For Sunday, September 11, 2016 – Luke 15:1-10
– Luke 15:1-10
Having just squeezed through the narrow gate of suddenly losing my mom, the heart of our family, the power strip who kept the rest of us plugged in and connected, it was quite challenging to hear Jesus say in last Sunday’s gospel passage that if we come to him and do not “hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself,” we cannot be his disciple. To live, we must be ready to die. To reach the life that is truly Life, we must move away from our familiar relationships and comforts and lay claim to a future we have only begun to be given.
Such is the seriousness of the journey Jesus calls us to embark upon with him. This will be no idle stroll, but an arduous climb, a heartfelt search. Willingly we leave other valuables behind. Our precious securities—is it our family, financial resources, privileges, promises?—we leave for the hope of finding what otherwise could be forever lost. The shepherd leaves 99 sheep to find the one. The woman leaves nine coins to find the one. What abundance do I need to leave? What assurance of plenty will I sacrifice for the uncertain hope of finding what has been lost? For the sake of it, will I turn from my busy little life to search for the singular Life that following Jesus promises?
Notice that when the one lost sheep is found, when the one lost coin is found, joy erupts beyond all expectation. Friends and neighbors are called, no mention of family—perhaps they are one and the same now?—and an impromptu party unfolds. The 99 and the 9 are not unimportant. They, too, have value and always will. Old relationships are what they are, and give us what they can, but we are learning not to depend on them to satisfy our core desires. When we say yet again ‘yes’ to the Jesus journey, we turn from the reserves we have accumulated, not because they have failed us but because we are learning to love what is missing—the hidden heart of what matters most. We are learning to love even what we might not realize we have lost. We are learning not to go out hunting for our own happiness but to let the joy we thought we had lost find us.
