September 15, 2019

 September 15, 2019        Luke 15:1-10       1 Timothy 1:12-17            Exodus

                When my niece and nephew were about 10 and 11, they came for a visit and I took them grocery shopping with me.  They were running all over the store, looking at the floor, diving under racks near the checkout counters for coins.  It turns out, their dad and step-mom were taking them on a trip to Disneyland later that year and the kids were charged with filling a huge jar with the coins they found.  That would be their spending money on the trip.  I checked with my niece this week to find out what their total was and she said it was around $200. 

                My niece and nephew knew the value of lost coins.  Those who lost them probably never missed them, or maybe they even heard them drop, but didn’t think them valuable enough to lean over to pick up.  They gathered a pretty good sum, and my niece said most of it was pennies.  I think it was smart of my brother in law that he helped his children participate in funding the trip, so they would understand the cost, or the value, so they would have a valuable part to play in the trip.  And it also built up the anticipation for everyone that everyone contributed and was constantly working to make it happen.

                As chaotic and inconvenient it was to have two kids, big enough to know better, running all over the store, they were experiencing joy that baffled everyone else and caused a little bit of grumbling by adults, probably including me. 

                I don’t know about you, but I can get into the grumbling thing.  If someone starts in complaining, I can match that complaint and raise you.  I can go down that road and I do go down that road and I never come back from that feeling like it was worth the trip. 

                The Pharisees can do that in today’s Gospel.  They were the religious leaders.  They knew how things ought to be.  They were the ones who kept the community going, chaired all the committees, showed up for work parties, taught Sunday School, and kept the synagogues humming.  And because they put in all that hard work, they felt they had a right to complain about everyone else.  Grumbling came so naturally they didn’t even hear themselves doing it.  And who were their favorite folks to complain about?  Sinners!  They were self-righteous because of all the good they did, so they complained about everyone and anyone who didn’t meet their moral standards, who didn’t have as nice clothes as they did, who weren’t as wealthy or clean or as perfect as they were, who were sick, because of course they believed that meant they were cursed by God, or in any other way deficient in their eyes.

                Now we all think of ourselves as the “found.”  But a word of warning, so the Pharisees.  They were “in” with God, doing right, serving, knowing the answers.  They were the “found.”  Those other people were the “lost.”  Jesus confronts us again this morning with another offensive Gospel.  He’s saying, his good news is telling us that we can’t be so certain about any of that.  Precisely those who think they’ve got it, don’t.  We who have showed up to repair the church and baked all the cookies, those of us who sign up week after week, read the lessons, do the work, we are not necessarily the found. 

                These Pharisees felt entitled to their positions and placed themselves in the category of God’s favored, because of how good they were.  Sometimes, we too, get wrapped up in how good we are.  We come to church, we volunteer, we visit the sick, we are good Christians.  And you would think with all the blessings and joy of being a child of God, we would bask in that joy, spend our time giving thanks to God. 

The good news for this morning is that We are just as lost as everyone else.  I think we decided at council that it’s probably 99 who are lost and one that is safely in the sheep enclosure.  This is what is called among Lutherans “simultaneously saint and sinner.”  I am a lost sheep, a sinner and at the same time I am redeemed by God’s love, I am found, someone God is rejoicing over and with.  As soon as we think we’re found, we’re lost again.  We’re both.

                I’ve met a few people and I know it can be done, to cultivate an attitude of gratefulness that can help us accept all that God is giving us, not so we can be saved or found or better than anyone else, but so that we can receive and be open to God’s blessings.  So we can experience actual joy.  I know some people who write down 3 things each night that they are grateful for from that day.  I know people who are constantly focused on the things they are grateful for.  It takes effort to change our habits but it isn’t impossible.

                I’m not saying that we should pretend everything is ok and never talk about our problems.  That is different from complaining.  When we share our hurts and are honest and vulnerable about our struggles, that can be a really good thing.  We can connect with others over our pain and that can be very life-giving.  What I’m talking about is a self-righteous superiority that we sometimes feel that causes us to judge others harshly and put ourselves above them. 

