Lost and Found: Sermon Luke 15:1-10

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

I have to confess something to you this morning. I am a forgetful person. I would forget my head if it was not attached. I bought a Palm Pilot and never used it. I have three calendars where I write down important things and I forget to look at my calendars. I have to write notes to myself everywhere, sometimes even on my hand. I forget to take my medicine in the morning and often I have to come back home because I have left something there. Not only that, but I lose stuff. I have lost my wallet I can’t count how many times. I lose my keys, my cell phone, it is really bad sometimes. However I am not the only one. People lose stuff so often that in Scottsboro, AL there is a store called Unclaimed Baggage filled with the stuff that people lose in airports everything from umbrellas to jewelry. We all have lost stuff, from important things like wedding rings to that missing sock that you can never find. I wonder where those socks go.

I remember my grandfather telling a story about losing things. One spring he was plowing a field preparing to plant and he unknowingly dropped his wallet out of his pants pocket onto the ground and it got tilled into the earth. He didn’t realize it until he’d finished and by that time it was too late. He went on to plant and forgot about his wallet. The next spring came around and once again he was tilling the land and what comes up…his wallet. The small things we don’t worry about much. If we lose a quarter or dime we don’t think that much of it. However, if we lose a $100 bill we would spend a lot of time looking for it. Sometimes we find them again and sometimes we don’t.

Our story today is about things that were lost and then found. Our story begins with Jesus at the table once again. In Luke, Jesus was at the dinner table a lot, he must have been Methodist. Jesus is eating with sinners and tax collectors and other unsavory people. He finds his old friends the Pharisees and the scribes lurking about grumbling to themselves. “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” How could he be seen with these people? Doesn’t he care about his reputation? Jesus overhears there words and tells the two parables with similar morals. The first story is about a shepherd who has 100 sheep and one wonders off and becomes lost and the shepherd leaves the 99 to find the one. When we finds the lost sheep he gathers his friends and neighbors to his home and celebrates the return of his lost sheep. Now 1 lost sheep out of 99 does not seem that much of a loss to some, but this shepherd was close to his flock and one sheep lost was one too many.

The second story is very similar. A woman has ten silver coins and loses one of them. She sweeps her house, tears everything upside down trying to find that one coin and when she finds her coin she rejoices with her friends and neighbors in the finding of what was lost. Now most of us would not worry about one coin. Some of us don’t bother to pick a dropped coin unless it is a dime or a quarter. But to a woman who only had ten coins the loss of one is great and the finding of that one is cause of celebration. Then Jesus hits them with the kicker. Just as the shepherd and the woman rejoice over their respective finds, so does the whole host of heaven rejoice over one sinner repenting and turning to Christ. Now one sinner in the midst of billions of people might not seem like much, but to God every child returning home is cause for celebration. The day that you and I returned to God through Christ there was a grand celebration in the heavenly host. The angels sang and praised God for one lost sinner was found.

We live in a world that is lost. I told you once before that I am a Discovery Channel addict and one of my favorite shows is one called Survivorman. This show is about this one guy who gets dropped into the most adverse places on earth, the Amazon jungle, the frozen tundra of the Artic, the desert southwest, and he is completely alone, no crew, he does his own filming. He has to use a few provisions, his wits, and whatever he can find in order to survive 7 days before either finding civilization or being rescued. This guy becomes lost on purpose for the entertainment of the masses. Our world is lost, but not on purpose. We see the evidence of this lostness on the evening news. Murders, rapes, greed, and drug use are just a ripple of the surface. Our world is swimming lost in their own lives and the worst part of it is they don’t even know that they are lost. They go about their lives with that missing piece that one thing that is in the back of their minds and just can’t put a finger on it. God desires for his lost sheep to return home. How can one who is lost become found again?

We are God’s tools here on earth. We are the one who are entrusted with bringing the lost back home, back into a relationship with God. Jesus told the disciples to go into the world preaching the good news and making disciples. He could have also said go into the world and guide those who are lost back home. How do we do this? First, we have to go to where the lost are. Jesus did not always wait until people came to him; he also went to where the people are and so must we. We have to go to where the lost are and we must invite them to dinner. Invite them to fellowship; I heard a story about a pastor who just moved into a parsonage in a neighborhood. One day a new family moved in next door. The pastor went over to the man there and asked him if he would like to come to church. He man responded “No, but if you ever have a barbeque I’ll come to that.” The pastor realized that was the key. Sometimes you have to invite people to dinner before you invite them to church. You have to fellowship with people before you evangelize them. First, you have to gain their trust and then you move on to step two.

You have to show them that they are lost. It is like men driving. We won’t admit they are lost; we are too proud, too stubborn. Sometimes it takes our significant others bugging and bugging us before we will admit that we need guidance. We have to be ones to tell the people that there is a better way. We have to be the guiding lights, just as someone else was our guiding light. Their reaction might not be positive at first. Most people resist change, but if we are loving and persistent we can help God find the lost. Jesus’ teachings were showing the people that their way was not the right way. Their path was leading them further and further into the wilderness. His message was accepted by some and rejected by others. His teachings can help the lost find their way back to the straight and narrow path.

Once they find the path they have to stay on the path. They cannot afford to become lost once again. This is also true for ourselves. We were once lost in the world and someone guided us to the light of Christ and we are in risk of straying from the path also. We need a roadmap, something that can guide us along the straight and narrow path and can help us to learn to become more Christlike. This is our roadmap. Our Bibles can guide us through dark times and good times alike. We must study it, learn from the words written down and learn what God wants us to know in today’s day and time.

One can also say we could use a ship. One needs a ship to journey in the ocean and we have three ships. Not the Nina, Pinta, or the Santa Maria, but worship, discipleship, and fellowship. We talked a lot about discipleship last week. We said that it was not simply an overnight change, but a life long progression. We work hard each day to be a better disciple for Christ. We also worship. Some people do not believe that attending Sunday worship is important. I say it is for two reasons. One there is nothing like gathering together with friends and family to have a Spirit-filled, positive worship experience. God has called us to worship. Secondly, the act of worship recharges us spiritually. Before I became a pastor, when I would miss church for whatever reason, my whole week seemed off. Something was just not right. Worship recharges us and gives us the strength to go out into a lost world and guide others back home to Christ. Finally, there is fellowship. Sometimes we neglect this “ship”. We get so wrapped up in the work of discipleship that we forget about having fun. Being a Christian isn’t all business all the time. It is about having fun, working and playing together. I would like to see us gather together once a quarter for a community fellowship meal. Gather up the people within the community and feast and commune together. This things Scripture study, discipleship, worship, and fellowship are important ways that we can stay on the path with God.

We, as Christians, are examples to the world. We are beacons of light leading the lost back home. Jesus called us the lights of the world. However, we all get off track every once and awhile so we cannot judge the lost. We cannot look down on the people who have not yet found the way to Jesus because we were once in the same place. We all are on the same journey. We all are walking in the same path and only together can we make it to the end. Remember back in the old days, people never traveled great distances alone, They always had others with them for protection and so must we have others with us to protects from temptation and pick us up when we fall. We also must remember, most importantly, that God is always with us. Even when we have lost our way, even in the darkest places, God is there with us and God will not forsake us along the journey.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.