“Faithful Answers—I Feel Lost:” Jeremiah 15:15-21; Matt.18: 12-14
In the 1980s, parents became acutely aware of a new struggle in the world of parenting—stranger danger. It was the idea that basically any stranger, and particularly male strangers, were a threat to kids. The fear was that these men or women would snatch or kidnap a child, harm them, abuse them, and so on. As the years have gone on, we’ve realized there’s more an equal balance of threat between known individuals and strangers to a child’s safety. I grew up in the height of the stranger danger fear, so when someone asks if my mother ever lost me in a crowded area, I can say absolutely not.
“Why is this?” you might ask. There was an absolutely terrible device invented to help parents keep track of their children. And it was, in essence, putting your children on a leash…like a pet. And I remember vividly having the Velcro wrist band around my wrist that attached by a cord to my mother’s wrist. With that level of attachment, there was no way I was going to get gone. You heard it here folks…I was one of the children on a leash.
We all have these moments where we feel lost and like we need a leash or more like a lifeline. This isn’t lost in the sense of missing out on salvation lost, but just a little too alone in life. Some of us find ourselves starting over. Some of us find ourselves figuring out how to live life in our seventies and eighties. Some of us have school finishing up and new things looming on the horizon. And some of us may have wandered down roads that have taken us places which bother us deep in our souls. But at one time or another, we have all felt a bit lost in life.
Today’s Gospel lesson comes in the long discourse where Jesus teaches folks how to live together with one another. Other topics in Matthew 18 include the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, correcting another believer, and the unforgiving debtor. All of these are tough lessons on life and living in a world that often presents challenging times to us. Growing up, I was always taught this short lesson on the lost sheep meant Jesus would leave all the saved sheep and go find the unsaved one to bring it home to the holy fold, then rejoice.
I don’t think that’s the right interpretation. The sheep is not lost in that he doesn’t have faith. The sheep was already part of the fold and belongs to the shepherd. He just found himself wandering around and suddenly lost away from the others. It’s like every parent’s dreaded nightmare—their child lost at Wal-Mart. This parable not a question of where your faith ultimately is; it’s a question of direction. The shepherd hunts for this sheep both because he loves this sheep and because the shepherd fears for the safety of a sheep who is left alone.
This tells us two things—first, love continually reaches out. I am sure that on the way back to the other 99, the shepherd grumbled under his breath fussing at that sheep for wandering off. But it was from a place of love. The shepherd could have said, “It’s just one sheep,” and not cared about the fate of the missing one. But in loving all of the herd, and in a practical sense, needing them, the shepherd hunted diligently for that sheep. We do the same. Love keeps us grounded in caring, reaching out, and connected, even when our loved on is wandering off and getting into trouble by being a hot mess.
Love keeps us engaged in a world that needs to know God’s unconditional, but still accountable love and grace as shown from us. But it’s also a reminder that we need faith connections. That one sheep—off and alone and by himself—is much more vulnerable and dangerous than if he is with the other 99 and protected by a strong shepherd. You show me a church member or a whole church that has left their place of worship or denominational home, and I will offer to you where that connection was lost, the community was severed, and isolation (usually self-isolation) became the norm. These are the two things we must remember when we feel lost that love continually seeks us and community or connection is a place of safety because being isolated from the fold of God is not safe.
The words in Jeremiah echo a strong sense of what it feels like to be alone and lost in life. The pleadings are hard to hear: help me, don’t let me die young, I am suffering, I am alone, and God you seem to not care—where are you? I am sure at some time or another we have all prayed these cries for help. When we are alone and have wandered off and we become isolated, life gets more fearful. A friend of mine used to say, “I can face anything in life, so long as I don’t have to face it alone.” Having this family of faith where the flock is held together and strong with one another keeps us strong, keeps us safe, and keeps us thriving as God’s people.
In those times we feel the same, and our voice cries out from the lostness within, we hear the same comforting words that God spoke in Jeremiah’s lesson: speak good words rather than worthless ones, God is with you to protect and rescue you, and God will keep you safe and secure. Jeremiah often felt lost and abandoned between the harsh prophecies God was sending and the scorn of the people to whom he was prophet. But always, God was with him, and when he felt most alone, God reminded him both of his mission and the holy presence that went with him. The trouble with Jeremiah’s writing is in the first little bit of reassurance. We know what being safe and secure means. We know God will protect. From the moment we set foot in church, we’ve heard that preached. But that first part, “If you speak good words rather than worthless ones, you will be my spokesman,” is a bit more complicated and challenging.
One of the biggest ways we avoid becoming lost is by guarding the words we say. Too often we get “mouthy” as I heard it described growing up. As people of God we are called to speak life, speak hope, speak redemption. In some ways the church has become lost because it has substituted its own words and thoughts for the words God has given us. How often do God’s people grumble and complain instead of speaking words of hope and grace? How often do we prophesy our own negativity whether it’s true or not? How often do we follow along with every single sparkly idea instead of following the path and will that God has given us. In the Hebrew scriptures, a common theme is that when the people turned their hearts, their minds, and their words from the truth of God’s word and direction God gave, they wandered away and became lost.
A friend of mine is a pastor in a rather difficult church and difficult town. The church folks are perfectly fine, but he’s watching the church slowly fade away. The town is a nice town and it’s over-saturated with several churches from the denomination my mother calls “the church of what’s happening now.” Over the past year, his will to minister, to preach, and to lead has all but left him. For a brief time, his words and conversations were dismal on a good day and painful on a bad day. His mind had wandered and there was nothing, seemingly, left for him to carry on with this ministry work. His mind and ability were still there, but his fire and his desire were gone. I think that’s a lasting symptom for the church post-Covid, unfortunately.
But one day the conversation changed. He said, “I read these words in Jeremiah over and over…’If you return to me, I will restore you. If you speak good words rather than worthless ones, you will be my spokesman.’” It was a reminder for him. His heart was still there, even if his mind had wandered off. And the same God who was with him all the way, was waiting, seeking, and searching for him to come back home.
In our walk of faith, it’s sometimes easy to get sidetracked and wander off. God doesn’t exactly keep us on a leash like the parents of the 90s did. But this short, two-verse parable is in the Gospel to remind us that when we feel the most lost and lonely, God is still there seeking us, calling us back, and ready to receive us with wide open, welcoming arms. The safest and best place for us to be is near to the heart of God.
Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/759468552572842