Waiting to be Found

September 16, 2007
16th Sunday after Pentecost

Text: Luke 15:1-10

Preacher: The Rev. R. Bruce Todd

I often go to “Google” to find illustrations for our Bulletin Cover. When I read the lesson of The Lost Sheep - I typed into Google - “Lost Sheep” - and it gave me the cartoon you see today. The 3 sheep sitting at the “Lost & Found” counter with the attendant saying, “Yes Bo peep, they’re here.” Remember that little Nursery Rhyme? Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and can't tell where to find them. Leave them alone, And they'll come home, wagging their tails behind them.

Jesus tells a parable about the Lost Sheep. We’ve learned that when Jesus tells a parable, he’s really telling a story about us! So which are we? Are we one of the 99 safe in the fold? Or are we one of those - out there - who wandered off? Jesus’ faithful sheep would never wander off. They would be obedient, and if they did wander, they would undoubtedly be like Little Bo Peep’s Sheep. They would come home wagging their tails behind them. We are not dumb sheep. We are the smart ones. We won’t get lost. No one will have to come looking for us. We’re not much different form the Pharisees who say, "We are safe in the sheepfold.” "We know where the pasture is and we are never lost." Who needs a shepherd when we, the sheep, are in control?"

Little Bo Peep’s sheep may have come home, but that is not how the Sheep in Jesus’ fold react. Jesus’ sheep tend to wander off, get lost, get in to trouble, and need to be found and rescued. It’s who we are. Jesus, our Shepherd, wishes we would stay safely in the fold. But this thing called sin keeps enticing us to go to places God’s sheep should not go. And while we are grazing our way toward these unsafe pastures, our Shepherd is coming after us, hoping we will follow him back to the flock. And when we get back to the safety of the flock, the funny thing is we tend to wander off again. But the nice thing is-the shepherd comes after us again. Why? Because we’re a part of his flock and he loves us.

I remember reading a Peanuts cartoon strip in which Lucy comes up to Charlie Brown and does something that is very unusual for her. She says, “I love you.” But Charlie Brown keeps responding by saying, “No, you don't.” And each time Lucy answers a little louder, “Yes I do, I really love you.” But Charlie Brown has been rejected so many times he keeps saying, “It can't be true.” So in the last square, Lucy has reached the limit of her patience and she screams out in a loud voice, “HEY STUPID, I LOVE YOU!”

I wonder if God has to do that with us sometimes. What does it take for God to get through to us? Does he have to yell out: Hey blockhead, I love you? This parable is Jesus’ way of telling us that God will literally turn this world upside down in his search for one lost human soul? We have to be convinced that God loves us and will come looking for us if we’re lost, if we expect to convince other people of it.

This is similar to the story of a famous evangelist who was in town to hold an evangelistic crusade. On the way to the stadium where the crusade was being held, the evangelist wanted to stop at the post office and mail a letter. But he got hopelessly lost and finally decided to ask someone for directions. He noticed a little boy walking on the sidewalk, so he pulled over and said, “Excuse me, son, but can you tell me where the post office is?” The little boy said, “Sure. Turn around and go back down the street to the first light, turn left and it’s a block or two on your right.” “Thank you very much, young man,” said the evangelist. “By the way,” he added,
handing the boy an announcement for the crusade, “I’d like to invite you to come to a meeting later today where I’ll tell you how you can find Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.” “Fat chance,” said the little boy. “You can’t even find the post office.”

Fortunately for us, we don’t have to find Jesus. Jesus finds us. In Luke 15, Jesus describes us as “lost sheep.” As a shepherd with a flock of one hundred sheep, he says, he leaves the ninety-nine in order to go out and find the one that has gone astray. We don’t have to find our way back to the fold. Jesus is pursuing us. All we need to do is stop running and let him take us back.

So which are we Lost Sheep - or Found Sheep? We tend to think as lost sheep as bad, and the found sheep, the sheep in the flock as good. There was a teacher who asked the kids one day, "If all the bad children were painted red and all the good children were painted green,
which color would you be?" Think about it. What color would you be? Red or Green? It is a tough question isn't it, when you give only those two options. One very wise child answered the teacher: "I’d be Striped"

Everyone but Jesus is striped. We are a curious combination of the lost and the found. We are striped. We are, in some sense, not completely complete. This language of lost and found is difficult, especially for people in the middle, as most of us are most of the time. It seems too absolute. Rarely are we completely lost. And rarely are we completely found. The wonderful thing is that the lost part of us is as valuable to God as the found part, that God does not want any one of us or any part of us to be ignored, neglected, or lost. God wants to bless us, all of us. God rejoices when one of us, or even a part of us, is found. Jesus wants us to identify with both the shepherd and the poor widow in their sorrow and their joy, and to understand that each of us is valued, no matter what our color our how many stripes we have.
All of us are valued. The 99 and the 1. The coins in the purse and the one under the floor. The son at home and the son who wanders.

The infamous Erma Bombeck, in one of her books, describes a visit to a church one Sunday. She writes: "...I was intent on a small child who was turning around smiling at everyone. He wasn't gurgling, spitting, humming, kicking, tearing the hymnals, or rummaging through his mother's handbag. He was just smiling. Finally, his mother jerked him about and in a stage whisper that could be heard throughout the church, she said, "Stop grinning! You're in a church!" With that, she gave him a belt on his hind-side and as the tears rolled down his cheeks added, "that's better," and returned to her prayers."

Yep, there are the lost and there are the found and there are parts of us that are in the light, and parts in the dark. We have the red stripes mixed in with the green ones. As we are searched for, as we are looked for, as we are valued and as we are found - rejoice! And search for, look for, and find and rejoice over others. After all, our mission statement is to share the life, love and joy of Jesus Christ WITH OTHERS!

Erma Bombeck continued by saying, "I wanted to grab this child with the tear-stained face close to me and tell him about my God. The happy God. The smiling God, the God who had to have a sense of humor to have created people like us." God loves us. God looks for us. God wants to ease our pains. God wants to make us whole. Allow him. Listen for his voice.

Follow him when he calls. It’s no fun being lost. As a child of God - we’re not! Amen!