I have been thinking about “lost and found.” From Luke, chapter 15, three stories powerfully convey the yearning to find what was lost.  Right now I can certainly relate to the woman who had lost her coin and searched her home until she found it. After my ordination last November, I have lost my Celtic cross that I wore with my vestments on Sundays. I have turned things upside down, looked in crevices of each car, each closet, dresser… it’s not found yet. It is special to me because Fr. Gerry Grossman

gave it to me as a gift for my ordination as a Deacon on March 28, 2009. I didn’t plan to lose it in Modesto 6 months later! I still go through places hoping to find it. But after a time, it’s easy to begin to think, even with sadness, “O, well.” I have tried and I cannot find it. That’s true enough; yet I wonder if defeat invades my thinking too easily with other precious things.  What about for you? Do you keep up hope and press on? Do you wait prayerfully when that’s all you can do?

And what of lost people? I think people are precious.  In the story of the Prodigal Son (this Sunday’s sermon text), the father challenges his oldest son to love more—to see the bigger reality of life at hand before him. He challenges him so much that the father asserts that his son should “rejoice” over a lost person coming back to his home, where that person truly belongs, especially when that lost person is his brother. And yet, it is human nature to develop hard hearts. We protect ourselves in hardness; we defend the stance we take and our reasons for giving up the search for those who have “lost their home.” This is easy when someone is lost because of that person’s own fault. Such justification fails to see the brokenness of others through the eyes of grace and forgiveness. Would God view you or me that way? No. He is the Father awaiting the return of all those lost. He’s the one who throws a party over their return to Him and invites us to celebrate as well.  May your heart and mind grow soft toward those who are lost, broken, and struggling to find their way home. May you be blessed by the grace of God to be one willing to search and celebrate!