Year C
 Exodus 32:7-14
 Psalm 51:1-11
 1 Timothy 1:12-17
 Luke 15:1-10

May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

Have you ever…  before GPS…  driven somewhere and gotten lost…  have you ever gotten directions from someone who thought they knew where the new French bakery was…  but didn’t…  and you had to ask one or two more people before you got there…  but it was so worth it…  have you ever missed a turn without realizing it…  and driven way out of your way…  before discovering that you were lost…  and then…  what did you do to find your way back… to get back on the right road… 

In 1958…  when I was five years old…  my parents drove from our home in Long Island…  to my grandparent’s home in Brooklyn…  I had fallen asleep in the back seat…  and when we arrived…  the weather was pleasant enough…  and we were on the right road…  but my parents had to park several houses down…  so they just opened the windows…  and left me there in the car…  I don’t know how much time passed before I woke up…  but when I did…  although I knew where we were going…  nothing looked familiar…  and I didn’t know where I was…  I was lost…  and scared…  and it took a while before my screams led my parents to me…  and when they found me…  in my own little five-year-old way…  I rejoiced…

But finding our way isn’t limited to geographic coordinates…  or to specific gravel paths…  or paved roads or highways…  ? is it…  finding our way is more often an interior journey as we discern new paths forward…  or figure out which metaphorical fork in the road to take…  and finding our way usually takes time…  we may need to find our way forward after a divorce…  or the death of a partner…  after moving to a new city…  after being laid off…  finding our way can take weeks…  or years…  but finding a new way isn’t just something individuals do…  it happens in businesses…  in social organizations…  it even happens in churches…  and after pandemics…

Chapter 14 in Luke’s Gospel…  the chapter just before this morning’s…  ends this way…  let anyone with ears to hear…  listen…  and this morning’s Chapter 15 begins            this way…  all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus…  the Greek word which is translated as listen…  doesn’t simply mean to hear…  it’s not just about compressed waves of air beating against our eardrums…  it also means to heed…  or to obey…  so while the text says that they were coming to listen to Jesus…  we know that it was often the marginalized and outcasts who heeded and obeyed him…

But we don’t listen only with our ears…  do we…  we also listen with our hearts…  and the Psalm we read this morning…  is the same Psalm we hear on Ash Wednesday…  written by a psalmist who realized that God looks for truth deep within us…  and will help us understand wisdom secretly…  in a place that is accessible only to ourselves…  our hearts… 

But the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling… because Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them…  T. Denise Anderson…  the Director of Racial Equality and Women’s Intercultural Ministries at the Presbyterian Church USA writes…  the Greek word metanoia…  is often translated as repent…  but it’s made up of two Greek words which mean after thought…  or think again…  it means to change one’s mind…  to stop one course of action and turn towards another…  and if we go back to our passage from Exodus for a moment…  even though we think of God as rock steady and eternally unchanging…  God repented…  God had a second thought…  Moses appealed to God’s inclination towards relationship…  and so God models what it looks like to change one’s mind for the purpose of restoring and strengthening relationships… 

In the story about the lost sheep…  the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine…  and goes after the one…  the one who is lost…  but who is the shepherd…  and what does being lost mean…  in the story about the lost coin…  the woman loses a silver coin…  the Greek word that’s translated as coin is drachma…  and one drachma was equal to a day’s wage…  and I doubt that if any one of us lost a day’s wage…  that we’d be OK with that…  no…  we’d look in pockets and purses…  and we’d empty drawers…  turn the place upside down looking for it…  but who is the woman…  and what is the coin…

I suggest that the shepherd is Jesus…  or God…  and perhaps the sheep who is lost…  is one who has lost sight of his transgressions…  and whose sin is never before her…  sheep who have gone off on their own…  and are following the directions of their own GPS…  who have forgotten the value of community…  the value of consensus…  who have missed God’s mark for us…  and some of you may remember me explaining that missing the mark is an archery term…  and it’s translated from the Greek word hamartia…  as sin…  and perhaps the woman is the Holy Spirit…  and we are the coins of great value…  who are lost…  we…  who have great value…  but are lost…  and the Spirit searches high and low for us…  because the way in which we’re most lost…   is not knowing that we’re lost at all…  and we’re worth being found… 

But being sinners doesn’t mean that we’re bad people…  being a sinner just means that we’re human…  that we will fall short of God’s mark for us…  God knows us better than we know ourselves… but God’s focus isn’t on our sin…  God’s focus and desire for us is repentance…  that’s why there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance…  and when we repent…  it doesn’t mean that we’ll get everything right…  all we’ve got to do to repent is acknowledge to ourselves and eventually to each other that we’re all equal in God’s eyes…  and that will help us move closer to right relationship… 

We remember that today is the anniversary of 9/11…  and how horrific that day was…  but it’s worth knowing the number of people who died in gun violence two years ago…  was fifteen times that of those who died on 9/11…  so no…  we’re not yet in right relationship with each other…   we are still lost…  but it doesn’t matter how or why we got lost…  Jesus still searches for us…  the Holy Spirit still sweeps the corners for us…  and all God really cares about…  is that we turn towards God’s still small voice…  and listen with the ear of our hearts…  that we repent…  and turn towards beloved community…  that we turn away from thinking that we always get it right…  and embrace our imperfect humanity…  that we turn away from building ourselves into Towers of Babel only so we make a name for ourselves…  and turn towards finding our name in God…  because being found…  is like being seen…  being found…  is coming home…

There’s a Broadway musical that was made into a movie…  it’s Dear Evan Hansen…  and I want to end this morning with some of the lyrics from one of the songs…  called You Will Be Found… 

Have you ever felt like nobody was there? Have you ever felt forgotten in the middle of nowhere? Have you ever felt like you could disappear? Like you could fall, and no one would hear? Well, let that lonely feeling wash away. Maybe there’s a reason to believe you’ll be okay. ‘Cause when you don’t feel strong enough to stand, You can reach out your hand. And someone will coming running. And I know, they’ll take you home. ‘Cause even when the dark comes crashing through; When you need a friend to carry you; And when you’re broken on the ground; You will be found. So let the sun come streaming in, ’cause you’ll reach up and you’ll rise again. Lift your head and look around…  You will be found!