Joy in Heaven
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
People lose things all the time. Have you ever lost anything? And then have you spent tons of time looking for it? And did you find it?
Here’s the lost-and-found box for our church—see all the stuff in there?
I bet a few people would be really happy to find stuff they’ve left behind here—here are two pairs of glasses, a tie and even a green alien.
Today Jesus speaks with us about losing and finding. About things like sheep and coins that get lost; and about the people who give so much energy to looking for them: the shepherd and the woman. About how the sheep or the coin are found, and about how much happiness there is in the finding.
We hear in these little stories that the shepherd and the woman are so happy to have their sheep back and their coin back. They hold celebrations because they found what they had lost.
And then we make the leap.
The lost sheep and the lost coin are US. The shepherd and the woman—they are Jesus; they are God (yes, Jesus casts his father as an old housewife here.)
Now take a look at the piece of sheep’s wool that came inside your bulletin today. How would you describe it?
(fluffy, white, soft, etc.)
This is how wool looks after it’s cleaned up. Any of you who have ever hiked through pastureland where sheep are grazing know that out in the fields, sheep look a lot different. Sometimes they are even cuter if they have wildflowers or clover sticking to their coats. But usually it’s not that way.
Usually they are half-covered with mud. Usually there is lots of unmentionable stuff clinging to their rears. They don’t often smell very nice.
That’s the reality of how sheep look in the field. And the lost sheep that the shepherd goes after today—that one won’t be any different. It’s gonna be covered in mud and unmentionable stuff. It’s gonna stink.
Still the shepherd picks it up and carries it home—because it needs to be carried. Lost sheep—out there all alone away from the safety of the flock—instinctively hunker down to make themselves less visible to predators. A lost-and-found sheep probably is too traumatized to walk home with the shepherd. He or she has to be carried, despite the mud and gunk that cover it from head to hoof.
Each of us is that sheep at one time or another. Maybe lots of times in our lives we’re lost and stranded. We are that sheep who is covered in mud and gunk. We are too traumatized or bent out of shape by our choices to be able to walk back to the shepherd ourselves. Jesus finds us and brings us back.
Usually Jesus finds us by working through the church or a concerned friend or neighbor, who at the time is being an agent or an angel of God, even though that may be the farthest thing from their minds.
If we’re off the path of our lives due to drugs or alcohol, he comes looking for us. If we’re depressed and mired in hopelessness, he comes looking for us. If we’ve lost our faith, he comes looking for us. If we’re afraid of everything and every possibility, he comes looking for us.
And it’s up to us to let ourselves be picked up and slung over his shoulders.
These are all metaphors, of course, based on the parable. But it IS up to us to respond to the call of God in our souls or through our friends or family. It’s up to us to let ourselves be picked up and slung over his shoulders.
And when we allow ourselves to be found, there is great rejoicing in heaven, as our gospel tells us. There is joy, the godly emotion that comes from knowing and feeling we are loved. (The words “joy” or “rejoice” are used 5 times in this little excerpt of Luke’s gospel . . . they are there for a reason.)
And there’s one more application of these parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. They are often read in the Church as parables of the End, when we are brought before the great judgment seat of Christ. Even then, covered as we may be with mud and gunk, he seeks us out, he finds us, and brings us back.
And there is great rejoicing in heaven. Forever.
Now that’s good news worth celebrating! Amen.
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