A Church of Seekers, by Rev Steven R Mitchell based on Luke 15:1-10

A Church of Seekers

By Rev Steven R Mitchell

Mountain View United Church, Aurora, CO 9/15/2013

Based on Luke 15:1-10

 

        It just seems appropriate to start this mornings reflection off with a hit song from 1970, song by BJ Thomas:

Rain drops keep fallin’ on my head, and just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed, Nothin’ seems to fit.  Those rain drops are fallin’ on my head, they keep fallin’.

Since Wednesday we have seen more rain than we do for a whole year.  Aurora received 12” of rain on Thursday and it seems to just keep coming.  Saturday afternoon in less than an hour we received 3.6” along with hail.  We have experienced city wide flooding during these rains.  Whole communities such as Estes Park, Allens Park, and Lyons have been cut off from the rest of the state due to flooding.  Over 60 miles of Interstate 25 from Longmont to the Wyoming boarder has been closed down because of massive flooding.  According to the news reports we are experiencing a 500 year cycle regarding to flooding. 

        On yesterday’s news station, I heard a report from a representative for the Colorado National Guard saying over 1,700 people have been rescued over the past few days from remote towns.  They are saying that this has been the largest rescue of people since the 2004 hurricane Katrina.  Rescued by high axle vehicles, boats, and helicopters; the same helicopters that were used this summer to drop fire retardants on the forest fires that occurred because of overly dry weather conditions.  On Thursday morning’s news you could watch the heroic rescue of three people from their vehicles that had fallen into a watery ravine after the road had collapsed from nearly 7” of rain around the Broomfield area.

        In short this week’s stories of search and rescue could be used by Jesus as he was giving examples of the 99 and 1, or the woman and her lost coin to the Pharisees.    Often in the reading of these two parables we focus on the objects that have been found, such as the one lost sheep or the one coin.  How many of you when you go to pull change out of your purse or pocket and hear a penny drop from your hand full of loose change will stop what you are doing and start to look for that penny?  Okay, so those of you who would go looking for it, you don’t count because you are what we call the “Depression Babies” and you look at life differently than the rest of us.  But the idea that I’m trying to get us to think about is, why would we be prompted to go looking for that one penny when we might have two or three dollars worth of coins in our hand and we only need sixty cents to pay for what we are trying to purchase?   Or why would we as a sheep herder be interested in leaving a flock of ninety-nine sheep unattended to go and look for that one sheep that has wondered off.  Let’s put a price of $100 per sheep, so you have an investment of $9,900 worth of sheep and $100 off wondering around in the wilderness.  Why would you put the $9,900 at risk for a $100? 

        I am sure that the one sheep that had wondered off was very happy to be found, but these two stories are not about what is lost, but about who was doing the looking.  Scripture states, “When he has found the one sheep, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.”  And then invites his friends to rejoice with him!  Likewise, the woman who had lost the one coin says, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.”  These parables are talking about the character of the seeker, and more personally, it is speaking to the church.  This text isn’t about putting ourselves in the place of the lost coin or the sheep but in the role of the one who seeks!

        Who was at this little gathering in this morning’s text?  “Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus.  And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them.”  It’s easy to guess that we at Mountain View would fill the role of the Pharisees and scribes in this story, but who would we envision as the “tax-collectors and the sinners?”  That one is a little more difficult to define.  In other words, who in our society, who in our acquaintance would be lost coins or the lost sheep?  After we have figured that out, then we need to ask, “How do we go about finding them” or are they already present and we just aren’t seeing them?

        The lost sheep might be the person who struggles with chronic depression.  We are most like the Pharisees when we make comments like, “If that person would just get out and do something, they would work themselves out of being depressed.”  The lost sheep might be the student who finds it difficult to focus while in school.  The Pharisee in us grumbles, “That kid just needs a good swat on his behind that will teach him to pay attention while in class.”  Yet maybe that child hasn’t eaten in almost a week and because of hunger can’t concentrate, or maybe the family is so dysfunctional that the child has only been taught to deal with life through disobedient behavior.  Maybe the lost coin is the person standing on the street corner with a can in their hand and a sign saying, “help me?”   What does the Pharisee in you say at that instance? 

        In other words the tax-collector and the sinner today is anyone who is disenfranchised or feel under-valued.  This could describe almost all of us in one fashion or another.  Henri Nouwen once said, “We are not loved because we are precious, but we are precious because we are loved.”  Many people who find themselves in prison, when they see people coming into the prisons and spending time with them, sharing the stories about God’s love for them, find themselves understanding for the first time that they are precious.  There is a song that so eloquently expresses what happens when we do not feel valued in the lyrics “Some Peoples Lives”:

 

Some people's lives run down like clocks.  One day they stop, and that's all they've got.  Some lives wear out like old tennis shoes, no one can use. Well, It's sad but it's true.

Didn't anybody tell them?  Didn't anybody see?  Didn't anybody love them like you love me?

Some people's lives fade like their dreams, too tired to rise, too tired to sleep.  Some people laugh when they need to cry, and they never know why.

Didn't anybody tell them that's not how it used to be?  Didn't anybody love them like you love me?

Some people ask if the tears have to fall.  Then why take your chances? Why bother at all?  And some people's lives are as cold as their lips.  They just need to be kissed.

Doesn't anybody tell them?  Doesn't anybody see?  Doesn't anybody love them like you love me?
'Cause that's all they need.

 

        I titled this morning’s reflection, “A church of Seekers”, not because I think we should be here seeking God’s truth as much as I think this morning’s text is telling us why we need to be the “Seekers”, the shepherd who goes out and searches for that one lost sheep, or the woman who sweeps and sweeps until she finds that one lost coin.  It is crystal clear that this parable that Jesus is teaching is telling us that it’s not in our repentance that we have been found; after all there was no repenting done by the lost sheep or the lost coin.  Rather, we should be rejoicing as we go out and find that person who is feeling lost, isolated, unimportant, because in God’s eyes, every one of us is so important that God seeks each of us out. 

        Let us not be asking the question, “Didn't anybody tell them?  Didn't anybody see?  Didn't anybody love them like you love me?”  But rather let us seek deliberately, like the Colorado National Guard has been doing over these past few days – rejoicing in finding over 1,700 lost and isolated people who were literally “stuck in the mud and mire.”  Let us be the church of seekers rejoicing as we say, “We love you as God loves you, 'Cause that's all you need.”  At least that’s the start of God’s message!  Amen