Well, the plain truth is that there is no getting found unless you are lost!  Sounds profound doesn't it?  The way we sometimes imagine our relationship with God is that we will get it together and find God --- when the truth is, it is God who finds us --- it is God with a heart of compassion for the lost, the last, the least --- the ones in need of finding, the ones in need of saving.  But that is so hard for us, because we live in a world that celebrates having it all together, being one of the rich and famous, being part of the in crowd.  And in the gospel of Luke, the in-crowd didn't like it very much when the one who claimed to be from God was eating with sinners and tax collectors.  That was no way to win friends and influence people --- Jesus was not exactly politically correct.  But to all their grumbling, he told two stories.

          They are called the Lost sheep and the Lost coin, but they are really stories about a shepherd and a woman, the ones who leave everything, who do all that is in their power to find what was lost.  The ones who go against all that would count as common sense and search until they find --- and then, when they have found what was lost, they want nothing more than to throw a party, to rejoice, to celebrate.  The sheep and the coin do nothing to be found, they are simply the objects with no will or plan to get found.  They are completely on the receiving end, and then they are the center of the party.

          Human nature is such a funny thing --- we want grace, but we don't want to accept the fact that the very meaning of the word is undeserved love and forgiveness.  And we sure don't want to think that that same grace is going to be available for the real rejects of the world.  We don't even have to try very hard and we are slipping into self-righteousness --- or as Mark Twain described --- "People who are good in the worst kind of way."  We have enough Pharisee and scribe in us to think that surely God's love must have some limits, some prerequisites --- but not in these parables, here the only requirement is being lost.  What happens after we are found is another parable, another sermon, but coming to rely on God's mercy, coming to believe that we do not earn God's love is crucial to knowing God.  To know God is to know a love that comes to search high and low and goes to the ends of the earth in order to find us.

          Why do you think so many of the stories involving Jesus have to do with outsiders and sinners, people who had no status and people who were downright losers?  It was the people who knew they were in trouble, who knew they needed healing or restoring who came for what they needed.  The others thought that they were just fine thank you and all they needed to do was follow the law, which of course they did not and could not.  Why, especially in the gospel of Luke do you think there are so many nameless ones who have an encounter with Jesus, an encounter that restores or renews or heals them?  In fact, you could start at the beginning of the Bible, and story after story would be about the failures and frailties of human beings --- over and over people messed up, lied, cheated, killed --- and over and over God would come to act in their lives.  Psalm 51, the one we sang a bit ago, was written by David after he had had Bathsheba's husband killed and taken her for himself.  Our Exodus lesson this morning describes the Israelites who  wandered around the wilderness, grumbling and complaining, and turned from God --- a real slap in the face --- like biting the hand that feeds you --- God had brought them out of slavery, and this was the thanks he was getting.  He was angry, so angry that he wanted to turn his wrath on them and consume them, but, God changed his mind ---------- this all powerful, all knowing God had a change of heart, because of love, because of such a deep desire to be in relationship with his beloved ones, his people.  Over and over, God made the move toward us, to the point of coming, in the flesh, to be with us and one of us.  God will do whatever is required.

 No self-respecting sheep owner would leave 99 in jeopardy while he went off looking for one who was lost --- that would be bad business practice.  And not too many of us would be down on our hands and knees looking for one little coin, most people don't even stoop down when they find a penny on the street.  But then again, what has value to us, what means the world to us, gets our attention and NOTHING would prevent us from searching.  Have you ever turned around in a department store and your child who was standing right next to you is suddenly no where to be found?  It is a panic like no other, and if you had to you would tear the store apart to find your child.  So, God searches, because we are valuable to God, God comes to find US.  And then, what God wants is JOY.

            God wants everyone to join in the celebration; the thrill of the lost being found is reason for rejoicing.  We could use a little practice with JOY --- but I think the beginning of joy is humility and that is a hard pill to swallow sometimes.  For all our talk about the grace of God and the Lutheran understanding that it is not our own works that get us into a right relationship with God, it is very easy to slide into thinking that it is what we do that earns us some points with God.  We are so accustomed to earning our way that we have trouble believing that God loves us because of who God is, not because of who we are.  And so our joy is part of our thanksgiving to God, our absolute wonder at this amazing grace that comes to us.  And every time that a parable is trying to describe the fullness of God's kingdom there is a party, or a banquet, a ten course meal where the doors are swung open for all who are ready to be where the action is.  I read a great story in Philip Yancy's book, What's So Amazing About Grace?  It is a story that first appeared in the Boston Globe in June of 1990.  A woman and her fiancé went to the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston and ordered the meal for their wedding reception.  They pored over the menu, made selections of china and silver, and pointed to pictures of the flower arrangements they liked.  They both had expensive taste, and the bill came to $13,000.  After leaving a check for half that amount as down payment, the couple went home to flip through books of wedding announcements. The day the announcements were supposed to hit the mailbox, the potential groom got cold feet.  "I'm just not sure," he said. "It's a big commitment;  let's just think about this a little longer."  His angry fiancée went back to the Hyatt to cancel the banquet and got the bad news that the contract was binding and she was only entitled to $1,300 back.  So, she was told, she could either forfeit the down payment, or go ahead with the banquet.  It seemed crazy, but the more the jilted bride thought about it, the more she liked the idea of going ahead with the party --- not the wedding banquet exactly, but a big blow-out.  Ten years earlier this same woman had been living in a homeless shelter.  She had got back on her feet, found a good job, and set aside a sizable nest egg.  Now she had the wild notion of using her savings to treat the down-and-outs of Boston to a night on the town.  And so it was that in June of 1990 the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston hosted a party such as it had never seen before.  The hostess changed the menu to boneless chicken, in honor of the groom, she said, and sent invitations to rescue missions and homeless shelters.  That warm summer night, people who were used to peeling half-gnawed pizza off the cardboard dined instead on chicken cordon bleu.  Hyatt waiters in tuxedos served hors d'oeuvres to senior citizens propped up by crutches and aluminum walkers.  Bag ladies, vagrants, and addicts took one night off from the hard life on the sidewalks outside and instead sipped champagne, ate chocolate wedding cake, and danced to big-band melodies late into the night.

          That's a crazy little glimpse of the kingdom of God --- where all the undeserving, like us, are invited to the party.  We're having a banquet here this morning, the Lord's table where God is the host, and invites all to come and eat the bread and drink the wine --- the body and blood of Christ, given and shed for ALL people for the forgiveness of sin, the meal where the loving God promises to be present.  The only thing you need to be in order to be found, is lost.

AMEN