Sermon: "Reconnecting and Rejoicing"

Date: September 12, 2004

Place: Worship, Crestwood UCC

May God be with you.

And also with you.

Will you pray with me…May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O God…we thank you for the good news that you keep looking for us even if we might not be looking for you…and we come asking that you might renew us in the faith and enthusiasm required to be persistent in showing your love by what we do and what we say. Amen.

As many of you know, before becoming a pastor, I worked in universities. I want to tell you a lost and found story that comes from the time I was an Assistant Director of Housing at the University of Kansas (go Jayhawks). In my role as advisor to the residence hall student government, I had the glorious responsibility of shepherding 17 student leaders to a leadership conference in San Francisco.

Though I knew it would be great fun, I also knew my challenge would be to keep track of all of them…so I employed several no-fail we’re-all-goin’-home-together strategies.

First, if they wanted to do something that took them away from the group, they had to clear it with me…like I thought that would work. Second, we checked in as a group at breakfast and at dinner each day. Third, I assigned them each a buddy….who they were to tell specifically where they were going and what they were doing…which was probably a little naïve on my part, considering they were college students 1500 miles from home. And fourth, upon arrival, we took the afternoon to learn the bus system. If you are familiar with San Francisco, then you know that because it is ocean-locked, it isn’t all that big. It only took us an afternoon to get the bus system down.

All went well all week. Everyone was accounted for at every checkpoint…except for one…the last one. We had an afternoon flight and 16 students arrived at the airport shuttle vans, baggage in hand…not seventeen. We waited and we waited for Callie to show up. Of course, her buddy didn’t have any idea where she was…so much for no-fail systems. And the moment came, of course, when we were in danger of missing our flight if we didn’t leave for the airport. What to do? What to do? What was the shepherd to do?

Well, I decided to put those 16 students on the van with instructions that they were to get on that plane when it was time to depart…they were all to get on it, whether Callie and I were there or not. I would remind you that this was in the days before cell phones. So, when the van doors closed and they pulled away, that was my last, easy contact with them…and there I was, standing on the curb, pondering, "How do you find a little bitty 20 year old young woman from Olathe, Kansas in San Francisco?" Because, my friends, I was not going home without her.

I went back to her room…I went to the cafeteria…I went to the registration desk…I went to the main lounge where people hung out…the whole time my anxiety is building and building…and then I thought, you know, Callie is a shopper…so I took a chance, and headed for the nearest bus stop which was about a block away. As I turned onto that block, here came Callie, running to greet me…tears flowing uncontrollably…blubbering out a tale of a wrong bus…and the next thing I know, I’m crying, too…tears of joy…tears of relief…tears of celebration. And I remember I just grabbed her and hugged her and held her…delighted that we were rejoined…we were reconnected again. I didn’t really care what had happened…why she was late…I just wanted her back.

We got the rest of her stuff, grabbed a cab and made it to the airport in time. When the 16 KU students spotted us, there was screaming and rejoicing and hugging and dancing and jumping up and down and more hugging. The lost had been found and we were all jubilant.

As I reflect on that day, in light of the parables from the gospel today, I realize that my experience, viewed through the lens of scripture, tells me something important about God. If I have even this much divine energy in me, then I know that God finds joy in reunions and delights in reconnecting. For whatever reason we are lost, God is always there looking for us, wanting to grab us up and hug us.

Getting lost or disconnected once in a while…whether literally, figuratively or spiritually…whether or not we intend to…does seem to be a natural part of life. And it seems to be God’s nature to seek us out. At least that is the point of the stories of Jesus which Luke has gathered together into Chapter 15, the lost and found department of that gospel.

There is the parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost (or prodigal) son…which is the story that immediately follows the two we read today. God, Jesus is telling us, is the shepherd who scours the country side; God is the woman who tears apart the house; God is the parent who keeps the vigil every day, waiting with open arms. God is a fountain of joy waiting to be released, a dance of delight in search of a partner. And life is a reunion just waiting to happen…a reconciliation that is just around the corner.

Now, for some folks, that message is entirely too simple. But, if the message of Luke 15 is divinely simple, the context in which it is delivered is humanly complex.

The tax collectors and sinners – those who know they are lost – have flocked to Jesus, as well they might. But the Pharisees and scribes, who are heavily invested in their own understandings of God and their own religiosity, hover around the edges of Jesus’ entourage in frowning disapproval.

"This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them!" they say with self-righteous superiority. Mark Twain might have called them, "good people in the worst sense of the word." They want no part of this unruly congregation of the contemptible. After all, what is the reward for being righteous if righteousness doesn’t make you better than somebody else?

Jesus’ stories of the lost are offered in the face of such critics. And when we get some distance from their comfortable familiarity, we get the sense that these tales are just a little bit outrageous.

"Which of you," Jesus begins, "Having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until it is found?" Now, think about that for a moment: leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness to go look for one? How responsible is that? I can tell you from personal experience, at the very least, it makes you pretty darned uncomfortable.

Jesus’ question is rhetorical in form, but not in content. The fact that the answer is not obvious serves to underscore the difference between Jesus’ version of God and the God whom the Pharisees have neatly surrounded with rules and laws.

This parable is a portrait of God. The shepherd’s behavior is the only thing we can expect. In that same situation, God would do the same and would search not just for a reasonable period of time…but until the sheep was found.

Next is the story of the woman. God is like a woman who loses a coin, a drachma, worth about a day’s wages. The coin is valuable, to be sure, but not the difference between life and death. It is the type of thing that we lose, wince over, and say to ourselves, "It’ll probably turn up. I’ll find it the next time I vacuum." Uh-uh. Not this woman. She drops what she’s doing, lights a lamp…because this won’t wait for daylight…and she proceeds to tear the house apart to find that coin.

And I love how this parable ends. She finds the coin and then calls all her friends and says, "Let’s have a party! I’ve found my lost coin!" But you don’t invite everybody over without feeding them, right? And that is bound to cost more than the lost coin, right? So, what’s going on here?

Ahh…this, too, is a portrait of God…and God loves a reunion! It’s not about economics, it’s about connection.

The wonderful thing about these images that Jesus offers is that they are just a little bit overboard…a little bit out of control. We’re not talking about God’s preferences…we’re talking about God’s passion for finding the lost…God’s passion for reconnecting.

Jesus is telling us something crucial about God. If God is love, love is unfulfilled without relationship. No matter how deep your hunger for God, God’s hunger for you is deeper. God is not sitting back, impassive, waiting for you to come to your senses and come crawling back: God is scurrying around through the brambles, down in the gullies, grubbing around wherever a sheep might be lost; God is on hands and knees, scrutinizing cracks and corners, moving furniture, peering into all the places a coin might get stuck.

The scribes and Pharisees and all we church-going folks are being asked to understand that God is in it for the reunions…the connections and reconnections…the relationships…the hugs…and the rejoicing. And so we must ask ourselves, are we? Are we?

As we begin a new church year and prepare to inundate ourselves with meetings and programs and rehearsals and classes; as there are countless opportunities to agree to disagree, to resolve to love, to unite to serve, let us remember…before this is about anything else, and after it has been about everything else, faith…and faith in community…is about reunions, reconnections, relationships, hugs and rejoicing with God and God’s people…especially the ones who might be feeling lost or disconnected. May it be so for you and for me. Amen.