LOST AND FOUND

WELCOME

Creator God, We give thanks for the life of Her Most Gracious Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. We honour her life of service built on a firm foundation of faith and an exemplary commitment to duty. Comfort those who mourn and bring peace to those in distress. We offer our prayer in the name of Jesus Christ our Saviour.

“I cannot lead you into battle, I do not give laws or administer justice but I can do something else, I can give you my heart and my devotion”

This quote from the Queen’s 1957 Christmas broadcast, it speaks of a life lived well before God.

Holy God, We give thanks for the life of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,  She for many of us has been the only monarch we have ever known.

and although we may never have met her she has been a constant in our lives.

We give thanks for her many years of service, and for her great faith in you our Lord,

her faith in you that guided her throughout her years

We ask you to bless and keep all who will miss Queen Elizabeth.

We pray especially for the Royal Family,

And the times that lay ahead, we pray for king Charles, as he prepares to take on the role

as king of this nation.give him strength to rule with the same grace as his mother.

We bring all this to you,  while giving thanks for the life of Queen Elizabeth,  and while celebrating your sovereignty over our hearts.

Amen

CALL TO WORSHIP

God, we your people love you. We’ve come today to praise you, to listen to your word and to learn from you. We are different from each other: young and old, quiet and loud, serious or frivolous, tired or lively. Help us all to worship you with one heart and mind. Amen.

Hymn 55: Immortal invisible, god only wise

PRAYERS

Lord, who calls the lost to be found, who seeks to know us and be known, we worship you. We praise you for your constancy, your faithfulness, your unending love, and your undiminished passion for the well being of your people. Amen.

CONFESSION

O God, when we have closed doors where we should have opened them, forgive us. When we have stayed in the box where we were called to break out, forgive us. When we have bubbled ourselves so thoroughly that we cannot even perceive what is outside our experience, forgive us. When we have been gatekeepers instead of welcomers, forgive us. May we ditch judgementalism, throw away condemnation. and learn how to celebrate the loving invitation of your kingdom. Amen.

FORGIVENESS

Ever-loving God, you call us all into your family of grace. Where we have been lost, you seek us. You retrieve us, you untangle us from the thorns that snare us. Your hands are kind; you restore us with joy. Thank you for not only accepting us but celebrating us, delighting in us as we discover what it means to belong to you. Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Hymn 362: Meekness and majesty

READINGS

1 Timothy 1: 12-17

1 Timothy 1:12–17 ESV

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Luke 15: 1-10

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 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.

The Parable of the Lost Coin

8 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins,[a] if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? 9 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Hymn 443: Come, let us sing of a wonderful love

SERMON

As Jesus continues his journey toward Jerusalem, followed by crowds that include people of every description, his teaching is becoming more and more intense. Last week, you may have heard about him insisting that no one could follow him unless they surrender everything for the sake of being a disciple of Jesus.

Scribes and Pharisees had challenged Jesus, but they were still part of the crowd. At first, they may have come out of curiosity. Later, Now they were following Jesus with the intention of catching him in some heresy. Whatever their reason for being there, people came and listened. As they listened, they asked questions about the things Jesus said that didn’t make sense to them. And there were plenty of questions!

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.”

In our text this morning, we come to two parables of Jesus, all about lost and found.

It’s a common practice for schools to ask parents to check the Lost and Found collection during Parent/Teacher evenings.

One year, to get people’s attention to the Lost and Found area items were put on display, a teacher posted a sign at a school’s entrance that caught everyone’s attention. A simple stick figure had been made from scraps of wood.

The stick man was propped in a pair of snow boots that had been stuffed with Lost and Found socks. It wore a pair of Lost and Found training shorts, a Lost and Found jacket, a hat and scarf and gloves – all created from the Lost and Found. Hanging from one “arm” was a lunch box. The other carried a backpack. A sign was pinned to the front of the scarecrow that read “Are you missing something? Do I belong to you?”

