Lost and Found- 9/11/22

How appropriate that the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin should be our Gospel lesson for Homecoming Sunday. The theme of those two parables is JOY. "Rejoice or "joy" appears five times in this passage. Someone loses something, goes in search of it, finds it, and tells others to rejoice, then Jesus says that there is joy in heaven over a sinner who repents. 

We are all both saints and sinners here at Homecoming. We have come home, come home to First Baptist Church of East Greenwich, RI, come home to family, to friends, to God. And we rejoice! There is great joy here! Let us look at this biblical story and at the contemporary church story to see what God might have to say to us.

The context of this passage is that tax collectors and sinners are coming to Jesus to listen to him, and the scribes and the Pharisees are grumbling about it . "Why doesn't this teacher eat with us? We are the holy people. We are scrupulous in observing the Law. But he seems to be more interested in hanging out with people who are unscrupulous in following the Law." So Jesus told three parables, the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son, or the Prodigal Son, which is the topic for another time.

This parable of the Lost Sheep also appears in Matthew but in a different context. In Matthew, Jesus is talking about the church, and it seems that he is saying that the church must be the good shepherd that goes in search of the lost sheep (Matt 18:10-14). Here in Luke, Jesus himself is the good shepherd who goes out to get the lost sheep, that is, the tax collectors and the sinners. Jesus uses this parable to justify his ministry. Throughout the Old Testament we see imagery of sheep and shepherd. We know the 23rd Psalm, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” The speaker is not saying that they shall not want the Lord as shepherd. No, the speaker is saying that they shall not be in want because the Lord is their shepherd. I've read another translation: “The Lord is my shepherd. I have everything I need.” We often see this theme of God as shepherd in Psalms, as well as other books such as Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Indeed, these prophets are particularly hard on Israel's leaders, the bad shepherds, who have allowed the sheep to be scattered and refuse to go after the lost sheep. Listen to what God says in Ezekiel: "I am against the shepherds; and I will demand my sheep at their hand, and put a stop to their feeding the sheep; no longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. . . For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness" (Ezek 34:10-12). Jesus here takes the role of God as good shepherd going after the lost sheep. 

So the good shepherd goes after the lost sheep. He leaves the ninety-nine in the wilderness and goes after the one who is lost until he finds it. And when he does, he hoists that sheep onto his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls his friends and neighbors, and says to them, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep!" (Luke 15:6) What's happened to the ninety-nine? Are they still in the wilderness? Jesus is not interested in them; he's interested in the one that is lost. Jesus then concludes that parable, "There'll be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (15:7). Hmm, what's with this repentance motif? The sheep doesn't repent; it's simply grabbed by the shepherd and hoisted onto his shoulders. Have these sinners with whom Jesus cavorts repented? Is so, what have they repented of? There's no indication that there is any repentance. In many ways, the only repentance that Jesus is looking for is that the scribes and Pharisees would repent of their grumbling and join in the joy! That's right: they are to join in the joy!

Jesus then tells the parable of the lost coin. The actor in this parable is a woman. She is the God-figure in this story. She has ten silver coins, or drachmas in Greek. Each one of these coins was worth a day's wage for a laborer. But she loses one, so that's significant. So she lights the lamp, sweeps the house--maybe one time or five times--and she looks everywhere. It's interesting that she is alone. Nobody is helping her. She has no family to help her in her search. But she looks everywhere, and finally she finds it. And just like the shepherd, she calls out to her friends and neighbors and says, "Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I'd lost!" (15:9b). Way to go, woman, way to go! And Jesus concludes this parable in the same way that he summed up the previous parable: “There’s joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." So, joy, joy, joy. Rejoice! Whoop it up! Get happy! Jesus goes on to the next parable, the Parable of the Lost Son, the Prodigal Son, as it is known by. But it too ends without any audience reaction. Are the scribes and Pharisees still grumbling? Grumble, grumble, grumble. Or do they get happy? My guess is that they are lost in their grumbling, and they are not found in rejoicing.  

