Rejoice with Me!

Sermon for Proper 19 C RCL 9/12/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry


Texts: Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28; Psalm 14; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10

O God, make us masters of ourselves so that we might become the servants of others. Take our minds and think through them; take our lips and speak through them; take our hearts and set them on fire. Amen.

My dear friends in Christ: What does it mean to be saved? What does it mean to be found? “I once was lost, but now am found.” What is it that you think of, that you imagine, when you consider that God has saved you? Saved you from what?

Here in the Gospel of Luke, we have this fantastic collection of parables that speak of God going out and finding that which was lost. Here, Jesus asks us to consider that God is a shepherd seeking after a lost sheep; that God is a woman who sweeps the house in search of her lost coin. This series of parables ends with the prodigal son and the patiently waiting father, but this is saved for another Sunday.

Let us give thanks that God is the one who seeks after us with such diligence and persistence. But what do these parables say about us as the lost sheep and the lost coin?

What does it mean for me to admit to myself that I am lost? Do you know the first of the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous? If you don’t know it now, I suggest that you learn it. It goes like this:

“We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.”

If you were to visit a group of Overeaters Anonymous, you would hear the group admit that they “were powerless over food.”

Whatever it is that is your particular stumbling block, whatever it is that keeps you from experiencing life as God intended it, you can insert that right in. “I admit that I am powerless over ___X___ - and that my life has become unmanageable.”

It is true that we have to recognize that we are “lost”, before we will accept that God has found us. God is not an enhancement for our lives, something we add to make our lives better. We must admit it: without God, our lives are unmanageable and we are lost.

But even then, even after we can admit this fact, and when we are found and recovered and restored to our rightful place, when we become conscious of God in our everyday lives, that sensation of being lost never completely fades away. Look at the testimony of the apostle Paul in his letter today. Even at this stage when he is an older man giving guidance to his younger protégé.

“The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the foremost” (1 Timothy 1:15).

I appreciate the way that this passage is translated by Eugene Peterson in The Message. Listen to this colloquial translation:

“Here's a word you can take to heart and depend on: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I'm proof—Public Sinner Number One—of someone who could never have made it apart from sheer mercy. And now he shows me off—evidence of his endless patience—to those who are right on the edge of trusting him forever” (1 Timothy 1:15-16, The Message).

In order to be found, we have to realize deep within that we are lost. And this is a process that never completely ends. In a real sense, God is always finding us, over and over again throughout our lives.

But, back to our original question: From what are we saved? What happens when we are found? What change happens when we are saved by Christ?

Brian McLaren tells the story of friends of his who came across a snapping turtle crossing the road somewhere in South Jersey. You know snapping turtles? Big, ugly things that look like the cousins of dinosaurs! Slimy, with powerful jaws that snap your finger off if you’re not careful! They can grow up to 30 pounds in ideal conditions. Well, this turtle they found had a problem. It seems that, when it was a hatchling, the turtle came across a plastic ring from the top of a milk jug or some other plastic container. Someone must have littered and thrown this into the water, and now this ring became lodged around the center of the turtle’s body. It wasn’t a big problem when the turtle was young, but when these folks found it, the turtle was likely around 9 pounds and about a foot long. About one-third of the way to its full size potential. This plastic ring has seriously deformed it, so that now the turtle was shaped like a figure eight!


McLaren’s friends astutely realized that the turtle could never continue to grow and survive if this plastic ring was left in place. So (very, very carefully of course!) they snipped that ring and took it off.

And what happened then? Nothing! Nothing at all happened. The turtle continued crossing the road. It still looked like a bizarre figure eight. It didn’t suddenly, magically, revert back to the normal shape for snapping turtles.

What changed then when these folks cut that ring off of the turtle? One crucial thing changed. At that very moment, suddenly, that turtle had a future! It was lost, on its way to a painful death, but now it was found by someone who saw its predicament and who cared enough to do something! Now it was saved. Now it was rescued.

St. Paul frames the truth of our situation with absolute clarity today: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

What does it mean to be a sinner saved by grace? What does it mean for you to place your trust in Christ, to be found by him?

It means that we have been set free from “a ring of selfishness, greed, injustice, fear, prejudice, arrogance, apathy, chauvinism, and ignorance” (McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy, P.98). You know, it probably took months, or perhaps even years, for that turtle to regain its true and natural shape once again. The same is typically true of us as well. Once we recognize that we are lost on our own, once we allow Christ to find us, it may take months or even years for our hearts and our souls to regain their true and natural shapes once again. But now we have the chance! Because of the mercy and patience and grace and love of God in Jesus, now we have a future in which we can grow and become the radiantly full and free human being that God has created us to be!

About 1900 years ago, St. Irenaeus wrote that “The glory of God is a human being who is fully alive.” Yes! Yes! Yes! God has cut the ring around you that has held you back. You picked it up somewhere when you were just a hatchling. We all pick up garbage and litter and baggage along the way. But God saw our predicament and cared enough to do something! Of course, the struggle is not over. It will take our full attention and effort to stretch back into our natural, God-given shape.

But now, praise be to God, we have the chance!

This work of seeking and saving and finding and restoring is God’s work. God is the shepherd who goes searching for the lost sheep. God is the woman who seeks after her lost coin. And what does God do after finding the lost sheep and the lost coin? God throws a party, of course! “Rejoice with me!” That is God’s invitation to join in the party and celebrate that we have been found. Will you join in the celebration?