Lost and Found

Have you ever been on a flight where the airline lost your luggage?  That’s why I always put my jammies and some clean unmentionables in my carry-on bag.  Because it’s a helpless feeling when they lose your bags. Now in most cases, the lost piece of luggage is returned . . . eventually.  But every year, thousands of items are lost or left behind on America’s airlines and never claimed.  Eventually, all those lost things end up for sale at a store called the Unclaimed Baggage Center, located in tiny Scottsboro, Alabama.

Laptop computers, cell phones, clothing, jewelry – those are some of the more common items at the Center.  But forgetful passengers have also left behind such things as a bag of live rattlesnakes and a trunk of rare Egyptian artifacts.

One of the strangest items found in lost luggage at the Center was a guidance system for an F-16 fighter jet valued at a quarter of a million dollars. It’s an interesting store and has a four star rating on Tripadvisor.  So it might be worth a stop if you are passing through northeast Alabama.  It’s about a one hour drive south of Sewanee.

In today’s Gospel we hear about a woman who lost something: a valuable coin. Now it may be difficult for us to relate to that. After all, our coins are worth so little. We can’t imagine anyone going to such lengths to find a single coin.

But remember that Jesus begins the story by saying, “What woman having TEN silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?”

These ten silver coins Jesus referred to were valuable because of the sentiment attached to them. Back in Jesus’ day, when a man took a bride he would give her a ribbon on which would be strung ten coins. She would wear this token of love on her head even as women do in the Middle East today. Like a wedding band, these coins represented the marital relationship.

Often on each piece of silver the name of the husband would be engraved. If a woman was caught in adultery, if she were unfaithful to her husband, one of the coins would be taken out, leaving a gap to show that she had disgraced her marriage vows. Now you can understand why this woman was so frantically searching for the lost coin. It wasn’t as though she only lost a few shekels; her reputation and marriage were at stake. So the coin was incredibly valuable.

Fortunately, the woman did find the coin. And when she found it, she called together her friends and neighbors and said, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.” Then Jesus adds the moral to the story, “Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Of course, many of us identify with the other nine coins, the ones that were not lost. As Christians and church insiders, the idea that we need to repent is a bit of a stumbling block.

While working as a court-appointed attorney, Emory Potter was assigned a client who had been accused of criminal trespass. Mr. Potter probed his client with some general questions of background. He asked if he had any previous arrests or convictions. The man said, “Yes, sir. I’ve got quite a few.” The thorough attorney then asked, “Any felonies?” The man indignantly replied, “No sir! I specialize in misdemeanors!”

That sounds like many of us. We know in our minds that we sometimes mess up, but we specialize in misdemeanors not in felonies, in small errors, not in large ones. In our minds, ours are excusable acts. We’re a bit like the Pharisee who thanked God he wasn’t like the tax collector. His sins fell within the range of acceptability.

And yet, according to Jesus, there really is no such thing as a misdemeanor. To those who prided themselves on never committing adultery, Jesus said if you have looked upon a woman with lust, you have already committed adultery in your heart. To those who prided themselves that they had never committed violence, Jesus said that anyone who had ever bad-mouthed another person was in danger of the fires of hell.

Sin is an attitude of the heart. Just because you were never provoked enough to actually strike out at another human being does not mean you are innocent. Just because you have never been put in a situation where it became easy to cheat on your spouse does not mean your heart is pure. Sin is serious business. And it crouches in every heart eager to spring forward to devour homes, lives, and careers.

The good news is that God is always there, looking to save us – even when we don’t realize we need saving.

Henri Nouwen tells the story of an old man who used to meditate early 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 with its poisonous tail that his hand became swollen and bloody and his face contorted with pain.

At that moment, a passerby saw the fellow 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 replied, “My friend, just because it is the scorpion’s nature to sting, that does not change my nature to save.”

What a story of the love and grace of God! Although it is our nature to sin, it is God’s nature to save. He’s always reaching out to us.

In closing let me tell you the story of a cat appropriately named Cassie, which is short for Cassiopeia, a beautiful Greek goddess who was vain and full of herself.  Cassie lives at the Reese house.  While she has always slept on the bed in what we like to call the guest room, she has also recently claimed the bed in the room of our son Hamilton, who left for college a few weeks ago. So she now has two bedrooms all to herself.  In addition, she has taken it upon herself to occupy Hamilton’s kitchen chair for naps, usually during our meal times.  She has also trained her humans to feed her any time she approaches her food dish in the kitchen, pet her whenever she plops down on the newspaper or the computer keyboard, and let her in and out anytime she appears at the back door.

The amazing thing is that this thoroughly domesticated cat had been utterly wild for the first two years of her life. She lived under a neighbor’s car on Baltic Circle. She was a street cat living off whatever she could scrounge up.  But then my wife snatched her up and brought her to the rectory.

Over the past seven years the cat has been subjected to a shameful amount of pampering and indulgence. Cassie is a bit spoiled, to say the least. Now that cat did absolutely nothing to deserve the good life. Nevertheless, she’s livin’ large with Reese’s Pieces.

I can identify with Cassie. Maybe you can, too. You see, the grace I have received from God was not deserved. On numerous occasions I have indicated to God that I didn’t want to live by his rules. At times I have used people instead of loving them. At times the almighty dollar has ruled my life. At times I have despised certain people.

But God did not give up on me. He sought me just as my wife sought Cassie. God did everything he could to show me his love, but he would not trap me. God did everything to reach me except to take away my freedom to say no.  I had to realize I needed help and allow God to save me.

If you are among the lost this morning, there is someone who stands at the door of your heart knocking, asking to be let in. He seeks to give you new hope, new meaning, new joy. If, on the other hand, you are among those who have already said yes to Jesus, and you’re living the grace-filled life like Cassie the Cat, then God is asking you to care as He cares. He’s asking you to help him in the business of knocking on the doors of lost people’s lives.

You and I encounter such people every day. Some of them are our co-workers. Some of them are our friends.  Some of them are in our own family. We have a grand calling to care for the lost. And remember: There is rejoicing in heaven whenever one who is lost is found.