Gettysburg Presbyterian Church

The Parables of Jesus: Now Where Did I Put That?
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Rev. Lou Nyiri
Luke 15:1 - 10
September 27, 2009

In this land of the free and home of so much stuff, Americans have become big losers.
Lost-and-found collections across the country are overflowing with belongings -- from cell-phones to bicycles to artificial limbs – much of our stuff is being left behind.
No one knows the exact total number of personal items that are lost every year for some stuff that is lost is never found, but hundreds of thousands of items wind up in lost-and-found repositories. And in many places, the number of such objects is on the rise.

At Grand Central Terminal in New York City, officials on average over 19,000 articles left on trains or in waiting areas. Continental Airlines receives more than 50,000 inquiries about lost items each year. Back in 2006, the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Portland, Ore., found over 20,000 objects on trains, buses and in waiting areas.
Director of marketing for the Capital Area Transportation Authority in Lansing, Mich., Pat Gilbert says, "We believe that lost items have increased because people seem to be rushing around more. People have lost their focus."

Among the most commonly lost items, reported in an informal poll of 12 transit authorities by USA WEEKEND Magazine, are cell-phones, wallets, bags, coats and glasses.
According to management in some hotels, parks, and stadiums in St. Louis, the most commonly found items that end up in the lost and found bin, include gloves (single ones, usually), cell phones, glasses, billfolds, and tech accessories.

Cell phone chargers are quite high on the list, and at the Adam's Mark hotel in St. Louis, cell chargers have their own private lost and found bin. They are so commonly lost, that the hotel has installed a new policy: forgot your charger, or lost it? Then choose one from the lost and found bin and be on your way ... there will certainly be another coming in soon to replace it.

Certainly we've all felt it ... that small twinge of discomfort, as we realize we've misplaced something. The search begins and gains in momentum as it fails to bear any fruit, until it finally ends in a sort of panic, as the truth becomes obvious: no amount of searching will bring our lost item back - it's really gone. Though, with any luck, whatever we’ve lost will be found by a good Samaritan, and our search will end happily.

We’ve all been here before at some point or another in our lives.
We’ve misplaced our keys and torn apart the house – upside/down and inside/out for hours – only to realize we've left them on top of the refrigerator or entertainment center.

We lose stuff…don’t we?
It seems as though in the rush of daily life, more belongings are being left behind.
Anything from where’s my car to where’s my cell phone?
We’ve all experienced the frantic search for that which is lost.
My favorite though is the search for missing cell phone (usually found by calling the cell # over and over again from different parts of the house hoping you’ll hear that distinct ring tone or on the off chance it’s been placed on silent mode it’s sitting in a spot somewhere close to a pile of loose change so it will rattle the shelf items when it vibrates and you’ll locate it’s spot by triangulating the sound or someone say in the Tom’s convenience store on route 116 where you left it will get so tired of hearing MC Hammer’s “You Can’t Touch This” ringtone go off that they’ll answer it and tell you, “You left it at Tom’s!”…not that I’ve ever done that before.

The point is, we lose stuff and we are frantic in our search until we find that which we’ve lost.

But there is one point at which the parallels break down – Jesus indicated that both the shepherd and the homemaker are so thrilled at finding what they had lost that they need to celebrate.
I don’t know about you, but when I find my lost cell phone, my first reaction isn’t to call or text everyone in my address book and invite them to come on over for dinner on me.
Yet, Jesus tells in these parables that both the Shepherd and the homemaker call their neighbors to gather for a party.
Finding or finally stumbling upon that which we have lost usually brings a wave of relief and maybe even reprieve, but typically it’s not followed by so much joy that we are motivated to have a party when we find them?

So when Jesus asks, “Which one of you would not have a party?” a lot of us need to confess that we would not.

For one thing, it’s difficult to identify with shepherds.
Still, a lot of us grow attached to our pets, so maybe it’s not too unreasonable to assume that the shepherd actually cared about the individual animals in their flock.
In this case, the shepherd’s search for the missing sheep is more than just trying to maintain the profitability of their flock. Finding the lost sheep becomes a source of joy because now the flock does not feel incomplete to the shepherd.

