The Lost Are Found

Download: Audio

Click here to read the sermon.

 

Scripture  Luke 15:1 – 10

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Read more…

Looking to Sunday

by Elaine Poproski

Have you ever valued something so much that you’d move heaven and earth[1] to find it if you lost it?

Many years ago, when my siblings and I were still children/teens, we were camping with our family and my mom lost her engagement ring. The ring was a simple gold band upon which a single small diamond was mounted. Our campsite was in a typical northern Ontario, wooded area of which the ground was mostly dirt, rocks, and various leaves and other forest debris. My mom didn’t know exactly where or when she’d lost the ring.

The entire family joined in the search for that ring. It wasn’t that it was worth a fortune in money, but it represented all the commitments of a shared life between my mom and dad. It symbolized their love for each other. It was priceless – one of the most valuable things she’d ever owned. It didn’t matter that she could replace it with a new ring if she wanted. This ring meant something no replacement could match. I don’t remember how long we looked. I think we’d pretty much given up. When all of a sudden my sister miraculously spotted the diamond in the dirt.

Have you ever valued something so much that you’d move heaven and earth to find it if you lost it?

That’s what this Sunday’s scripture reading is about. It begins with typical Pharisaical grumbling about the kinds of people Jesus was spending time with. In response, Jesus told two parables. He told of a shepherd who left 99 sheep so he could find the one that was lost. And he told of a woman who searched and searched her home to find the one silver coin she’d lost. You can read it for yourself at Luke 15:1 – 10.

These parables aren’t really about lost sheep or coins. They’re about lost people. They’re about the immense value God places on lost people and the extent God is willing to go in order to find lost people. Perhaps, as you prepare for Sunday, consider what it means that you have been found by God. Consider what it means that God loves you so much, that he’ll move heaven and earth to find you.

———————————————-
[1] To move heaven and earth is an English idiom that means to do everything you can or to exert yourself to the utmost.