During worship, we come together as a gathering of the found. People have all kinds of reasons why they come to church. Some come because they have friends in the church that they like to gab with. Others come out of a deeply rooted sense (fostered by their parents no doubt) that going to church is the right thing to do Sunday mornings. Some come because of the amazing preacher. Still others come because they know that there will be a tasty fellowship treat following the service just up the sidewalk, turn right, up the stairs, and through the red door into the parish house…it starts around 11:15…all are welcome. Of course, there are much nobler reasons for coming to worship, and most of you are no doubt people with a noble reason.
Despite even noble reasons, I would like to make the claim that the true reason that we are gathering here this morning is because we were found. We are a people who, for some reason, have made a habit of getting lost, and miraculously God has come to the rescue. We are a once lost, now found people who get the opportunity to be reassured in the Christian community weekly that God will not forget or forsake us. God has forgiven us. Not even sin or death can keep us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. We are a once lost, now found people whose famished and hungry souls get to be restored and reenergized with the body and blood of our Lord. We are a gathering of sinful, broken people who have been found. We are truly nothing more than that. We are not great people. Our actions are not necessarily more righteous than anyone else’s. I know an atheist who is making a profound impact on the lives of the poor in Africa through the Peace Corp. She is a good friend. I cannot say that my actions are any greater than hers. That being said, we are also nothing less than the found people of God. We are a people who God has taken the time to find and gather in God’s holy name. That is why we rejoice with God this Sunday morning. We have been found.
Let that truth ring lightly through your souls while we consider something else this morning. There are a couple of completely obvious things in our biblical text from this morning that I want to make sure are not overlooked because of the fact that they are so obvious. The first is that both the sheep and the coin in our parables get lost. One sheep did wander off while the shepherd was encouraging the rest from behind as shepherds do, and the woman’s dowry coin (the wealth that was solely hers, no one else’s) did rip off of her headdress and roll into a dark corner in her home. Getting lost is not something to be taken lightly. As I read the words of a close friend’s e-mail to me late last Saturday evening, “everything is dark, God is no longer in my life,” I knew that getting lost is not something to take lightly. It is terrifying to roll into a dark corner and not be able to see the light. In the darkness you can do nothing but grasp around. Hopefully, “Oh my God please,” hopefully, you will grasp onto something familiar and safe; something that will pull you from the darkness into the light. But, the truth is that you are just as likely to grasp onto something sharp and harmful, or wander further into the deep. When in the dark, the right way and the wrong way look the same. They are both black.
But, you are not in the dark. Everyone gathered here today has been found. We are a once lost, now found people who know deeply to our core the second truth that these two parables reveal to us. Everyone is precious to God. Everyone is worth finding. Might I even be so bold as to say that Christ somehow does not feel complete unless Christ finds everyone who has been lost. I am not saying that Christ is dependent on us. But, I am saying that Christ experiences a loss when we wander away.
Look at the examples Christ himself uses. The shepherd is no shepherd at all if he loses his master’s sheep. He is a worthless shepherd if there are sheep missing.
If you look at the woman who loses her dowry and you will see this aspect of God even stronger. As I said before, a woman’s dowry was her only wealth in the ancient Israelite world. To lose even one coin would be to lose a part of her self. Of course, she frantically searches the house to find her lost coin, because in a very real economic way, her worth is not complete without it.
Shepherds are not complete without all of their sheep. Women of the ancient world were not complete without their entire dowry. Parents are not complete without all of their children. Siblings are not complete without their brother or sister. God is not complete as long as God’s children are lost. God definitely recognizes when a child is missing from the dinner table. Our own parents would be devastated if we didn't show up at the table, so it is not hard to understand how God is not complete unless every last one can be found.
God is so passionate about us that God sent God’s only son to risk his life and find us; to save us from the darkness; to bring us out of the blackness of sin into the light. We are a once lost and now found people; nothing more, but also nothing less. Nothing more, because we are not wonderful and great and perfect; we are simply human. This was the Pharisees mistake when they questioned why tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus. Somehow they made the mistake of seeing themselves as better than other sinners. But, we are also nothing less than the children of God who complete the body of Christ when we are found. God is complete when we are found.
We are a once lost, but now found church. Our foundness and oneness with God does affect us in a very real way. We feel the same emptiness and pain that God feels when God’s children are lost. The loss of a child affects the whole family. The emptiness of that spot at the dinner table compels us, not out of obligation, but out of love to find and search and invite. We are a found church, but that also makes us a finding church. We are a church that searches in the dark areas and reaches out a hand so that people can find the light. We are a church that welcomes the tax collectors and sinners and gladly eats with them at the Lord’s celebration of return. We are a church that does not give up in searching and finding because God does not rest until every last child is found. Who do you know that should not be given up on?
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