Reflections on "Worth the Search?" Luke 15: 1-10; Psalm 147: 1-11

Several challenges in preaching this sermon.  First of all, there are two very familiar passages.  When they get read, everyone already knows them and has them deciphered.  I did not have any "new" approaches to offer, so I was working with material that was "old" to the listeners.  One aspect of the text that is generally not noticed is the context of repentance in which we find these two parables.  It might be an interesting sermon one day, but I did not explore it very much in this sermon.  

Secondly, the Sanctuary service was in the Social Hall (due to some work being done in the sanctuary), which has a very different feel to it.  even though the Social Hall is smaller than the sanctuary (I think), it's design made the congregation seem very distant and unapproachable.  I tried to bridge the distance by moving out from behind the lectern, but I hadn't practiced that and had to shuffle my notes, so I did not do that very effectively.

Thirdly, we had a medical event with one of the members as I started preaching, so the first part of the sermon had distractions for the congregation.  I also was watching the response trying to figure out if or when we needed to stop the service to deal with the issue. Fortunately, the person responded quickly to the help provided and seemed to be doing better as the sermon continued.

The sermon had two mini-illustrations that I took from my own life experience, and then I inserted my own response to the lifeguard story, which meant the sermon was heavy on personal stuff.  After the last fall when I preached sermons that grew out of my experience while on the renewal, I have been freer about sharing personal stories.  But, I think I may need to cut back on my personal stories as they seem to be too prevalent in the sermons lately.

“Worth the search” July 8, 2012; FPC, Troy, Luke 15: 1-10; Kirkmont Parables

Introduction: familiar parables; fairly straight forward; No surprises this week on how we ought to read the parables. 

three things: what we learn about how God values us; what we learn about the kingdom of God; what it learn about ministering in God's name.

Move 1: how do we determine the worth of something?

a. What gives something value?

1. Establish parameters – for example, money.  We know how much a penny, or nickel, or dime, or quarter, or $1, or $5, or $10 and so on.  If I offered you a $100 bill or a $1 bill, most of you would know to take the $100 bill.

2. But, even then, it has different value to different people.

3. If I see a penny or a nickel or a dime on the ground, I generally leave it for the next person. Someone is really going to enjoy finding that, and besides, then I do not have to bend over to pick it up. If it's a quarter, however, get out of my way!

4. The man, who has scoured for gems in other people’s junk for 20 years, had a hunch about a painting at the yard sale, an Impressionistic landscape of a grove of olive trees. The surface was grimy in spots and marred by minor rippling and crackling. But the brushstrokes were so fluid, the style so masterful, that the price — less than $100 — seemed like a gamble worth taking.

He gambled — and won the yard sale lottery. The painting, confirmed by experts as a previously unknown work by American Impressionist Frederick Carl Frieseke, dates to around 1920 and is expected to sell at auction today for $50,000 to $70,000. http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2011/01/28/a_lost_masterpiece_yields_quite_a_markup/

5. Trinity pullover shirt. Bottom of trunk. Almost see through it is so worn. I would have to lose 75 pounds before I could wear it. But it has the emblem of the soccer team where I went to college, and it's the shirt we would wear on game days.  it might be worth a nickel at a garage sale, but it's worth so much to me I won't part with it.

b. The value of the coin.

1. A day's wage for an hourly worker?

2. In our time that would be roughly $56 before taxes; a little less than that after taxes.

3. how much effort would you put into looking for a lost $50 bill?

4.  Or Maybe part of a headdress piece that might have been part of a dowry.

3. Do not want to suggest the coin had no value, but it certainly had limited value to the world in general.

100. The value of the sheep?

1. One out of ninety-nine.

2. WE are not told that his was some kind of special sheep, or the owner's daughter's favorite sheep.

3. Just a sheep.

4. Do not want to suggest the sheep had no value, but the other 99 were just like it, and they were a lot easier to find at the moment.

d. the value of the sheep and coin are not defined by their market value, but by how much they meant to the shepherd and the woman.

1. The woman goes to a lot of trouble to find the coin.

2. The shepherd leaves the rest of the flock to go find the lost sheep and carry it home around his shoulders.

3.Their actions give great value to the coin and the sheep.

e. Our value comes from God's concern for us.

1.  Our value is not determined by the market or the world. If we sold ourselves on eBay, that would not be our value in God's eyes.

2. look in the mirror, and what do you see?

3.  a person worth enough for God to create.'

