INTRODUCTION:
Major Barb Sherer, a fellow Presbyterian minister and chaplain in the United States Army, was in Iraq during the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Moments before worshipers arrived for Sunday service, a fire broke out and destroyed the tent. By a miracle, no one was hurt.
Later Chaplain Sherer returned to the charred remains of the tent where a guard retrieved for her a cup of ashes to be used in her Ash Wednesday service. As she sifted through the ashes to prepare them for the service, she found a silver cross amongst the ashes. In an article which Guide Post Magazine published, the Chaplain shares her excitement over this serendipitous find and what it meant to her there in war-torn Iraq.
I appreciate the Chaplain’s excitement because I know personally the thrill of stumbling across unexpected treasure and I know the joy of finding something that has long been lost.
Guess who else is appreciative of these lost and found experiences of life? That is right; our Lord Jesus Christ. In the narrative we have before us, he tells three parables to illustrate the joy which rises when something lost is found.
The three parables (one right after another) may seem like overkill. But that is not the case. Jesus is making an very important point which demands repetition. As a carpenter it was the tap, tap, tap of the hammer which drove home the nail. Now Jesus drives home the message of joy with his parabolic hammer: tap, tap, tap; a lost and found sheep, a lost and found coin, a lost and found son.
Ministers and Sunday School teachers have applied these parables over the years to the salvation message. Over and over again the story is told about how heaven rejoices when an unbeliever is plucked from the fire of hell. This certainly is a legitimate use of these parables. Jesus is definitely involved in the saving business. But Jesus is also involved in the finding business, and I think we miss a great opportunity for instruction when we do not apply these parables to this very important aspect of Jesus’ ministry.
Close examination shows a legal relationship already exists between the seeker and the sought in each of these parables. The sheep already belongs to the shepherd, the coin already belongs to the woman. The son, already belongs to the father.
And guess what? You and I already belong to Jesus. Paul declares in Ephesians 1:4: “Before the world was made, God chose us in Christ.” Think about that. Before the worlds were made God had you and me picked out. He stamped his name on us.
1. EVEN CHRISTIANS GET LOST!
Perhaps you can now see the relevance of these parables for you and me. You and I are in these stories. In each case, we are the Lord’s treasure. In the words of a well beloved gospel song: “Now I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me, not for the years of time alone, but for eternity”. We are the Lord’s Treasure, we Christians; but even Christians can lose their way!
And this losing our way is usually not a one time deal. A while ago we sang the much loved song “Amazing Grace”. Verse one declares “I ONCE was lost but now I’m found, was blind, but now I see." These thoughts are the perfect expression of my experience of God’s salvation. But they are not the perfect expression of my experience as a Christian pilgrim. As a Christian pilgrim, I must admit that I have been lost more than one time. And those of you who are willing to tell the truth about your journey will freely admit that you also have been lost more than once.
2. CHRISTIANS GET LOST WHEN THEY BECOME DISCONNECTED!
Getting lost...how does that happen? In the old testament lesson, an ax head gets lost because it flies off the handle. Has that ever happened to you? Speaking of flying off the handle, let me tell you a story:
Once there were two flies sitting in a kitchen. They looked down at the table and spotted a knife. On the handle of the knife was a tiny piece of baloney. The two flies excitedly flew down, landed on the knife handle, and ate the baloney. When they finished, they both flew off the knife handle and smashed into each other.”
What is the moral of that story? Don’t fly off the handle when you are full of baloney.
Putting aside the humor, flying off the handle is unfortunate whether you are full of baloney or not. The story of the ax head flying off the handle is a case in point. This event in II Samuel which took place when Elisha’s students were building a new dormitory, illustrates the danger of detachment. When the ax head becomes detached from the handle, it quickly gets lost; it sinks to the bottom of muddy Jordan and there it is good for nothing.
The parables in Luke 15 illustrate the same thing. When the prodigal son detaches himself from his family, he gets lost. The sheep is detached from the shepherd and it gets lost. The coin is detached from the woman, and it gets lost.
I brought with me a hoe which hopefully will leave with you a graphic reminder of how important it is for us Christians to stay attached to Jesus. This hoe is a paradigm of life. Just as you and I have a history this hoe has a history and it speaks volumes.
I found this hoe head 16 years ago. I was on a wilderness camp-out and I found it while digging a hole for a campfire. We were in an old farm field overgrown with some pretty big trees. Based on how large the trees were and how deep the ax head was buried, I think it is safe to say that it had been lying there for over a hundred years.
When I found it, it was covered with rust and mud. It was beyond recognition. And yes, it was missing the handle. There wasn’t even a trace of the handle left, which leads me to believe that this hoe head somehow became detached from its handle; and for that reason it was lost.
I submit to you this afternoon that this hoe head is a paradigm that illustrates how we Christians get lost in our spiritual journey. We become detached from Jesus. You see, we love to call Jesus savior, but Jesus is more than our savior. One of the earliest Christian confessions is this: “Jesus is Lord”. As long as Jesus remains Lord, he is in control of us. He has a handle on us. We are tools in his hand; effective tools which can work the fields of our great God and King.
