This Sunday, we will be joined by Rev. Dr. Bob Gibbs, who will be preaching the word and presiding over Communion. He is our District Superintendent, and technically he is my boss so that means I have to behave on Sunday. He will be sharing a message from Luke 15: 1-10, which are both parables, one about lost sheep and the other about lost coins. You do not want to miss this great opportunity to hear him preach.
These parables, especially the first one, make me think about times I have felt lost. I remember 6 years ago when I was about to graduate college. As the months wound down towards receiving my diploma, I became more and more worried. To me, this should have been a very rewarding time, but it wasn't really. I felt lost. Here I was, soon to be college graduate, with no real prospects for jobs, no real inspiration for career paths. It was at a retreat with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that I was found: God seemingly singled me out as a lost sheep and spoke directly to me. It was this moment where I felt led to seminary and ultimately called to ministry. Has there been a time in your life where you felt this way? Has God ever "singled you out"? In this season of Lent, I feel that I am being relentlessly pursued by God once again, called back into God's loving arms. What sets these two occasions of being "found," is that I had to acknowledge that I was lost in the first place. Are you feeling lost? God wants to find you.
Like this second parable about the lost coin, I think that God treasures us and values us. God means to find us, to have us, and to use us for good in the world. In these moments where I felt lost, then was found, I have then known that God seeks me out because God actually has something to do with me. And God has something to do with you, too. You are worth everything to God. God loves you, and God can find you.
In Christ,
Jack
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