September 15, 2019 – Luke 15:1-10
Luke 15:1-10
Where the Lost Things Are
Lectionary 24C – September 15, 2019
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Today Jesus tells stories of lostness.
A lost coin that is sought out by a widow.
A lost sheep that is sought out by a shepherd.
Next he will tell the most famous of all his stories:
the story of a lost boy who is sought by his father in the story of the prodigal son.
But these are not the only stories of loss I heard this week.
Much of my time, in fact, is spent in listening – just listening – to stories of loss.
This week alone, from the people I spent time with, I heard stories of the loss of memory.
Stories of the loss of family members.
Stories of the loss of home.
Stories of the loss of relationships and marriages.
Stories of the loss of health, stories of the loss of meaning, stories of the loss of purpose.
Some of these stories involved being found.
And some of them did not – it seems that not everything lost can be found.
I think Jesus’ stories of lostness in Luke 15 resonate so strongly with us
because we experience loss every single day.
In addition to the things I heard this week, I could add many additional things that we lose:
We lose our capacity to trust.
We lose our sense of belonging.
We lose our experience of God being present with us.
We lose our will to persevere.
We lost faith.
We lose a lot more than just our car keys.
Jesus tells the stories, though, not because of lostness itself.
The lost things are a fact – he doesn’t spend a lot of time on them.
And he doesn’t berate or judge the lost for being lost.
In his story, the lost don’t need to repent in order to be found, or come to their senses,
or be shinier coins or more obedient sheep.
The focus in the story is on the grace of the seeker – on the one who searches out the lost.
The focus in the story is on God and what God is like.
Now in his stories Jesus often invites us to imagine what God is like.
He tells his stories this morning in response to the Pharisees who rebuke him
for spending so much time with, well, the lost ones of society.
With those who have lost their way.
You have to remember that he is telling this story to the Pharisees – not to the lost.
He has already found the lost by feeding them and eating with them and healing them
and forgiving them.
He is telling this story to the Pharisees – to the comfortably religious.
To those who think going to church on Sunday morning is all there is to following him.
And he tells these stories to the Pharisees because
it is the Pharisees who have lost their way and lost sight of what God is really like.
And he tells them these stories as a way of asking them:
What do you think God is like? And where do you think God is right now?
And he tells them.
God is like a widow. God is like a shepherd.
Not like a king majestically in charge of everything.
Not a distant force that set the universe in motion.
Not a cruel puppet master pulling our strings to see how we will respond.
But rather . . . God is like an ordinary widow who seeks out a lost coin.
God is like a lowly shepherd who seeks out a lost sheep.
God is heartsick to find the lost thing.
God is a love that will not rest till the lost thing is found.
So he asks the Pharisees: which one of you wouldn’t put 99 sheep at risk to find the lost one?
Which one of you wouldn’t spend all day looking for a coin by burning expensive oil in
a lamp and then, when you find it, throw a big party that costs you
way more than the coin you eventually found?
Well . . . well??????
And the answer . . . none of us would!!!!!!!!
No one in their right mind would! Because that’s crazy!!!!
No one would do that!
If you’re a householder or shepherd those are – what? – acceptable losses.
Part of doing business. Breakage.
We were the liquor store on a Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks ago.
We asked about how the new security measures were working.
He said last night, a Friday night, they only lost one bottle – that’s a very good Friday night!
A good night if you only lose one! That’s an acceptable loss!
But to Jesus . . . that is not acceptable!
I didn’t see any MLCC employees out there looking for that “lost” bottle!
But if Jesus was a liquor commission employee,
you can be sure he would still be out there searching for that lost bottle.
Because that is what God is like.
Because the love God has for us is a little bit crazy. Okay: a lot crazy.
Jesus, remember, is telling this story to the Pharisees.
This story is, I’m sure, very comforting to those who are lost:
God loves you with a crazy love and
God will not stop searching for you until God finds you: that is good news.
But Jesus is primarily telling this story to the comfortably religious,
to those who are sitting in the pews: to those who don’t know they are lost.
To those who don’t know they have lost their way.
And he’s telling them not in order to judge them but to invite them back into the divine work
of seeking the lost and embracing them and forgiving them and healing them and
feeding them and partying with them.
Why else do you think I make weekly invitations to you to feed the hungry with me?
“Which one of you?” he asks them.
And while the immediate response is, “Uh, actually, no one would do that, Jesus,”
Jesus is kind of asking with an expectant look and his eyebrows raised like a teacher who
knows the student has the right answer inside them somewhere.
“Which one of you?”
Jesus is inviting them to join the search party with him –
and in that way be found by purpose and meaning.
With apologies to Amazing Grace, it’s not like we once were lost and now are found,
as if it were a once in a lifetime thing.
The truth is, we get lost over and over again.
We lose things and people over and over again.
We lose our way over and over again.
The good news this week is that God never tires of searching us out.
And God never tires of inviting us to join the divine search party in seeking the lost.
The good news is that Love is Greater than our Lostness. Love is Greater than our Lostness.
What is God like?
God is not comfortably sitting with the 99 back in the sheepfold.
God is out searching for the lost until they are found.
Because God is where the lost things are. God is where the lost things are.
That is what the Pharisees cannot understand about Jesus:
he can be found where the lost things are and where the lost people are.
And the fact that they can’t understand that is a measure of their own lostness.
In his story, Jesus is searching them out, right?
Hoping they will hear that if they want to find God, they need to be willing to go where God is:
to where the lost things are.
For that is where God can be found.
There is a well known story about the greatest 20th century theologian, Karl Barth.
A young theology student came to him in great distress, telling him how he had lost his faith.
He poured his heart out to the great theologian, hoping that Karl Barth would give him
the answers he needed.
But what Karl Barth said to the young who had lost his faith was simply this:
Go feed the hungry poor for a couple of years – that’s where you will find God.
For God is where the lost things are.
Come to the table this morning – be fed and be found.
And be nourished to join Jesus and the divine search party – for that is where we will find God.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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