Forever Found: Luke 15:1-10 - Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

¹Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to [Jesus.] ²And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
  ³So he told them this parable: ⁴“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? ⁵When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. ⁶And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ ⁷Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
  ⁸“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ ¹⁰Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (NRSV)

Our flight to Denver this summer was awful…

Turbulence bounced and jerked the crowded jet almost the whole time—enough to make my body sore from all the movement.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid.  It wasn’t mortal terror, but it got me thinking of how fragile human life is.  Soaring seven miles above the land at 500 miles per hour, it only takes one little thing going wrong…

Or, fifteen years ago, four teams of innocuous-looking but-highly-trained and diabolically-committed men to hijack four commercial jets, murder thousands of people, and change our world forever.

I was a junior at Grove City College on that day.  I was getting dressed when a friend of mine asked me to turn on my television, because a commercial jet had crashed into the World Trade Center.  For the next several hours, we watched in stunned silence as the nightmare unfolded.

Today, the World Trade Center has been completely rebuilt.  Two wars have been fought at the cost of trillions of dollars, thousands of soldiers, and countless innocent civilians all across the Middle East.  Terror attacks and mass shootings have become disturbingly commonplace.

Did you ever think you’d see the day when there’d be metal detectors in the school?  Or the steel mills that were once the lifeblood of the community now lying abandoned?  Did you ever think you’d see a day when people are dying left and right because of drug overdoses? 

There’s only one word to describe how I feel: lost.

We are the lost sheep Jesus describes in today’s Gospel.  But the thing to bear in mind is that no one ever chooses to “get lost.”  It just happens.  You’re lost when you’re threatened and afraid. You get lost when there’s something you desire and you pursue it. You’re lost when you act without being in touch with God. 

You are most definitely lost when you think you can make it without God.

One thing that the national tragedies of fifteen years ago should have taught us is how much we all need God.  We as a nation haven’t learned that lesson very well.  But whether you realize your need or not, God is here.

It’s no accident that dozens of crosses like this one emerged from the rubble of Ground Zero.  Even if they hadn’t, Jesus’ cross assures you that Jesus was there when those four airplanes crashed.  He’s there with those people who never saw their loved ones again.  Jesus is present amid the horrors of war, terrorism, and violence, no matter what country it happens in.

In Christ, you are never lost—regardless of where you are, what you’ve done, or what’s happened to you.  But it falls on you to own your “lost-ness.”  After all, what good is grace if you turn your nose up at it?

Do you know anyone who’s ever gotten lost—and flat-out refuses to ask directions?  I see the person I know every time I look in the mirror!

All I can say is thank God that God doesn’t give up on you or me like we give up on God. 

Repentance is the change that happens in you when you finally stop resisting God’s grace.  Repentance begins with surrender—and it is a daily commitment to receive Jesus’ good shepherding.

Earlier this week, I spoke to a woman, about my age, who’s been clean and sober for five years after almost two decades of drug abuse.  She told me she used to pray, “God, take me out of this life.”  “God, let me be someone else.”  “Give me wings to fly far, far away.”  But nothing ever changed.  You could say those prayers weren’t answered according to her will.  But then one day, as she was sitting helplessly in a prison cell, she prayed “God, get me through this.”  God answered that prayer.

She was never lost.  But that day, she was found.  She began living found. 

In Christ, you are never lost.  The reason why—is because when you wake up in the morning and you’re hungry for Jesus, you’re found!  If you’re able to give thanks to God, even when all is not well in the world, you’re found!  If there’s love in your heart to give and do for others, you’re found! 

But still, if you’re feeling lost, take heart—God hasn’t forgotten you.  Call out to Jesus, because he’s found you—and he’ll help you to find him.  His grace will change the way

·      You see other people

·      You see yourself

·      You see the future.

Repentance is your commitment to follow Jesus through the present into the future unknown.  Without Jesus, you’re lost.  With Jesus, you’re forever found.  So live found.  Be found. 

Photo credit: The Cross at Ground Zero.  Creative commons image on flickr

https://flic.kr/p/acFq5H