Sermons
A Message by the Rev. Harvey G. Throop
Palisades Presbyterian Church
San Diego, California
June 21, 2009
Lost and Found
(Luke 15:1-10)
“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?”
(Luke 15:2)
If you ever want to have an entertaining time that costs you nothing, come over to the church office some quiet afternoon and ask to see the collection of lost and found items that gather under the counter in the front office. Of course, you don't have to come to the church. You can go to just about any school or large business or retail outlet and if you ask, you will discover that they will very likely have a collection of lost articles somewhere — almost every place does. But here is the entertainment idea hidden in it: try to make up a story about each of the items that are in the collection. Be creative. Imagine how they came to be “lost” items.
Try to figure out just who it is that is walking around town half-blind, trying to remember where he/she last set down that pair of reading glasses. You could add pity or sorrow to your story by inventing creative details: this person gets the Covenanter, maybe there has even been a lost and found notice in the Sunday bulletin about the glasses, but of course, without glasses, he or she can't read the notice!
Speaking of lost glasses, a member of this church recently sent me the following story.
“While on a road trip, an elderly couple stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch. After finishing their meal, they left the restaurant, and resumed their trip. When leaving, the elderly woman unknowingly left her glasses on the table, and she didn't miss them until they had been driving for about forty minutes. By then, to add to the aggravation, they had to travel quite a distance before they could find a place to turn around, in order to return to the restaurant to retrieve her glasses.
All the way back, the elderly husband became the classic grouchy old man. He fussed and complained, and scolded his wife relentlessly during the entire return drive. The more he chided her, the more agitated he became. He just wouldn't let up one minute.
To her relief, they finally arrived at the restaurant. As the woman got out of the car, and hurried inside to retrieve her glasses, her husband yelled to her, 'While you're in there, you might as well get my hat and credit card.'” (Contributed by Dave Dyas)
Here is another of my favorites in the “Lost & Found”-- a single shoe. It is those misplaced single shoes that always intrigue me, not only when they turn up in the lost and found, but when you see one just sitting by the curb on the street. How did it get there? Did the person just step out of one shoe and go thumping along with one leg shorter than the other, going several blocks before realizing the loss?
I have a special appreciation for an abandoned umbrella. I rarely have an umbrella handy when I need one during our rainy season in winter. So when I get ready to go out in the middle of the day and it has begun to rain, I can almost always count on a loaner from the lost and found, though it usually has some defect, like one side that won't quite go up, or a missing handle.
Most of us have experienced such minor losses and have moved on. Sure, the loss of misplaced items might be aggravating at first, but we usually decide not to worry any further. So, we have bought new eyeglasses, a new pair of shoes or a new umbrella that actually works.
As I read over Jesus two parables about losing and finding, I was struck by one thought about those lost sheep. The question Jesus put to his listeners in the first story was, “Which 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?”
Many of us might answer too quickly, without thinking this thing through, as though the action of the shepherd in the story were the only sensible response.
Think about it! Leaving aside for the moment all the Sunday school artwork depicting Jesus in a sparkling white robe, carrying a freshly-bathed little white lamb on his shoulders and remembering instead that adult sheep in the wilderness are not only stupid but big, heavy, and smelly, not to mention that they represent dollars on the hoof to their owners, I had to re-ask myself that question: “Which of you does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost?” I realized that if Jesus were telling me this story, I would have to raise my hand. I would say, “Me! I wouldn't do it!”
Think of the simple economics of it. Putting ninety-nine perfectly good and healthy sheep at risk because of the stupidity of one sheep makes no sense. Wolves could come, scatter the rest of the flock, devour several, forcing others to plunge off cliffs and break their necks. The disappearance of one of the ninety-nine makes regaining the lost one pointless. The loss of two or more of the ninety-nine makes for a net deficit.
No, I would not go and seek that one lost sheep if I had 99 others. I would follow the economic wisdom of the world, cut my losses and preserve what I had.
