The following sermon was presented by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on September 14, 1986. The title is, Out Came This Calf. And the scripture references are Exodus chapter 32, verse 1 and verses 7 through 14, and the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15, verses 1 through 10. 

A reading from the 32nd chapter of Exodus, beginning at the first verse. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up from out the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.

And the Lord said to Moses, Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it.

and said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them.

But of you I will make a great nation. But Moses besought the Lord his God and said, O Lord, why does thy wrath burn hot against thy people whom thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, with evil intent did he bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth?

Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou didst swear by thine own self, and didst say to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people.

The word of the Lord. Thank you, Lord God. The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them.

So he told them this parable. What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 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 which 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. 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?

And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I have lost. Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. The Gospel of the Lord. There's a story I love to tell to the children. I haven't told it for a while, so yours may not have heard it. And if that's the case, you can share it with them.

It's a story about a little boy who decided to build a toy, a model boat for himself. And he wanted to do it from scratch. He got some advice from his father how to do it.

And he went out and purchased the wood and all the tools that he'd need. And he began shaping and fashioning his boat. And he poured himself into the project and it was remarkable how well he did.

He cut and he sanded the wood and he glued it together and he filled all the seams and then he lacquered it and painted it and shaped it and went out and got some sailcloth and sewed the sail himself and it came out just absolutely beautiful little toy boat and it was the pride and joy of his life. And he loved to play with it in the small stream that was behind his house. One day when he was playing, a gust of wind came up and it carried the little boat far out into the stream.

He ran along by the side and tried to get to a place where he could reach it, but it was moving too fast and it got away from him. And the little stream went into a larger stream and the larger stream into a very large river and the boat was just swept from sight. You can imagine how he felt. He was broken hearted.

But one day, not too much after that, his father took him into the village, and there was a hobby shop, and right in the middle of the window of the hobby shop was his boat. Clearly, the same one, not one that looked like it, but his boat. And he went in and he said, that's my boat, give it to me.

And the shopkeeper said, no, someone brought that in here, and I bought it from him, and it's mine. If you want it, you're going to have to buy it. And he showed him the price tag, which was startling.

The boy hadn't realized how much it was worth. And he didn't have that much money. So he went out and got a paper route and did odd jobs and all the things that a boy does to earn money when he needs it, saved his pennies, and finally the day came.

He went in and bought back his boat. And as the shopkeeper put it into his hands, the little boy said, Now you are twice mine. Mine because I made you, and mine because I bought you back.

I think that's a fairly good parable of the gospel. God made us, and we belong to Him. But along the way, we got lost.

Each one of us did that. Talk to the kids, and I say we got lost in having friends, and being popular, and doing well in school, and in sports, and having nice things, and being important, we pretty much forgot about God. That's true of the older folks as well, isn't it?

The Bible says, whoever sins is a slave of sin. You may not ever have thought of it that way. I'm a free person.

I'm nobody's slave. But if you sin, you are enslaved to sin. So you belong to God, and yet now you belong to sin.

And the gospel is that God loved you and loved me so much that if we were the only ones who needed it, He would have sent the Lord Jesus to buy us back out of that slavery, buy us out of that sin. And so if you have been touched by the love of this Lord Jesus Christ, and if you've responded to it, and if you'd allowed Him to become your Lord, Then you see, he has said of you, now you are twice mine. Mine because God made you.

And mine because I bought you back again. You are twice mine. In Luke chapter 15, Jesus is telling us a whole series of stories that really make pretty much the same point.

We read two of them. There are actually three, one right after another. The first one is about the lost sheep.

The shepherd has 99 sheep that are safe in the fold, and it's not that he doesn't care about them. He does care, but they're safe. And one has wandered off into the darkness and gotten lost in the wilderness, and there are wild beasts out there, and he leaves the security of the sheepfold.

He leaves the 99 who are safe to go rescue the one who's lost. and then Jesus immediately shifts gears and talks about the lost coin the woman has nine other coins that are safe and sound she knows where they are but somewhere she's lost one and she doesn't rest a moment she searches high and low and sweeps the house looking for the one lost coin not that she doesn't care about the others but they're safe she wants to find the one that's lost and we didn't read it but he goes on to tell a third story about the lost boy. We call it the prodigal son, but the point is exactly the same.

It's not that the father doesn't care about the elder brother who's home safe, but the point is he's safe. And the younger one has gone off, who knows where, taken his fortune to go make his way in the world, a very scary world, and the father is searching for him, waiting, longing, ready to run and embrace him and clothe him with a new cloak and a new ring for his hand and shoes for his feet and a party. And in each case, the refrain is the same.

Rejoice with me, for I have found the sheep that was lost. Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that was lost. Rejoice with me, my son who was lost has come home again.

It was as if he's dead and he's alive. Come, let's celebrate. And Jesus says, truly I tell you there will be rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents.

There is a little barb in the story. He says there will be more rejoicing over one who repents than ninety-nine who are righteous. Now, that was addressed to the Pharisees who thought of themselves as not needing to repent.

The truth of the matter is there isn't any such person. We've all sinned and gone astray. We've all turned everyone to his own way.

But if you think of yourself as not needing to repent, you may be in the deepest kind of trouble. Jesus says there's more rejoicing over one who repents than the 99 who think they don't need to. The point is the same in all three stories.

One lost is too many. One lost is too many. If everybody in this room belonged to the Lord Jesus except you, He'd say, that's one too many.

And I've come for you. I want you to know the love of the Father. I want you to know My love.

Would you receive the gift of My love? One lost is too many. And we see something of the character of God Himself here.

