Luke 15
In Luke the story of the lost sheep is just the first of
three stories in a row about something or someone who’s lost. These three
stories are a response to grumbling at Jesus about who Jesus eats with…
sinners, tax collectors… distasteful people of both the low and high class. And
in response, Jesus tells stories about one sheep in a flock of 100 who goes
missing. A wise shepherd, of course, goes and finds that sheep and celebrates
the find (sheep are valuable)… The second story is about a woman who loses one
of her ten precious coins. She sweeps every nook and cranny until she finds it
and celebrates (coins are valuable). The third story is about a son who leaves
home with his inheritance, spends it all, experiences famine and when all is
lost, when he finally comes to himself and decides to return home, his father
runs to him in celebration (children are valuable).
Lost stories
Some pastors gathered around a table Wednesday morning… to talk
about lost things.
A lost sheep, a lost coin… a lost boy from Minnesota whose
bones were finally found, after his disappearance and tragic death 27 years
ago.
And at our table, there was deep grief for everything and
everyone… lost.
We all have our “lost” stories.
On this fifteenth anniversary of September 11th,
2001, we remember … some of us were there in New York, many others can remember
where they were in the moments they heard the news and how it impacted them
that day and in the days and weeks and months that followed. It’s a “lost”
story—loss of lives, loss of a certain sense of security and invulnerability…
When we try to hold all those lost stories by ourselves,
they become overwhelmingly heavy. But at that table of conversation and grief,
here are some of the ways forward that we imagined together:
Yes, we all have “lost” stories, but we also have “found”
stories… some we might even remember that were connected to that day, Sep. 11th,
neighbors who looked out for each other in new ways, an outpouring of support
for firefighters and others who rush in to find when others are rushing out,
people gathering together throughout this country and throughout the world for
vigils out of their grief and love. There were some ways that we found one
another again in the days after feeling so lost…
Found stories
What are your “found” stories? When have you known that
someone, that God, sees you, knows you deeply, loves you even more deeply?
On Friday, I found myself at Luther Seminary to meet some of
the 95 new students entering the Christian Public Leader program… at least one
of whom plans to join us this year at Christ. I had no sooner announced that we
still had openings for a seminarian when Rev. Bitrus Bamai, from Nigeria, said,
“I will be your student. I will come to Christ.” As we chatted, we found we had
children of similar ages… but Bitrus was also drawn to this context because he
has never worked under a woman. So, immediately, we found both places of
connection and places where we will have work to do as we learn one another’s
cultures.
It is such an honor and privilege for us to have
international seminary students each year at Christ. It gives us the
opportunity to stretch and grow. It helps us to ask the question, “What are our
patterns of sameness and what could we do differently?” Although we are a
multicultural congregation already, these relationships can help us to grow
from a place of de-emphasizing difference (a belief that we are really all the
same essentially) to more deeply comprehending the beautiful diversity that God
created and loves and somehow, miraculously brings together here… and as we do
that, as we comprehend how different we really are, we start to really see and
know each other, and potentially find that we are deeply known. This takes
work, but it is good work, it is life-giving work, it is visionary “tree of
life” work.
Where do you feel lost?
What are some of your own stories of being found?
This week, think about these stories… are there certain
stories that you come back to again and again? I know there are for me… And
what would it mean for us to release into God’s care some of those lost stories
and shape our storytelling, shape our lives around the ways that we’ve been
found?
Would re-telling our stories, and especially the stories of
how God finds us, help us to have more energy to reach out, build community,
act as the body of Christ?
I’ll never forget one of the storytelling events that Humble
Walk hosted a few years back. My friend Nate Houge shared a story about the
grief-filled process of giving up on a dream. He wanted to be a full-time
professional musician, and he described in detail his last tour… a tour where
few fans showed, and finally he decided to give it all up. He ended the story
saying something like this, “So now, I’m baking bread... and on Wednesdays,
that’s where I can be found.” The way he said that, “that’s where I can be
found…” hit me very deeply, it was very deeply true, full of possibility, the
Holy Spirit was there… after this vulnerable story of feeling like a failure,
this ending had this little spark of life. It was hopeful.
Some of you know the rest of the story since then… Nate and
Micah not only continued but expanded their bread-baking. They have their own
bakery, and on Wednesdays, we have bread deliveries here from Brake Bread.
We don’t want to lose anyone or anything we care about… we
don’t want to fail, we feel crushed, we can’t see the way forward, we get lost…
But Jesus challenges us and stretches us in this story
because too often, our imagination is not as big as God’s imagination.
God is not only the Good Shepherd, but is Our Lady of the
Broom. God is that Father that runs out to meet and welcome home the child that
was lost. And we sometimes grumble about that because it’s hard to believe that
God is that deeply compassionate… we would sometimes rather have God just be
fair, particularly in the face of evil, we don’t know what to do.
We weep. We become angry. We resist. We despair.
But God invites us to another set of practices, another way
of life so that we may know that we are truly known, that we are beloved, that
we are free, that we are found… this is what God does and invites us to join
in:
We hope. We forgive. We gather together. We receive communion. We sing. We pray. We serve. We advocate. We act. We seek. We find. We draw in. We belong. We look for the reign of God breaking in. We practice.
We hope. We forgive. We gather together. We receive communion. We sing. We pray. We serve. We advocate. We act. We seek. We find. We draw in. We belong. We look for the reign of God breaking in. We practice.
I’ll end with this blessing from Jan Richardson – Beloved is
Where We Begin[1]
[1]
“Beloved is Where We Begin,” found in Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the
Seasons by Jan Richardson
