LOST AND FOUND
(The following sermon was preached by Pastor Barbara Melosh on September 12th, 2010.)
THE PARABLE OF THE LOST SHEEP
Now all the tax-collectors and
sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes
were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’
So he told them this parable:
‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave
the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he
finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And
when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to
them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Just so, I
tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over
ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.
THE PARABLE OF THE LOST COIN
Or what woman having ten silver
coins,*
if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search
carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her
friends and neighbours, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that
I had lost.” Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of
God over one sinner who repents.’
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I should be used to it by now. It’s
happened to me in cities and towns, on country roads and hiking trails; over the
years, when I think about it, probably in at least 30 states and several
European countries. But I still hate to get lost…that awful feeling of looking
around and nothing is familiar, the rising anxiety as you try to figure out your
coordinates—what’s this street name? where is north? The fear, even, sometimes,
if it’s late at night and you’re in a scary neighborhood; or on an isolated
country road, the needle for the gas tank edging toward empty; lost, alone, and
in the dark.
The gospel for today is about getting
lost, scary lost, lost like a nightmare you can’t wake up from. If
you hate to get lost but even
more than that you hate asking for directions, you’re really going to hate this
story, because it’s about being out of control. It’s about being so lost that
you can’t find your own way home.
Getting that lost doesn’t happen from
making just one wrong turn. Maybe it starts that way. One wrong turn, and then
you’re on a one-way street and can’t turn around right away; and then you end up
on an entrance ramp to a highway going the wrong way. Or maybe you’re driving
along, with just part of your mind on the road, talking on a cell phone or
listening to the radio or distracted by the chatter in your mind, playing the
same loop over and over again, and all of a sudden, you look around you and you
have no idea where you are or how you got there. Or maybe you get lost because
you’re following the wrong person, someone you thought knew where they were
going. Or running after the wrong dream, the one you thought would make you
happy.
And maybe worst of all is the way you
can get lost in your own life, lost in what used to be your blessedly ordinary
life, until one day everything changes in a minute, sometimes with just a few
words: “I’m sorry to tell you this but the lab tests show …” or “There’s been a
terrible accident and…” or “Your daughter is under arrest,” or “I don’t love you
any more.” And all of a sudden, everything you counted on is taken away, and
your own life is like one of those dreams where a familiar place has become a
bewildering maze.
If you’ve ever been that lost, you
will hear the amazing good news in the gospel of Luke for today. In Jesus’
parables, we have a God who loves us too much to let us go, even when we’ve
wandered away. A God who won’t stop looking until every lost one of us is
gathered in. A God who comes after us even if we aren’t looking for him—who
finds us when we’re too lost to find him.
But if you think you already know
where you’re going, you might get a little impatient with this God. That’s how
the Pharisees and the scribes felt. As religious authorities and faithful Jews
they were oriented to God’s law, or so they thought. They weren’t wrong to care
about God’s law, of course. But they sometimes forgot that their job was to
follow it, not to judge. And that’s easy to understand, because I think every
one of us has been there.
Anyway, in this story they’re upset
about the company Jesus is keeping. He doesn’t seem to have any standards at
all. The guy loves a party—he’ll eat and drink with anyone. They are scandalized
at the low life he collects—and worse yet, how much he seems to enjoy their
company.
So when he hears them muttering,
“this man welcomes sinners and eats with them,” he answers with three parables.
We hear two of them today.
“Which one of you, having a hundred
sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness
and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?”
Okay, wait a minute. Jesus asks this
question like the answer is obvious. Sure, anyone would go after the lost sheep.
But think about it. It doesn’t make good sense to abandon a whole flock in the
wilderness, out of concern for the lost one. While the shepherd is out looking,
a wolf could take out a half a dozen sheep. Or half the herd could wander off a
cliff. Risking 99 sheep for the sake of one? What that shepherd does is just
plain reckless.
Then there’s the woman who’s lost a
silver coin. The other nine aren’t going to wander off while she searches, so at
first her cleaning frenzy seems reasonable enough. Worst is, she’ll get the dust
bunnies out from under the bed. And as it turns out, her search pays off! She
finds the coin. But that’s when she goes off the rails. She’s so delighted to
have that coin back that she calls in the neighbors for a party, and that’s
gonna cost her—in those days you didn’t invite people over without laying on a
big spread. So…she’s spent all that time and energy searching for this coin,
and now she’s so happy she found it she’s going to spend it all by throwing a
party to celebrate? That makes no sense.
This is who God is, Jesus is saying.
A God grieves so much over the one who is lost, that God won’t stop searching
until every last one is found. Our God, who can’t wait to throw a party, and
invite all the sinners to come in.
If you think you’ve already got a
reservation for the best seat at the table, you might not like that idea. Who
knows who you’ll end up sitting next to? Or maybe you know you’ve gone astray—we
all do—but you think you need to make the first move. It’s your repentance will
get you back on the guest list. But that’s not what this story is about. That
sheep didn’t do a thing to get found, except maybe bleating in terror. And the
coin just sat there in the dust bunnies.
If you’ve ever lost
your way, been lost in depression, in anger and bitterness, lost in your bad
choices, lost your bearings and got your priorities all out of order, been lost
in loneliness or fear; if you’ve ever felt so lost you can hardly even remember
home—hear the good news. God is turning the house upside down looking for you,
searching through meadows and woods and thickets, longing to throw you over his
shoulders, and bring you home. And then, let the celebration begin.
So come to the table, sinner. You’ll
find a warm welcome there.
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