Rev. George Miller
March 25, 2026
Isaiah 53:6
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us
all.”
Isaiah gives us such an honest line of
scripture. Not one of the most
triumphant or prettiest, but honest.
“All we like sheep have gone astray.”
Not some of us. Not the bad folk. Not those who vote or believe differently.
All of us; every last wandering, distracted,
complicated human.
We’ve heard Michele talk about sheep; here’s
something else to say- sheep are not rebellious in the dramatic way we may imagine.
They don’t wake up, hit Snooze and say, "You know what? Today I think I’ll
intentionally create chaos and destroy The Shepherd’s Plan."
No. Sheep
wander. They get lost in thought; lost
in hunger. They see a patch of grass, then
another patch. Then suddenly they look
up and realize “Hey! Where’s the flock?”
That’s usually how we go astray.
Not through some dramatic moment of intentional
evil. But through small turns.
One distraction or worry. One resentment we
didn’t deal with or moment we forgot who we are.
Before we know it, we look up and say: “How
did I end up all the way out here?”
And here’s what Isaiah knows-Being lost isn’t
just about bad behavior. Sometimes it’s
about being tired.
Sometimes it’s about being hurt or carrying
grief so long you stop noticing where you're walking.
Sometimes it’s about trying to carry the world
on your shoulders.
Isaiah looks at humanity and says:
“Every single one of us has had that moment.”
And the heart of this passage is not the
wandering; the heart of the passage is what God does with it.
Isaiah says: “The Lord has laid on him the
iniquity of us all.”
The word iniquity can sound heavy. But it really means the weight of
human brokenness.
The mistakes and harm. The pain we cause and inherit.
The pain we carry.
Isaiah says that somehow, someway, God does
something astonishing: God does not
leave us alone with it.
We see this in the life of Jesus. Jesus steps into the human story, born in
that manger, not to shame us or to say, “You sheep should have tried
harder.” But to say-
"I will walk into the wilderness with
you. I will carry what you cannot carry. I will stand where the lost
stand."
This is why Lent is so personal. Lent is not about beating ourselves up. It is about telling the truth about our
wandering.
The truth about our distractions.
The truth about our hurts and the hows
that we have lost our way.
But also the truth that God keeps walking
toward us. Every time.
People don’t usually wander or get lost
because they’re evil; they wander because they’re human.
Because they’re searching; they’re hurting. Because sometimes life knocks the wind out of
you and you lose the map.
But the gospel says something extraordinary: Even when we wander, we are not abandoned.
Even when we lose the path, the shepherd is
moving toward us.
Perhaps tonight that’s the word someone needs
to hear. You might feel like you’re a
long way from where you’re supposed to be, emotionally, spiritually.
But the good news of Isaiah and of Lent is that
God is not waiting at the finish line shaking God’s head.
God is already walking the hills looking for
you. Because in God’s Kingdom of
God, the story of the sheep is never just about being lost.
It’s about being found. For that, let us all say “Amen.”
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