4.  A person God values enough to invite into relationship with Christ, God's son.

5.  The mirror reveals someone who is worth God sending Christ to save.

6. In the context of the parable, the your mirrors shows a person God cares enough for to call to repent.

Value comes from God's love for us that is characterized by God seeking us out. God giving you value by God seeking you out.

Move 2: What does the kingdom of heaven look like?

a. The use of a woman as the protagonist in the parable is rather striking given the role of women in their world.

1. How might we characterize the place of women in the society? Consider the well-known prayer from that time, “Blessed be God that God has not made me a woman.”

2. Now Jesus tells a parable about the kingdom and the God-figure is a woman.

3. That designation alone demands to the listener to rethink what the kingdom of God might be like.

b. What shepherd leaves the 99?

1. What did the other 99 sheep think when the shepherd left them to chase the one sheep?

2. Story of lifeguard July 3, 2012|By Ihosvaniodriguez, Sun Sentinel

HALLANDALE BEACH As lifeguards are paid and trained to do, Tomas Lopez rushed down the beach to rescue a drowning man — and then got fired for it.

Lifeguards in Hallandale Beach work for Orlando-based company Jeff Ellis and Associates, which has been providing lifeguard services for the city's beaches and pools since 2003.

Company officials on Tuesday said Lopez broke a rule that could've put beachgoers in his designated area in jeopardy. The firm could ultimately have been sued, officials said.

"We have liability issues and can't go out of the protected area," said supervisor Susan Ellis. "What he did was his own decision. He knew the company rules and did what he thought he needed to do."

Lopez said he was sitting at his post at about 1:45 p.m. Monday when someone rushed to his stand asking for help. Lopez said he noticed a man struggling in the water south of his post. The man was previously swimming in an "unprotected" stretch of the beach, city officials confirmed Tuesday.

"It was a long run, but someone needed my help. I wasn't going to say no," he said.

Company officials said the rescue took place about 1,500 feet south of the company's protective boundaries. The unprotected area has signs alerting beachgoers to swim at their own risk.

The problem: Lopez stepped out of the beach zone his company is paid to patrol, a supervisor said Tuesday.

"I ran out to do the job I was trained to do," said Lopez, 21, of Davie. "I didn't think about it at all."

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-07-03/news/fl-hallandale-beach-lifeguards-20120703_1_lifeguard-services-jeff-ellis-beach-rescue

3. I have to confess that after my initial thought that this is crazy, I read the article and sort of understood it.

4. Maybe not the firing of the lifeguard, but the company's position that their lifeguards need to stay and take care of the beach areas they are paid to protect.

5. the person chose to swim in an area that was marked “no lifeguards,” so live with the consequences.

6. The ninety-nine swimmers, if you will, that are in the assigned area need to be protected and were put at risk when the lifeguard left his zone.

7. The company does not like the exposure or the liability or the breaking of rules.

8. I get that.

9. But someone needed to be saved.

The kingdom of God is about more than exposure, or liability or rules – the kingdom of God is about the one who needs to be saved.

move 3: We minister in the name of the God of the particular.

a. Ministry is about the person that is looking us in the eye in the moment.

1. Not the Breakfast Club as a nice concept in the community's approach to dealing with hunger issues; but the person who looks you in the eye as you hand her the plate of waffles.
   
   
   2.  not the strategic plan of growing the church by increasing membership; but the person who is hurting and searching that gratefully agrees to come to worship when you invite him.

3. Not the desire to have a big crowd at Vacation Bible school, but the child whose eyes grow big as she hears the story of how Jesus healed the Roman centurion's servant.

b. WE minister in the particular.

1. yes, there is a need to plan and bring structure to our ministry and think big picture.

2.  I suspect that both our local congregation and our the larger church could vision and plan much more effectively than we do.

3. but we cannot forget that the God who sends us into the world sends us to find the that particular coin that is lost, or that particular sheep who has wandered away. Or that one person who needs to know the value God gives to her.

Conclusion: Sermon title was a question: "Worth the search?"

I noticed when I drove by the church sign that the question mark was left off. I thought about whether it was worth having Roger, our custodian, go back out to the sign and add a question mark.

I kept driving by the sign. And then it occurred to me that maybe the sign had it right – there was no question in God's mind about whether the coin or the sheep was worth the search.

In fact, if I did it over I would put an exclamation point to mark the resounding “yes,”God gives to searching for the lost coin, the sheep, and even us.