Lost! (Link
- 24TH Sunday OT)
Many people watched the TV show “Lost.” According to one of the
show’s creators, it was about “people who are lost in their lives. Then, they get on
an airplane, crash on an island, and become physically lost.” (Lost)
Sounds like Exodus. The Israelites' lives were lost. They left
Egypt, crashed into God, and then got lost in the desert. Moses left the people
for just a little while and they crashed into God. They got lost. They turned from the way pointed out to them; they made a molten calf and worshiped
it.
God tells Moses “I have
seen this people, how stiff-necked they are.” God said the people were stiff necked, stubborn, and obstinate. In the narrative of Exodus, God
was upset with the people; He was broken-hearted. Did they get what they deserved? No, they got what God gives: Forgiveness.
You would think they learned a lesson. Not so. They continued to
be this way; refusing to change. They continued to get lost, a stiff-necked
people sinning against God. God forgave them again and again and again.
I think Jesus parables are about stiff-neck people. Look at these
parables in a different way; see the lost from a different perspective. They
tell of those who turned aside from the path shown to them.
We know the parable of the lost sheep. But, the shepherd is lost, stubborn,
and foolish to leave 99 sheep unprotected to go after one stray. The sheep
becomes the false god the shepherd chases. The greater good of 99 are left behind.
We know the parable of the lost coin. Yet, tear apart your house and
forget others for a single coin, you’re lost, stubborn, and on the wrong path. The
coin becomes the false god the woman worships forgetting all else.
Both, shepherd and woman turned aside from the way pointed out to
them. Their molten calf is worldly things like the sheep and coin. Jesus words
hint that something has become lost, yet God the Father, welcomes and
forgives. The grace of our Lord is
abundant. They return to the right
path; there is a great party.
The Israelites, shepherd, and woman were lost worshiping things of
this world, things of men. We have the same in our houses, cars, clothes, and
our things. We can be a stiff-necked people, worshipping man-made things in
this world that turn us from the path and purpose God has revealed.
The prodigal son worshiped the things of this world. The son
demanded his inheritance, left home, and the love of his father. He chose the
things of the world, which he saw as “freedom.” But “freedom” is not what
he found. He found lost.
Defeated, the son returns to his father’s house. The father runs
to meet his son. He embraces him and prepares a feast of welcome. Did the son
get what he deserved? No. He got what his father gave: Forgiveness.
We can become lost in our lives; physically lost in the sin of the
everyday world. Lost in our stiff-necked stubbornness and sin, do we get what
we deserve? No, we receive what God our Father gives us: forgiveness. We are reconciled to Him in Christ.
St. Paul writes, “Christ
Jesus came to save sinners. Of these I am the foremost…. so that in me …,
Christ Jesus might display all his patience for those who would come to believe
in him for everlasting life.” God saves
us and calls us to him despite what we have done according to His own purpose
and grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus. (2 Tim 1:9)
Heavenly Father may all who are lost chasing things of this world
return to you, know your abundant grace and forgiveness, along with the
faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Y’all be good, y’all be holy and preach the gospel by the way you live
and love.
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