“Love for the Lost”

      As I read the Gospel lectionary reading for this Sunday, Luke 15:1-10, a couple of stories about a sheep that is lost and a coin that is lost, and the rejoicing that was done when they are found, I realized that as a general rule, we are not very forgiving to those folks who get lost. If we’re honest, we get sort of puffed up, boastful, arrogant, tend to look down on folks who won’t ask for directions, won’t follow directions or always have to be rescued. And it was this attitude, this kind of condescension that Jesus was dealing with when he tells these stories of being lost and being found. It’s this kind of “you ought to know better” ways of thinking that Jesus confronts by telling the story of the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine sheep to find the one that is lost and the woman who searches her entire house until she finds that one missing coin.

           Let’s be honest. If we were shepherds and if we had ninety-nine sheep and only one that is missing, we’d cut our losses and go on home without the one. It’s sensible just to know that you’re probably going to lose at least one anyway. Think about the danger that could happen to the ninety-nine while you’re out looking for the lost one. Think about what a waste of time, how illogical it is to go looking. You could get lost. The ninety-nine sheep could be stolen or attacked. You’d lose good traveling time and you could all be in danger. Think of how little sense it takes to leave ninety-nine sheep to go out and look for one lost one.

           The story about the lost coin we can understand a little better, well, you can understand it if you’ve ever been poor. If you don’t have any money, you’ll search a house for a quarter because that quarter may mean whether or not you get your sandwich or milk for your child at lunch. Anybody who has not had enough money, knows what it is like to search and search for a coin because when you’re out of money, one coin can mean a lot.

           I remember being in seminary and I was broke. I mean I didn’t have any money in my checking account and I didn’t have any money in my purse. And I finally found a little change in a small makeup tray on the back of toilet in my apartment. When I reached over to get the coins, I dropped a couple of quarters in the toilet. A friend of mine was standing near me, a friend of mine who never was low on money, and I remember how appalled she looked when I stuck my hand in the toilet to retrieve that fifty cents. She couldn’t believe that I would do something so nasty just to get a couple of quarters. But she didn’t know how much I needed that fifty cents. She didn’t know that with that fifty cents I had collected enough to go out and have a cup of coffee or maybe a sandwich. It might not get me a full meal, but I was fifty cents closer than if I didn’t fish in the toilet and get the coins.

           See, the more we have: the more money, the more possessions, the more sheep, the less value each one individually has. You have a hundred sheep, you don’t mind losing one. You have a thousand dollars, one dollar isn’t a very big deal, You have one hundred toys, giving away one isn’t such a big problem. But if you have only one sheep or only one dollar or only one toy, if it’s taken or misplaced, it’s all you have, it’s everything and you’ll spend all the time in a day trying to find it.

           And that’s why these stories are so great.

           God is the God of all. God is the creator, the manufacturer, the start-up, the owner of everything on earth. Every creature, every tree, every flower, every star, every mountain, every sheep, every person. How could God possibly keep up with everything? How could God possibly remember all of the creatures? How could God possibly care about every single person, every single sheep, every single coin? It is beyond our understanding.

           We say about circumstances, about money, about jobs and relationships, about people, “well, you win a few and you lose a few.” And we count our losses and keep moving forward. Our human expectation is that you can’t save everybody. You can’t change the lives of everyone. You do your best and you move on. Help the ones you can and turn your backs on the others. And if we were God’s advisors, that’s just what we would tell God when one of us falls from the fold.

           “Lord, just let her go. We got a church full of folks that we need to deal with. We got those who want to stay. Just let that one be gone.”

           But God won’t do it. And God doesn’t have us for advisors. And God isn’t logical or sensible or market-savvy or a corporate genius. God goes out to find that one lost soul. God searches for the one who is missing. God puts everything on hold and tries to bring back the wayward child time after time after time. Every human is the only human. Every soul is God’s Adam and Eve, God’s good creation. Every heart bears the print of God’s finger and God is not settled until every heart is back in the fold, every soul back in the kingdom, every human back in the arms of love.

           I’m not sure we can ever understand that kind of love. I’m not sure it’s possible in this day and time when we are most concerned about getting ahead, making more money, having more things. I’m not sure that we can really understand that kind of “risk everything” mercy. But that is the love of God. That is the desperation of God’s heart, longing for us, desiring for us to be home, to be found, to be brought back in. And because this is the heart of God then that is our heart too. We believe that every soul is the only soul.

           This week may you be mindful of just how much you are loved and in that mindfulness may you be encouraged to love others with the same zeal.

You are the light of the world. 

Yours,

Lynne