                I think one of the pieces of this lost and found joy is our willingness to be vulnerable and say we are lost.  I remember getting lost in the store as a kid and there was no way I was going to go up to an adult and ask them to call my parents over the PA.  How embarrassing!  Here, I picture Jesus with a twinkle in his eye when he asks this question, “Which of you, losing one sheep wouldn’t leave the 99 and go looking for it?”  I can imagine all the people there kind of looking around at each other like, “No I would not.”  It’s not a good trade off—to risk 99 just to find one little sheep.”  And the second part of the premise, then to call together your friends and tell them. Wouldn’t they ask you how you were so negligent to lose the sheep in the first place?  In order to celebrate and come to the joy, we have to admit that we lost something, that we weren’t perfect, that we were frantic and afraid.

                In the second part, “What woman if she loses a coin doesn’t sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?”  Plenty of people don’t as my niece can tell you.  This person would have to admit that she was that desperate.  Then the next part, to call all your friends.  Can you imagine if you called all your friends every time you found a coin. It’s ridiculous!  Finally, she certainly spends more than that coin entertaining her friends, so she loses it again!

                What I love about it is that each situation is a reason for joy and not just joy but sharing that joy.  Each of these found moments are opportunities to build relationships and connect with others, to say “You matter to me.  Share in my joy.  Maybe I seem joyful for a silly reason, but I am joyful and you will be too by the time this party’s over.”

                That’s the thing about joy, there is enough, but even though it’s abundant, it’s still valuable.  And now God is looking for all us lost sinners, all us stuffy, self-important grumbling grouches, all us confused, sick, helpless sheep, and is happy to see us, sees the value in us and comes bounding down the hill to embrace us.  Then God throws this extravagant party, this feast, with music, and joy and building relationship.  It’s pretty crazy.  God seems so silly, but that’s what we mean to God, and that’s what all those other people mean to him that we have decided are the lost.

I have a new favorite place in Tacoma, Blueberry Park. This is a kind of garden of eden, a paradise where over 3000 blueberry bushes were planted many years ago.  Anyone at all can go and pick blueberries free of charge.  It is full of birdsong, because birds of course love blueberries, too.  Humans and animals commune there over delicious treats.  I've picked about 15 cups of blueberries there this year.  I made 2 pies and put them in my morning oatmeal and in pancakes.  I went on Friday, knowing it was probably my last chance to get any.  There were very few berries left.  Some bushes had 1 or 2.  I probably saw almost as many orb spiders on their gorgeous webs than I did blueberries.  The berries that were left were somewhat pathetic. Some were small and withered.  Others were misshapen.  As I wandered among the blueberry bushes, I reflected on today's Gospel reading.  I pictured God wandering the garden, looking for the lost sheep or the last of the blueberries. God is intent on finding every last one and getting into the bucket.  I pictured God dealing with spider webs, getting snagged by blackberry brambles.  It is kind of undignified, to be searching for the last withered blueberry, the lost sheep, the little coin.  God is unimaginable love and power and yet wades through the wet grass, on a quiet morning, among the spiders and birds, accounting for each and every one, because each one has value and is important.

Sometimes we think we got in the bucket ourselves.  Or we think God plucked us from the tree because we were so good, so helpful, so kind, so strong.  We feel we deserve to be in God's bucket.  When we find ourselves in the bucket with all these shriveled, misshapen berries, sometimes we resent that.  We ask ourselves why we worked so hard, and all these other berries got in here, anyway, even though they didn't.  We might feel we wasted our effort.  We might resent God's generosity, God's grace, God's thoroughness.  We might feel we are abandoned while God goes out and searches for all those others.  We might feel left behind.  But the truth is, we are actually that shriveled berry, the one at the end of the season that's been waiting all this time.  We're listening to the footsteps in the garden and hoping to be found.  And this morning, the last good blueberry picking day, God comes to us and says, "You are mine.  Come and join my community. I love you."  And here we are.  And we're messy and we're among other messy berries.  None of us deserve to be found, but God values us and spends the time to find us and keep finding us and all the other lost that are yearning to be found.

I asked my niece this week how long they gathered the coins and she said even after their trip was over, the continued to collect coins because they were in the habit.  They were seeing the value all around them and gathering it together to benefit their family for several years! Let’s look around with new eyes at the value of all the gifts God has given us, all over the place, and let’s let ourselves feel joy and delight in communion with God.