Pentecost 16

Pentecost 16 Holy Cross Sunday (Luke 15:1-10

I have found what was lost.

Jesus came to seek, to find, and to restore the lost.

The Biblical writers observe that the fundamental problem that defines the human race is separation from God. In our choice to separate from God we are now lost. Not only are we lost but we can’t find our way back. Even worse, we stubbornly refuse to be found.

The parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin illustrate this for us. Only the shepherd can find the lost sheep. The sheep has wandered off and cannot find its way home. Only the woman can find the lost coin for the coin is lost in her house and only she knows the house well enough to explore the hidden cracks and recesses where the coin lies.

Our Heavenly Father sent his co-eternal Beloved son into the world to seek the lost who refuse to be found. Human beings willfully and stubbornly hide from God yet yearn for a greater meaning and purpose in life that God alone can fufill.
Some people hide from God in religion. Jesus did not come to address the issue of which religion and which sect within that religion is the way to God. God so loved the world that he did not send a prophet to create a religion. God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son to be the Way by which the lost can be found.

Some people hide from God in philosophy or science. Some people hide from God in their pursuit of pleasure, possessions, prestige or power. Some people hide from God by defining God out of existence. Some people hide from God by saying all paths to God and all names of God are equally valid and equally efficacious. We create consumer driven cafeteria style religion.


God did not send his only begotten Son into the world to found a philosophical school, to debate scientific theories, or to affirm some human right to define life, the universe, other people and God himself according to our individual whims and desires.

God sent Jesus Christ into the world to seek the lost, to find the lost, and to restore the lost to what the lost chose to abandon and refuse to accept. In Jesus Christ God permanently and irrevocably unites his divinity with our humanity.
In Jesus Christ God finds us so we can find ourselves. As we find ourselves in Christ we discover the Great Mystery of divine love and compassion. We begin to live life in a new way, the way God intended for us when he created us.

The sign and symbol of this new life and this new way of living is the cross. The cross is a symbol of death, rebirth and transformation. Christ took the preeminent symbol of death, embraced it, experienced it fully, conquered it, then transformed it. He has done the same for each of us.

Our Heavenly Father has already found us and forgiven us in Jesus Christ. No religion, philosophy, science or mysticism can accomplish this. God has already done all of the work. God is not an idea to debate. He is not a power to manipulate. He does not play favorites with the various nations, tribes, families and individuals in the world. Jesus is the gift of Divine Love to all people.

Divine love is eternal. Divine love is the very nature of God. Divine love is not just an attribute of God. There is no way we can earn God’s love. There is no way we can lose God’s love. God is love. Jesus Christ is the co-eternal Beloved Son of God seeking the lost, finding the lost who stubbornly refuse to be found , restoring the lost to the original blessing we chose to reject, transforming the lost in the Joy of the finding.

The lost sheep simply accepted the shepherd who found it and rejoiced over it. The lost coin simply accepted the woman who found it and rejoiced over it. Only human beings stubbornly refuse to be found by the one God the Father has sent into the world to seek and to find.

During this church age it is our responsibility as servants of Christ to remind all people everywhere that God pours himself out to them in Jesus Christ. The ongoing work of the church is to cooperate with the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks to every one in the world and he speaks the one word who is the co-eternal word of God: Jesus.

The church is not called to convert. Conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit. The church is called to share the Good News that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ. The church is called to evangelize the world one person at a time by offering all people everywhere the gift of God in Jesus Christ.
Do you seek God? Then rejoice, for God has already found you in Jesus Christ. His arms are wide open to welcome you into the new life of eternal love and into the new way of living that is holy and wholesome and transforming.

Do you reject the very concept of God? Then rejoice. Jesus has already found you. You have already rejected so much of what so many people use to hide from the living God. You have rejected the false images and self serving religions that people use to assert their will to power. Relax into the awareness of what you can observe. Jesus is there. He is there in every sunrise, forest, star, subatomic particle. He is the pattern by which, through which, and for which the world of matter, energy, time and space were created.

Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and savior? Then rejoice. For you have not chosen him; he has chosen you. You are the beloved of the co-eternal Beloved. You are now on a path of discovery, adventure, and infinite possibilities as you relax into the Divine Love of Jesus Christ, as you surrender to the transforming Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit.

The great joy of the Holy Trinity is in the words of Jesus Christ as he looks at his church and says: I have found what was lost.