Sermon Thoughts 9/12

The liturgy for this week is about the lost sheep. "Who wouldn't go and find a lost sheep and leave the ninety-nine others? I have to think about that for a moment. My first thought is well maybe the ninety-nine are the most important. It's only one little sheep I have ninety-nine more. However, with that attitude then, what if I loose another then another until they are all gone. What happens then? I have no sheep! I know that Jesus is telling us to drop everything to go and find the lost. My goal for this lesson is to uncover why??

From my sermon 9/12:

It was 9/11 yesterday. As many of us ran errands and did chores around the house, many cried their eyes out yesterday because their loved ones were lost on September 11th. When there is a tragedy so significant and horrific, people run to help to try to find that which they hope will not be lost forever. In a burning tower, a flooded house, a muddy slide, a devastated land, people search every ounce of the area to find those who are missing.

Let me ask you this question: Do they stop and say, "Was this person a sinner or a tax collector? If so, I'‘m not going to save them". No of course not! They save anybody they can. Every life is so precious that they will search until they cannot search any more. This searching is exactly what God does for us when we are lost. There is so much great celebration from heaven and all the angels and all people rejoice for one who was lost has now been found.

Jesus rejects the idea that the responsible party for restoration is the "sinner." The stories Jesus tells are clear about this. Why do you think that Jesus tells this parable and uses lost things such as coins or sheep. It is because lost coins and lost sheep cannot restore themselves. Neither do lost people. So to Jesus, we all have the responsibility as the community to help these lost people. They cannot do it on their own. They are lost. The lost themselves cannot find their way home. That’s why we call them lost.

I can tell you all without any hesitation that if one of my children were lost. I would never give up until I found them. God never gives up on us. God never quits searching for those who may be lost.

Everyone is part of God's keeping, and those who have gotten lost in one way or another therefore need special attention from God and from us.