Please Click Here For Sermon Video
Years ago, when my son was about three and my daughter was still a babe in a stroller, the family went downtown Toronto to the Aquarium. It was very crowded and a challenge to keep track of the kids in tow. At the end of the visit, we went to the ultra-crowded gift store. My son and I were wandering around looking at stuff. I guess I must have let go of his hand to pick something up. In just a matter of about three seconds, he was gone. He had probably caught sight of his mother and off into a sea of people he went. Thankfully, the lost-ness lasted only about 15 seconds if that. He didn’t know he was lost…but I certainly did. It scared the socks off me.
I remember once when I was maybe four being with my mother in Woolworth’s department store. I don’t know what happened, but all of a sudden, I wasn’t with Mom anymore. I was all alone and fear set in. Little children don’t know how to process that. I just froze and started to cry. A salesclerk heard me and came and assured me we’d find my mother. She took me to customer service and sat me on the counter then picked up a microphone and said, “Would the mother of a boy named Randy please come to Customer Service.” Seconds later, Mom showed up crying and was very relieved.
Those two stories shared; I can’t imagine how it would feel for your child to get so lost that they wished you were dead when all you’ve been is kind and gracious and provided for their every need. Then after demanding their inheritance, they took off and squandered it. Then, they show up a year or so later, maybe remorseful, but likely not. That has to hurt…and the fear…and the grief. You don’t stop being a parent. When your children get lost you feel it.
In our reading today we have three parables involving something being lost. They demonstrate three reasons for being lost; by accident, by neglect, and by willfulness. We’ll spend a moment with each.
The first is the lost sheep. When an animal wanders off, it’s not like they meant to. It’s accidental. It followed its nose or something. We do that. We’ve all been out driving or out for a walk, enjoying the day, not realizing we took a wrong turn or missed the turn and wound up somewhere else not knowing how to get back. It’s accidental and yes, there’s a threat of danger.
Getting lost in life happens as well. We can get lost while following pursuits that take us away from the important things which are our relationships in life particularly with God. We can just get too busy or overcommitted. We can get caught up in doing and being what I want to do and be and suddenly we find ourselves alone and scared not knowing how to get back and mend the relationships we wandered away from. We find ourselves being metaphorically just like the sheep in those paintings of the Parable of the Lost Sheep, alone and stuck in the bushes or on the side of a cliff where we can’t go forward and we’re unable to turn around.
The thing to notice in this Parable is the shepherd’s concern for that one sheep who accidentally got lost. The Shepherd leaves the other sheep, possibly to their detriment, and goes searching for that one that got lost. When he finds it, over the shoulders it goes and he brings it back. He doesn’t punish it, or lock it up by itself, or make it first on the slaughter list. He celebrates.
Next, neglect can be the reason something gets lost. That coin didn’t lose itself. It’s a coin and it can’t wander off. It was the woman who lost it probably in a moment of not paying attention. Just like at the Aquarium, my son wandered off because I let go of his hand. At Woolworth’s, I didn’t wander off from my mother. She just assumed I was following her every twist and turn among the racks of the clothing section. She took a turn without making sure I was with her. Sometimes our getting lost is not our fault but of the one watching over us.
So also, it can happen in our relationship with God, sometimes our getting lost is God’s fault. That’s a hard thing to grasp, but it’s true that sometimes God loses us. Stuff happens and it seems God is not there. Where are you God? Why won’t you act? These are two persistent questions. Please notice in the parable that the time comes when the woman, when God realizes that he has lost his treasured coin. You will be found and a lot of those “why God” questions will get answered. Remember, when we feel cut off from God, alone amidst those faith shattering things that come out of left field, it is then that God is actually vehemently seeking for us and will find us. Our task is to wait.
Lastly, there’s willful lostness when we abandon God and the good life he’s given simply looking for more. It can and usually does happen when we are in a time when things seem to be going good. The marriage and the family are good. The social life is good. Church is good. The prayer life is good. Life is good. But, then suddenly it isn’t. Suddenly, what was once good is now not good enough. We want more out of relationships or just plain want new relationships. We’ve lost our connections to the old ones. God, and we question if there is a God, seems to be a million miles away. We’re trying to figure out who we are except in a context that doesn’t include the God who made us who we are. The Church which we once experienced as quite supportive, we start to think is a fraud. We no longer feel connected to our friends, especially our Christian ones. In love they try to help, but we don’t accept their help and insist on finding it ourselves, whatever “it” is. We just want to take what’s ours, or what we feel we’re entitled to, and leave.
Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing. They will show up and subtly convince the lost that they have or that they themselves are that more we’re looking for, that there are many ways to fill that hole in you that only God can feel. They are caring and supportive and very encouraging of us as we inadvertently begin to hurt the people closest to us. Time passes and we’re suddenly find ourselves believing that we are in life solely for ourself, fending for ourself, trying to make a name for ourself…and sadly we believe that that’s all there is.
Willful lostness will actually require us to betray ourselves, our core values. To justify ourselves particularly our leaving people behind and hurting them, we find fault in them and blame them. Our relationship to God, past friendships that were solid and good for us, well, we suddenly begin to see them as being bad for us, restrictive, preventative of our becoming who we truly are, who we truly want to be. We will also rationalize what we’re doing by buying into the latest self-help videos on YouTube.
If you noticed in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the Father wisely and with great restraint doesn’t blow up at his son or seek after him. Instead, he very bravely allows him to go and make his own mistakes. Being in life solely for oneself will usually lead us to a rock bottom at which we hopefully will come to our senses and return to the good life we had and hopefully we will not have burned those bridges too badly. At least with God, the door is always open and the light is always on should we want to come home, but with the people we’ve hurt, there’s trust to rebuild.
These three parables teach us a great lesson with respect to God’s love. When we get lost in life, God does not cease to love us. God will either seek us out or when it’s a case of willful lostness wait for us, wait for us to come to our senses. We also should do the same for those in our lives we know to be lost. Don’t be like the older brother and judge, continue to love and forgive. Amen.
