Our world is full of lost people. Do you see them? Do you know their names? Do you know what they are looking for? Jesus sees them all. He knows them all by name. He knows the deepest desires of their hearts better than they know themselves. He also knows what we truly need beyond our deepest desires. Before the invention of the printing press, it did not pay to read and write more than taking inventory and making receipts. Only those who were wealthy themselves or sponsored by the rich could even afford paper and ink, let alone take the time to learn to read and write. Knowledge was passed down from person to person with apprenticeships or disciple-making in the time of Jesus up into the middle ages. Truth was passed face to face. The printing press changed things. The printing press allowed us to make reading and writing more accessible to everyone and changed our learning patterns to be based on using books, and then eventually recordings and videos. It brought a new distance of time and space between teacher and student so that today you can be trained through classes that do not even involve a physical, living teacher. It’s just you and the books, perhaps with a human being grading your work who will never meet you. God could know us from a great distance, looking down upon us from on high, or perhaps not even that. He could know about us simply because He is God and knows everything. He doesn’t have to look at me to know which side of the bed I will wake up on any given day. He already knows me better than I know myself. And yet, just as He got down and formed Adam out of the dust in Genesis 2 and breathed His own breath into that pile of dirt, God continues to seek and meet me right where I am. He doesn’t always like where I am, but if He were unable or unwilling to move toward me, I would be stuck and lost somewhere, without hope. We are only saved because God sought us out. We are only disciples because the Holy Spirit sent disciple-makers after us, and if we are to become disciple-makers ourselves, we will learn to find and keep the lost people Jesus brings into our lives.

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Seeking Lost Sheep

Our scripture today is like the first two verses of an ongoing song. Jesus teaches these verses and then shares the chorus of this song with His actions. That balance of word and deed gives His words extra weight and teaches their practice to His disciples. Jesus does not start with words. He starts with His actions. The Pharisees saw Him eating with tax collectors and sinners. We know that everyone has sinned, and the Pharisees knew that too. This was how they described the people that they deemed “too far gone” or “not good enough”. The Apostles and the early church would debate for long hours among themselves, just like the Pharisees, about who they were allowed to fellowship with over a meal. Jesus had trouble with more than just the Pharisees. His own disciples questioned who He spent time with. They questioned His association with that possessed man from the Gerasenes on the edge of Gentile territory. They questioned Him walking into Samaria to meet with an adulteress at a well. They were very concerned about all the lepers and other sick or injured people He touched, and they were not big fans of His dinners with tax collectors, except perhaps Matthew, who was one himself. The same applied to the Scribes and Pharisees that Jesus met and ate with. The disciples did not invite people like this into their homes. Looking back, we might tell ourselves that it wasn’t an issue for Jesus because He was God in the flesh, and God can meet with anyone He wants. That might be true. But Jesus actually gave an answer to why He met with so many different people, and it starts with a teaching about taking care of your own. “Which of you, with 100 sheep, would NOT leave the 99 to go after 1 that was lost?” Jesus asked. There was little argument over who the lost sheep were. There is little argument over that today among those who believe they are already “found.” There is always a right side and a wrong side of the tracks. But Jesus asks this question in a way that puts us as responders, not in the role of sheep, but of the shepherd. It is a subtle way of telling us that Jesus sees everyone, lost and found, as belonging to Him. He sees their challenges, and He sees their potential. A sheep that is lost is not just missing. It is quickly on its way to becoming dead. The rhetorical question Jesus is asking those who criticized His choice of dinner company is: which of you cannot keep track of your own? Who among you is in the habit of leaving those entrusted to their care to feed the wolf? Oh, but Jesus, those are not our people. They are not our concern. I wonder if Jesus heard in their hearts the same excuse as Cain. Am I my brother’s keeper? Lost sheep do not deserve to be found. Often they get themselves lost by their own actions. Sometimes there are other circumstances that don’t help the situation. Jesus taught in John 10 more about His shepherd’s eyes and heart that sees His sheep, knows them by name, and seeks them to bring them back from the wolf, even at the cost of His own life. Then, in John 10:16, Jesus added a final note: 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They, too, will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. Jesus lays claim to every lost sheep. Even Sheep that are not part of his flock! If someone is lost, Jesus counts them as His own to find.

