Rev. Cari Pattison
Woodstock Reformed Church
Sunday, September 11, 2022
“How to Find What’s Lost”
Luke 15:1-10
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."
***
Over a lifetime, reports journalist Kathryn Schulz- we will lose some two hundred thousand items apiece- plus money, relationships, elections, loved ones.
Passwords, passports, umbrellas, scarves, earrings, earbuds, musical instruments, W-2s, that letter you meant to answer, the permission slip for your daughter’s field trip, the can of paint you scrupulously set aside three years ago for the touch-up job you knew you’d someday need: the range of things we lose and the readiness with which we do so are staggering.
Data from one insurance-company survey suggest that the average person misplaces up to nine objects a day, which means that, by the time we turn sixty, we will have lost up to two hundred thousand things.
Granted, you’ll get many of those items back, writes Schulz- but you’ll never get back the time you wasted looking for them. In the course of your life, you’ll spend roughly six solid months looking for missing objects; here in the United States, that translates to, collectively, some fifty-four million hours spent searching a day. And there’s the associated loss of money: in the U.S. in 2011, thirty billion dollars on misplaced cell phones alone.
[Why do we lose things], Schulz asks? The best explanation, most of the time, is simply that life is complicated and minds are limited. We lose things because we are flawed; because we are human; because we have things to lose.
***
I titled this sermon, “How to Find What’s Lost,” based on the parables Jesus tells in Luke 15, that Helen just read for us.
But when I saw that title posted on the marquee sign out front, right under the date “September 11th,” it was hard not to think of that loss. Of the rescue workers who sifted through rubble at Ground Zero, looking for people. Of the 3000 people never found.
Says John Kosciolek Jr., FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance Branch Director, who served as a fire fighter at Ground Zero:
“We worked two weeks straight, often long into the night, searching for any survivors or victims.” It was brutal, dirty, and often defeating work.
I hadn’t realized that dogs were also part of the search and rescue dogs work. One of the dogs found the last living person rescued from Ground Zero, 27 hours after the collapse of the towers. As the days went on, rescue and recovery workers realized the chance of finding survivors was increasingly slim, and the operation turned its focus to recovery. At that point they switched to cadaver dogs, trained to sniff out human remains.
On the website for the 9-11 Memorial Museum, it says that “Alongside their handlers, the four-legged heroes worked tirelessly climbing huge piles of debris while fires still smoldered. The search for signs of life or human remains was mentally and physically taxing on the dogs, who became discouraged and started losing their drive to continue. Recognizing the importance of motivation among the dogs, handlers would stage ‘mock finds’ so the animals could feel successful.”
I could hardly get through the article without crying, and my little dog Ollie looked up at me while I read, wondering what was wrong.
The idea of “mock finds.” The sense of discouragement and loss of drive we feel, when we can’t find what we’re looking for. The staggering memory of that day 21 years ago, and how the world changed after that. The resulting fears and wars and divisions.
For a number of you, 9-11 hits even closer to home than it does for me. I was working at a church in Nairobi, Kenya at the time, and remember Kenyan friends of mine writing me notes of condolence for my country. I remember walking past the mosque on my block, and wondering how Muslims and Christians can so peacefully co-exist in a place like Kenya, when elsewhere people are compelled to violence in the name of their faith.
But for some of you, you were right there in New York City, or near it. And it feels like not so long ago, that the very foundations of your city, and your sense of security, were shaken. I wonder what you did in the wake of that day. I wonder if you turned toward God, if you lost some faith, if you had trouble sleeping after that- or all of the above.
***
I titled this sermon “How to find what’s lost,” but I just as well could’ve titled it, “How to be found.” Or “How to realize you’re lost even when you think you’re not.”
To read or hear one of Jesus’ parables, says one scholar- is to enter a room you’ve never been in. You have to walk in, look around, notice what’s on the walls, get a feel for the furniture, and see where your place is in it- to rest or read or look out the window.
These well-known parables about a lost sheep and a lost coin, come on the heels of criticism about the company Jesus keeps. Why is he hanging out with the “riff-raff”? Doesn’t he know better?
But Jesus reminds us again- he never came to congratulate the successful and the so-called “well.” He came for the sick, the lost, the searching, the hurting.
His greatest efforts are reserved for those who need him most, and he will go to any length to find them.
***
Let’s unpack this text a bit…
Tax collectors and sinners… why they were disliked / “wrongdoers” / AJL- those who disrupt and fracture community
Jesus keeps saying throughout Luke, to the crowds, “Let anyone with ears to hear, listen…” and they are doing just that! They are coming near to Jesus to listen to him.
