Lent 4C – Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 –
14 March 2010 – A sermon preached by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

Being Lost and Allowing Ourselves to Be Found

INTRODUCTION – Jesus and the lost

The Gospels tell us that Jesus spent quite a bit of time hanging out with tax collectors and sinners, i.e., the “unclean”, people that good folks just weren’t supposed to hang out with.  And so the good folks – meaning the educated, religious, trying-to-do-right folks – were grumbling, according to Luke, and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:2)

And Jesus heard their grumbling.  Evidently they weren’t being very quiet about it, and, of course, Jesus was also incredibly perceptive.

So Jesus told them three parables, and what these parables all had in common was that something or someone was lost.  Our Gospel reading for today skips to the third parable, the one about the father and the two lost sons – the prodigal and his brother.  But I think it’s important that we quickly review all three parables.

The first parable is about a shepherd who has 100 sheep in the wilderness and loses one of them.  Which of you would not leave the 99 and go after the one that is lost until he finds it, Jesus asks.  And after that shepherd finds it, he throws it over his shoulders and rejoices.  Not only that, when he gets home he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” (Luke 15:4-6)

The second parable is about a woman who has ten silver coins and loses one of them.  What will she do?  She’ll light a lamp and sweep the house, searching carefully until she finds it, Jesus says.  And when she does, she’ll call her friends and neighbors together and say to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.” (Luke 15:8-9)

The third parable many of you know as the parable of the prodigal son, but it is actually a parable of two lost sons.  One of the sons insults his father by saying, in effect, “I know you’re not dead yet, but give me my inheritance now anyway!”  The father obliges and the son goes and spends all the money on dissolute living.  (Every year when I read this parable, I have to look up “dissolute” in the dictionary again.  It basically means immoral, a life of depravity or debauchery – two other great “d” words.)  This son finally comes to his senses one day when he is slopping the pigs, and he has his apology all pre-planned, and before he can get all of it out, his father has already spotted him and run to him (something a dignified Middle Eastern man would never ever do) and hugs him and kisses him and starts barking out orders: “Bring out the best robe and put a ring on his finger and new sandals on his feet and let’s kill the fatted calf and celebrate, because my son was dead and is not alive again, he was lost and now is found!”
And when the elder son finds out what all the commotion is about, he holds a grudge and says I have always done the right thing and compares his life under his father’s roof as being a slave who has never been given anything.  He can’t bring himself to rejoice in his brother’s return.  In fact, he cannot bring himself to call his brother by name but refers to him as “this son of yours”, and reveals that in his I-have-to-do-it-perfectly-or-the-wrath-of somebody-is-going-to-come-down-on-me approach to life, he is just as lost as his brother was.

The punch line of all three parables?  God is actively seeking out the lost, and there is more joy in heaven over one lost person who repents and is found than over all the people who need no repentance, i.e., those who are not lost.  Another theme in the parables: what also helps the lost person move to a place of being found is how the surrounding community steps in to celebrate and welcome the person back home.

And if you really get the parables, you understand that they are good news for every single person on the planet, because there are no 99 out of 100 who are righteous, there are no 99 out of 100 who never get lost.  There are 100 out of 100 (the sheep), 10 out of 10 (the coins), and two out of two (the brothers) who are lost, because – at one point or another – every single one of us is lost.

AN EXERCISE

(Going up to someone in the congregation)  Hi, I’m Peter, and I feel lost in my life right now with regard to how Julia and I are going to pay for the rest of Zach’s college education, and how we’re going to pay for Hannah’s college education.  And I feel strongly called to enter into a two-year leadership and transformation program with Gay and Katie Hendricks, and I feel lost about how I am going to pay for that, too.  And I feel lost about what the next step in planning my Grace Walk across America should be, because I haven’t heard from the folks from Episcopal Relief and Development for a while.

We interrupt this sermon….

So, I’d like you to pair off with another member of the congregation, and take turns completing this sentence.  “I feel lost in my life right now with regard to ______________.” (Give people four minutes)

If any of you would care to share with the entire congregation, I want to see if any themes emerge with regard to how we feel lost. (Possible themes: money, employment, relationships, loneliness or grief or depression, parenting, health)

WHAT DO YOU DO TO ALLOW GOD TO FIND YOU?

