Divine Homemaker - Good Shepherd

The Holy Gospel According to St. Luke, the 15th Chapter

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 

So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. “Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ 

Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Today… 9-11, is a day for remembering.  Fifteen years ago, this was the text for the Sunday after 9-11.  It was a good one for that day because after that Tuesday, when the towers fell, the Pentagon was hit and the plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field, EVERYONE felt lost, all at the same time.  On any other Sunday, not EVERYONE feels lost.  Maybe one out of a hundred, like the sheep, or maybe one out of ten, like the coin, really FEEL lost on any given Sunday… because of some individual grief or pain, doubt or worry.  But most Sundays, most of us feel more like the 99 sheep who were home in the pen or the 9 coins, safely resting in the woman’s purse.  On most Sundays only a few FEEL lost.   

But on that Sunday after 9-11, I think all of us together, maybe just for that one moment, understood these parables better than ever before.  We ALL felt like that lone, lost sheep… looking up, and suddenly feeling vulnerable… having no idea where we were or what direction to go.  We all felt like that lost coin, who, even if we KNEW were to go, which we didn’t, we couldn’t get there on our own… coins don’t have legs, after all.  On that Sunday in 2001, we ALL felt the reality of being lost and we all felt it at the same time.  On that day, unlike most days, we simply couldn’t pretend we were anything but completely and totally lost.  The truth is, of course, that “lost” is our every-time, every day reality.  Most days, though, we succeed in fooling ourselves into believing that we can walk ourselves back to the rest of the flock, or roll ourselves back to the purse, but on that day, we just couldn’t fool ourselves.  Everyone felt… everyone KNEW… we were all completely lost.  

The Good News that September 16th in 2001 was that finding the “lost” just happens to be the specialty of our very Good Shepherd… the expertise of our amazing Divine Homemaker.  It is precisely the lost whom God comes to find, the broken that God comes to heal, the last whom God makes first, the weakest that are made strong and the dead that God raises up to new life.  God always works from the bottom up… with the lost, the last and the least… every time.  We don’t make our own way back to the flock, we don’t roll our own way back to the purse, we don’t work out our own salvation, we don’t find Jesus.  Whether we’re lost because we’re broken like the tax collectors and sinners, thinking we don’t deserve to be found OR we’re lost because we’re broken like the pharisees and scribes, thinking we’re not the ones who are lost and don’t need finding… the Good News is that no matter how we’re broken, no matter how we got lost, the fields have been searched and the floors have been swept and in Christ’s life, death and resurrection we ALL have been found!  

And LOOK!  Here we are 15 years later, ready to be carried once more, that last little bit to be fed again with the bread… ready to be swept up those last few steps to taste the cup of salvation.  Here we are.  Ready to receive the Body of Christ… BUT at the same time, we’re ALSO here again to be sent out into the world TOGETHER to BE the Body of Christ.  

That’s the rest of this story… the other side of the coin.  Individually we ARE the broken, the lost, the last, the lost AND… and… at the same time, TOGETHER we are also the Body of Christ, called and sent into the world to seek out and lift up the ones who have wondered off, head down, eating one tuft of grass after another until, suddenly they look up and don’t know where they are any more.  Together we are the Body of Christ, called and sent into the world to sweep up those who have been thrown away into dark corners… lift up those who have rolled out of sight and return those who have fallen through the cracks and have been forgotten, back to the purse.  

It’s a beautiful mystery.  Individually we can only be lost, but together we are also the Body of Christ.  Some of us are the eyes that search the fields, others the hands that work the broom, the arms that lift the lost, the shoulders who bear the weight, the finger tips that pry the forgotten out of the cracks… some of us become the smile, others, those lines that show up when the smile spreads to the eyes.  Other become the lungs that shout and the vocal chords that ring and the legs that leap with joy when the lost have been found, the forgotten remembered, the separated returned and the dead brought to life!

Fifteen years ago we couldn’t, for a moment, fool ourselves into thinking that we were anything but lost.  We need to remember how that felt.  Remember that in that darkness, the Good Shepherd… the Divine Homemaker gives everything to find us.  Then remember too, that each of us is also called to take our place in the Body of Christ and do our part, to be the eye or the shoulders or the fingers or the hand and sweep the corners of our city for the lost and lift those who have wandered or who have fallen or who have been forgotten.  We are both the lost who have been found AND an essential part of the Body of Christ, found, fed and sent into the world to continue the search.  May we remember both today and every day.  Amen.