The Pharisees and scribes (teachers of the law)- their responsibility…
Welcoming them is one thing, but eating with them? Table fellowship? That shows affection and belonging and even friendship!
Shepherds were looked down upon in those days- their work was nomadic, dirty, isolated, low-paid. And Jesus is asking these upstanding religious leaders to identify with them?
Women were looked down upon in those days- and of course still are in many circles. There was even a prayer prayed by some Jewish men in 1st century Palestine: “Oh Lord, I thank you that you did not make me a woman.” Sadly nearly every religion, when you scratch the surface of its history, comes with some misogyny.
But here Jesus is asking the Pharisees to identify with a woman?
In both cases Jesus describes something lost- a sheep, a coin- something that didn’t choose to be lost, and something that does nothing to help itself be found. The initiative for the finding is entirely in the role of the shepherd, and the woman.
And while commentators debate whether any shepherd would actually have risked leaving his other 99 sheep to look for the lost one…
No one could doubt that a woman living alone with only 10 days’ wages to her name, 10 drachma coins, that is- no one doubts that she’d comb her house to find it, because she needed that money!
For both finders in these stories, there is urgency, there is searching high and low, there is a willingness to set aside other things, all in service of finding what’s lost.
***
The problem, for the Pharisees, is that they don’t see themselves as lost. And most of the time, maybe we don’t either.
It’s the prodigal son story that follows these two parables, and when I preached on that earlier this year, I speculated that for many of us church-goers, we probably relate more to the older brother who obeys his father, than we do with the son who runs off.
It’s so easy to take credit for being righteous, isn’t it? We might find ourselves saying things like, “I earned what I have because I worked hard.” “I made good choices, so of course my life’s worked out.” There may be people we read about, or hear about, or meet on the street, and we quietly think, “Well at least I have my act together more than them.”
But do we really? Always? I wonder if you have even one season in your life, where maybe you were doing the best you could at the time- but you found yourself adrift? Off center of who you knew you wanted to be? Drinking too much or sleeping too much or spending too much or hoarding too much?
I wonder if there was a “Finder” in your life, who came to look for you? Someone maybe even sent by God to bring you back to yourself. To invite you to be found.
I remember in a time of my life, not long after my divorce over a decade ago, my life began to feel frantic. I was filling my days with as many activities as possible: concerts, races, dates, lunches, classes, you name it. Anyone could see I was running away from pain, not sure who I was anymore and not wanting to face what’s next.
I will never forget a friend of mine looking at me with concern from across my kitchen table, saying, “You don’t have to live like this.”
“Like what?” I said. And she described what she saw. She was my running partner at the time and while she was not a church-goer, she was in a recovery program. She said, “In the rooms we talk about turning over all this craziness in us to a Higher Power. Shouldn’t you know something about that?”
***
Here’s what I know this morning. Or at least, I know something about.
And you know how I love a sermon with 3 takeaway points. So here goes:
Grumbling…
Throughout the book of Exodus and Numbers.
Throughout the Gospels.
“Griping loudly” in Sarah Ruden’s translation
If we’re honest, we’re all guilty of the occasional grumble.
But sometimes I think grumbling has replaced baseball as our national pastime!
Share from Anne Johnson’s pastor, those key words I’m sharing at Sam’s service today.
Repenting…
Change of heart and mind
To turn in a new direction
Sarah Ruden: “There’ll be more joy in the sky over one wrongdoer who changes his purpose than over 99 ‘upstanding people’ who don’t need to change their purpose.”
Celebrate the positive shifts in your life, the times you changed your purpose for the better, and thank the people who helped you get there!
Kindness challenge (something good in my inbox)
9-11 John Kosciolek- “Even the smallest act of service and the simplest act of kindness is a way to honor those we lost. If we learn nothing else from this tragedy we learn that life is short and there is no time for hate."
Celebrating…
4x in this short text, Jesus mentions joy! Or rejoicing!
It’s a big deal to be found!
It’s a big deal to help someone else change their purpose when they’re ready!
Part of what’s so sad in this text is that the Pharisees and scribes are missing the party completely!
Rather than celebrating the fact that Jesus is drawing in new people, and befriending those who are coming near to listen, all they can do is complain!
Why do we sometimes begrudge the fact that Jesus really does love everyone? No exceptions. Yes, he wants people to be healed. Yes, he wants them to change purpose toward the good. But first he just loves them exactly as he finds them.
***
I mentioned my friend a minute ago, who helped me when I was lost.
She once told me the story of attending an AA conference in Arizona…
***
Pray:
God, help us admit when we’re lost.
Help us relax into being found.
Help us love who you love- even those we think don’t deserve it.
Including ourselves.
You’re so good to us, Jesus.
We love you,
Amen.