I remember hearing someone say, “I feel like there are parts of myself that have been lost along the way, and I don’t know if I can go back and find them again.” It was some time ago when I heard it and I suppose it never left me.

I knew exactly what he was talking about. I thought about parts of my life that had been lost along the way, recent losses and long-ago losses that had never been forgotten.

I suspect you know what that’s like too. You can probably name parts of yourself that have been lost along the way. Some of those lost parts are recent wounds, others are scarred memories. And always the questions are, can we find the lost parts of ourselves? Can we become whole again?

I wonder if that’s what the shepherd and woman in today’s gospel are asking themselves. I wonder if they feel as if they have lost a part of their life – a sheep, a coin. It’s not just a sheep, any sheep, but this sheep, a particular sheep. And it’s not just a coin, any coin, but this coin, a particular coin. It’s not just a part of our life, any part, but this part, a particular part. Without it we are less than whole, and we want ourselves back.

If you know what it’s like to have lost a part of yourself then you know what it’s like to be the shepherd and woman in today’s gospel That’s not the usual way this gospel is interpreted.

The usual way people interpret this reading goes something like this. The lost sheep and lost coin are often taken to be sinners, who have gone astray, done wrong, gotten lost. And the shepherd and woman are often seen as images of a searching God.

But does that really fit the story. The woman says, “I have found the coin that I had lost.” The shepherd says, “I have found my sheep that was lost.” The woman lost her coin. The shepherd lost his sheep. It’s more about the shepherd and woman than the sheep and coin. Besides, it’s hard to attribute free will, or a choice to a sheep or coin.

The lost sheep and coin already belonged to the shepherd and woman. The shepherd had one hundred sheep to begin with and the women had ten coins to begin with. The shepherd lost a part of himself. The women lost a part of herself. They were whole and complete until something of their life was lost.

So, I want to take a different approach to today’s gospel from the usual interpretation.

What if we are the shepherd and the woman? And what if the sheep and coins are parts of our life, parts of ourselves? Maybe today’s gospel is not about categorising ourselves or others as sinners or righteous as the Pharisees and scribes are doing. Maybe this gospel is really about wholeness and losing of parts of us, and not who is good or bad.

Luke says that Jesus “told them this parable.” Told who? Who is “them?”

Is Jesus telling these parables to the tax collectors and sinners who were coming near to listen to him, or is he telling them to the Pharisees and scribes who were grumbling about him welcoming sinners and eating with them?

The answer is YES.

It is for them, all of them. And it is for us. The difference between the tax collectors and sinners, and the Pharisees and scribes is not that one group is lost and the other is not lost, one group is sinful and the other righteous.

The difference is that one group is lost, and they know it, and the other group is lost but they don’t know it.

To be lost is something we’ve all experienced. Sometimes we know we are lost and other times we don’t.

What parts of yourself have you lost today?

What parts of your life are you searching for today?

What do you need to have more wholeness?

Have you ever said that you need to get your life turned around? Have you ever felt like something was missing? Maybe you knew what it was or maybe you didn’t.

You just had a restless longing, a sense that there was something missing, something more to your life.

Maybe you knew something was missing in your life, your integrity, your work, and you wanted to turn things around.

When have you walked away from a relationship or a part of your life because it was too hard or too scary? Have you ever looked in the mirror and wondered where the joy, enthusiasm, vitality of your life went?

Sometimes we lose parts of ourselves to grief and sorrow, when life becomes overwhelming and confusing, to the pain and wounds of life, to circumstances that are nobody’s fault, and sometimes to the choices we’ve made.

Sometimes we lose ourselves to fear, anger, jealously, wanting to be right more than doing right, judgements we make of others, refusing to forgive. Sometimes we lose ourselves to success, gaining approval, meeting the expectations of others. Sometimes the lost part of ourselves, is faith, hope, a dream.

It is so easy to lose a piece of ourselves and it can happen in a thousand different ways.

Are you settling for less than what you really want out of life and your relationships? Are you living less than a whole and complete life? The poet Mary Oliver asks it like this. “Are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?”

