Lost and Found (Sermon for September 16, 2007)

Everyone has lost something at one time or another. Did you know that there is even a website now at www.lostandfound.com that acts as a global lost and found box? Users can report items missing and users can report items found. It is a good example of how technology can help people connect in a useful way. This is a gateway site for all of the physical things that can be retrieved and returned to their rightful owners. The problem is that according to their statistics, about twice as many objects have been reported lost as have been reported found in the United States alone. So, the site users are losing things at twice the rate that they are finding them.

Our world is a world of lostness. Haven’t we all had the experience of losing things that we know deep down we will never recover? It could be a loved one, a job, one of many things. Depending on the situation, we can feel disappointed, heartbroken, hopeless, or simply discouraged by our own inability to keep up with things.

In chapter fifteen of Luke’s narrative Jesus tells us three separate but related stories that have to do with the issue of being lost: the story of a shepherd and his sheep, a widow and her coins, and a father and his two sons. While only Luke tells the story of the prodigal son, the parable of the lost sheep can be found in both Luke and Matthew.

Our Scripture reading today from the Gospel according to St. Luke begins with these words: “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the Scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them (Lk.15:1-2).” So, to paraphrase, Jesus had a bit of a reputation for attending some outrageous parties with somewhat shady company.

It reminds me of a moment elsewhere in the Gospels where Jesus’ critics come to Him and say, “The disciples of John the Baptist fast all the time and say really long prayers. But your disciples are always eating, drinking, and partying.” In other words, we can tell the disciples of John the Baptist are clearly religious because they look so miserable and act so boring. But as for your disciples, why are they always partying?

It would be easy to criticize the Scribes and forget our own Pharisaic tendencies. Are not the Pharisees the ones who rightly saw the dangers of too close an association with the “wrong crowd?” How many of you are parents? What parent has not worried about their child falling in with the wrong crowd? Although I do not have any children, I have quite a few youth in our youth group. On more than one occasion we have discussed peer pressure. I have stressed to them that if they are in a group of ten people and you hold to a higher level of morality than the other nine, what is most likely is not you elevating the other nine to your level but them bringing you down to their level. Isn’t this a legitimate concern?

In response to the inquisitions of the Pharisees and the Scribes, Jesus told two short stories. Jesus asked, “Which one of you, if you had one hundred sheep, and one strayed from the flock, would not leave the ninety-nine sheep in the wilderness (where they are vulnerable to wolves, wandering off, and all other manners of mischief) and go out and beat the bushes until you find your one lost sheep? And then would you not put that sheep on your shoulders, just as if you were carrying a newly found child, and when you see your friends, would you not cry out, ‘Come party with me! I have found my sheep!’” Now which one of you would not do that?

And which one of you, like a woman who has lost a quarter, would you not be like that woman and rip up all of the carpet in your living room, move all of the furniture out into the front yard, then move all of the heavy appliances out of the kitchen into the front yard, and search relentlessly until you have found that quarter? And when she has found that quarter, she comes running out into the yard, calling to everybody up and down the street, “Come party with me! I have found my quarter!” Now which one of you would not do that?

You know the answer. None of us would do that. None of us.

Of course, these two parties, when the shepherd celebrates after finding the lost sheep, and the woman parties after finding the lost coin, prepare us for the most outrageous party of all – the party which is thrown by the Father upon the return of his lost boy. When the older brother, working out in the field, hears all of the music up at the big house, he says to a servant, “What are you doing in that tux? And on a Wednesday?” The servant says, “Your brother has come home, and your father is throwing a big party for him. He has given everybody the night off.” “A party?” says the older brother. “How does that old fool expect me to keep slaving away doing my duty when he goes out and throws a party for this son of his who has blown all of his inheritance on booze and bad women? For these many years I have served you and you never threw a party for me and my friends,” says the older brother.

The Father, clearly meant to teach us something about who our God is, seems surprised by the actions of the older son. As far as the Father is concerned, they had to celebrate and be glad, because this son of his was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. All three of these parables consistently speak of a God who will literally turn this world upside down in his search for one human being. Jesus says when just one of these lost – the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost boy – come home to God, Heaven goes wild!

