Sermon: I once was lost (Sept. 11, 2022)

Full service can be viewed online HERE. (Beginning at 36:50) This was preached at our picnic, so the audio may not be as good!

Pentecost 14C
September 11, 2022
Luke 15:1-10

INTRODUCTION

Today we hear some texts about what it is like to be lost, and to be found once again. The first story we will hear is a part of the story you may know as “the golden calf.” Here’s the set-up: Moses, having already delivered the 10 Commandments, has been back up on Mount Sinai, talking to God. In the absence of their leader, the Israelites are starting to feel a bit lost, shall we say, and so they melt together all of their metal and create a golden calf, which, when Moses returns from the mountain, he finds them worshipping. In this idol, they find something to bring them together, to focus their efforts. But, it’s a big no-no, as they should know, since the 10 Commandments say very clearly: you shall have no idols, and worship nothing besides the one true God. Well, God is pretty miffed by this, and, well, I’ll let you listen to hear what happens next. 

The Psalm is a cry of lament and repentance, the song of someone who knows he has wandered away from God and toward evil. It’s what David writes after he commits adultery with Bathsheba and then has her husband murdered. He begs God to find him and accept him once again into God’s mercy.

Then in the Gospel we will hear two beloved parables: the lost sheep and the lost coin, in which the subjects (a shepherd in the first and a woman in the second) search tirelessly for something that is lost, and then throw a celebration party when it is found. These are told in the context of the Pharisees grumbling that Jesus spends his time with notorious sinners – those who are lost, you might say – and the stories indicate that no one is lost beyond God’s care.

As you listen, think about a time when you have felt lost, physically, emotionally, or spiritually – perhaps following a job loss, or a death, or a move. If that time resulted in feeling found, how did that feel, and what was your response? Let’s listen to what the Lord is saying.

[READ]

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

School started for kids in Rochester public schools this week. Parents and teachers know that, with the start of school, comes all the paperwork, and acquiring of supplies, and figuring out schedules. It’s all a lot! In addition, Grace’s birthday party was yesterday, so I’ve been communicating with all the parents of her friends about that. One of those parents, whom I only just met, texted me about meet-the-teacher day. “I think I threw out the paper they sent,” she said. “What time is it at?” I told her, and confessed that usually I’m the mom texting someone that I lost the paper, so it was a relief to be the one who knew the answer this time! She laughed and said, “I’m literally horrible!” 

It was a playful enough exchange, but I actually found it very heartening, that we were able to be real with each other, though we hardly know each other’s names. We often spend so much energy trying to look like we have everything together, right? And yet here, with this woman I barely know, we were both able to say, “I regularly fail at this!” and honestly, it was liberating! I felt seen.

Or, in light of today’s gospel reading, I might say, “I felt found!” Because sometimes, the effort just to keep up with life, let alone thrive at it, is enough to make someone feel pretty lost. The stress, the distractions, the disconnection from people and places and activities that bring us joy – it can all send us wandering off into the wilderness, and we lose that feeling of being safe and secure. 

But when we start to feel that way, start to feel lost, instead of finding our way back to our home base, I find that we often just try to mask it. We post the happiest moments on social media, making our lives look rosy to all our followers and friends. People ask how we are, and we say, “Fine!” when we are, in fact, far from fine.

It’s as if when we are lost, our response is not to acknowledge our state, but rather, to hide – how counter-intuitive is that! We hide our feelings, and even hide our authentic selves. We hide behind masks of fakeness, trying to be something or someone we’re not, to fit in. We hide behind exaggerations of a self we wish we were. Sometimes we do even hide physically, avoiding human contact, numbing the pain with substances, nursing our wounds and feeling sorry for ourselves, but never stepping out the door so someone can see us, can find us. We stay hidden. We stay lost. And if today’s readings are any indication (and they are!) – that is not God’s will for us. God made us uniquely wonderful, and flawed, and beloved just as we are, even as God loves us too much to let us stay lost in the wilderness, or in a dark corner of the house.

Almost 10 years ago now, you may remember, there was a school clerk named Antoinette Tuff, who prevented a mass school shooting by talking with the gunman for about an hour. He told her he didn’t have anything to live for, he was ready to die that day, and he would take anyone with him. He was, in short, lost. But she didn’t duck and run for cover – she listened to him. She told stories about her own life, times she had felt the same way. She sought connection. She respected him. She told him she loved him and was proud of him.  She told him he did have something to live for. She related to him. She prayed for him. She grounded the whole experience, terrified as she was, in her faith in God. In that hour of conversation, Ms. Tuff went into the wilderness and found a lost young man, humanized him, and in the end, convinced him to surrender, to turn around… to repent. 

In Jesus’ explanation of today’s parables, he says there is joy in heaven over a sinner who repents. Whether you’re a notorious sinner like the ones in our Gospel, or by and large a pretty righteous person, we all fall short of the glory of God. We all can feel lost at times. We are all “prone to wander,” as our gathering hymn said. "Prone to leave the God [we] love." And so even if we are mostly good people, repentance is something in which we always need to engage. Repentance, you see, is a reorientation, a turning around, a turning toward God. And so when we lose our way, but then turn back toward God, or are found by God, God rejoices. God rejoices when, in our lostness, we look out and search for God. God rejoices when we reach out to others who may be lost, and instead of judging them, or running from their pain and brokenness… we sit with them there, offering them a place of solace, a place where they can know they are seen, and loved, that they are found. 

Being found. That, of course, is the good news in our Gospel reading today. Because even when we are so lost that we can’t on our own turn toward God, God still goes all out to find us. As the parable goes, a sheep wandered into the wilderness, and the shepherd left the other 99 to go find that lost sheep. The woman lost a coin and searched tirelessly until she found it. Jesus asks, “Who of you would not go to these great lengths to find these lost things?” The way he asks, it seems like the answer is, “Everyone, Jesus! Of course ,we would!” But would we? Leave the 99 sheep for the sake of one? That’s impractical, even irresponsible. Most of us would cut our losses, move on, and maybe be more careful in the future. But that’s the point, you see? We wouldn’t do that. We wouldn’t go to the extremes that the shepherd and the woman in the stories do to find what is lost, and celebrate what is found.

We wouldn’t, but God does. Our God is not about being practical. Our God doesn’t cut losses and move on. Our God goes into the wilderness to find us when we are lost. Our God tears the house apart until we are found. And in both of these stories, what happens when what once was lost is now found? Celebration! As the shepherd and the woman call together all their friends and have a party, so does God bring together all the company of angels to celebrate that a lost sheep has been found, that a coin has been recovered. God isn’t mad at us for getting lost. When God finds us, we are welcomed back with a huge smile and a look of relief. There is celebration in heaven when we return to God, when we return home.

Let us pray… Impractical God, we are prone to wander. But your grace is amazing, and we give you thanks that you find us when we get lost. Find us when we wander, and encourage us to turn once again toward you, our home and resting place. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.