September 12, 2010
GPS of Grace
- Luke 15:1-10
- Dr. Teri Thomas
Lost
alone
frightening
vulnerable
on my own
unsettled
missing
no one to help
confused
upsetting
forsaken
not sure what to do or where to turn
disoriented
defenseless
perplexed
abandoned
at risk
lost
where am I?
where are you?
where is God?
Lost
You go down to the lake to watch the sunset and suddenly you have to return to the cabin in the dark through unfamiliar woods. You can’t find the path, the light, the warmth of the cabin.
Lost
You wander away from your mother in the department store. The racks are too high to see beyond. Everyone’s knees look the same. You can’t find her hand, her hug, her comfort.
Lost
The walls of the mine collapse and you are trapped in darkness and dust and debris. You cannot find air, your co-workers, your escape.
Lost
You answer the phone and hear the news from the hospital. The one you loved so dearly has died. You cannot find any comfort, you feel abandoned, you cannot find a path out of the sorrow.
Lost
The plane lands unexpectedly in Ireland instead of New York. New York and DC are under attack. You stand in the Shannon airport and watch as airliners crash into buildings. You cannot find a way home, a connection to your family, a way out of the nightmare.
Lost
The pink slip shows up unexpectedly and the work of 23 years is over. You lose your self-esteem, your confidence, your support. You cannot find your self-respect.
Lost
You are driving to the meeting at the same restaurant you’ve gone to every month for 25 years. You cannot find the street, you cannot recognize this neighborhood, you cannot find your sense of direction, you cannot find your own memory.
Lost
You are listening to a Florida pastor spout messages of hatred and violence. People of faith are fighting over a room for prayer. You cannot find a word of love, you cannot hear peace, you cannot see Christ.
Lost
You come home and find the letter on the dining room table. Your partner has left.. You cannot see tomorrow, you cannot imagine the future, you lost your hope and your heart.
When something we care about is lost we experience
The frustration
The fretting
The irritation
When you are the parent and your child is lost there is agony, fear, terror.
But when she is found, when he is discovered,
when they return to you we celebrate and rejoice.
There is no delight like the joy of the lost being found.
Jesus is trying to explain this business of being lost with these parables.
Jesus isn’t sure we even know if we are the lost or the found or the finder.
In the process of explaining Jesus is upsetting the religious authorities.
These aren't bad folks – they're the ones who really care about their faith,
the first-century equivalent of elders, church leaders, pastors and Sunday School teachers.
They're upset because of the company Jesus keeps. He's hanging out with, talking to,
and sharing meals with sinners.
A couple times each month a group of Northminster folks gather for Theology on Tap at the Rusty Bucket. The group talks about current events and how our faith speaks to those events.
Imagine our good faithful members gathering at the table one Thursday evening. The food is being served and across the restaurant- at a larger table we see Jesus.
There he is eating a burger and drinking a Fat Tire Ale. But that is not the shock, not Jesus,
the shock is who is sitting at his table.
Terry Jones, the anti-Muslim Florida pastor
David Bisard the police officer who killed a motorcyclist by driving drunk
An Al-Qaida terrorist
The African dictator who kills his own people to have more for himself
The mother who lets her child play with a loaded gun
The pusher who is getting rich by selling drugs to our children
The scam artist who dupes innocent folks out of their hard-earned money
The guy who beats his wife and kids
Why in God’s name would Jesus want to sit at that table instead of our table?
It has been said that God’s grace is not an easy solution. God’s grace is actually a problem. If we are honest with ourselves, it is. It is a problem because it doesn’t always fit our sense of right and wrong.
Jesus says "which one of you...if you had 100 sheep and lost one" would put the other ninety-nine at risk to search for the stray? Nobody in their right mind.
Now which one of you, if you lost one coin out of ten would keep searching and sweeping.
Maybe? But how much oil do you burn staying up to do that? More than the coin is worth?
And then…once you found it, would you really call your friends and invite them to rejoice?
After all, you don't invite neighbors over to rejoice – without offering food and drink.
So you find one lost lamb and then kill another to feed your friends to celebrate. So you stay up all night burning oil looking for one coin. You find it. Then spend three or four of your other coins to celebrate finding the one. Who would do that? Nobody! At least nobody with any sense.
Who would go sit at the sinners table at the Rusty Bucket when this table has elders, deacons, pastors, believers, good faithful folks we could join instead? Nobody! At least nobody with any sense.
I think that is the point Jesus is trying to make.
When it comes to God's children –
God's lost, confused, hurting children –
God has no sense.
God would risk everything to find one of them –
and having found a lost and beloved child –
give everything again to celebrate.
There's only one kind of word for this behavior – desperate.
That's right. God is desperate.
Desperate to find the lost,
desperate to redeem the strays,
desperate to draw everyone back into God's abiding, abundant love.
And once we are found, desperate to send us out seeking others who are lost.
In these parables we cannot help but see
the lost one is lost not by choice, but by being caught in cracks or stuck in the bushes.
In these parables there is nothing the lost can do for themselves.
It is not about repentance or change on the part of the sinner.
It is all about God searching, seeking and finding.
Jesus says a community of faith does not abandon anyone.
The church is called to a style of hospitality that seeks rather than waits,
that goes out to search for the lost rather than expecting them to come to church.
The church doors are open to let us out.
Without the lost ones, we are not complete. We should be just as desperate as God until the lost are found and we are made whole again by their presence.
Then, we can answer God’s call, "Rejoice with me.”
feel the relief
feel the joy
feel the happiness
feel the delight
feel the peace
the lost has been found.
Feel the grace.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.