            But what about you? Are you grumbling or rejoicing? Are you complaining or getting happy? It is my contention that all the characters are within us. We at times are scribes and Pharisees and we are tax collectors and sinners. All are within us. The key is to be conscious, to be aware of all these characters within us. Walt Whitman said, "I contain multitudes." And all of us do. The scribe and the Pharisee are within us grumbling, the tax collector and the sinner are within us rejoicing. And of course, God and Jesus are within us, among us, looking, searching, seeking, going after the lost—lost people, lost emotions, lost pasts, lost behaviors.

All of us have times of being lost. Perhaps that time is right now. If so, I'm glad that you came here. I'm glad that you came home to FBCEG. Because it is home, where your brothers and sisters and your friends and neighbors are here. It's sometimes difficult to know who's lost and who's found. We like to think that those in the church are the found, and those outside the church are the lost. Sometimes, though, someone who comes to church frequently can feel lost and be without meaning, can be struggling and be depressed as anyone. And those on the outside have sometimes found meaning and fellowship and life in activities and with people that are religious and spiritual to them. We do not know what people are going through.

But right now, we are all here, in the house of the Lord, at First Baptist Church of East Greenwich, gathered together in the love of God. I hope that you are rejoicing. I hope that you are glad that you are here, and I hope that you are glad that others are here. Perhaps you see someone you have not seen in a long time. But you're glad to see them. You have some cherished memories with some of these people. You come up to them and say, "Oh, you remember when that happened, and we were with them. They were so funny. You remember them. They told a joke, and I was drinking my coffee, but I got tickled and I spewed it out of my mouth. Do you remember that?" And we do. We remember. We gather again these members of our group, and we remember. We remember.

We rejoice. We have joy that we have come back, that others have come back. So laugh, cry, hug, fist-bump, shake, and rejoice. The lost sheep, who is not necessarily the black sheep, has come back to the flock--at least for today. And the lost coin, which is not necessarily a bad penny, has been found. And all of us are lost and found sheep, lost and found coins. We are all valuable. And all that we feel is valuable too! Certainly the joy and the rejoicing, the laughter, the smiles, the looks of pleasure. But also the sadness, the fear, the anger, the complaints, the grumbling. You might be saying (under your breath, of course), "I can't believe that THEY are here! Can you believe it? After what they did? How dare they come here? In God's house?" Or maybe you want to complain because there aren't more people here. "We worked so hard, and this is all that the people that have come!? But why didn't such and such come? Oh so many more people used to come to Homecoming in my day!" Sure, right. Things were always better in the good old days.

Human beings are amazing creatures. We can find the good in the bad and the bad in the good. And that is OK. Grumbling and complaining are OK. Sometimes you got to do it. I'm amused when someone says, "I'm not one to complain," but then they go off on a complaint for ten minutes or so. Of course, nobody here does that, and I certainly don't do that. But perhaps you've heard other people do that. It's sometimes hard to be with such people. It's hard to be such people. But it's OK. We all are grumblers at times. I hope that we can be forthright in our complaints and share them honestly with the right people.   

Let us hold the grumblers and the rejoicers together within our own souls. Let us be aware of when we want to complain and when we want to celebrate. We really can't do both at the same time. There's a time for complaining and a time for celebrating. And the time for celebrating is now, there will be times for complaining. And to know how to complain well is an important skill. But to know how to celebrate well, to rejoice well, is also an important skill. To rejoice is not to say that everything is ok. but it's to say that something is Ok, that something is good, and we can rejoice.

In what ways have you been lost, and in what ways have you been found? However it is, I rejoice, we rejoice. God has found you and has brought you here! Sometimes it takes God awhile to find us, because we're lost in the weeds, or we keep running away from God. Again, that's OK. God will eventually find you, like the shepherd seeking the lost sheep, like the woman seeking the lost coin. You are valuable. God desires to rejoice with you, with friends and neighbors, with the angels of God in heaven. Rejoice! Rejoice!

Two weeks ago, I alluded to Lucille Clifton's poem "Good Times." I would like to read it in its entirety. It expresses for me more than any poem the joy that God has in us.

my daddy has paid the rent

and the insurance man is gone

and the lights is back on

and my uncle brud has hit

for one dollar straight

and they is good times

good times

good times

my mama has made bread

and grampaw has come

and everybody is drunk

and dancing in the kitchen

and singing in the kitchen

oh these is good times

good times

good times

oh children think about the

good times.

            And all God’s people said, “Amen.”