Now this language of lost and found can be hard language for us today. One reason for this is that many of us find ourselves somewhere in the middle. We are a curious combination of the lost and the found. Language of the lost and the found can seem so cut and dry, so absolute. Rarely are we completely lost. And rarely are we completely found. There is always a part of us that needs to be dragged into the light, and there is usually some part of us that is already there. Some more, some less, but always something.

Another explanation for why we struggle with the language of being lost is that it can sound arrogant to claim that we are found while others are lost. I would warn us, though, against the tendency to look for seemingly less offensive language. For example, I would not trade the language of lost for that of the “unchurched” because I believe that once you begin to use the word “unchurched” you subconsciously buy into a marketing strategy where the church becomes one of many competing options for church shoppers who are looking for the right church to meet their needs. Moreover, may I suggest perhaps a particular understanding of what it means for someone to be lost. I have many friends and family members who are not Christians. When I think of them as lost, I do not have front and center in my mind that they will spend eternity being tormented in Hell being poked by little red devils with pitchforks; rather, when I think about my friends from high school who do not know Christ they seem lost to me because they literally don’t know where they are going right now. As we speak, many of their lives have little direction, meaning or purpose. I don’t go up to them and tell them that they are lost, but I do pray for them and look for ways to witness to them about God’s love for them because I think if they came to know Jesus they would realize that He is the way, the truth and the life!

It’s a big universe to be lost in. And we sometimes do get lost – we get mixed up and turned around. We despair, we make mistakes, we do evil to each other. The truth is we deserve the wrath of God and that is what the Pharisees who criticized Jesus maintained. But Jesus understood God more. Jesus knew God as a Shepherd in search of the one lost sheep. Jesus knew God as a woman searching in the dark, in the crevasses, for that valuable coin.

There’s a strange paradox about the Christian life. Often, it’s more about being lost than found. It’s more about feeling incomplete than whole. We all get lost in the dessert, even when we’re part of the fold. And we all need someone out there, willing to go looking for us. We’re always in the process of trying to turn back, to find our way home again. Sometimes we’re the carrier, and sometimes we’re being carried. But all the time, it’s a movement toward wholeness, toward being included again, toward being under one roof again. A sheep. A coin. Two sons. Us.

Next week is FRAN Sunday. Maybe you have given it a lot of thought, or maybe you haven’t thought twice about it. I would invite you to close your eyes for a moment. Now spend a moment thinking about a lost friend, relative, associate or neighbor of yours, not someone you think you are better than because you would be in the same place if it were not for the grace of God but someone you know who you care about who seems lost, is unsure of where they are going, lacks purpose, meaning or direction. Take a moment right now to thank God for the ways that He has already been working in their life. Ask God to move in their life in a special way this week, making them particularly receptive to His invitation and calling upon them. Finally, pray that God would help you to overcome your fears and show you ways that you might encourage, bless and minister to this person by inviting them to be with us next week at Friendship United Methodist Church, where everyone can find friendship with God and with one another.

I love the parable of the prodigal son, but it also scares me. It troubles me because it ends with the older son outside the party, refusing to come in. Sometimes I worry the church is like the older son, wanting to keep God all to themselves, wishing that God would not be so forgiving to those who don’t deserve it, questioning whether they really want to follow a God who throws such outrageous parties. You see, the question is not whether or not God is seeking out and saving the lost right now in Bolingbrook. The Scripture testify to a God who is most assuredly seeking the lost in our midst right now, just as a shepherd looks for his lost sheep, just as a widow looks for her lost coin, just as a Father who runs to His son, throws His arms around him and kisses him. God may not have a lost and found website, but today God offers us the invitation to work at his lost and found booth, co-hosting his outrageous party, being like a shepherd who really cares for his sheep, like a poor widow who really values all her coins! The only question is: will we refuse to go in, or will we join the party? One thing is for sure: Heaven is waiting to go wild once again! Amen.