
Today’s Scripture
Luke 15:1-7 (NRSV)
Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable: 4 “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
Today’s Music
Hallelujah, Even Here
Sometimes, we need to remind ourselves, at the very beginning of the service, that things are not as well as we would like them to be. Worship is an opportunity to acknowledge our disorientation and begin the process of finding, and being found by, a God who is with us through it all – especially when we feel lost in the chaos.
House of God Forverer
This Lenten series focuses heavily on the metaphor of God as shepherd. We’re stitching together two shepherd themes in this song – the first from the familiar Psalm 23 and the second from our text for today from Luke 15.
The Ballad of the The Two Sons
Our Scripture for today is the first in a trilogy of parables about lost/found items (sheep, coins, and sons). This song is a telling of the third parable: the story of the lost sons and extravagant father. This is a familiar parable to many Bible readers, but this song opened a new insight for me with the line “and you all celebrate, like he didn’t break your heart.”
Reckless Love
This mainstay of the Hope music playlist is the most fitting song to close our service centered around Luke 15:1-7.
Today’s Words for Worship
Call to worship
Our God is a shepherding God.
Our God knows us by name.
Our God will never stop searching for us.
So if you feel lost,
then know that God is seeking you.
If you feel found,
then know that God will never leave.
This is the promise of scripture.
This is the promise of God’s love.
Let us worship our with-us God.
Call to confession
Friends, in the Christian tradition many have used “lost” and “found” labels to describe people “out there” versus people “in here.” Many have used “lost” and “found” language to create a damaging dichotomy that Christians are found and non-Christians are lost.
But the truth is, each and every one of us is a little bit lost and a little bit found from time to time. Each and every one of us needs the love of the Good Shepherd.
So join me in the prayer of confession, as people who know both ends of that spectrum. Join me as we go to God in prayer:
If God is a painter,
let us be the brush.
If God is a musician,
let us be the song.
If God is an architect,
let us be the tools.
*Let us be the hands.*
Let us be the builders.
But if God is a shepherd,
who never stops seeking,
let us be willing to be found,
*no matter how lost we feel.*
Our God is never far away.
Forgive us for forgetting this good news. Amen.
Words of forgiveness
Family of faith, we are all a little bit lost and a little bit found.
We grumble. We push back. We doubt God. We doubt ourselves.
We leave the flock and lose our way.
But fortunately for us, our God is a shepherding God who is always by our side.
So hear and believe the good news of the gospel:
No matter how far we wander,
*we can never wander from the bounds of God’s grace.*
We are loved. We are forgiven. We are not alone.
*Thanks be to God! Amen.*
Prayer for illumination
Shepherding God,
You look for us.
You search for us.
You turn every corner
and climb every mountain.
You call our name until your voice is hoarse.
When we lose our way,
you never stop seeking after us.
So once again we pray,
find us in this moment.
Look for us.
And then surround us with your presence,
so that we might feel you near.
With hope we pray,
with hope we listen.
Amen.
Affirmation of faith
We believe in a seeking God,
a with-us and before-us God,
a chasing-after-us God.
We believe that no matter where we wander
or what mountains we climb, this God—
the God who walked the streets of Jerusalem,
shook hands with lepers,
patted children on the head,
and told stories of love—
is always close at hand.
So on the good days and the hard days,
on the mountains and in the valleys,
we believe that we are always being found.
Thanks be to God for a love like that.
Amen.
Today’s Sermon
Today’s Visio Divina
Lost & Found
by Lisle Gwynn Garrity
Inspired by Luke 15:1-7
Newspaper & gold leaf collage with digital drawing
I began my artwork for this series by collaging torn strips of newspaper articles together, overlapping global headlines with photos of current events. Along the torn edges, I added gold leaf. Then I photographed the result, editing the photos in black and white. These photos would become the backdrop for my pieces, as I wanted my digital drawings to emerge within the noise of the world’s deepest pains, divisions, and everything in between. The collage is also a reference to theologian Karl Barth’s famous quote about reading the bible and the newspaper together. I wanted the gold leaf to represent God’s presence in the spaces in between the events and forces that tear us apart.
On September 27th, 2024, I began drawing the Good Shepherd with the lost sheep tenderly wrapped around his shoulders. As I worked, rain pummeled our roof, saturating the ground with an endless deluge as the wide bands of tropical storm Helene reached our high-elevation town of Black Mountain, NC. The next day, winds roared and threw trees to the ground like dominos. We lost power, then water, then cell service. We didn’t know it yet, but every creek and river had swelled with enormous force, sweeping away everything in their path. Landslides, sinkholes, and extreme flooding ravaged the entire region of Western North Carolina, taking homes, towns, and human lives.
We were incredibly and graciously spared, having no flooding in our house or trees on our roof, so as soon as the storm relented, we headed out to find our friends and family by foot. As we walked through our small town, we found ourselves in a maze-like wasteland, changing our route every other turn due to downed trees or power lines, or washed-out roads. Progressively, we found family and friends, greeting them with great relief and urgent questions: “Do you have enough water to drink? Do you have water for flushing? Do you need any food?” It would be nearly 6 days before any emergency relief could arrive with food, water, and supplies. Meanwhile, neighbors survived by the help of their neighbors. Churches opened their doors. Firefighters and first responders persisted, despite perilous rescue missions. Helicopters air-lifted stranded people to safety.
When I began this artwork, I naively hoped to gain insight into Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep. In that process, I did not wish to become the lost sheep and live through the greatest natural disaster to hit my hometown in over a thousand years. But as I read this parable again, now over 6 weeks after the storm, what strikes me is the pursuit of the shepherd, so singularly focused on the one who is lost, vulnerable, and at-risk. The Good Shepherd steadies the sheep on his shoulders and steps out of the frame toward us. His gaze finds mine, and I almost hear him whisper, “I will never stop searching for the lost. I will never stop rejoicing when one is found.”
Today’s Poetry
The Good Shepherd
Jesus said, “Who among you wouldn’t leave the 99?
Who among you wouldn’t look for the one?”
Someone in the crowd probably rolled their eyes.
Someone squirmed and looked at their palms.
Someone sighed and thought to themselves,
“This man doesn’t understand the business.
What fool would leave 99 to look for one?”
But maybe God was not talking about us.
Maybe God was talking about
her own reckless love.
Maybe God was talking about
her own willingness
to turn the world upside down
for me.