We have all lived
through it. We have struggled and worried and paced throughout the house. Where
did I leave my glasses? Where did I have my purse? I have lost it. I cannot
find it.
In a favorite comic
strip we have on our refrigerator, dad is looking for those lost glasses and he
has several pair pushed back on his head. Mom is looking for that lost purse
and it is there on her arm. The son proclaims, “you could not write stuff this
weird.” Yet, somehow, we live through
it.
We have also lived
through another summer. We have struggled and worried and paced throughout the
house. Where is our rain? Where are our cool days and nights? We have lost our
rain forever. We cannot find a cool place to catch our breath from the heat.
Then, they came. The
rains! They found us mercifully just in time. And the mornings, they are a bit
cooler with the wind seeming to come from the north. This is merciful news. But
we want more. We want to know; now what? The drought is still around us. It is
still 100 degrees some days. Now what?
Our “now what”
question seems to be the lingering truth we struggle with. When times are lean
we ask, now what. When times are fat we ask, now what. I suppose we are seldom
happy.
This morning we heard
the familiar stories of the lost sheep and a lost coin. Their owners knew what
to do about their “now what” question just as surely as we do. When we feel
lost or have lost something of value we do what Jesus said we should do. We “go
after” that which is lost.
It is as if we have a built in universal
response for caring for what we consider to be of value. We desire it, we
cherish it, we take care of it and when it needs us we fix it, or we replace it.
If it is lost, why, we look for it with an energy from deep within, especially
where our faith, our values, our resources, or our loved ones are concerned. We
go after our things.
From Jeremiah we read
God was not happy with the chosen folk. God was not pleased with the
Israelites. They were being foolish again. They were acting like immature
children with no understanding. They were showing the world their skill in
doing evil.
The earth was filled
with waste and void. There was no light in the heavens, the mountains were
quaking, the fruitful land was a desert, and the cities were in ruins. The Lord
had fierce anger in himself and said the earth shall mourn, and the heavens
above will grow dark.
Timothy offers a word
of hope in the midst of this dark. Though we have been blasphemers, persecutors,
and men and women of violence, Jesus, our Jesus, has judged us as being
faithful. He has even appointed us to his service. How can this be? Someone
thinks we are faithful! You could not write something this weird.
In the midst of this
new revelation we hear ourselves asking, “Now what.” But this time we are different. This time we
have a new motivation behind our “now what.” We are judged faithful and we are selected
to Christ’s service and how we respond matters.
Luke’s lost souls,
once they realized what they had found called together friends and neighbors
saying to them, “Rejoice with me.” Rejoice. For I have found my way from being
lost to being found and needed and I say to you, it is time to rejoice.
Yet, even after such a
proclamation and even when we are living a rejoice-filled life, we wake to our
circumstance and ask, “What now.” What do we do when the rejoicing dies down
and we continue to find that more and more days feel like Monday.
I know Monday is just
another day. Yet, it seems it stands for something more sinister. Like having
to work and toil for something or someone so distant from our sense of service
to God!
Jesus responded to
having to go work for any figure of dominance and injustice with his
resurrection. That is what Jesus did next. On his Monday Jesus rose to a new
life, an eternal life. There was joy in the presence of the angels of God in
all of the heavens at the coming of such a new life.
Must we then consider the possibility that we too must have a
death and resurrection of sorts? Be lost first, acknowledging the truthful pain
of being lost. Then release our fears, our trembling, our trepidation to be
found, and finally, blessedly, be risen to a new life. Certainly, that is what
believers do isn’t it? That is what we Christian believers want to do.
We admit our sin
because it is so obvious to us. We acknowledge we are found and saved, for our
forgiveness and our salvation are also obvious. They are in the blessings of
God’s grace felt and seen and known in our lives.
Feeling God’s love and
God’s grace, we too seek after the resurrection in our lives. We too seek after
the resurrection that will create for us a joy with the simplest beauty and
power of the rising of the sun each and every morning.
Especially on Monday
like Mondays. For then we have the chance to declare again and again to God and
the world our faith, our belief, and our intention to live in relationship with
Christ. For then we will freely and longingly look for others who have been
lost like us. Where we will tell them they have been found in the good news of
Jesus Christ.
That is what we
Christians do. We reach out to our fallen sisters and brothers and find them
for Christ. Is that not what Jesus did for us?
