Lectionary Readings: Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Psalm 14; Luke 15:1-10; and I Timothy 1:12-17 (All scripture quotations are from The Message).
The lectionary readings this week offer a vision of life for the “lost” and of life or the “found.” The tone goes from grim darkness to celebratory light.
Jeremiah tells us of “foolish people who don’t know God, stupid children who have no understanding but are skilled in doing evil, not knowing how to do good.”
The Psalmist speaks of those who say, “God is gone.”
“God sticks his head out of heaven,
He looks around.
He’s looking for someone not stupid –
He comes up empty. A string of zeros. Useless, unshepherded
Sheep, taking turns pretending to be Shepherd.
The ninety and nine follow their fellow.
Don’t they know anything, all these impostors?
Don’t they know they can’t get away with this-
Treating people like a fast-food meal
over which they’re too busy to pray?
Night is coming for them, and nightmares,
for God takes the side of victims.
Do you think you can mess with the dreams of the poor?
You can’t, for God makes their dreams come true.”
Luke’s passage offers the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. When the “lost” are found, the “finders” invite their neighbors to join in a joyous celebration. Jesus tells us of the great joy in heaven “over one rescued life…the kind of party God’s angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God.”
The reading from I Timothy gives us a glimpse of Paul’s “dark side.” In this letter he states, “I’m so grateful to Christ Jesus for making me adequate to do this work. He went out on a limb, you know, in trusting me with this ministry. The only credentials I brought to it were invective and witch hunts and arrogance. But I was treated mercifully because I didn’t know what I was doing – didn’t know Who I was doing it against! Grace mixed with faith and love poured over me and into me. And all because of Jesus. Here’s a word you can take to heart and depend on: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.”
All these passages offer insights into the incredible importance of relationship with God, made possible through faith in Jesus Christ. When we turn away from Him, we make the world our friend, our confidante, our conscience. We work hard to fit in, to measure up, to be right, to achieve success and power. And too often all that working, measuring, being, achieving, is done at the expense of someone else – our spouse, our children, our friends, our community – and our eyes are blinded, our ears deafened, our hearts numbed, to the needs of those around us.
It’s extraordinary to know that Jesus looks for us, even when we don’t have a clue we’re lost! And when He finds us, we realize our lives have only been lived in black and white and shades of gray. He gives us Himself – not soft pastel colors, all warm and fuzzy, but vibrantly alive, with sharp-edged honesty, in magnificent color.
How could we have been so blind to the beauty/desolation all around us? How could we have been so deaf to the music/misery of the masses? How could we have been so numb to the abundance/poverty which continues to thrive in this land?
Shane Claiborne writes in The Irresistible Revolution, “Christianity can be built around isolating ourselves from evildoers and sinners, creating a community of religious piety and moral purity. That’s the Christianity I grew up with. Christianity can also be built around joining with the broken sinners and evildoers of our world crying out to God, groaning for grace. That’s the Christianity I’ve fallen in love with…Community [relationship] is what we are created for. We are made in the image of a God who is community, a plurality of oneness…The biblical story is the story of community, from beginning to end. Jesus lived and modeled community with his little band of disciples…and the early church is the story of a people who were together and were of one heart and mind, sharing all in common…But that doesn’t mean community is easy. For everything in this world tries to pull us away from community, pushes us to choose ourselves over others, to choose independence over interdependence, to choose great things over small things, to choose going fast alone over going far together. The simple way is not the easy way. No one ever promised us that community or Christian discipleship would be easy…My life was pretty easy before I met Jesus…This love is not sentimental but heart-wrenching, the most difficult and the most beautiful thing in the world.”
Jesus gives us the opportunity of walking with Him throughout life – He offers us relationship with the Divine. All we need to do is allow ourselves to be found - He promises to do the rest.
Loving God,
Give us the courage to be “found.” Open us to receive the love of Christ. Allow us to experience His heart – the joys and the sorrows. May our relationship with You empower us to live in community. To love fearlessly, to follow faithfully, to serve humbly, as we share the hope and Gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen
Thanks to Jeff Taylor for our Holy Spirit Prayer.
Give us the breath to sing your praises and the faith to soar with you.
Give us power to discern what you call us to be and to do.
Come Holy Spirit, come! Amen.
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