Lost and Found

The Gospel lectionary passage for this past week was Luke 15:1-10. The passage containes two parables about things that are lost and then found. The first story is about a shepherd who has 100 sheep. The shepherd discovers that one of the sheep is missing. Jesus says, "naturally the shepherd will leave the 99 and go out looking for the one that is lost." The point of the story is that the need of the one is more urgent than the 99. It's not that the 99 are unimportant, but they are safe.

The second story is about a woman who has ten coins. She discovers that one is missing and she moves all the furniture and sweeps the house until she finds the lost coin. Jesus says about both of these parable that heaven rejoices when one sinner repents. These stories connect with us because we are familiar with the pain of loss and the joy of finding things that had been lost.

I just made a woman's day. She stopped by the church to see if, by chance, her missing glasses were left in her pew when she attended the chamber music concert this past Saturday. She had no inkling that they would still be there. More because it couldn't hurt to look, I let her in the church. She went to the pew where she had sat on Saturday night and found them perched on the pew cushion.

I love those unexpected moments when you get better than you deserve; more than you bargained for. I could tell that she was prepared to go buy new glasses if she had to. She wasn't desperate to find them. Her attitude was, "why not stop and ask? It takes so little effort to look." I could also tell that the gracious bonus that she had experienced was more than she had expected. It's a joyful experience to find something that you had almost given up on.

She, a good Episcopalian, was the one who observed that Sunday's lection fit her situation. It's not that God is desperate. But God's attentive searching and calling and gathering in what others give up on never stops. It's a good thing when we catch a glimpse of the joy that accompanies the turning of one person away from sin toward the mercy and grace of God that is always waiting to embrace them.