At the end of “A Tale
of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens, there is an incredibly moving scene. The
carts are rumbling through the crowded streets of Paris on the way to the
guillotine. In one of the carts are two prisoners: a brave man who had once
lost his soul but found it again and was now giving his life for a friend, and
beside him a girl – little more than a child. She had seen him in prison and
seen the gentleness and courage of his face. “If I may ride with you,” she
asked, thinking of that last frightening journey, “Will you let me hold your
hand? I am not afraid, but I am little and weak, and it will give me more
courage.”
So as they rode
together now, her hand was in his; and even when they had reached the place of
execution, there was no fear at all in her eyes. She looked at the quiet ,
composed face of the man beside her and said, “I think you were sent to me by
Heaven.”
What then do we, here
to flounder along in the cart of life, with no apparent hand to hold, do now.
What do we do with this Jesus who tugs so on us?
You all know David
Johnson from seminary. He suggests we should first consider three questions as
we try and understand what to do next with this Jesus who has found his way
into our lives. David’s advice, as you would expect, is so very practical.
Ask, “What are my
strengths?” “What do I care about?” And, “Who is my God?”
In considering
strengths consider Peter, in the Book of Acts, who met an unnamed and lame
beggar who was asking for money. Peter said to him, “I have no silver or gold,
but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ, walk.”
That is our great
strength. To give what we have. As David says, “If we have the courage to say
‘I give what I have,’ and then really give it, that will be the healing of the
world.”
Often people are
amazed at our generosity. You all have experienced the good it feels to help
another with your time, your money, a warm meal, a hand with a chore, a visit
just at the right time. Sure, these things make a difference, but it is this
giving from the heart that really matters.
We will eventually
have all our stuff given away. It is true, we cannot take it with us. But it is
the giving nature of our hearts that the world will always remember.
What then do you care
about? This is another way of asking, “What are you going to do with your
strengths, your abilities, your passions.” Like the church, we do not exist to
survive. We exist to serve. You, each of you, exist to serve God and to serve
one another.
Your service has “parable”
like power. You take on world hunger when you provide food for one person or
one family who is hungry. You take on the world’s tendency towards discrimination
and hate when you allow one person into your life regardless of color,
religion, sexual orientation, their status in society, or their separation from
society.
We all have these
passions for helping certain kinds of folks and being especially tender hearted
to certain circumstances people find themselves in and we reach out to them.
From our passion God does some of God’s best work.
Finally, what God do
you serve? This may be the hardest question of all. David reminds us, “The God
we serve is not simply the Almighty. The God we serve is the Almighty-who-works
gently; the Almighty-in-hiddenness; the One who triumphs through a cross
instead of an army; the One who cares for the sparrow and the hairs on your
head and the beggar at your gates; the One who overcomes giants with a child’s
sling; the One who celebrates mercy rather than power, and justice rather than
wealth.
We serve the God who
sent disciples out with nothing, to teach them that they lacked nothing; the
God who fed thousands of people with a few morsels of food, to teach us that we
do not live by bread alone.
In serving this God we
might experience delay, but we will never experience defeat. We might be
disappointed, but only when we discover that we have been hoping for the wrong
things. We might be sent to places we did not intend to go, and we might be
doing things we did not think we could do, using that which we did not know we
had.”
This is the God we
serve. This is the one sent to us by Heaven. This is Jesus, our Messiah, the
one the Pharisees and scribes were grumbling about and saying, “This fellow
welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Surely we hope Jesus is talking about us! We
do not have the world market cornered with our sins. But, we do have a burning
desire to be found.
The Methodist pastor
William Willimon has said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. It
does not say that Jesus came to reward all the good church people for sitting
through boring, pointless sermons. It does not say that Jesus came to pay
tribute to all those who have never broken a commandment and feel good about
it.”
No, Jesus came into
our world to save us and his effort was a success. With our repentance and an
“Amen” on our lips we sinners do what God has placed in our hearts to do, we
rejoice. We rejoice and we invite the world to rejoice with us. For someone has
written the weirdest thing, “This fellow welcomes sinners” and there is eternal
joy on earth, and in heaven, and in our heart and very being.
Jesus Christ has
written about our life. We are found. Rejoice. The great joy in heaven has
found its way here. Rejoice.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen. 091513.gpc
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