Reflection by The Rev'd Dr Deborah Broome

Being lost and found 

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.  “Or 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? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”                                                                                                     Luke 15:1-10

Jesus told lots of parables, quirky stories that make us think.  These ones are stories of being lost and found.  Lost because a sheep wandered off without noticing where it was going, lost like the coin because someone or something dropped it and didn’t notice where it ended up.  In spite of the closing refrain about angels rejoicing these aren’t actually stories about repentance.  The lost sheep and the lost coin don’t have to “repent” from being lost.  The emphasis is all on the commitment of the finder – of the man searching for the lost sheep, of the woman turning the house upside down to find the lost coin.

The woman and the man are God-figures.  They both keep on searching.  The woman doesn’t just search one room, but the whole house.  She doesn’t just search for an hour and then give up, going and moaning to her friends about her poverty and her bad luck.  The man doesn’t give up either.  He doesn’t say “well I guess ninety-nine sheep are enough, I can make do with that.”  And he doesn’t just search in all the safe easy places, the places where he can sit and wait for the sheep to wander back – he keeps on going, keeps on searching until he finds the lost sheep and carries it home again.  Sometimes that bothers people – especially if they can’t recall having been lost themselves and instead identify with the group of non-wanderers, like the parable’s original audience of Pharisees and scribes.  But it’s the man’s willingness to go after the one that gives the ninety-nine security: if leaving behind one lost one is okay then each individual in the group could be left wondering how much he or she would be valued.

The woman and the man are models for the persistence of God, keeping on searching until the lost is found and brought home.  We have a searching God, utterly committed to seeking and finding again.  When do we show that kind of persistence?  When do we carry on looking for others – the angry, the grieving, those weighed down by what life’s done to them or puzzled by where they’ve ended up when they thought they were on the road to somewhere else?   And what might being found look like – for them and for you?