To Be Found! - Luke 15: 1-10

One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine….. Nine. Where was camper number 10? My eyes darted around as I counted again, still only arriving at the number nine. I whispered as quietly into one my family group counselor’s ears, “We’re missing one of the boys.” His eyes shot up as he started to do the group count as well. Ending with the number nine. For the next twenty minutes my three family group counselors took the rest of the kids to another area as I tried to find the missing boy. I looked everywhere, and the twenty minutes of searching seemed to last forever. The only thoughts running through my mind where “Where can he be?” and “I hope he’s okay.” It’s not as if there are many places that a fourth grader could wander to after exiting the dining hall. The camp itself was relatively small, but I was concerned that he wondered into one of the many acres of forest surrounding the camp that comprised Bald Eagle State Park. Just the week before at camp, a whole family group had gotten lost while hiking in the woods with very experienced counselors. How easily could one little boy get lost in a large and sprawling forest? Thankfully, my search ended at the basketball court where the camper was attempting to shoot the ball into the hoop by himself. When I asked him how he got lost, he replied that he wasn’t lost, he knew exactly where he was the entire time.

This is one of many people’s favorite passages in the Bible. Artists have depicted it as Jesus, the Good shepherd, tenderly carrying a small lamb around the nape of his neck and shoulders, presumably back to the flock. We love this passage when we can identify with being the lost lamb, the one who has strayed from the flock. I’d venture a guess that I am not the only person to have experience with a group member separating from the rest of the fold, as my camper did. He wasn’t even my biological child, but for the week I had been one of the four adults entrusted with his care twenty-four hours a day. When I noticed that he wasn’t with the rest of my campers, I panicked. I can only imagine what a small child feels like when they become separated from their parent in a store. Or what a parent feels like when they notice that their child, whom they love so dearly, is not with them. Of course we want Jesus to seek is out with the same fervent love and passionate hunt.

Where we struggle more is when we, like my little camper, don’t realize that we are lost. We want Jesus to seek us out when we wander off of the path, and we, like the woman in the next parable, are great about single mindedly searching for a lost object that it is precious to us, but what about when we lose something that is precious to God, but doesn’t matter as much to us?

This past week I have not been able to get the response of some people, including Christians, to the building of an Islamic Center in Manhattan out of my mind. Threats of pastors burning the Koran, taxicab drivers getting stabbed for simply affirming that they were Muslim by faith. Protests around the country, hate groups cropping up on the Internet, video clips that show some vicious misrepresentations that cause my heart to break. And I found myself thinking over and over again about what our nation has lost – compassion, tenderness, love for our neighbor.

I was pondering more on the distress in my heart for my Muslim brothers and sisters being persecuted for the actions of a few as I was driving home on Wednesday from school. I hit many bouts of construction, but I found myself situated behind a large tracker trailer for one of the prolonged periods of traffic-stopping construction. Right in front of me was a large sticker on one of his back doors that read “We don’t do business or bring any comfort to the enemy.” Ironically right above this large sticker was a smaller one that said, “Jesus loves you.” What a profound statement about something being lost – the heart of the entire gospel message. Love your neighbors, including your enemies, and love the Lord your God. This truck was claiming two different realities that couldn’t fit together – one was the message of Love, the heart of Jesus’ life, teachings, death, and resurrection. And the crux of today’s teaching in Luke. In the first two verses we are told, “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to [Jesus]. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Jesus was associating on a level marked by friendship and intimacy with people that others labeled the enemy. And Jesus’ response – of course I eat with them and talk to them, I was sent to love them the most.

But the teachings about the lost sheep, coin, and brother weren’t just supposed to be affirmations to those around him that others labeled sinners, that Jesus was here to love them and run after them, leading them to a new road of life. It was a blatant message to the religious leaders and people that disapproved that they had lost something; something that they didn’t even realize was gone. Their ability to love, show compassion, deal tender heartedly with those around them. The ability to walk beside without judging, lead to the path of life without condemning. The eyes to see each life as Beloved to God. These basic tenants that make us humans that can live together in love while loving God had been replaced by judgment, hate, hurtful accusations, name calling, brutality, cut throat politics, and a religious life that was empty of the communication and reality of God’s divine and profound love.

Jesus was saying, yes, I seek out the lost who are frightened and don’t know where to turn. But you who think that you have it all together, examine yourselves because you’re missing a lot more then this sinner. You are missing that which God has given you to tell others that they are the Beloved. Seek hard for that bit of compassion you are missing because that is what makes you special, agents of God’s will in humanity. You’ve become so comfortable with who you are, even with everything that you are missing, that you don’t realize how much you are lost too.

Christian Singer and Song Writer explains what happens when we lose something so profound as compassion as, “Walking into minefields undetected…. Where anger replaces all common sense” and “holding all the keys to our own undoing.”

Sometimes we can trick ourselves into thinking that we are good and perfect people, all loving towards God and our neighbors. But then something happens, a request to build a place of teaching, and fellowship, and worship, that is blown out or proportion. Or another person getting a promotion at work. Another family member being praised. And we are left seeing who we really are. People caught between the gospel of love and the ability to hate. People cracked open, showing our own prejudices and insecurities that point to an absence of something in our lives. Something we didn’t even notice was gone.

“oh run for you life


all tenderness is gone


in the blink of an eye


all good will has withdrawn


and we mark out our paces and


stare out from our faces

and we, we are gone.”

What is gone without us even noticing is God’s love in our hearts manifested in different ways. What are you missing today, brothers and sisters? And are you willing to run to God and seek it out, as fervently as the shepherd sought the lost lamb and the woman fixed her mind to only seek what was precious to her? Amen.