Dear beloved sisters and brothers in Christ,

Remember the story of the lost sheep? The shepherd had a hundred sheep. One sheep wandered off. The shepherd ditched the ninety-nine to find the one lost sheep. What’s more, when he found his lost sheep, the shepherd did not yell at it, “Look at what trouble you caused!” Instead, he carried it home on his shoulders and bragged to everyone, “Rejoice with me!” and in so many words told everyone he was careless enough to lose a sheep (Luke 15:4-6).

Then there’s the woman who finally found the valuable coin she had lost in her own home. A normal woman would have kicked herself for her clumsiness to lose a day’s wages. She would have rolled her eyes at the panicky time wasted sweeping the house to find the coin. This woman, however, called up her neighbors and had them over for a party. Her whole day stopped to have a celebration over a single coin. The woman could not get over the fact that she found the lost coin. She had to tell everybody. She was nuts (Luke 15:8-9).

The third story is over-the-top unreal. Unable to wait for his father to die, the younger son demanded his inheritance. Instead of disinheriting him, the father gave his younger son half of his estate! After the spoiled brat squandered the family’s fortune and reputation on eat-drink-be merry and came home with his tail between his legs, the father welcomed him with an epic party (Luke 15:11-32).

When someone does something that no reasonable person would do, we have a special word for them--crazy. It was crazy for the woman to party with her neighbors over her clumsiness. It was crazy for the shepherd to ditch the many sheep to find the lost one. It was crazy for the father to welcome home his wayward twit like a king—a ring on the finger, a robe on his shoulder, sandals for his feet. They even slaughtered the fattened calf! It was crazy for the father to lower himself and beg his resentful older son to join the party.

Jesus concluded his three stories, “In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Pope Benedict XVI in his book Jesus of Nazareth underscores the joy. When the prodigal son returned home, the literal Greek tells us that he heard “symphony and choirs.”

Why would God go crazy over one lost sheep, one lost coin, one lost son, one repentant sinner? No good reason, just love. God is crazy for us out of love. For God is so crazy in love with our divided, anxious, tired world that he sent his only son Jesus not to condemn the world but to save it. Crazy.

In Christ,

Father David