Feeling Lost

The shepherd calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.'" Luke 15

In a time when the noise of politics and division, social pressure and endless expectations of Instagram perfection seem to drown out peace, it's easy to feel lost, alone, separate. But, here's the good news: feeling lost is not the end of the story—it’s the beginning of being found.

This week, we have two short parables of Jesus that speak to that sense of separateness and that hold out the promise of being found: the story of the lost sheep and the story of the lost coin. In both stories, something of great value goes missing—a sheep wanders away from the flock, and a coin is dropped somewhere in the dark corners of a home. But here’s the beautiful part: the shepherd doesn’t sit back and say, “Oh well, I’ve still got 99.” The woman doesn’t shrug her shoulders and say, “I’ve got nine more.” No, both search with intention, with passion, and with love.

Jesus told these stories to remind us of something critical: We are deeply seen, deeply loved, and desperately pursued by a God who does not rest until we are found.

And yet, that is not often how people experience church. Many newcomers remark on feeling so welcomed the first few Sundays they worship with us, invited to sit with 'old-timers' at Coffee Hour, until the old-timers return to fellowship as usual, and our new friends feel lost, alone at a table in a full parish hall. Or perhaps it's a parishioner who hasn't attended worship in several years and feels that none of their church friends seem to notice their absence; how difficult it is to rejoin a community that seems to have forgotten you.

Saint John's longs to be a community where the lost come to be found, come to feel cherished by a family that believes them to be infinitely precious. So as we end our summer schedule with a Brunch Celebration, as we return to two worship services next week, I urge you to look for the lost. Who is sitting alone? Who haven't you seen for quite some time? Then, go and search with the heart of a shepherd who has lost one sheep, or the diligence of a woman searching for a missing coin. I'm confident that you will find much joy when you recover a relationship that has been lost.

Blessings,

Rev Jill