The Joy of Being Found

Rev. Ann Beaty
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

September 12, 2004

Text: Luke 15:1-10

The story in today's scripture reading is one of the most well known and best loved stories in the New Testament. It is typically one of the Bible stories we start telling children at a very young age to help them begin to understand how much God loves them and how far God is willing to go to be in relationship with them. Even in our own church nursery, infants and toddlers see the beautiful artwork painted on the wall downstairs containing scenes of Jesus with young children and sheep in the fields, long before they can articulate the messages of the stories.

But, as a child, we often miss the introduction to the story. The Gospel reading we just heard a moment ago began with these words: “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him (Jesus, that is.) And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:1-2)

The Pharisees and scribes were grumbling about Jesus. It is clear he was acting outside of their known bounds of what was “right” to do.

The Pharisees and scribes were the religious leaders. They were the authorities of the law that governed how people would live in the community and they were the guardians of the traditions of the faith.

Like us, Pharisees and scribes were good people. They were successful people in the community known to be of great morality and honesty and integrity. They were devout believers in the religious law. They sought to live a disciplined life and to abide by what they believed was the rule of God. They were careful to stay “clean” according to their understanding of scriptural law. They cautiously avoided certain situations and certain people considered unclean. The Pharisees were the “church-goers”, particularly the “church leaders” -- the ones who lived comfortably and securely worshipping God from within the bounds of the church. The Pharisees and scribes were doing the best they knew how to do in keeping the faith.

So, it is not surprising that they were upset by Jesus' behavior. It seemed to them that he paid no attention to the religious rules of cleanliness, or had any regard for sacred tradition. Why would he let himself become “unclean” by welcoming sinners, even eating with them? They didn't understand why Jesus was associating with these people who didn't fit into their expectation of what was moral and faithful. They were upset with Jesus for giving too much attention to those who they judged as lost – those who were different from them, those who lived outside the bounds of their circle of laws, values, and standards – those they considered unclean. To them, it just wasn't right.

So, who were these outcasts, or “sinners” that Jesus was welcoming? We aren't told by Luke anything about who these people were or what they had done to be given the title “sinner”. We do know that in that time and culture, the word “sinner” was a term used not simply as a moral or criminal description, but also as a term for those who were considered religious and social outcasts by the church hierarchy.

These “sinners” may have been people who simply did not follow, for whatever reason, the strict guidelines of ritual purity prescribed by the religious authorities. Whatever the reason, we know that they were folks who did not live up to the expectations of the religious authorities.

And then here is Jesus. Jesus not only reaches out to them with compassion and love…Jesus eats with them…the ultimate sign of acceptance and hospitality. The reality is, the Pharisees and scribes were more comfortable living in a world where they could draw lines and define who would be in and who would be out. They were more comfortable living in a world where they knew what was right and they could determine who would be “lost” and who would be “found”.

Of course, there do have to be limits in a society, of what is allowable and what isn't and there were limits in the Jewish community as they struggled to keep their identity in a diverse and often hostile society. Deciding who was acceptable company and who was not, who was to be shunned and who was not, was a way of protecting the faith community. For them, to protect the faith from hostile outsiders meant the circle of inclusion needed to be small and well-defined and include only those who strictly adhered to the rules.

But, had they gone too far? Had they gone so far in adhering to the rules that they thought it was their place to determine who could and couldn't be a part of God's kingdom? Was Jesus suggesting that in their need to be right about all the rules, they had actually become lost themselves?

Wes Seeliger, a pastor, tells this piece of his own story... “Grandmother's living room was large and dark. She kept the shades down so her furniture wouldn't fade. One day in 1943, when I was five years old, I sat in the middle of her living room floor playing with my toy cars. I had at least a hundred; fire trucks, buses, tractors, everything – even a hearse.

‘For me, playing with cars was serious business and there was definitely a “right” way to do it. The idea was to form a large circle of cars on the living room floor. And the cars had to be evenly spaced. Precision was of the essence.

I placed my toy box in the middle of the floor. Then, I took each car out of the box and began forming my circle. I was very careful. No two fire trucks could be together. No two cars the same color could be together. It was a tedious process, but I was a determined kid.

When the circle was complete I sat in the middle and admired my cars and my handiwork. And since my grandmother never used the living room, my circle remained intact for days. I returned time and time again to look at my cars and to make minor aesthetic adjustments.