In the same way that you scramble to look for a lost child or even a lost wallet, God is looking for you when you are lost.

So here’s a question for you:  How do you allow yourself to be found by God?

I am thinking about those stories of someone lost in the wilderness, and how it’s often the person who wanders around and gets more and more disoriented who is often the hardest person to find.  In fact, the main advice you hear about being lost is “stay put”.  After that, it’s about making yourself some sort of shelter to stay warm, and then assume someone will come looking for you, and send out some kind of helpful signal if you can.  Flash a mirror.  Build a fire.  Stand out in the open.

Similarly, how do we equip ourselves to be found by God?

Here’s my hunch, based on my own life experience.  Many of you have a very strong “by myself” persona.  As in, “I will get through this by myself.  I can handle this myself.  I am self-sufficient.  I don’t need anyone’s help.”  It’s quite common, because American culture, as opposed so many other cultures, is a very I-oriented culture.  There’s that rugged individualism persona that we have – not just as individuals – but as a nation.  What we forget is that there were very few one-person barn raisings.  What we forget is that most people did not venture out to settle the west all by themselves.  Lewis had Clark and Sacajawea, Sacajawea’s French-Canadian husband, and some other scouts, too.  John Wesley Powell may have been missing an arm, but he had a number of other people with him when he hopped in that boat on the Colorado River and headed into the Grand Canyon.  Starr had Hornung and Taylor and Dowler.  Koufax had Drysdale and Pee Wee Reese.  Ferguson Jenkins had Ron Santo and Don Kessinger and Billy Williams.  Elway had the three Amigos and Gradishar and later on he had Terrell Davis.  Fred Astaire had Ginger Rodgers.  What we forget is that when we step into this “by myself” persona, it’s like wandering around aimlessly in the wilderness after you realize you are lost.  You just end up more lost.

You and I are not alone.  We have each other.  No one in these “lost” parables of Jesus celebrates alone, and that is not to be missed.

What’s that old “lounge lizard” song?  “All by myself, don’t want to be… all by myself… anymore”

We aren’t alone. God is seeking and looking.  God is like the mother or father who started looking for the child way before the child ever realized he or she was lost.  And while we are still far off talking to ourselves and convincing ourselves how everything will be okay, that maybe God will take us back as a lowly slave or hired hand, God is already running toward us and thinking about what kind of party can be thrown on our behalf!

But we make it hard for God or anyone else to find us when we isolate and don’t say one word about what we are going through.  That is what communities are for.  That is what this faith community is for, among other things.  This is a place where we can be honest and tell someone else when we are lost, just as you did a few minutes ago.
That is probably 90% of the journey of being found again by God – telling another soul that you are lost, and not worrying if you can explain yourself or have the next five steps figured out.

You notice that the moment the younger son came to his senses and started speaking about his situation, the father was in view, and the beautiful robe to be put on him was right behind.

CONCLUSION

This is great news.  Jesus came to seek out the lost.  And every day, God comes seeking the lost.  This is really great news for anyone who ever finds himself… or herself… lost.  And here’s another piece of good news.  When you’re not lost… when you are in a good place in your life… you get to be one of the people among the friends and neighbors who reaches out to the lost, who listens to them and cares for them and touches them, and reminds them that God is ready to put the finest ring on their finger, the most beautiful robe on their back, and kill the fatted calf in their honor.

For nothing makes all heaven rejoice more than a lost one being found.  Nothing makes all heaven rejoice more than a dead one becoming alive again.  Nothing makes all heaven rejoice more than a sinner coming to his senses and remembering that the all-loving, all-forgiving God is right there – the moment that you or I repent and come back home.

And so we are here today, celebrating and rejoicing together, because all of us have been lost, and all of us have been found by God.  And tomorrow, if you are lost or I am lost, and we allow ourselves to be found, we will be found again, because God is always looking for and ready to hang out with the lost.  And so we sing and celebrate and share a meal together.  We have no choice.  We have to celebrate and rejoice.  What else can we do?