Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

Luke 15:1-7 July 15, 2007
Always Seeking. Always.
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer

In the last several years there has been the big hit TV show called “Lost.” It got big ratings – lots of people just had to be home in time to see each week’s new episode. A summary of the show is that Oceanic Flight 815 out of Sydney, Australia is mysteriously brought down out of the sky, crashing on an uncharted island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The survivors quickly learn they must band together in order to have any hope of rescue, because the island is treacherous and holds many secrets. They were lost in the middle of the ocean, and seemingly in the middle of someone’s idea of the twilight zone.
How many of us remember the old show “Lost in Space.” Now, this was a unique show if ever there was one – popular in the mid-sixties. The premise of this show was that the world's first space family was selected to colonize a planet in the Alpha Centauri star system. The family was headed by Professor John Robinson, his wife Maureen, and their children, Judy, Penny and Will. Major Don West was the spaceship's pilot. They would all be frozen in suspended animation for a 98-year journey. They were lost in space.
And we can’t forget “Gilligan’s Island.” I won’t ask for volunteers, but my guess is that there are several people in here who could probably sing the theme song. What was this show about? Nine people who went out on a 3 hour boat tour, and never returned. Every week as a kid, I was sure the lost would be found – but every week, Gilligan would do something stupid to foil a successful rescue.
To be lost means to be “unable to be found temporarily,” “Unable to find the way to a place.” Synonyms for lost are misplaced, missing, gone astray, vanished. Have you ever lost your keys? Your homework? Your teeth? Your shoes? Your dog? Your car in a parking lot? Have you ever been lost? Sometimes it’s funny; sometimes it’s not at all funny. Sometimes married people get close to signing divorce papers before stopping to ask for directions (!) Have you ever lost a child in a store? When we were in Disneyworld just last month, we were waiting in a line inside a building, and we heard a father say in a panicked voice, “I thought he was with you…” And both mother and father ran to get out of that building to look for their child. All the people standing around who had children with them pulled them closer – and I’m sure that more than just a few of us were praying for that family. In about 10 minutes, a relieved father came back in holding his son’s hand, while he was on his cell phone telling his wife, who was still looking, “I have him. I have him.”
To be lost is to be misplaced, out of place, gone astray. It is this last synonym that seems to fit best with the parable Jesus is telling us in Luke 15. Let’s listen to his story: Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, 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 he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Now, let’s make sure we understand why Jesus told this parable. Look at verse 1: “Now, all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him (Jesus). And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow (Jesus) welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So, Jesus is telling this story in response to continual grumbling and complaining by the religious leaders of the day that he was hanging out with sinners. Instead of just saying, as I might be tempted to say, “Oh, put a sock in it,” Jesus leans into the group and tells them a story that will teach an important lesson.
He begins with a pastoral scene that would have been as familiar to the people in Palestine as it is to us here in Path Valley: he talks about a hill full of sheep. In Jesus’ story, the shepherd had 100 sheep, a count in those days that would indicate the shepherd was modestly wealthy. The average flock ranged anywhere from 20 to 200 head. Flocks were an important economic resource, providing wool and mutton. In the story Jesus is telling, during the count as the shepherd gathers the sheep at the end of the day, the shepherd notices that one of the sheep is missing. Jesus’ original hearers of this story probably assumed that the shepherd would ask a neighbor to keep an eye on the 99 so that he can go search for the missing sheep (though the story doesn’t tell us this). The sheep needs to be found, or it may be permanently lost or attacked by hungry predators. It’s risky to be a lost sheep.
The good news is that the shepherd finds the lost sheep, lifts it onto his shoulders, and brings it home.

Ezek 34:11-16, “For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.”