When we fly off the handle for what ever reason, we break our connection with Jesus. He remains savior, but ceases to be Lord of our lives. When that happens we lose our usefulness. Like this hoe head buried twelve inches in dirt, we become buried in the miry clay of this world and are good for nothing.
3. HOW DO CHRISTIANS BECOME DISCONNECTED?
Sometimes we fly off the handle because we are hot headed. In other words, we don’t do what Isaiah 40:1 says we should do: “Wait upon the Lord”. What does that mean? Well it simply means to think before we act, to seek the advice of our Lord before we proceed. To pray before we prophesy.
When we get hot headed we don’t do that. Sure, we hold on to Jesus, the savior, but we let go of Jesus the Lord. Like athletes, wanting to get the edge on our opponents, we jump the gun. We fly off the handle and get lost. There are other ways that we become detached from Jesus. Sometimes it is political/theological issues. We become so attached to issues we get detached from Jesus and lost.
4. GOOD NEWS: JESUS SEEKS US AND FINDS US!
The good news is that Jesus remains our savior. And there is more good news. When we detach ourselves from Jesus the Lord, he takes on two brand new roles. He become Jesus, our Seeker and Jesus our Finder. He is the shepherd who leaves his 99. He is the woman who lights the candle and takes up the broom. He is the Loving Father, who sees us from a great distance and runs to meet us.
I cannot tell you that he will always find us the minute we get lost. But he will find us sooner or latter. The hoe head which stands before you was lost a hundred years before I found it. I hope it doesn’t take that long before the Savior finds the places where you and I lose our way. However long it takes, Jesus will find you and me. Jesus will find you and me because Jesus is in the finding business.
5. MORE GOOD NEWS: JESUS FINDS US AND RESTORES US!
There is something else which I want to suggest to you before I conclude. It is this: There are different degrees of being lost and their are different levels of being found.
The object which is before you, will illustrate my point. Focus upon the hoe head itself. I found that hoe head 16 years ago. For sixteen years it has enjoyed the status of being found. But functionally it has remained lost. Only last week after I put a handle on the hoe head, only then did it become functional again.
Why did it take so long? I will tell you why! I did not press the issue of making this hoe functional, because I thought it was too fragile. Much of its iron had rusted away, and I did not think it could withstand the rigors required of a functional hoe. So, I kept it for display purposes only. Have you ever wondered how many Christians are like that; for display purposes only?
What changed my mind? Why after 16 years did I decide that it was time for this hoe to be fully restored to a functioning tool?
Because of the hoe’s identity. Last week I brushed off the remaining rust and found that this hoe was stamped with its maker’s name. Elwell was the name I found on the hoe head. It soon became clear to me what that meant. After a few minutes of research via the internet, I found out about the reputation of the Elwell company.
Starting in 1817 in Wednesbury, England, Mr. Edward Elwell turned a gun factory into a tool factory. His tools were made of the best iron and forged in one of the finest foundries of its time. His tools were made strong and they were made to last. So confident that these tools would keep on performing, Mr. Elwell stamped his own name on everyone of them.
He stamped his name on this one. Because he stamped his name on it, I know something about its identity. Knowing about the identity of this hoe head enabled me to abandon the preconceived notion that it was too fragile to be functional again. After a 100 years of inactivity it is about to gain a new life. As you can see, I gave it a handle. Now not only is it found, it is fully functional.
CONCLUSION AND APPLICATION:
Do you see now that there are different degrees of the lost condition? It is one thing to lose one’s way. That is frightful enough. It is another thing to lose one’s identity, that is devastating. In the parable of the prodigal son, the prodigal loses his way and his identity.
It is very instructive to note that the turning point in this whole story is when the prodigal finds his identity. That happens in verse 17. Most Bibles translate this verse with these words; “When he came to himself”. That is just another way of saying “when he rediscovered who he was”. And what happened when he rediscovered who he was? It was then that he headed home and became a functional son.
What about you? have you lost your way? Have you lost your identity? Do you see yourself as a fragile little Christian who cowers inside the arc of safety, glad that you are saved from hell, but too impotent to be a cutting edge? If that is the case, perhaps the first thing you will need to find is your identity. And this afternoon I can help you with that task. My friend I know who you are. I know who your maker is.
Do you? Somewhere in your inner most being he has stamped his name on you. You may not be able to recollect the foundry in which your were forged. But God has not forgotten. His intent perhaps during this 40 days of Lent is to restore to you your identity.
Can you hear him whispering to you now. If so, then heed his voice. Stop thinking this nonsense. Stop pretending you are weak and fragile, stop cowering inside the sheep fold. Move beyond the safety of your comfort zone. Let God put a handle on you. Let God get his hands on you and then watch as he plows the fallow ground of your life, to his glory and to the benevolence of your eternal soul.
