He Seeks Us when we Don’t Even Think we are Lost

SERMON BY: Pastor Lohn Johnson,  Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Text:  Luke 15: 3 So he told them this parable:  4 "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?  5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.'    INTRODUCTION:   My dear friends in Christ, I’d like to introduce you to a friend this morning – his name was Bandit.    He looks a bit like a bandit, doesn’t he. He was a gift to Felicia early in our stay in Saskatchewan.  She had had a husky before and loved them.  It seemed like an appropriate dog for Canada.  He rapidly became part of our family.  We even called him Danielle’s older brother.  He was a very good dog – good with children, gentle in spite of his wolf-like appearance.  But like most pets he had a flaw.  He wanted to run – he had to run.  I guess it was part of his nature.  Like Houdini he could escape almost any enclosure.  Once he ran and we found him under an overpass, shaking.  But the scariest escape happened after we moved to Colorado.  We were about to go on vacation and of course we couldn’t take Bandit.  We entrusted him to a family who lived out on a ranch.  We warned them that he must be chained.  He would run.  But they were used to farm dogs running free all the time.  One time, and it only took one time, they let him go free and he was gone.  We got home to disturbing news when we came home.  Bandit was lost.  They were very apologetic.  We looked, we looked.  He was gone for six weeks.  By then we had written him off.  Then someone found him.  He was skin and bones and the people who found him took him to a vet.  The vet recognized that he had been cared for, but only one tag on his collar was left.  But it was enough.  It was like a miracle.  The lost was found and we rejoiced.  Bandit was home at last.
I. After reading our text for today I thought about Bandit.  How like Bandit we are.  No we don’t always have a nature to run, but we have a nature to sin.  It is our nature to be lost because of our sin.  Two examples give us a bit of an idea of our nature to be lost because of our sin.
	A. A bee flew into the car one day while the family was stopped at a traffic light. Try as they might to get it out through an open window, it insisted on buzzing blindly into the windshield. When the family got home, they tried again to get it to leave, but this only made the bee buzz angrily against the rear window. Again and again, the family tried to direct the bee outside through the open windows and doors. Yet, each time it evaded them. Afraid of injuring the bee by trying any further, the family left the car with the windows open and parked it next to a flowering vine, hoping this would entice the bee to freedom. Alas, the next morning they found the little creature dead on the back dash under the rear window, mortally exhausted from its desperate efforts. This poor bee was so sure it had the answer to its dilemma and so it buzzed with greater and greater intensity into the window. It stubbornly maintained that it could solve its own problem, when the truth was that the bee's way got it nowhere. All the bee had to do to reach the flowers outside the car was to fly out the window.  But it couldn’t get past what it thought was right.    How often are we just like that little bee—locked into what we think is right so much it becomes our doom.  Just like that little bee we are lost and we can’t help ourselves.
	B. Much is made of how men will not ask for directions when lost.  One TV show captured this for us.  [video: You Drive Me Crazy]  Tim could not admit his lost-ness.  Tim needed to be threatened to get him to realize he was lost.  God does a bit of this with His law – to show us our sin.
			1. We, like Tim try everything to maintain an illusion, a myth that God's search-and-rescue mission wasn't quite necessary. We're doing okay by ourselves, thank you very much.   2. As much as we don't like to admit it, we fall into the lost category, too.
				a. We don't like to hear this kind of message because we don't always FEEL lost. We haven't committed any of the BIG sins like murder or adultery or anything like that. We don't FEEL like sinners.   b. In our judgment, our sins don’t seem so bad, but the consequence is always the same. Sin is sin and it always causes alienation and separation from God. One of the prerequisites for being a Christian is being brought to admit that we are sinners who need to be forgiven; and being brought to admit that we are lost and need to be found.
II. What’s important to note is that the sheep was lost. And that meant someone else had to search for it. Likewise we are lost and someone has to search for us.  In a better way than we could search for Bandit.  As much as we like to use the phrase, we really can’t “Find Ourselves.”