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Our’s to Keep

As disciple-makers, these lost sheep, lost people, are more than ours to find; they are ours to keep. We do not keep each other in a possessive sense but in the sense of stewards caring for those placed under our charge. I have heard many stories of military commanders who had soldiers who served under them and who both worked and prayed daily for their safety during times of war. Being a good shepherd and disciple-maker means praying and working our best to keep our found sheep from getting lost again. The second verse to this teaching hones down on the ideas of value and stewardship. Coins have very little value these days unless they are old, rare, and represent some kind of historical value. Losing a quarter, dime, or nickel does not usually cause us to panic. The silver drachmae used in Jesus' day were perhaps more valuable than our coins, by comparison, but ten drachmae do not represent a world of wealth. It is a meager amount of value demonstrated here. This woman was not rich. But the song remains the same. When she realizes she has lost the one, she stops everything and tears the house apart in order to find it. She who has little has so much more to lose by losing the one coin, and that may be the greater point here. A shepherd who owned 100 sheep would be moderately wealthy, and it would take a lot of work to care for 100 different sheep. By contrast, the woman keeping 10 coins would have less to do to keep them safe. Yet Jesus treats these two parables almost as one and the same. To Jesus, we all come as a set. He sees the empty spaces around us, and He is already out there seeking after the lost, knowing them by name, listening to them share their lives with Him, eating with them in their homes, and then, just as He did with His disciples and with you and me, calling them to leave it behind and follow Him.

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Celebrating

Jesus doesn’t do this by Himself. Even before the cross, He worked through His disciples, transforming them into disciple-makers through their work with Him. He is teaching us to see the empty spaces, and He is leading us to the people who are lost, who He is calling to come to join His flock and His family. As a disciple-maker, He will put you in charge of others. It may be 100. It may be 10. It may be, as the next story shares, just 2. It doesn’t matter how many. You will need God’s help to find and keep those lost children and lead and hold them close to Jesus. The task of seeking the lost can seem daunting, even today, when you often don’t have to leave your own family to find them. Some of you can look outside your window and see those God has already brought into your life who are lost and need to be found. We have all grown impersonal and don’t want to share Jesus face-to-face, and that slide started decades ago. But, you know what? We don’t have to stay this way. Just as God moved into our lives to find us, we can follow Jesus to move into the lives of others to share his love with them. So I want you to do 2 things for me today. First, I want you to take out a piece of paper and a pencil or pen. You can use your bulletin if you want, or if you have a phone you take notes on, you can use that as well. In just a moment, we are going to pray, and I want you to write down the names of one or two people who you know are lost, and I want you to write their names down. I want you to keep those names and pray for them every day so that when you see or speak to them, God would speak and act through you to reach them. Second, I want you to share with us where you see the lost found in your life. Celebrating is the refrain of these parables. Both times, the main character of the parable said, “‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep (or coin) that was lost.” It is a celebration for the whole family because those who join with Jesus join with us all. We are indeed our brothers’ and sisters’ finders and keepers, and we celebrate the things that matter the most to us. Will you see and seek after the lost? Will you celebrate with Jesus when his lost children are found? Let us pray. Lord, we want to see like you. We want to love like you. We want to see more in the lost and broken people around us than they see in themselves, the way you see them. We want to love them with a love that is bigger than we can hold ourselves. Put on our minds and hearts the names of one or two people who need to hear from you and experience your love. Give us your words and love to share with them, and help us to see those opportunities you put in our lives to give them a face-to-face encounter with you through us. Help us, by your guidance and power, and our words and actions, to show these lost children what it means to be our brother and sister in Christ. We pray this in your mighty name, Jesus. Amen.

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