Loading...Boy howdy! I bet you know what it’s like to lose something – maybe something valuable, sentimentally or otherwise, like a ring or, bless your heart, your wallet.
Or a pet: while moving once I searched high and low for my cat Brunnhilde who had, I was sure, slipped out the motel door and disappeared into the vacant lot next door.
Or a child. Oh, I cannot even imagine the fear and terror of that.
When you lose something, there is then the diligent and even frantic search.
Then, the tremendous relief and joy, great joy, of finding.
(BTW, Brunnhilde turned out to be under the bed in the motel room the whole time I was searching for her. Phew!)
You will probably tell people about what was lost is now found!
You might post it on Facebook!
You might even have a party.
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God rejoices when anyone, any of God’s beloved people, are drawn back into relationship with God.
God rejoices when anyone, yes, even you, chooses life: forgiveness, hope, freedom, and love.
God rejoices when you are anyone helps another to be found and to live fully in the life God has given.
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The trouble is...
I’m not always sure that we remember that.
We don’t always remember that God rejoices – is filled with joy – when the lost are found,
when God’s own diligent seeking turns up a lost “sheep” or “coin”.
Instead, we tie ourselves into knots.
We forget and put walls and fences around our religions
(Indeed, we forget that our religion isn’t even supposed to have walls. Defining lines, yes; walls, no.)
Religious leaders, in our time and in Jesus’, forget or don’t get
that God is primarily about JOY and LOVE.
Not rules or restrictions.
Not walls.
Not anger or fear.
Not impatience or anything else we might conjure up.
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And, yes, I make this bold statement about God despite the story from Exodus about God’s fierce wrath against “Moses’ people”. The people had super-short memories and forgot about God’s grace and care for them.
They.
Were.
Lost.
And I don’t mean in a physical wilderness!
They strayed from God’s way. They, like the lost coin, rolled under the table and into a deep, dark crevice in the floor where they couldn’t see the goodness of God anymore.
Yet, Moses remembered.
Stuttering, quick-tempered, former murderer Moses remembered God’s love and promise; and he reminded God that, in fact, these were GOD’S own people. They were God’s own beloved and chosen people who were lost. They were God’s own people who needed to be sought after and found by God.
Moses helped God remember joy and the love that God had for the people.
And the joy in loving the lost who are found.
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Jesus’ parables always have layers of meaning.
Some parables don’t make a lick of sense unless you dig a little bit to uncover another layer.
One way to read and understand today’s pair of parables is that
God is the shepherd seeking out the “lost sheep” –
you or someone else who has wandered into unhealthy or selfish or uncaring ways of living;
and that God is the woman diligently sweeping out her home to find the one coin that is lost –
you or someone else who has rolled away into the dark corners of life.
In other words,
God is seeking and searching for the one who is lost
(who makes no effort, please note, at all to be found!)
and then, when the search is over, great JOY!!
Another layer of meaning we can glean from these stories comes from the characters that Jesus uses as the main actors: a shepherd and a woman.
Neither of these people have social, religious, nor economic standing in the community.
Yet they take on the central role of seeking and searching
– precisely what God does.
In other words,
God is working through ordinary people to search for those who are lost.
You and I doing our everyday life,
yet, we are helping God seek the lost by
paying attention to opportunities to say or do something that
is the love of God.
Ordinary people doing the extraordinary work of God.
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As you are likely well aware,
today is the 15th anniversary of the attacks in New York City of the two towers that were part of the World Trade Center.
What was an ordinary day (work, school, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.)
has become OUT of the ordinary:
You can no longer mention “September 11th” without most people (adults, at least) hesitating for just a moment as they flashback and remember.
On that day in 2001, after Tower 2 was hit, an ordinary 24-year-old equities trader named Welles Crowther led everyone he could to safety.
And then he went back to find more people to lead to safety.
And then he went back to search for more people to bring out safely.
Again and again.
Until the tower collapsed.
Dozens were led out by “the man in the red bandana”.
A talented, good-natured, athletic, but very ordinary person
did an extraordinary thing by giving his life that others may live.
“On that day, God used Welles Crowther to find people who were lost.” (David Lose, ‘...In The Meantime’)
You and I are not likely to find ourselves in that sort of a situation – at least, not quite so extraordinary.
But something else may arise.
Some other sort of opportunity will present itself to you.
And we ordinary folks will have a chance to be a part of God’s extraordinary work to seek out the lost
and then rejoice
and welcome them home. And then have a party!
For there is joy in heaven and on earth
when those who were lost are found by the love and grace of God.
There is great joy in heaven and on earth
because God seeks you and welcomes you home.
Amen