		A. Fortunately for us, it is God’s nature to seek and find that which is lost.
			1. Henri Nouwen tells the story of an old man who used to meditate every morning under a big tree on the bank of the Ganges River. One morning, after he had finished his meditation, he saw a scorpion floating helplessly in the water. As the scorpion was washed closer to the tree, the old man reached out to rescue the drowning creature. As soon as he touched it, however, the scorpion stung him. Instinctively the man withdrew his hand. A minute later, though, he tried again. This time the scorpion stung him so badly that his hand became swollen and his face contorted with pain.  At that moment, a passerby saw the old man struggling with the scorpion and shouted: "Hey, stupid old man, what's wrong with you? Only a fool would risk his life for the sake of an ugly, evil creature. Don't you know you could kill yourself trying to save that ungrateful scorpion?" Looking into the stranger's eyes the old man said calmly, "My friend, just because it is the scorpion's nature to sting, that does not change my nature to save."   What a parable of the love and grace of God! Just because it is our nature to sin, does not change God's nature which is to save.   2. God is willing to get His hands dirty to get that lamb home. That’s who God is. That’s how much God cares. One little lamb goes astray, and God is willing to go through the briars and the brambles until He finds that one lost lamb. It’s a beautiful image that every Christian should cherish. It is great comfort that God cares about those who have gone astray.
		B. The Good News is that we have a God who doesn’t forget about the lost. God doesn’t write them off as sinners unworthy of redemption. He’s not like we were when we began to write off Bandit.  God’s love is too big for that.
			1. And that’s where the greatest Finder of them all, Jesus, comes in. He, himself, said He was sent into the world to find the lost. I read about a courageous man recently. Robert "Bobo" Bonadies was president of Connecticut Parachutists Inc. As president of this club he had conducted thousands of jumps from airplanes, and had instructed hundreds of students in the art of skydiving. He had a reputation for giving confidence to even the most timid students. But in May 2002, one of his jumps went horribly wrong. Bonadies was jumping with a new student named Cindy Hyland. Hyland had successfully completed two jumps under Bonadies' guidance. But on this day, Hyland lost the rip cord to her parachute. To protect her, Robert Bonadies grabbed hold of Hyland and held on, stabilizing her so she could untangle her rip cord. He knew at some point that he would have to let her go if he were to save himself. With Bonadies' help, Hyland's parachute finally opened. But Robert Bonadies ran out of time. He died instantly in the fall.   In 2003, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission named Robert Bonadies as a recipient of their Hero Award. Robert Bonadies knew the challenges and risks of skydiving. He knew the choice he was being asked to make. And when the time came, he chose to give his own life to save the life of another.
				a. And Jesus did an even greater thing for us.  He died on a cross in our place paying for our sin.    b. Now He gives us His sacrifice in Word and Sacraments. So Salvation is a gift. Salvation is not something we can do for ourselves, but something that has been done in our behalf.
			2. We are not worthy but that’s beside the point because God offers us redemption anyway.
				a. Through the love of God and the Sacrifice of Christ we are offered both Forgiveness and Redemption. That’s called Grace. That’s the only thing that commends us to God.  We are all sinners saved by grace.   b. A minister once asked a shepherd what images came to mind when he thought about the Lamb of God and the Good Shepherd. The shepherd replied, "Well, I’ll tell you, but it’s a bit graphic. Lambing time comes around every spring, and it’s the hardest time of year. We lose a lot of mother ewes and baby lambs during the birthing process. You would think that a mother lamb whose baby had died would look for a baby lamb to nourish. But that’s not what happens. The orphaned lambs will die if we don’t find substitute mothers for them. The good shepherd has only one choice: [to drain the blood] of the dead lamb and pour its blood over the orphaned lamb. When the grieving mother smells her baby’s blood on another lamb, she will accept the new baby lamb as her own flesh and blood. This is the baby lamb’s only chance for survival. That’s what I think of when I hear the words, ‘the Lamb of God and the Good Shepherd.’"   In our baptisms we are made His when we are washed in the Blood of the Lamb.  In a way the hand of God clutched us by the wooly scruff of the neck while we were clinging to a rocky crag of unbelief, and we're now safe in the fold.
	C. Now we hear about God’s love in passages like our text and that changes everything like this: [Finding Nemo]
			1. As Nemo heard of the extent of his father’s love and is changed, we hear about the Father’s love, and what Christ has done, it changes us.
				a. Now we know we are loved. b. Now we can love – a little bit like He loves.
			2. And it even changes how we react when we feel a little bit lost, like this: One pastor told a story years ago about an elderly gentleman who was out walking with his young grandson. “How far are we from home?” he asked the boy. The boy answered, “I don’t know, Grandpa.” Grandpa asked, “Well, where are we?” Again the boy answered, “I don’t know.” Then grandpa kind of laughed and said, “Sounds to me like you are lost.” The young boy looked up at his grandpa and said, “Nope, I can’t be lost. I’m with you.”
CONCLUSION: We are He is with us now.  He dwells in us.  We’re not lost anymore.  And we know we will live with him forever.  Yes, we are certainly found in a much better way than Bandit was found.   Amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.   Amen