Luke
15:1-10
Getting
Lost
I spoke briefly last week about my
children – I have three. They are all
grown. My baby, about whom I am going to
tell you more this morning, is now 30.
The story about him I want to tell will horrify some – let me just
assure you everything turned out just fine.
I don’t mean to let myself off light in this story, but the other
principal character is Sue Rothmeyer, who was just elected the ELCA’s Secretary
at the August Churchwide Assembly.
Caleb, my baby, was with me at the
ELCA Youth Gathering in St Louis, I think it was 1995 or 96. I was working the Gathering, so he was just
sort of along for the ride. We were in
the Interaction Center, which is this area about the size of five
Walmart’s. There are hundreds of
displays and activities; and thousands of kids running around. Caleb was with Sue. He was with Sue till he saw something shinny
over there, and sort of wondered off.
Frantic; Sue searched. She found
me before she found Caleb. “I have lost
your son.” Was all she could say to me.
Our connections with folks higher
up the authority ladder allowed us to gain access to the public address
system. Caleb did not hear the
announcement, but some youth leader from Minnesota did. She approached this little boy near her and
asked, “Is your name Caleb?” When she
insisted he come with her, he was a bit indignant – still is to this day. “I was in the middle of making this really
cool shrinky-dink necklace.” he replied.
The sheep which is lost in today’s
Gospel reading was not a child. But the
significance of that sheep to the shepherd may need to be held in very high
regard. Shepherds were held accountable
for the sheep under their charge. Losing
one could place the shepherd in peril.
Replacing the lost sheep (which was the common practice) might mean
giving up the sheep intended to be his family’s food supply.
While I had some pretty strong
assurances that my son would be found – he was after all in the company of
12,000 Lutheran Church Youth and youth leaders - shepherds in and around
Jerusalem had little reason for such hope.
Countless ravines and crevices made searching impossible. Jackals, and wolfs, and unemployed hungry shepherds
were everywhere. The search had to be
undertaken; but it was most often futile.
The Gospel text has two such
searches. The other is of a woman who
has lost a coin. Commentators are split
as to the relative importance of the one lost coin to this woman. Is the lost coin 1/10th of her
entire life savings? Or does the fact
she has 10 coins lying around, in a house which seems to own, suggest that she
is abundantly blessed with many, but still treasures the one.
In both cases, there is a
celebration with the lost is found. And
in both instances, the extravagance of the celebration may have exceeded the
actual value of that which was initially lost.
In these stories, we are most often
inclined to see God in the shepherd or the woman. It is clear that the celebration is akin to
heavenly rejoicing at the return of one who comes once more into the fellowship
of God’s people. This is the conclusion
Jesus himself draws in the passage. But
every now and then we need to pause and examine how we are inclined to see
things and ask if there is something more here for us to see.
One of the things I would like for
us to see is the most common trait shared by my 7-year-old son at the youth
gathering, the sheep and the coin. None
of these bear any responsibility for becoming lost. The reason you hire a shepherd is because
sheep have no homing device. They move
from the piece of grass they just ate to the next one they can see. Coins can roll great distances before they lie
flat on their side. But they don’t jump
off the counter on their own, or crawl out of a purse.
Appropriately, then, in these
stories Jesus tells, there is no confession, or remorse, or repentance when the
sheep or the coin are located. It wasn’t
their failing which had created the crisis.
We need to be able to hear this
truth. Jesus’ parable needs to imprint
on us a pattern of rejoicing when one who was lost is found. The celebration of the shepherd and the woman
have everything to do with their mistakes and no errors can be attributed to
the little lamb or the shiny coin.
This is a very difficult path to
follow to its conclusion. It is upsetting
and even disturbing to suggest that if God is the woman who rejoices or the
shepherd who carries the lamb back to the fold, then God may also need to be
seen as the one who must absorb the guilt associated with their having become
lost in the first place. I am not
following this very difficult path to its conclusion in order to blame God; but
I do want to preach to who is here today, and those who are here today are more
likely to be those whose role it is to receive back the one who was lost. We need to learn to see them the way God sees
them. And we can never blame them, in
the same way that Jesus’ story does not blame them.
And while I am at it – let me go
ahead and tell you that I despise referring to persons as “lost”. I almost have to use the designation in order
to keep this sermon from being 45 minutes long.
But if we are going to refer to those who don’t come to church or don’t
follow the way of Jesus as “lost”, then let’s make sure we understand they
didn’t get that way without a tremendous amount of neglect and mistakes on our
part.
The Lord, or God, has appointed
shepherds because he knows how easily the sheep wander off. The Lord, our God, has spoken of his
heartbreak when the shepherds fall short.
He is the Good Shepherd. He has also
taught us how to shepherd. And when we
don’t do our job and he is the one who has to go out looking for one of his
precious little lambs – heck yeah he hosts a celebration when the one who
should have never been allowed to slip away is back where they belong.
I have no interest in blaming God
or finding fault with God over those who may have become lost. I have a deep interest in asserting that those
who were appointed to serve as God’s agents may bear some of the guilt and
shame when the coin is misplaced. God is
great at taking into himself the failings of others. The Church isn’t as good at it. We – the community which bears the name and
image of Jesus – are not always standing ready to celebrate the return of the
lost sheep/coin. In far too many
instances, we stand and wait for them to acknowledge their transgressions and
to confess their failings. It really
bothers me when I begin to think that any such expectations may be rooted in a
desire for self-serving affirmation that we were the good child.
Are we that fragile in our
relationship with God that we need a wounded and hungry returning sheep look up
to us and assure us that we are exactly what Jesus wanted all along? God forgive us.
You know someone who has become
separated from the flock. You can
probably name half a dozen coins which have rolled and rolled and may still be
rolling out of sight. Hear the message
in today’s gospel lesson for you. It is
teaching you about a God who takes responsibility for the vulnerable and for
the lost. The Gospel is all about a God
who is extremely short on shame and guilt but overflowing with grace and
welcome. Make sure, in all of your
interactions, that you model this behavior pattern lifted up by Jesus.
Amen.
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