decision and they had to use this woman’s dowry to make ends meet. And if these coins were hanging on her veil the entire community would know that a tenth of wealth she brought into the marriage is gone. She would make every effort to find what was missing. She would literally move mountains in an attempt to find this one coin because their social standing depended on it.

It is only one sheep. Only one coin. What is the big deal?

One card was given to me this week and it changed my entire week. It changed my entire year. Something we might consider insignificant to someone else is life changing.

When I went to Friends University, we studied various forms of theology. But one question was always within it. How does this affect the way we live? Jesus, in the parable, was concerned with the one sheep, with the one coin. Everything that was done in that moment was to bring that one to a place of fellowship. What does this tell us about the way we should live?

The tax collectors and sinners are sitting at the table, and the righteous are grumbling. Replace the characters with something else. Who is in danger, who is in a place where their life, or their social standing is threatened?

I have spoken a great deal the past few years about Ukraine. They are threatened, they need help. Their very lives are at risk of being lost. Should we care? I say this know full well that there are others facing war. My uncle lives in Thailand and his nation was recently involved in a conflict. I have friends in India and I have friends in Nepal all of which are in need right now because their very existence is threatened. We have friends and family in our church who are living in places that are threatened. They are the ones that we should be focused on. Why focus on them? Shouldn’t we be focused on our own needs right here?

There is something that we often miss in these parables. The part we miss is the verb rejoice. Rejoice with me, Jesus says it twice. The term rejoice is to be merry, enjoy the company of others, it is a celebration. We cannot fully rejoice with one another until we know each other. We cannot laugh together until we are in a place where laughter can be given. We cannot rejoice until there is peace.

That is what we are missing. We are not at peace. We are grumbling. Instead of inviting people to the table. This week I remembered the struggle of the Armenian Christians, I remembered what brought them to this place. What drove them to come, and why they stayed. I remembered a song I loved to listen to when I was a student. A song about a young man whose brother died in war and the yellow letter was sitting on his porch and in his sadness he walked through his neighborhood walking past a house with a flag flying out front and a couple sitting on their porch watching him walk. He waved to the couple seeking community with them, seeking recognition and comfort that his brother did not die in vain, but the couple did not wave back.

Jesus went after the one, he went after the ones that are hurting and can not be at peace, and he brings them to the table. You have been there. And it is the unexpected kindness and grace that brought you out of the darkness and into the light. It is that little wave, the card, the invitation to the party that brought you to a place of peace where you can rejoice. We have all been there in one way or another. We have been the boy or girl walking on the street looking for a reason to believe. Jesus came for that one, will we join with Jesus and rejoice?

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