Pentecost 14 “Lost”
September 11th, 2022 – Ezekiel 34:16
“I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak… I will feed them in justice.”
You are lost. Not literally. You’re sitting in church on a Sunday morning in September.
But you are lost. Metaphorically.
How do I know you are lost? God has told me. God knows everything. He sees all. And it’s not just you. He has told us we are all lost.
What word of God has told us this? Ezekiel 34, 1 Timothy 1, and Luke 15. This collection of God’s Word we have as our focus this morning tells us this. We are all lost. But not literally. Metaphorically.
In order to understand how you are metaphorically lost, you need to have been literally lost before. Have you been lost before?
I remember being a little kid in Walmart with my mom. I was stuck looking at a cool lightsaber toy on the shelves in the toy section. She said once, twice, “Alex, it’s time to go. I’m going this way now.” I didn’t care too much. “She wouldn’t really leave me, would she?” When I finally came to I looked around she was gone. I was lost. I looked around the corner – no mom. Panic set it. I looked another direction and began walking – no mom here no mom there. Tears began streaming down my face. I wandered close to the front. Finally, a nice employee came up and asked me what was wrong. I choked out “I… lost… my mom. Her name… is Denise Timm” Chhhk. “Denise Timm would you please come to the front tills. Denise Timm. Chhhk.” Up walked my mom. Clearly flustered and embarrassed. “What’s wrong?” She asked. “I was just on the other side of the aisle!”
Yet, to this day, that one time comes to my mind every time I think of being lost. Not too grand. No big rescue mission. It lasted probably a whole of 4 minutes from lightsaber to front till. It still is the image in my mind of “being lost.”
What’s yours?
In truth, being lost happens because you took a series of steps in a direction without much attention. When you finally stop and try to figure how to go back, you cannot. God-willing you’re found sooner than later or bad things could start happening – injury and weakness to name a few (Ezekiel 34:16).
Two of our readings help us understand us being metaphorically lost using the sheep and shepherd comparison. We are the sheep who have wandered off.
Let’s go beyond the metaphor to what it is telling us about getting lost.
A sheep is with their shepherd in their pasture. They are not lost. They begin to eat. Patch here patch there. The shepherd calls them back. They come. Then they see one patch two patch three patch four. Then they see across the fence. The grass is greener over there! Off they go. It wasn’t actually greener. But further on it looks like it! On and on they go. Happily eating from patch to patch. Blissfully ignorant as to where they are – or where they are not. It gets darker out. They lift their head, look around. No one is around. No other sheep. No shepherd. Completely vulnerable. Unsafe. Open to attack from all angles. A wolf comes. The end is near for poor little sheepy.
That’s the metaphor, this is you and I. We’re in church. We know Jesus and his forgiveness for us. Things are good. We decide to go on a trip and miss a couple of Sundays. A few more blissful Sundays go by after that fed by waffles and coffee at home in our jammies. Yup! This patch of grass sure is tasty. Jesus calls us back through a fellow member who meets us in Safeways “Hey! Missed you the past few weeks at church. What have you been up to?…” Having heard Jesus’ call, we’re there the next Sunday – fed by Jesus free love and forgiveness for us in His word – Absolution and the Lord’s Supper.
Then we have something else come up on a Sunday. It’s tastier than the grass at church. We do it instead. Then we read a new book from a friend – it makes us feel good about being a good person. It makes us feel better than the people who aren’t. That book lets us know it doesn’t matter what grass you eat, as long as you are eating – best not to be in a church – they judge people for how they live. Next, we’re okay with saying hurtful things to people. Maybe I’ll “borrow without permission” this thing or that. Marriage is not all that important, right? As long as people are happy. You suffered a financial loss – and you try to make up for it by getting back as much as possible as ruthlessly as possible from others. The grass of cash tastes yummy. “Good thing I don’t have to give any to God or the church anymore” you think. Pretty soon you start thinking whoever you don’t like is going to hell and anyone you do for sure is going to heaven. It doesn’t matter what they believe as long as they’re a good person. This carries on for a while.
One day, you’re finally struck with the realization that you’re going to hell. Why? Because you realize you truly are not a good person. You can sense it. Feel it. You know the things you’ve done. The pain you’ve caused. There’s no way back. You look up from your life and realize you are lost. You are going to hell. If it’s what you do that matters, your record is already ruined. In a last ditch effort, you try convince yourself that Hell doesn’t exist so it doesn’t really matter what you do anyway. You do what you want when you want, and you have to look out for number one. After all you only live once. May as well make the best of it.
You are TRULY lost.
Maybe you have been stuck at some point in this cycle at some time or another over your life. We have all fallen short and none of us are better than any other. We have all like sheep gone astray (Isaiah 53:6).
If you keep on going the way you have. One useless grass-in-greener patch to the next, you will never see you are lost. Never have to see the problem. Feel the pain and embarrassment of it.
When you are literally lost, you can either find your way back or be found. In our lives metaphorically as sheep before God, there is no way of undoing the constant steps away that we take.
The good news of today’s message starts with “you are lost” and ends with “you are found.” Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus is the good shepherd, God’s servant David, prophesied by Ezekiel. He feeds you with the good pasture of His forgiveness and makes you FOUND (Ezekiel 34:23). He protects you from danger, binds us your injuries, strengthens your weakness.
He shows you mercy and love and seeks you out wherever you have wandered alone after greener grass that is truly empty because He has something that is much more fulfilling, much more what you need than anything else you wandered off feeding on. When He finds you, when He forgives you and you turn and hear His voice, all of heaven rejoices. All of heaven rejoices when someone who has wandered off, has been lost, bad, evil, hurtful, when they turn to Jesus’ in repentance, and He wraps them up with His arms of forgiveness and takes them home (Luke 15:7).
All of heaven rejoices – we should too. Rejoice that we are all here this morning! Rejoice when one who has gone astray has returned! Week to week, day to day, we stray. Rejoice that Jesus has sought you out every time and brought you back into His flock!
In this flock, in Jesus’ Church, where His gifts are forgiveness are freely given at His command, you are found. We who were lost, We are found! God continue to preserve us all in His flock all our lives through.
In Jesus Name,