Title: “The Search”
Scripture: Luke 15:1-10
9/12/04 15th Sunday after Pentecost, Yr. C
Rev. Joy R. Haertig
In acting out the parable of the woman searching for the lost coin and the shepherd looking for the lost sheep I could bodily experience the joy of the discovery! “Yes! Here it is!”
That wonderful moment when whatever it is you have been searching for or working towards, struggling over - whatever it is you have lost - is found. A moment when your whole being breathes a sigh of relief.
While finding the lost coin reminded me of joyous moments, the search itself - the sweeping, the looking high and low- well, it seemed frustrating. A poor use of my time. An unfortunate mishap. Something I had to do because I in my own stupidity had lost it in the first place.
But, taking the story further in my imagination, while I am busy with all of that inner frustration and angry self-talk, sweeping my way through the house, I do end up finding other things I had lost without even knowing it.
A few important bills that had fallen behind the desk, a picture of my children I have always cherished had gotten knocked over and landed behind the dresser where it had been gathering dust for months.
As I swept I found that dust-bunnies had long since turned into dust-doggies, it is no wonder my allergies had been bothering me and the kids were always sneezing. My house had needed a good cleaning and I had been putting it off for a long time.
Now because I was choosing to search for that coin, these things were being found and cared for. Now our home is not really that dirty of course! But the point I am trying to make is that -
There is value in the search itself, not only in the finding. As hard and as uncomfortable the search can sometimes be - there is value in the search itself and I think we often neglect or forget that. We only see the work, the cost; the potential frustration. And as far as where God is in the searching, we often feel only absence, when I believe it is possible to begin to see that God is part of the search itself.
Now - it will seem like I am going to take a little side-street for a moment with my reflections - please bear with me, I will come back…
A few weeks ago we had “Ask the Pastor Sunday”. You gave me a good theological grilling and it was unfortunate that our time was so short because your questions were inspiring and thoughtful.
I want to come back to those questions here and there, whether in a newsletter article or a sermon. This week three of them came to my mind as I lived with the parables of the lost sheep and coin. The questions were:
Each of these questions is really a sermon in itself but in brief -
1. Finding your way back when you have lost the path? I would suggest that rather than worrying about trying to get back to your “old path” it may be time to put your energy towards a new one. The “old” one may be worn out and a change as simple as sitting somewhere new to pray or taking a walk in the woods rather than staying inside, might be just the change one needs to awaken your inner life.
2. Questioning the existence of God and one's faith? Underneath a question like this are often other issues - I have found that when I find myself doubting the existence of God it is often a sign of personal burn-out or deep discouragement. It is a sign that I need a good dose of self-care. This kind of struggle can also happen if you spend too much time in front of the evening news or reading the paper. I believe in staying informed, but it is important to balance your information with the wonderful gifts that are all around us that we won't find in the news.
The other question I would invite the person to ponder is whether they want their spiritual focus to be philosophical or relational. The question is very philosophical in nature, so I would invite you to ponder what kind of relationship you would like to have with God and encourage you to take responsibility for establishing it on a daily basis.
And finally, when it comes to thanking God when things go our way and wondering what to do when they don't - leads us to other questions as well. Do you believe that God works for you or through you? A vital question for us to ponder time and again.
And if you believe in free will, then when things are not going “our way” it is important for us to be honest with ourselves about our part in it and to try and stay open to what we may need to learn or change.
Now I am going to veer back to my main message -
Putting all three of these questions together I see a theme similar to what I saw in today's parables - the importance of the search in our faith life.
When it comes to spirituality, I have come to believe that times of being lost or questioning our faith or the existence of God or pondering what to do or what it means when things are not going our way - are all necessary and a given in a life of faith. The trick is learning to value these aspects of the path - it is like learning to value the search for that which is lost. The search, the questioning, the losing - is as valuable as the finding, as the knowing, as the times when faith feels sure and easy.
Learning to value the process or the searching itself also frees us from judging when things are going our way or not going our way as good or bad. It becomes one big package, if you will, all necessary and all okay. I do not recommend a spirituality that is based on the idea that if you live right, God will bless you with all good things, and if you live wrong, God will get you. It is just not that simple.
Author Wayne Muller writes: “Jesus began his Sermon on the Mount by saying “blessed are”. Blessed are the poor. Blessed are those who mourn. He did not say “Blessed will be the poor when they finally achieve a certain level of economic independence.” He did not say “blessed will be those who mourn after they have endured their period of unspeakable grief and received support from their clergy or family.” He said blessed are. Blessed, blessed, blessed. Not later. Not when their trials are over. Not when they are fixed. Right here, right now. There is a blessing for you here, now, in this very moment.”
If we can learn how to value the search, we learn to practice gratitude and trust God's blessing through it all. We also learn to be gentle with ourselves and where we are at any particular time.
One of the things I appreciate about the Gospel of Luke is how his parables are so homey, earthy - about real people doing everyday kinds of things. They are not lofty, unimaginable, too good to be true kind of people.
It is thought that he is trying to redirect early Christian thinking away from the focus being on the “end time” - and instead draw people's attention to the ongoing process of learning to live as Christians in our daily lives. He surely knew that this was not easy nor as black and white as the Pharisee's tried to make it. He knew that it is an ongoing process of searching and finding, sorting and changing and searching again.
The woman searching for the lost coin and the shepherd searching for the lost sheep can speak to us about many things, but for today, they speak to me of the value of our spirituality in all of its various seasons; ebbs and flows.
They show to us the value of searching and searching for even the littlest of things and how looking for one thing might lead us to discover something else we might not have even known we had lost.
How else can we live in such a complex world as children of God and citizens of this country and world without searching, asking, wondering and struggling?
My prayer is that we might learn to value the seeking as much as the finding.
Amen.