The New England Church Pulpit

New England Congregational Church UCC
Aurora Illinois


"Let The Party Begin "
Luke 15.1-10

September 12, 2004
In his 1st book, Robert Fulghum tells about watching the neighborhood children playing hide-and-seek, a game you never forget how to play. He recalls when he was young there was one kid in his neighborhood who always hid so good, nobody could find him. "After a while we would give up on him and go off, leaving him to rot wherever he was. Sooner or later he would show up, all mad because we didn't keep looking for him. And we would get mad back because he wasn't playing the game the way it was supposed to be played. There's hiding and there's finding, we'd say. And he'd say it was hide-and-seek, not hide-and-give-UP, and we'd all yell about who made the rules and who cared about who, anyway, and how we wouldn't play with him anymore if he didn't get it straight and who needed him anyhow, and things like that." So the game turned into hide-and-seek-and-yell. Fulghum says he remembered this as he watched the neighborhood children outside his study. He noticed one youngster who had hid in a pile of leaves under his window who had been there a long, long time. It appeared that everyone else had been found and the others were about to give up on him. Fulghum writes, "I considered going out to the base and telling them where he is hiding. And I thought about setting the leaves on fire to drive him out. Finally, I just [raised the window and] yelled, 'GET FOUND, KID!' " (All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten) When I was a child listening to these stories from Luke the point often drawn was--get found kid!
In the first parable we heard, Jesus compared God to a shepherd who leaves the flock of 99 sheep in the wilderness to search relentlessly for the one who is lost. He persists, retracing the steps of the flock, looking under bushes, peering into ravines, searching every nook and cranny until the lost one is found. You may remember Alfred Soord's late Victorian painting showing a young shepherd leaning precariously from a dubious-looking foothold on a steep cliff to reach for a stranded sheep that looks nearly too heavy to drag up to safety. And when he finds the sheep he returns home, calling out to friends and neighbors as he goes ? I've found the sheep, I've found the sheep, come and rejoice with me, the lost sheep has been found. In the little Baptist church where I went as a child we often sang the hymn/gospel song The Ninety and Nine,
There were ninety and nine that safely lay
In the shelter of the fold,
But one was out on the hills away,
Far off from the gates of gold–
Away on the mountains wild and bare,
Away from the tender Shepherd’s
Away from the Shepherd’s care.
“Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine;
Are they not enough for Thee?”
But the Shepherd made answer: “This of Mine
Has wondered away from Me;
And although the road be rough and steep,
I go to the desert to find My sheep,
I go to the desert to find My sheep.”

But none of the ransomed ever knew,
How deep were the waters crossed;
Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed thro’
Ere He found His sheep that was lost.
Out in the desert he heard it cry–
Sick and helpless, and ready to die;
Sick and helpless, and ready to die.
So we who sang the song were supposed to recognize and identify ourselves with the lost sheep “sick and helpless and ready to die.”
But that is certainly harder to do with the lost coin. In the second parable a woman turns her house upside down looking for a lost coin. She lights a lamp, sweeps every corner and meticulously sorts through everything in the house until the coin is found. Then she calls out to invite all her neighbors and friends to rejoice and help her celebrate ? the lost coin has been found! According to the tag line in each story they are about heaven's joy over one repentant sinner, but the lost sheep doesn't seem to repent and the lost coin certainly doesn't. As Barbara Brown Taylor writes, "They are both simply found--not because either of them does anything right, but because someone is determined to find them and does. They are restored thanks to God's action, not their own, so where does repentance come in at all?" (The Preaching Life) It seems then that these stories are really parables about good shepherds and diligent sweepers. They are about the joy of finding. A joy like the cheers and applause of angels. A joy that insists on being shared, insists on a party.
But do we really identify with the shepherd and the woman? William Willimon retells the stories this way:
“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and one strays, will you not leave the 99 sheep alone to wander in the wilderness in order to search for the one lost sheep? And when you find that sheep which one of you will not place that sheep upon your shoulders, run home (where you will likely find you have considerably fewer sheep than when you left) and say to your friends, ‘I found my sheep! Let’s party!’”
Now which one of you would not do that?
Which of you women, when you have lost a quarter, will move all of your furniture out of the house, rip up the carpet, move all the heavy appliances out in the yard, and when you have found your lost coin, will run out and about to all the neighbors, ‘You’re all invited to a party! I found my quarter!’
Which of you would not do that?
“I think we know the answer,” Willimon writes. “None of us would do that. We believe in balance, rationality, a sense of propriety and proportion.” Our parties are for relaxation or social obligation, not over finding something. But we do know what it is like to rejoice over finding something. We know what it is like to rejoice when the lost are found. A friendship lost to disagreement which is found again in reconciliation. (We hear angel applause.) Parents have a teenager who is lost to them in depression or in addiction and is found, restored--and there is rejoicing. A family experiences the joy of knowing that the alcoholic they love is at an AA meeting not the bar. And the angels applaud. We also know the joy of finding things we weren’t especially looking for. We find a book that is so insightful we simply have to tell others about it. We find a restaurant and can hardly wait to take friends to share the joy we knew. Sometimes we even go to church and find a new interpretation or an insight or hear a new piece of music and we feel like a party. The stories in today’s lesson are about the joy of finding and the sharing of that joy.
Today we begin another year in our Christian education program. I remember with fondness the Sunday School teachers who helped me seek, to understand, to find my own voice, to find my sense of having a foundation of faith and who rejoiced with me. I have always liked the term "seeker" as a description of my pilgrimage of faith. I salute and thank those of you who have agreed to help us here in our Christian education program. I am proud of the various ways this congregation says to each of us and to our community, "seek with us--find what you need, find each other, find renewed hope, find a sense of belonging--and rejoice, listen for the applause of angels, join in God's celebration. Let the party begin."
Today we have welcomed 20 new members into our community of faith and seeking. We are delighted that you found us. We hope that you will continue to find friends, ideas, challenges and opportunities here that will make you rejoice. Let the party begin.
Fulghum says that "better than hide-and-seek, I like a game called Sardines. In Sardines the person who is It goes and hides, and everybody goes looking for him. When you find him, you get in with him and hide there with him. Pretty soon everybody is hiding together, all stacked in a small space like puppies in a pile. And pretty soon somebody giggles and somebody laughs and everybody gets found." (All I Really Need to Know . . .) He believes that God is a Sardine player. So do I. God will be found the same way everyone is found in Sardines--by the sound of laughter. Let the party begin. Amen

Joe Dunham

Copyright © 2004 by Joe Dunham. All rights reserved.

Top of Page

Index of Recent Sermons

Index of Archived Sermons

Return to NECC Home Page