Tagged: lost

Exodus 17:1-7

This text is used for the Lectionary Year A on March 19, 2017.

“Not all who wander are lost,” the line from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings hangs in our living room. Reminding my family and visitors that just because we wander at times through this life does not mean that we are lost. We have a home. We have a community. We have a God.

In Exodus 17:1-7, the people are somewhere between the Red Sea (Exodus 14) and Mount Sinai (Exodus 19). The desert is their home. Roaming from place to place is their occupation. They are wanderers. But that does not mean they are lost.

In the past, when I read about the desert wandering I thought the people were lost. No clear direction or leadership. There were grumbling voices from within the community growing louder by the day. The children were thirsty. The livestock faced malnutrition. Anger was building. Desperation was setting in. During desperate times people can do crazy things. Therefore, the work of leadership becomes crucial.

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Luke 15:1-10

This text is used for the Lectionary Year C on September 11th, 2016.

Parable of the Lost Drachma by Fetti

In the churches in which I grew up, we thought the “lost” consisted of everyone who was not in a church like ours on Sunday morning—and maybe a few that were.  The preacher’s first job when preaching the parables of the lost sheep and lost coin is convincing listeners that these stories are about us.  We feel lost and want to be found.  Jesus is talking to us.

Jesus is having dinner with a crowd that is lost and wants to be found, but has not recognized it yet—tax collectors and sinners, low-downs and no-accounts.  Every once in a while the ones who think themselves the best and brightest complain about the way Jesus treats the worst and dimmest like they are long-lost friends, “Why are you eating with these people?”

Jesus tries yet again to explain:  “God is a shepherd with a hundred sheep who loses one because sheep are always wandering off.  Ninety-nine out of a hundred sounds pretty good.  Most shepherds wouldn’t be upset, but God leaves the ninety-nine in the wilderness—where they are vulnerable to wolves, wandering off, and lots of other mischief—to go out in the dark to find the poor lost thing.  God beats the bushes because no one is expendable.”

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