Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.
Today in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is a day of service called God’s Work Our Hands Sunday. Across the ELCA, hundreds of churches participate in a variety of ways like packaging meals, doing park clean-ups, or supporting their ministry partners with a special act of service. Today is a wonderful celebration that we are one church, freed in Christ to serve and love our neighbor.
Service activities offer an opportunity for us to explore one of our most basic convictions as Lutherans: that all of life in Jesus Christ – every act of service, in every daily calling, in every corner of life – flows freely from a living, daring confidence in God’s grace
In my few months of experience at Common Ground so far, I have seen God’s grace at work in so many ways. God is in the stories we share. Both the Gospel and the sharing time that each member does during our worship service. God is in the meal, both the nourishing one we serve on Sunday afternoons and the Eucharist. God’s grace is also heard in the beautiful gift of music. Every service, we sing Amazing Grace, and this week I was really struck by one line: “I once was lost, but now am found.”
The idea of being Lost and Found connects directly to our Gospel reading today in Luke. Jesus is spending time with a wide audience: Pharisees, and scribes who are traditional Jewish authorities, but also sinners and tax collectors who were known to work with the Roman Empire.
The Authorities of the time, who had invited Jesus to dinner where he was teaching, are now grumbling at him for his inclusive welcome to all. Not those people, they grumble. Not the ones who are sinning and we don’t approve of. Not those tax collectors who work with the Romans and don’t respect our traditions. And how does Jesus respond? By telling them stories about people in authority.
He begins by telling a story about a shepherd whose job is to keep their sheep. Many people who were listening to Jesus speak would be familiar with this kind of caretaking. When the shepherd notices that one of his sheep is missing, he doesn’t cut his losses and sticks with the 99. It was his responsibility to keep the one hundred together, and by goodness, that Shepherd is going to go find who was lost. It’s his responsibility to find his lost sheep, not leave the sheep in the wilderness. And then the shepherd rejoices once he has brought the 100 sheep into the full community again. It is the Shepherd who does the saving here.
Likewise, in the story of the woman who lost her coin, she upends her entire house to find it again. She sweeps out the whole space and when she finds it, she does what the Shepherd did and rejoices.
These are two really beautiful stories of realizing that one was left out. One that belonged, was cherished by the Shepherd and the Woman, was lost. The Sheep and coin were their responsibility and belonged in the community already. They wouldn’t have gotten lost if it wasn’t for the shepherds and the woman’s to lose in the first place.
These stories are not about outsiders suddenly finding salvation and becoming Christians. Rather, they are stories about us, each of us who come to church faithfully and reads the Bible, who by all accounts should be counted among the 100 sheep and 10 coins, but feel lost and separated from the Love and Grace of God. That is what sin is. Anything that separates us from God.
It’s not that when we are found we are magically changed once and for all from a sinful lostness to a righteous found-ness. We get lost over and over again, and God finds us over and over again. As Lutherans, we believe that we are simultaneously Sinner and Saint. We are both being lost all the time and being found by God all the time.
What does it mean to be lost? Is it that sudden diagnosis or illness? Is it turning on the news and seeing all the devastation worldwide? Is it the pandemic that has been ravaging our society for the past two and a half years? Is it stresses from overwork? Family conflict? Our own struggles with addiction, identity, mental health, heartbreak, unforgiveness, or hatred or bitterness?
It sucks feeling lost not only from God, but also from our community. Feeling isolated. We have spent the past few years feeling pretty isolated because of COVID. And it was all out of necessity but it was hard. And now we are trying to find our way back together.
And God is right here, like the Shepherd and the woman, working hard to find us. They aren’t pretending to look for us like we might a toddler is ‘hiding’ under the covers as a pretty obvious lump. Oh no. God the Shepherd is scouring the wilderness looking for us. God the woman searching ever corner her home has had to get extra light and check every nook and cranny for us.
And when we are found? There is a genuine celebration. Not a scolding of how dare we get lost - but a huge party. God calls up every neighbor and their neighbors to come to celebrate kind of party. God was genuinely scared when missing us and is ready to Rejoice deeply now that we are found.
The Pharisees and Scribes were grumbling about who Jesus was including at the table. But God does not grumble when we come to the table. In fact, God rejoices DEEPLY that we made it to the table.
What does this tell us about God? God is not hanging out where I suspected God to be at first. God is the seeker, trying to track down every one of us who feels lost. God is not settled in somewhere cozy, deep within the throng of the 99 who are content to stick together or stops counting at 9 coins with a shrug of, well maybe this is enough.
God knows the journeys we’ve been on. The wildernesses we have been through and the furniture we have slipped behind. God is not satisfied until we are all together. God is out here searching for each of us. Which means, that if I am with God, I need to get a little lost too. I need to also seek the lost. I need to seek not only other people who feel Lost but recognize how I am lost and need to be found.
And through no power of my own will I be found. God will do the finding, all we need to do is recognize our need for God and God will do the rest. Saved by God’s grace to be God’s hands and feet in the world.
This isn’t always easy. I know I need God but sometimes I am really good at pretending I can find myself all on my own. This requires trust that God wants to find me when I’m feeling lost. We have to trust God that we are enough as we are and that God thinks we are worth looking for. And we have to trust that when God gets us back, God is going to throw a huge celebration.
God loves us so much. God loves us so much that God sent his own child Jesus to come among us and preach the Gospel and bring us into everlasting life with God. This is Amazing Grace When we are lost, we will be found. And Thanks be to God for that. Amen.
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