September 16, 2007: BLESSING OF THE ANIMALS
Luke 15:1-10, Psalm 8
Eileen Parfrey -- Springwater Presbyterian Church

The whole Bible can be boiled down to three words. Everything else is commentary. The words are . . .wait for it . . .lost, found, party. Today's scripture lesson, exactly. And Jesus' quaint parables aren't just for the first century. Drive through any urban neighborhood, stop at any country intersection, and you'll see poles covered with signs. "Beloved pet missing" or "Have you seen this child?" I was recently introduced to a friend's young daughter as, "This is Sara, our finder-child." I was then regaled with stories about the keys, glasses, and missing earrings Sara had found, the obscure cushions and hidey-holes she had turned over in her search for the missing.

Most kids are good finders. My friend Joseph, however, claims to be the master at losing. Not garden variety losing, "Where are my glasses?" only to find them on top of your head. He's good at that, too, but he believes he has brought the art to a new level. When he took a self-guided tour in the Holy Land during Lent this year, he had two experiences that clinched his master title. He had checked into his hotel, the staff had carried his bags to his room, he'd settled in, now it was time to get a bite to eat. But Joseph could not leave the room until he found the key. He tore everything apart, going so far as to take off his clothes to shake out the pockets. He was hungry, it was getting dark, but he could not leave until he had the key. Finally, like the woman with ten coins, he had to switch on the light. Which is when he found the room key-as part of the light switch. Not just, "It's always the last place you look," this was the gospel story's "shed some light on the subject."

On that same trip, Joseph had driven to a small town on the Mediterranean, where he parked the car in order to take a walking tour of the town. After immersing himself in thousands of years of history, it was time to go back to the hotel. The problem was-you guessed it-he couldn't find his car. Up one row and down another of that parking lot, he grew ever more frantic. He even scrolled through the photos in his camera, thinking to find some clue there. Nothing. In growing panic he approached a shopkeeper. Which was silly, because neither spoke the other's language. But through gestures and Body Hebrew, Joseph was able to convey his dilemma. The shopkeeper was sympathetic, offering suggestions through gesture and Body English, until at about the same time the light bulbs went on for them both. There are two parking lots in that town. Joseph hurried off to his car with the two of them laughing for joy. Lost, found, party!

Exactly what happened to the woman and the sheep owner in our parables today. Both were people of some means. A hundred sheep is a good-sized flock, but it's not the hired hand out looking for the lost one, it's the boss, the flock owner out there. The woman had ten silver coins. Not copper. Not ten denarii, ten days of wages. She not only had ten coins at once, they were silver. Neither the woman nor the owner lived in the destitution typical of first century peasants. These two who had lost were people of some means. But even though they had some means, even though they undoubtedly could have sent others to find what they'd lost, they themselves went looking.

Jesus' parables are not directed to the losers. They are told in answer to criticism from the religious elite, the people of means-both economic and religious means. They're addressed to the ones criticizing Jesus for hanging out with losers, the folks who oughta be looking for the lost. Not the sheep owner with the one precious lamb, but a whole flock of one hundred. Not the woman who wasn't getting by on two small coppers, but the woman whose house contains ten silver coins. The middle class Americans of the ancient world. People like us. Jesus' parable pointedly asks, "Who are you not going out to seek? Whom are you treating as if they are expendable?" The sheep owner and the woman were both acutely aware of their inventory. They knew when something was missing. It seems that the Pharisees' and scribes' inventory control left something to be desired. The question is just as pertinent today. Where are the "Lost pet" and "Have you seen this child?" posters the church oughta be putting up?

Lost, found, party-indeed. But if that's the case, who still isn't here, and what business do we have starting the party without them? Revivals and tent meetings and evangelism crusades are good things, but the conclusion we've drawn from them is that God is only interested in individuals. By emphasizing personal salvation, we good religious folks-those of us with some religious "means"-we have come to think it's only "me and my salvation." Today's parables beg to differ. The sheep owner feels so strongly about one sheep separated from the rest of the gang that this one needs his personal attention until the whole flock is reunited. The woman with the missing coin drops everything to return the errant one to the rest. Why not wait until morning to look? Why party when it's found? Because it's about restoration of the community, healing the broken community.

Animals can teach us a few things. When Rick and I return home, even if it has only been an hour, we are greeted extravagantly. As we come in the door, our dog Sadie carries on as if she had been holding her breath until we returned. Lost, found, party! If the question for us today is, "Who is missing?" Jesus suggests we drop everything to search. Don't hire someone else to do it. Go look yourself! And when we find the missing, we're supposed to have a party. What troubles me about these parables is how very pertinent they are to the here-and-now. If we aren't out looking, does that mean no one is missing? Maybe we think we've hired staff to do the looking for us. That sure doesn't seem to be the case in the parable. And it doesn't look to me as if all of the lost have been found. Maybe we aren't looking because we've forgotten what it's like to be lost. Maybe we're just so comfortable with having been found that inventory control has slipped. Friends, today's parables criticize people like us. No one wants to hear that. The only thing that makes it possible to hear this is that the message still applies. It is still all about lost, found, party. Even people like us. Even if "we once were lost but now we're found" (as the song says). One reason we get together each week is to remember that we were, in fact, the lost ones. And having been found, we form a search party. Don't you love that? A search party. We sure are going to have a party. After all, it's what they're doing in heaven! That the community has been restored.