One morning I was sitting in the middle of my circle. Peace and contentment bathed my five year old soul as I surveyed my almost perfect toy kingdom with everything in its proper order.

Then came Susan. Susan was my 3 year old cousin and she was a live wire. Susan took one look at my precious circle of toys and charged. My precious, tranquil circle was destroyed in an instant. She kicked and threw my cars all over the room. She was laughing and squealing – I was crying and screaming. Grandmother dashed in to see who was being murdered.

Grandmother told me later than I cried for two hours and she had to rock me to sleep that night. How can you sleep when your world has been destroyed.

The next morning I went into the living room to survey the damage. I was about to begin the painful process of rebuilding when Grandmother told me that Susan was coming over so I gave up in despair. So when my rambunctious little cousin arrived there was nothing to destroy.

Susan suggested that we take the cars outside. What an idea! I hadn't thought of that. But, what if they get dirty? What if one gets lost or broken? It wasn't my idea of playing cars, but I gave in. I decided to risk taking my cars outside. No use to build a circle with Susan around.

We played outside all day. We put real dirt in the dump truck. We made ramps, forts, and tunnels. I even let Susan talk me into crashing the cars together. I had no idea playing cars could be so much fun.'

A lot of water has gone under the bridge since that day in 1943. I have listened to hundreds of sermons and Sunday school lessons. I have read stacks of theology books. And a seminary degree hangs on my wall.

But I think Susan taught me all I really need to know about theology – SIN is sitting in righteousness in the middle of our homemade universe; abiding by the rules, but forgetting the value of the world outside. GOD is Susan and all God wants is for us to allow grace to come into our world and move us to a deeper experience of God's love. SALVATION – is the courage and the freedom to leave the dark, musty, familiar, living room of our rules and to allow ourselves to be found in the great outdoors of God's love.

Do we (and I'm certainly including myself in the collective“we”) sometimes sit in our homemade universe filled with our right rules to the extent that we have decided who is “in” and who is “out”…who is “lost” and who is “found”? It's hard to encounter anyone outside the circle as a brother or a sister if we're using all our energy to protect our self-made kingdom.

The reality is, we live in a time where there is much to protect ourselves from. All you have to do is look at the front page of the newspaper or watch the news on TV to see that there is a lot out there to be afraid of and a lot to distract us from living a life of faith.

I'm not suggesting that “anything goes” or that we should compromise the core of our beliefs. But I do think, that sometimes, in our attempts to protect ourselves, we become isolated in our self-made kingdoms and we can begin to think that our perspective, or way of believing, or living out our faith, is the only “right” way.

I see this in myself and others right now as we approach the upcoming Presidential election. As the conversations about who should get elected gets more and more heated, the Republicans think all the Democrats are heathens and immoral, and the Democrats think all the Republicans are self-righteous and pompous.

Like many of you, I'm already tired of the bickering. And, like many of you, I already have an opinion about what I'd like to see happen in the election. The reality is both Democrats and Republicans believe they are right about what is good for the country. And that's all fine.

It isn't having the political opinion that is bad. But why does the other guy have to be wrong for us to be right?! The problem is when I become so locked in to the notion that my opinion is the only right one that I close myself off to other possibilities…possibilities that include being able to respect those who differ from me, or the possibility that I might learn something from someone whose opinion is different from mine, and ultimately, I can become so closed off in my need to be right that I become “lost” from experiencing God's love in myself and God's love as seen through another human being.

When we are able to recognize that we are beloved in God's eyes…we realize we don't have to be bound to our right rules or our tight circle. The joy of being found is that we know more deeply we are loved by God, and the more deeply we experience God's love, the less we are controlled by our need to be “right” In God's love , we can take down our barriers and our judgments, and our feelings of defensiveness about people who are different from us, and we too can find ourselves closer to experiencing the love of God Jesus is offering to the Pharisees and to us.

Susan, in the story, helps us remember that there is no use building a closed circle with God around. God is searching for each and every one of us so we can experience the joy of being found. The more we know we are loved and valued, the more we can embrace the idea that every human being has value and worth in God's eyes simply because they too, are found.

Let us pray: Gracious God, It is my hope and prayer that through your love, each of us will open our heart more fully to you, and allow ourselves to experience the joy of being found. We pray in the name of Jesus, our Good Shepherd. Amen.