“So, which pet owner of you, having lost your animal companion and finding it again, might not at least call your friends and tell them how happy you are?”

A second possibility could be, it takes some effort on our part to identify with people who have only a few things.
We’ve got dozens of pens and if we misplace one, it’s really no big deal. – We just pick up another one.
Even for gadgets where we don’t have extras, it’s often easier to simply go buy another than to spend time searching for the wayward one.
But that wasn’t the case in the first century.
People owned far fewer things, and the lost silver coin in the parable was the equivalent of a full day’s pay.
In Middle Eastern culture, this scene is a reminder that what this woman might have had was bound to her forehead as a dowry.
In many villages, even today, in the Middle-East…one can still find the ceremony of binding the head which is performed on the first day of the young bride’s womanhood in the presence of invited female guests.
In some regions, the bridegroom’s family presents the bride with a headdress decorated with gold coins.

This gift becomes the bride’s personal property serving as an indication of her financial status and forms a financial support for the new family, as it can be changed into money in time of need.
The silver ornaments on the headdress are in the nature of a talisman – a lucky charm if you will – against evil and misfortune, and so serve to preserve the wearer’s health and strength.

So, when Jesus is asked by the Pharisees and scribes about eating with tax collectors and sinners, in typical Hebraic fashion, he gives them a graphic explanation with illustration.
Imagine, in this cultural context, you were the woman who lost one of your “treasured” possessions – a gift from a loved one – how would you really feel – while you searched for the lost item and how would you really feel when you finally found it?
Truly, a feast would be in order.

A pastor tells about his experience working at a summer Christian camp – it was probably a place a lot like Camp Krislund the Presbyterian Church Camp which this church family helps to support along with our Carlisle Presbytery and the two other Presbyteries which surround Krislund (of Northumberland and Huntingdon) – this pastor speaks of how the camp hosted some children from low-income homes.
Before arriving at the camp, each child was sent a list of items they should bring – stuff like a flashlight, soap and towel, rain gear and so forth. This pastor noticed as each new group of youth arrived, many simply did not have several things on the list.
Some said their families had no way to get them.
Yet, one boy, proudly showed this pastor his toothbrush.
“This,” the boy stated showing him his toothbrush, “is my brother’s since I don’t have my own.”

What child in those circumstances, having misplaced his toothbrush and then finally finding it, would not say to his camp-mates and his brother, “Be glad with me, for the lost has been found”?

Finally, it’s not easy for us to identify with God, though that is whom ultimately these parables are about.
After each one, Jesus gives us the moral of the story, stating that the repentance of a single sinner is the occasion for great joy in heaven.

Who can say why, after all the members of the human race God has created, God experiences such exhilaration over the change of heart from non-belief to belief in the great gift of God’s redeeming love shared and lived out in a hurting world through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ?
Who can say why, after all the members of the human race God has created, God experienced such exhilaration over our individual change of heart from non-belief to belief in the great gift of God’s redeeming love shared and lived out in a hurting world through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ?
Who can say why?

Who can say why?
What this parable assures us though…what the life, death and resurrection of Jesus proves to us is that God is like that shepherd and God is like that homemaker who tears the house apart looking for the lost silver coin – God will diligently and with great determination look for us.
And when any one person discovers this new relationship of trust in the living God – God experiences joy and there is a celebration in heaven!
And while it is not discussed in these parables, common stories which run throughout common people’s stories of being found by God’s Amazing love is that we too will experience joy when we are found….when we come home!

May you be found this day – may you be found, maybe for the first time – maybe for the 101st time – may you, may I be found today – may we allow ourselves to be discovered by an Amazing God who loves us unconditionally…who seeks us out with great diligence and may we discover God’s great joy as the kingdom of heaven celebrates.

(-- Rochelle Sharpe, posted in the January 20, 2008 USA Weekend.com website)

This information found at the following website link (http://www.thefoundbin.com/lost-and-found-news/Lost-and-Found-in-St-Louis/) in article “Lost and Found in St Louis” written 11 February 2007.