“I once was lost but now am found; was blind, but now I see.” These are words that any of us can sing by heart. Words that powerful could only have come from a person with a profound sense of lostness, an overwhelming awareness of God’s grace and forgiveness. And it’s true – because the author of those famous words of Amazing Grace was an 18th century clergyman named John Newton with a very dark past. He had been captain of a slave ship. Yet one night, in the midst of a terrible storm at sea, in fear for his life, he cried out the most basic prayer of all: “Lord, have mercy.” He became aware of the amazing grace of God, who found him when he was lost, renounced the slave trade, became an abolitionist and an Anglican priest and one of the most popular preachers in England – and wrote a number of hymns, including Amazing Grace, the hymn that brings tears to our eyes, because it speaks to us of a love that will find us no matter how lost we are.
Lostness is an experience we have all had to one degree or another. Some of us have experienced only the smallest moment of looking around and not seeing our mother as a toddler, some have “hit bottom”, knowing they’ve gone as low as they can go. Some have experienced desolation of lost love relationship or grief of a loved one’s death; some have experienced emptiness of realizing that all the time and effort we have poured into a lifetime of work doesn’t fill an empty heart.
It’s a sense of isolation that I think is one of the core experiences of human life, and it’s to this basic experience of lostness that Jesus speaks in our gospel today. Confronted with a group of upstanding church people who believe that anyone who they consider “lost” doesn’t have any right to be found, instead of arguing with them, Jesus tells them a story.
Now remember, when Jesus tells us a parable, he intends for us to be surprised, and we can uncover several surprises in this gospel. First: here is Jesus, speaking to a group of well-behaved, sincerely religious people and saying to them that they’re welcome, but they’re not the guests of honor at his party. The guests of honor, the ones he’s throwing the party for, are those sinners and tax collectors they’d rather not have around. He’s saying, the church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners.
I have heard people say, I don’t think I can come to church, because all those people have it all together and I don’t. And Jesus says, that’s why the church is here. If you think you have it all together, if you think you know what God is up to, if you think you are doing just fine, Jesus says, think a little bit harder. Because the closer you come to what God is up to, the further out of your comfort zones you will find yourself going. You might even find yourself out there with God, searching and sweeping to find others who are lost, and throwing parties when they are found – so watch out.
The second surprise is this: the God of the universe, the being of unlimited power and unsearchable might, is not a God who chooses to exercise power at all. God cares about people’s behavior, but when they are sinners, instead of zapping them with lightning bolts or calling down the wrath of heaven, God goes out searching, with lamps and brooms, calling out their name, and trying to win them with love, not force.
This comes as a huge shock to people in the ancient world, who believe that a God who is worth anything is a God who can force people to do his will. And maybe it comes as a shock to us as well, because no matter how often we’re told that God is a God of love, not of overwhelming force – it’s hard for us to believe. But this gospel says clearly that this is a God who yearns for us, and who will keep on calling and keep on searching – a God who will not violate our free will to behave as badly as we want, but who will also never stop loving us.
Here’s the third surprise: "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?” Let’s ask ourselves – which one of us WOULD do that? How does this make any sense? To leave 99 sheep to wander off and get lost or eaten by wolves, just to save one? Only a crazy person who hasn’t thought it through would leave 99 to save one. The second parable seems to make more sense – if you have only 10 coins and you lose one somewhere in the house, of course you would light a lamp and get out a broom and sweep till you found it. But then what would you do? Would you throw a party for all the neighbors? Spend more than the coin you found to buy food and drink for all to celebrate? Once again, Jesus isn’t making any sense.
The only way any of this makes any sense is if these are not stories about sheep and coins at all. It only makes sense if we are not numbers to God, something to be counted, but rather beloved children. So think of it like this: Which of you, losing track of a beloved child, would not sweep and search without ever tiring, for the rest of your life if necessary, until that child is found? And then it makes sense. it doesn’t make sense to risk 99 sheep to save one, and it doesn’t make sense to spend two coins to celebrate finding one. But if you have a child, and you love that child more than your own life, you are not going to stop searching till you find him. That’s the only way these stories make sense – they make sense if God is crazy in love with us, if God refuses to stop searching till every one of us is home safe, and when we’re home, safe and sound, God throws a party to celebrate. ‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.
No matter how far we are separated from God, God keeps on searching. Maybe it’s just me – but it seems that this year the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks 9 years ago yesterday has been particularly contentious and difficult. It doesn’t help that a fringe pastor of a tiny church in Florida threatened to mark the anniversary by burning copies of the Koran, an act which is not just disrespectful, but truly contrary to common sense, putting countless American and other lives at risk. And it brings up a question for me: what illuminates the Bible for us? What helps us shed light on God’s word and God’s truth spoken to Christians? Burning Korans doesn’t illuminate the Bible, what illuminates the Bible for me is the way it is lived out in real life. And as I think back to that day of desolation, I remember a couple of iconic photos from that day. One you may remember seeing – a photo of a quiet church graveyard, white with ash and blowing paper – the graveyard of St. Paul’s Chapel, Episcopal chapel of Trinity Wall Street. In the months after the attacks, that little chapel became the headquarters of a troop of 60 chaplains of all faiths – Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus – who ministered to the recovery workers at Ground Zero – provided them food, kept the chapel open 24 hours a day – there are photos of firefighters in full gear taking a break to sleep in St. Paul’s Chapel. About 60 % of those chaplains were Episcopalians, since it was St. Paul’s. Those who participated in that ministry, who provided comfort, nourishment and simple presence and care to exhausted workers, speak of it as a life-transforming experience – God’s presence in the midst of lostness, God’s care in the midst of devastation. God comes to us in the most extreme places of our lives, and brings comfort.
One more iconic photo I remember – a blurry photo in a stairwell – office workers running down, firefighters running up – some of the true heroes of that day. I won’t speak any more about that photo, because we will all be in tears if I do, but it helps illuminate God’s word for me. Running into a burning building – was that not exactly what Jesus Christ did when he came to earth to find us when we were lost? Putting himself in harm’s way for the sake of the people he loved enough to die for?
When God looked at humankind, lost in emptiness, loneliness, war and destruction; when God looked at all the inventive ways human beings had devised to hurt and kill each other; when God saw that we were lost so far that we would never find our way back to him on our own – God’s son came into this hurting world to find us.
Our God is the one who runs into a burning building instead of running out. Our God is the one who loves us so much he would never stop searching. Our God is the one who would give everything, up to and including his own life, to make sure that no one is ever lost again.
Our God is the true author of Amazing Grace – the one who comes to us and finds us when we are lost. And our God is the one who sends us out to search in turn – for the lost, the lonely, those in despair, those separated from God’s love because they have never heard of it. Our God is the one who searches for each beloved child until he finds us, brings us home and tells us to invite all our friends, because God is planning to rejoice and throw a party – 99 sheep all celebrating the return of one more – which is what we come together to do here every week.
Rejoice, for God has brought us home to his banquet. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.
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