When I was a student at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, one of my courses focused on prison issues. One week, we visited the Allegheny County Prison. I remember the prison's warden telling us, “We don't follow what the Lord said regarding “the lost.” When one of our prisoners goes missing, first, we lock up the remaining 99 prisoners and THEN we go in search for the lost one!”
But why was Jesus telling these stories? God cares about every individual. Each one of us is precious in God's sight. When we wander off and become lost, he knows and cares. God is always the one who takes the initiative in tracking the lost person. If, when he finds us, we are weak and weary, he picks us up and carries us. How God celebrates and rejoices when any one of us is back with him!
God is so much kinder than we tend to be. We may write off those who sin differently than we sin as deserving nothing but condemnation, but God never gives up on any person. God loves the one who never strays, but there is an indescribable joy when one who had strayed is found and comes back home.
I can tell you this: it would be a whole lot easier to come back to God than to come back to the criticism and judgment of some religious folks! It is that love for each individual that led Christ to take our human nature upon himself and to bear our infirmities.
Jesus talks about the lost more than he does about sinners . We are more likely to admit that we sin than we are to admit we are lost . Sometimes, we may even brag about sinning. To admit we are lost is something else.
To make sure we know how much God really cares for the lost , Jesus tells a second short story. "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? When 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.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
In the poverty of the time, for a woman to lose one of the ten coins given to her at marriage was a crisis. Amidst our comparative affluence today, a woman who loses any coin would hardly spend a minute looking for it.
The woman in the parable, however, could not wait even for the morning. She lit a lamp and searched diligently until she found it. Besides their monetary value, these coins had as much sentimental value as a wedding ring. To lose even one of them was most distressing. Jesus asked, 'Will God give up any one of his children for lost with any less effort and determination than that poor woman trying to find her lost coin?"
Don't ever entertain for even a moment the idea that God could care less about "little old you." After all, this is the God who made you after his own heart.
In the first parable, the sheep wandered off outside the fold. In the second parable, the coin was lost inside the house.
I think this second story is saying to us "in-house" church folks that a precious soul may be lost even within the Christian church or the Christian home. God cares for those lost inside, just like the woman who looked for her coin until she found it and had it safely in her own hands again.
Perhaps Jesus has a woman as the central character in this parable not so much to speak to women as to speak of the feminine virtues and graces of women -- the patience and diligence needed to rescuing lost souls. A woman may not be able to identify with tending sheep out in the wilderness, but she could identify with a marriage coin and housekeeping.
Both of these stories end with great rejoicing, when what was lost has been found.
God identifies with our joys, as well as with our sorrows. God alone knows what He has gone through for us. Scripture reminds us, "Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows… He was wounded for our transgressions … and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:4,5).
No wonder, having gone through all of that for us, God rejoices when one of us is found. God knows how to care for and enjoy his children. Just try to imagine God's happiness when, after looking everywhere, he finds a child he lost years ago! Jesus is telling us that when we see God, we shall see God as God is -- smiling!
Be sure that you are hearing the good news of the Gospel. Though you may have let go of God, God never lets go of you! The apostle Paul insisted, "Where sin increases, God's grace abounds all the more" (Romans 5:20).
This caring love of God for everyone is seen in the Son of God on the cross.
Of all the titles given Jesus, none must have pleased him more than the title: "the friend of sinners." While he knows the worst about us, he always seeks the best for us. He believes in you and in me so much that he would die for us. He brings out the best in every one of us.
The final climax of these stories of God's passionate care for each one of us is joy. All the heavens rejoice when any one of us is found and brought home by God. There will be nothing that can compare with sharing God's joy.
In the end, Jesus' parables are stories about the way God seeks out the lost, not the way we would go about doing it. And the joy that characterizes the heart of these simple stories is the key to knowing the joy that fills God's heart when any person turns to Christ in faith.