Let’s not do that. Let’s not settle. Today’s gospel is an invitation to wholeness or what we sometimes call salvation. It’s not about being 90% or even 99% alive or whole. We are to look at the entirety of our life. Every sheep matters. Every coin matters. This is about wholeness and abundance, not as a quantity but as a quality of life.

The gospel of Jesus is not about making bad people good. It’s about bringing people back to life. It’s a path that allows us to find ourselves.

It’s a call to wholeness. Jesus is always calling us back to ourselves, back to wholeness. Our life’s journey is a journey toward wholeness. And it is a lifelong search to integrate and live a whole life. So, I ask where are you on this journey?

We know these stories are known as the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin.

But that’s not completely accurate.

They could also be called the Parable of the Found Sheep and the Parable of the Found Coin.

That’s how both stories end. The shepherd is once again whole. The woman is once again whole. And there is rejoicing. They are not just stories of losing but also of finding. It’s both.

Jesus said the shepherd goes after the lost sheep “until he finds it,” and the woman “searches carefully” for the coin “until she finds it.” Until he finds it, until she finds it. There is a promise and a call in that for us too. The promise is that there will be a finding for us too and the call is to search until we find.

Sometimes it’s a call to light a lamp, sweep our house, and search carefully in the very place in which we live and have our relationships, the place that is most known and familiar. And other times the call to wholeness takes us into the wilderness, into the wild and untamed parts of our life.

That kind of searching, searching until we find, is not a searching outside of ourselves but a searching within ourselves. It means searching until we value ourselves beyond what we have done and what we have left undone, beyond what we have or don’t have, beyond our successes and failures, beyond what is or might have been.

Maybe you have lost the habit of reading God’s Word daily, or the practice of regular prayer. Maybe you have even lost faith in God, wondering how God could allow evil in the world. Perhaps you’ve lost purpose, or joy, or the assurance that you belong to a loving God who cares for you. Whatever you’ve lost, Jesus tells these stories to you, just as he told them to his disciples and the crowds around him as he travelled to Jerusalem.

in our reading from Timothy Paul gives this dire description of himself, but I am sure until he met the risen Christ, his description of himself would have been as a fine upstanding Jewish man following what he believed to be true about himself but the revelation given to him by Jesus revealed how incomplete his life really was. this experience changed the direction of his life, he became whole.

Here’s the thing: We belong to God. When we stray, lose our way, or even run away from God, he will persistently look for us, and he is always ready to welcome us back home with joy, because he loves us. God wants us to be in loving relationship with him, because that is how he created us. We are his; we belong to God. The question each of us must answer is simply this: do we want to be lost, or do we want to be found? We can choose to stay lost and suffer the Loss of God’s love for us. But Jesus came to restore us to God, to bring us home to the one who loves us more than we can possibly imagine.

Hymn 479: The King of love my shepherd is

Offering

PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION

God of the wayward and the weary, we praise you. We thank you for caring about each one of us – that we have worth, that we are valued. We praise you for your persistent love. May we, too, love persistently and offer the welcome that you give, modelling our lives on the greatest rescuer of all. Amen.

The cares of the world can draw us away from you, Lord. Like a coin falling into the shadows, sudden misfortune enters our lives and we are lost, rolling away from all that held us safe. We pray for all those affected by serious illness, breakdown of relationships or loss of employment.

The temptations of the world can lead us astray, Lord. Like sheep sighting a patch of greener grass, we go after what is new and more exciting. We pray for all who are tempted away from what is right, meaningful and good.

Where darkness has descended, Lord, when more attractive propositions beckon, we pray that people won’t forget you – because you won’t forget them. And as you love and care for us, so may we look out for one another – to seek and to bring safely home. Amen.

Hymn 83: Praise my soul the king of heaven

BLESSING

God of the lost, open our eyes to see the world as you do. Forgive us when we fail to see the lost. Help us to look for those who need your love, and give us the courage not only to offer them signs of your love but, by our actions and words, to share your love with them. Amen.