Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

All Sermons are © Copyrighted and may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the express permission of the author.

Against a wall in the hallway, just outside the church's office, was an old wooden box, full of odds and ends. Above it a sign said, "Lost and Found." And I thought, "That is the church's business, isn't it?" Maybe the box and its sign should be moved to the front door, so that everyone entering that church would understand the ground rules. If you don't feel lost in this world of sin, don't bother to come in. If you're not needing to be found by God, don't darken this door. If you don't want to help other lost souls find God, go away. If you can't rejoice when one who is lost finds himself, and is found by God, this is not the place for you.  

The Son Who Was Lost Is Found -

Back to basics. "… the Father said, 'Go get the fatted calf and kill it. Quick, fetch a robe for him to wear. Put rings on his fingers, and shoes on his feet. For this, my son, was lost and is found, was dead and is alive again.'" That was the horse we came in on: that Father's love "so amazing, so divine" that it softened our hearts. How lovely it was when first we understood our God to be our Father, standing on the road (a road that had taken us to hell and back) -- watching, waiting, hoping, longing for our return. We who had converted our inheritance into cash and squandered it, we who were not for the Father's love, would never again be able to hold up our heads in the family circle -- we would not be scolded upon our return, but (wonder of wonders) we would be greeted with a lavish celebration by a
Father falling all over himself -- so great was his joy.

That's the center of the Gospel. I came to Christ that way. Perhaps you did too. As the years passed, that early faith of mine became
wondrously complex. (The implications of such ridiculous love on God's part are enormous.) I got tired. The world leaned on me in a thousand ways, and at times I almost forgot the message, but (thank God) I never quite lost it. And I have come back to it many times, as I come back to it today (in the parable of the Prodigal Son), and marvel at it all over again.

Amazing grace how sweet the sound…  

The Gospel is Astonishing I heard Steven Park quote Kirkegaard this week. (Steven is a young man working quietly with a small group of inner-city kids in South East Washington.) He reminded us that Kirkegaard said unless our Christian faith and our Christian way of living is astonishing to those outside the circle of faith, we must have missed the Gospel. Because everything about the Gospel is astonishing, especially this: the claim that in heaven there is nothing but love and joyous acceptance when one who has run away comes home. Certainly, then, nothing (least of all our own failings) "can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Nothing.

That's not an ordinary assertion. Of course not. In the world, love is a conditional thing. When we find a lost coin we are glad, but we beat up on the person who lost it. When we find a lost lamb we scold him before returning him to the flock, and if he strays too often we may decide we would like him better as shishkabob. When a son or daughter leaves and then returns, properly chastened, we're glad to see him or her, but we're angry, too. How dare they disrupt our lives in such a way! How dare they toy with our affections!  

No Conditions on God's Love -

But there are no conditions on the love of God, and nothing but joy when we come home. He's just a fool for us. God loves us as my dog loves: no matter what unkind things I say about her, no matter how much I ignore her, she is always glad to see me. We humans love each other as my cat loves. Calculating. Asking what's in it for him. Especially loving at suppertime.

Sometimes I forget where I've parked my car at the Giant. I walk up and down the rows, lugging bags of groceries, glancing about, trying not to look lost. Trying to look like a parked car inspector, or something. I don't want to project the image of lostness. Other
people might take advantage of me, if they knew how confused I was inside. Yet we are lost a thousand ways in this world, and scared. Lost like a prodigal or like a lamb. Lost in loneliness, lost in addiction, lost in working too hard, lost in grief, lost in self-absorption -- lost about how to love someone and make it last, lost about how to help someone in trouble, lost in regard to all of life's most important questions. All we really have is the love of God. And that, Jesus said, is all we need.  

People Suspect Love -

There are two ironies here: first, when we accept the unconditional love of God, and seek to love others in the same way, people object. (Can you believe it?) In fact, Jesus told these parables (about the coin, and the lamb and the prodigal) in response to some persistent grumbling by the scribes and Pharisees. They grumbled because Jesus associated with sinners and tax collectors, even went into their homes and ate with them. And, in their straight-laced righteousness, these religious leaders thought they knew who was good and who was bad, who was clean and who was unclean. They could not rejoice in the overflowing love of God that burst all the old wineskins. And, of course, in the Prodigal Son, there is the older brother: so wrong-headed, so hard-hearted. "Do you begrudge me my generosity," the father asks him in one version? Why can't you be happy that your brother has come home? It is ironic that pure, unconditional love provokes anger in some people.  

God's Love Inspires Love for Others-

The second irony is that, when we accept God's unconditional love for us (and only then), we can truly love others. One might expect us to sit back and bask in God's love, but that is not what happens. When we know that our own lives are secure in God, we are free to turn our attention and affection away from ourselves, and to help our neighbors. Christian charity is never the good people, the right
people, telling the bad people, the wrong people, how to live. Never. It is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. And when loving is undertaken in that spirit, it never fails. And great things are accomplished.  

Caring for an Abandoned Child

Bishop Ernest Fitzgerald walked up the front steps of his church, in Winston Salem North Carolina, one evening and found a little, two-year old boy, crying and pushing on the church door. Before he realized what was happening, he heard the squeal of tires and saw an old, beat up car pull away from the curb and hurry down the street. The little boy was being abandoned. He took the child inside and tried to comfort him. As the congregation arrived, they were told what had happened. The word got out, and by the end of the evening, there were so many bundles of clothes, and blankets, and so much food that they filled the front hall of that church. And also, by the end of the evening, six families had come forward and offered to take the little fellow in and care for him indefinitely. A Winston Salem newspaper got hold of the story, and the next morning the headline read: "Someone trusted the church last night, and the church came
through." What wonderful words to describe such a human tragedy, and such a wonderful response to it. I would suggest that all that outpouring, all the generosity, did not come about simply because some good people did the right thing. More than that. I think they saw
themselves in that little boy, lost and alone this big, frightening world, and (because they were Christians) they knew that God had taken them in many times, sheltered them beneath the shadow of his wings, taken them back even when they had sinned against him. So that kind of foolish love had become a prototype among them. God's love becomes the model for our love. And his love asks no questions, thank goodness!  

Amazing Grace -

Every time I feel like that older brother, and want to talk about who deserves what, I remember that the party God threw for me, and continues to throw, was and is utterly undeserved. I'm only wearing this ring, and this robe and these shoes, because my Father forgives even before I repent. That's the horse I came in on. We shouldn't lose track of our early faith.