John 10:11-16, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

In order for something to be lost, it has to have been in its right place at some point. It doesn’t make sense to say, “I’ve lost my car key” if you don’t even have a car. It doesn’t make sense to say, “I can’t find Billy,” if you don’t even know someone named Billy.
Every person on this earth from the beginning of time to the end of the age is created and known by God. We were made to be in an intimate relationship with God, that was the right place for us to be. St. Augustine said this, “You have made us for Yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” All people are lost until they allow themselves to be found by God. He is seeking us. He has been seeking us for a very long time.
Remember in the Garden of Eden, way back in the beginning when Adam and Eve turned away from God to do their “own thing,” God came to the Garden and asked, “Where are you?” It wasn’t that he didn’t know where they were, but he came near and called out to them to give them the chance to be found. He is always near. The psalmist writes in Psalm 139, “If we go up to the heavens, he is there; if we sleep in the deep, he is there; if we fly to the sun, he is there.”
He finds us through crumbling dreams. Dreams fall apart in two ways. One is by failing to achieve them – the marriage we wanted, the education we hoped for, the success we pursued, the perfect home. The other is by achieving our dreams but still finding an empty, restless heart inside. The effect on us is the same – it is a feeling of incompleteness – and underlying sense of purposelessness and loss. We feel lost.
God is always seeking the lost. The shepherd, Jesus, takes us onto his powerful shoulders. He fulfills King David’s ancient prayer, “Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them forever.” (Ps. 28:9) The Lord promised through the prophet Isaiah that he will carry us today and carry us through all our earthly years, “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” (Is. 46:4).
Have you allowed yourself to be found? Have you allowed him to lift you high onto his shoulders? 1 Peter 2:24, 25, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
I always anticipated that moment on Gilligan’s Island when the lost would be found. There were times they thought they were rescued from being lost – and they danced around on that beach and shouted with joy! When I find my keys after looking for way too long sometimes, I am so relieved. Like those parents we saw in Disneyworld, if you’ve ever lost a child, even for a minute in a crowd of people, there is no describing the relief and joy when you see that little face appear. I think of that engagement ring we found in that house we were cleaning out in New Orleans. And we think we’re happy when we find something that was lost?
Jesus is telling us in this parable that there is great rejoicing in heaven when a lost sheep is found.
Yes, there was great rejoicing when God said, “let there be light, and there was light.”
Yes, there was great rejoicing when little baby Jesus was born.
Yes, there will be great rejoicing when the Church arrives in heaven, and
Yes, there will be great rejoicing when the Lord completely defeats the enemy at the end of the age.
But let us understand an important part of the message of this parable: Every single time a lost sheep is found – every single time a lost soul finds its rest in Jesus and is placed securely around his neck – every single time Jesus brings a sinner home for dinner – there is GREAT REJOICING in heaven unlike any rejoicing we have ever experienced here on earth.
I love it when the Penn State football team comes out of the tunnel in Beaver Stadium for a big game. I love the band, the shouting, the clapping, the singing, the flags flying – I love that rejoicing. And that is only God’s way of giving us an infinitesimal glimpse of the kind of celebration that broke out in heaven the day you and I, (the day any one of us) come home to Jesus.
Two final questions:
Where are you in relation to the shepherd? He wants you to come to him – to listen to his voice – and rest in his safe embrace. Where are you in relation to the shepherd?
How are we (as a church body) doing at fulfilling Jesus’ call to us to continue his work now that he has gone before us into heaven? How are we doing at seeking the lost?
I pray we are not so set in our ways and comfortable in our own pen that we neglect the cries of the lost. How are we doing at inviting people to come to Bible study, to Sunday school, to worship, to other Christ-centered events with us? How are we doing at showing others what the life of a saved sheep looks like? Do we walk around looking like we can’t find even a blade of grass that looks good enough to eat, or do we live lives that display the peace of one who has been found? How are we (as a church body) doing at fulfilling Jesus’ call to us to continue his work now that he has gone before us into heaven?

I read in World magazine this week about a recent gay pride event in New York City. There were those marching in the parade who were over-the-top in their demonstration of their lifestyle choice, but there were others who simply marched to show where they stood on the issue. Along the route were signs that were lifted high above the crowds so those marching could see. Signs that said, “You’re going to die, pervert.” “You’re going to hell, sodomite.” “You’re an abomination in the sight of God.” Someone said it just showed that Christianity equals hatred. Another person said the people holding the signs seemed joyless. A protestor holding a sign (we’ll call him a Pharisee) said, “Someone’s got to stand for the truth.”
If Jesus was in New York City on the day the parade was taking place for gay pride, where do you think he would be? Would he be holding up a sign like the ones being displayed? Would he be saying, “someone’s got to stand for the truth?” Or, would he be walking alongside the people in the parade – listening to their stories, getting to know them –– so that they might begin to recognize the voice of the Shepherd?
The theme for Bible School this year was Lift Off! Soaring to New Heights With God! In my opinion, there is no greater high in life than to see someone who has been lost, get found. I don’t think there’s anything that can measure up to the joy of seeing someone looking at life from the shoulders of Jesus for the first time. Let’s make sure we do our part to help others soar to new heights with God! Amen.

Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

07-15-2007