Diligently searching high and low, not willing to have any perish. just hold that for a moment I want you to think about the Old Testament lesson that we read a few minutes ago it's interesting to put those side by side because it would appear that in the Old Testament lesson the whole picture is reversed now it's not God who has lost his people but it's the people who have lost God or they think so Moses has gone up on the mountain to talk with God. And he's delayed up there.

Where is he? We don't know where he is. What's become of him?

What's become of his God? See, his God, not ours. The people have lost their God, or so they think.

So they turn to Aaron, the high priest, and they say, you make us a God. He knew how to do that. Back in Egypt, the principal deity was the golden calf.

And so Aaron says, all right, we'll take up a collection. Bring me your bracelets and your rings and all your fine jewelry and we'll melt it down and we'll fashion a golden calf. It's incredible, isn't it?

The high priest of Israel, the man appointed by God to be his principal representative. And yet at the very first suggestion, he's willing to go along with this plan and he himself fashions the golden calf. Maybe it's not so incredible when you stop and think about it.

How quickly do we show exactly the same tendency? If God seems distant, far removed, if our prayers don't seem to be getting through, if we're in the midst of confusion and darkness, If there's tragedy that's suddenly hit, how quickly will we turn away from God and worship whatever's nearest? Talk about the little kids getting all caught up in the peer pressure and looking for friends and popularity.

We're not so different, are we? Get involved in the idolatry of success and status and power and material well-being and sexual fulfillment and whatever it might be for you. Emerson said, the half-gods go when God arrives.

The half-gods go when God arrives. And it's always seemed to me that that's equally reversible. That when it seems the true God has departed, how quickly we turn again to the half-gods, the idols, the golden calves.

Of course, he only seems far away. That's the point. He wasn't departed.

It just seemed to the people that he was far away. Somebody once said, if God seems to be far away, who do you think moved? the truth of the matter is the people had not lost their God at all he was contracting some mighty business with Moses on their behalf it just seemed to them that they'd lost him isn't that an interesting contrast in Jesus' stories it's God who has lost his people and He diligently, vigilantly searches for them.

He won't rest a moment until He's found each one. Yet when it's turned around and the people think they've lost their God, rather than searching diligently for Him, they simply make another. I was in a worship service this summer and there was a woman sitting right in front of me who was obviously in the midst of very, very deep agitation and grief.

She could not participate in anything that was going on. And all during the service she kept writing notes. And she was seated in just a position where you could hardly not see what she was doing.

In fact, I wondered if she wanted me to see what she was writing. And she kept writing these notes addressed to God. Where are you?

Why don't you care about me? All these people singing about your love, I don't feel it. Won't you give me one sign that you care about me?

You ever been there? I had to admire the honesty. She was in church and she was addressing herself to God.

I read through the book of Psalms one time. I don't know why I did. I just read it straight through at one sitting.

I commend that to you. I think it will be a startling experience for you. It was for me.

I was absolutely rocked by how many of the Psalms are like that. Why do the heathen rage? Why do the wicked prosper?

Why are the righteous suffering? Where are you, God? But you know, every single time they resolve.

Because out of that tough honesty, that searching, that unwillingness to let go until I get an answer from God, there's a resolution. Listen, just for instance. Psalm 77.

I cry aloud to God. Aloud to God that He might hear me. In the day of my trouble, I seek the Lord.

In the night, my hand is stretched out without wearying. My soul refuses to be comforted. I think of God and I moan.

I meditate and my spirit faints. Thou dost hold my eyelids from closing. I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

I consider the days of old. I remember the years long ago. I commune with my heart in the night.

I meditate and search my spirit. Will the Lord spurn forever and never again be favorable? Has His steadfast love forever ceased?

What a great question. Has steadfast love forever ceased? Are His promises at an end for all time?

Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His compassion? And I say, it is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed.

Do you ever feel that? Are you honest enough to admit it? But listen.

Listen to what he says. I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord. Yea, I will remember Thy wonders of old.

I will meditate on all Thy work and muse on Thy mighty deeds. Thy way, O God, is holy. What God is great like our God?

Thou art the God who workest wonders, who hast manifested Thy might among the people. Thou didst with Thine arm redeem Thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. I don't understand.

I don't know where God is. I don't feel Him near. I don't have my prayers being answered, but I'm hanging on to the fact that He is God and that He is faithful and that He's going to show Himself again gracious and mighty because He's promised it.

And He's demonstrated it generation after generation. Jeremiah, speaking for God, said, You will seek Me and you will find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Don't give up.

The ancients used to call it the dark night of the soul. and most of us sooner or later will have a dark night of the soul maybe many when God seems very distant don't be like the people of ancient Israel the folks in the book of Exodus God has departed so we'll make a golden calf no, be like the psalmist I hang on I hang on when I can't see when I can't feel because I know the character of this God He's proven Himself in the past, and I know He'll prove Himself again. It's an interesting footnote.

When Moses finally came down from the mountain, he confronted Aaron. He said, how in the world could you have done this thing? How could you have made this golden calf?

And Aaron gives one of the great classic answers of all Scripture. He said, I just took the jewelry and threw it in the fire. and out came this calf.

Wasn't my fault. It just happened. But it was his fault, wasn't it?

And all the people's fault. And yours. And mine.

It didn't just happen. It's a very clear choice. When God seems distant, in the midst of tragedy, in the midst of bereavement, in the midst of disease, accident, in the midst of crisis in your family, in the midst of crisis on the job, when God seems distant, it is your choice, it is my choice, whether we'll worship the living God or the golden calf.

Let's bow our heads together. Father God, I pray for that woman this summer and for any who with her and like her feel that You are just terribly distant right now. Lord, give them the grace, the courage, the tenacity, the will to believe, to hang on, to persevere, to search for You with all their hearts.

For we affirm that they will find You. To the praise of Your name. Amen.