What is Lost is Found
Sometimes a story in scripture is so familiar to us that we sort of glide right past it…been there, done that. And these parables from Luke feel familiar to me. Do they feel familiar to you?
In light of that, let’s spend some time revisiting what is happening in this passage from Luke’s gospel.
First, perhaps you remember that Luke’s gospel is deeply concerned with the marginalized, and specifically connects salvation with the well-being of the community of the people of God. Luke’s gospel repeatedly addresses the least and the lost and how they belong in the Kin-dom of God.
And let’s remember that “gospel” means good news. At the heart of each gospel is just that – good news for us and for all of God’s beloved, and so we should bring that lens to our reading.
What is the good news in this text?
Our setting in today’s scripture has Jesus (once again) hanging out with tax collectors and sinners. The pharisees and scribes (read: the religious authorities – keepers of the tradition and the law) are criticizing Jesus for this, questioning how his choice of company might impact or jeopardize Jesus’ authority.
In this part of Luke’s gospel, Jesus has been on something of a parable roll…and so he responds to the religious authorities with two parables – one about a lost sheep and the other about a lost coin.
First, let’s take a look at the lost sheep.
My husband has this great story about golfing on a 9-hole course in Germany with his dad. There was a shepherd and flock of sheep pastured on the course, the sheep being part of the grounds maintenance team, essentially.
On this particular day, they knew that the shepherd was beyond the 9th hole with the flock. But while they were on 6, Matt lobbed a ball and went looking for it. Instead of his little white ball, he stumbled upon a little white lamb, curled up and asleep in a lovely thicket of grass.
The lamb hadn’t snuck off trying to escape. The lamb was doing what lambs do – probably having a full lamb belly, it had snuggled in for a nap. And its flock had left with the shepherd, headed to greener pasture perhaps. Poor sleepy lamb.
Let me emphasize - The lamb was just being a lamb.
Sheep get separated from the flock. It happens.
Jesus asks the religious leaders this: who among you DOES NOT go after one lost sheep – sheep who are doing what sheep do - like a shepherd? And don’t you rejoice like a shepherd when bringing that one that was lost home?
I think Jesus is throwing some shade here in his rhetoric…because the religious authorities have clearly NOT been going after the lost sheep, as evidenced by their judgement of who Jesus spends time with. I am guessing that the religious authorities hear Jesus’ question about going after the one and think, in their own practical way considering what else they do, I don’t have time to go after the one!
If we are not careful, we might read this as a story about how we in religious community, or maybe particularly religious leaders like your pastor and church leaders should be going after lost sheep. We might make it all about us and our need to be right…
But Jesus is NOT talking about that here. Jesus is talking about a shepherd that DOES go after the lost without question, without a second thought because of who the shepherd is in their being.
Jesus is talking about God here. God who is RECKLESS in God’s love and care for the least and the lost.
And Jesus, as one who is living out what it looks like to prioritize time with tax collectors and sinners and other outcasts – who is spending time with the lost if you will – is aligning himself with God as God’s agent in that space. Jesus is demonstrating that of course HE WILL go after the one. Just check out the company he keeps!
As Jesus tells the story of the shepherd leaving the 99 to go after the one, the shepherd is JOYFUL at the reunion. Celebratory. Calling for a party.
In the next expansion of this parable, Jesus talks about the woman who searches desperately after her lost coin. The coin has done nothing to lose itself (much like the sheep, who was just being a sheep). And it is one tenth of what she has, not all that she has. But finding it brings her so much joy! She calls her neighbors together to rejoice.
Jesus is teaching about the God who relentlessly, recklessly goes after the lost. And calls for a celebration – a festival of praise, like worship – when one is found.
Sometimes we desperately fight to escape being seen or known as the one lost sheep.
We work hard to align ourselves with the 99.
And aligning ourselves with the 99, we can’t imagine why God would leave us unattended to go after the one.
What is at the heart of our effort to not be the one.
Do we doubt that God will come after us?
Because God will come after us. That is at the heart of Jesus’ parable.
God‘s love is reckless… It does not depend on our goodness… It is love with abandon, love that reaches out to those things that seem to be beyond reach.
And perhaps because it is so unimaginable the scribes and the Pharisees focus their critique on Jesus. Why would you waste your time and your energy they essentially ask. Where is the efficiency in going after “those people?”
Have you ever sat in a committee meeting and said “that effort is not worth the investment?” “Or that is not a good return on our dollar?”
I am convicted as I read this text because where is God in that kind of question? Might good stewardship have more to do with using what we have to go after the one?
And if we dare to see it the way that God sees it, might we also be better able to remove the log from our own eye to see that indeed…
sometimes we are,
we have been,
we will be
THE ONE that God goes after – recklessly leaving the others behind.
I know I have been the one.
I know in my heart, too, that all of us have moments of being “the one.”
God’s economy of grace and mercy is indeed reckless and oh, how that scares us so… Because we’re called to emulate that, receive it for ourselves, or at least make space for it.
That kind of reckless grace and mercy and love is in direct opposition to the way the world works around us.
That is part of what is so radical about God.
When we try to make it another way, we contain God.
We limit God.
We place our human expectations on a God that is bigger than our human minds and hearts can possibly fathom.
Some of you may have listened to the song sent out in Friday’s email…let me recall some lyrics for you:
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God
Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the 99
And I couldn't earn it
I don't deserve it, still You give yourself away
There's no shadow You won't light up
Mountain You won't climb up
Coming after me
There's no wall You won't kick down
Lie You won't tear down
Coming after me
I am mindful that there are times when we know we are lost. And there are times we are blissfully unaware. And God is searching for us.
My suspicion is that each of us came to this community in some state of hoping to be found.
Maybe we know we’ve been found.
Maybe we’re still waiting to feel that assurance in our hearts.
Or maybe we know we’ve felt found in seasons, but right now we’re not so sure.
That’s real. It’s understandable.
Today, let’s create space in worship to be with the God who seeks in whatever our state of lostness or foundness is.
Over the next stretch of time, you have the opportunity to prayerfully consider what it means that God goes after the lost.
You can do that in your seats. OR…you might want to actually come forward and spend time at the altar. Or you might want to pray with someone – and there will be congregational care folks here up front to pray with you.
This is your time
To recognize who God is.
To let yourself be the one.
To think about what it means to be sought after.
May this time be prayer soaked and God infused. May we feel Jesus sitting with us as a friend and teacher. May we feel the Holy Spirit comforting us and giving us the breath to move toward God.
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