Life Being Found by God

Luke 15:1-10

Where is “a place where everyone can feel at home and where anyone can easily meet people”? Where is such a place? In our traditional culture, it is probably an inn, and after modernization, it will be a food stall, right? Even without a lot of money, it must have been a place that could not be missed before meeting the wives and children, before the “underdogs” of society entered the house with a glass of alcohol and hand-flavored snacks for the day's injustice, frustration, and wanting to forget. When we think of Chuseok, I think the place where my parents are is always a place that accepts me generously. Of course, SeaWorld is not an easy place for daughter-in-law. However, I think Chuseok, when we share generosity, is a place of inclusion.

In today's text, the Pharisees and scribes grumble. “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Who did Jesus eat and drink with? First of all, the Pharisees and teachers of the law were present. Except for them, Jesus did not only dine with tax collectors and sinners. It is a situation where Jesus included tax collectors and sinners in one place with them. From that point on, the Pharisees and teachers of the law are not pleased. Sinners are supposed to gather from themselves, but Jesus allowed them to be together. Thanks to Jesus, those who have to live with the stinging gaze of society are having a good time with Jesus in spite of those gazes. It can be said that it is an everyday feast, a small mid-autumn festival. Jesus held this daily feast with people, and tax collectors and sinners were there.

Jesus tells a parable to the Pharisees and scribes who grumble at the daily feast. Today's parable is the shepherd looking for the lost sheep and the woman looking for the lost coin. Because of the missionary focus, we often misread this parable. It is easy to understand as a passage in which we must become shepherds and women and fulfill the mission of finding sheep and coins. They connect to be the Lord's witnesses to the ends of the earth and accept them as passionate subjects who do not give up until they find the lost sheep and coins.

But today's parable is the exact opposite. We are not seekers, but lost objects. We are the lost beings who seek us. It is not an easy story in our age, which emphasizes individual initiative, subjectivity, autonomy, and self-development, but we are lost. The hymn lyrics make this clear. I once was lost, but now am found. I was lost, but now found. The most important point in today's parable is that we are lost.

There was a theologian and court preacher named Lancelot Andrewes. In his 1620 Easter sermon, he said something difficult to understand at first glance. He said, “Christ is not found by those who seek him diligently, and those who do not seek him at all.” How do we make sense of this? We gather diligently, worship, pray, study the Bible, and do a lot of religious things, but according to Pastor Andrews, those who seek diligently will not meet Christ. So shouldn't we be zealous? Let's take a look at what that means through today's text.

The first parable begins with a question. “If any of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the field and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” This parable leaves the question of the ninety-nine left in the field for those who are sensitive to numbers. What about ninety-nine? Leaving them unattended can be detrimental. This is because, just like using precious beads to catch sparrows, a shepherd can lose other sheep while searching for one lost sheep. For those who are anxious and worried, some commentators add, "They would have kept 99 sheep in a fence." It may be, but that's not the focus of today's parable. The parable focuses only on the one lost sheep, the shepherd who does not give up until the sheep is finally found, the shepherd who eventually finds it and puts it on his shoulder and returns home rejoicing, and the shepherd who celebrates the found sheep and invites his neighbors to a feast.

The second story is about a woman who has lost a single drachma and is looking for it. A woman turns on a lamp to find a lost coin, sweeps the house, and scours the house until she finds it. When she so finds her coins, she is so happy that she summons her friends and her neighbors, and tells her people to rejoice in finding the lost drachma. She is spending more on her feast than the drachma she finds for her friends and her neighbors.

The point of these two parables is that we are not a shepherd or a woman, but a lost sheep and a lost coin. A shepherd or a woman is a God who seeks us. There are many images of shepherds in the sanctuary depicting Jesus. However, the woman looking for coins does not appear often. But Jesus presents women as God's image on an equal footing with the shepherd. Presenting God in the image of a woman is a radical metaphor at the time, even in our day. It was because imaginations and narratives that deviated from the image of a male God were unacceptable. However, the man-made framework for Jesus was not so important. Jesus wisely transforms the framework when it excludes, confines, and downgrades certain people. This is the parable of the woman looking for the lost coin. Just as God seeks the lost, so the woman seeks coins with all her heart.

In addition to the image of God, the image of the lost goes beyond our thinking. We are to be found by God like sheep and coins. It is not discovered through our efforts, but is discovered through God's efforts and zeal. It is very unlikely that the stray sheep will return to the pen. What about lost coins? Lost coins can't do anything. Because there is no way to move. It can't even shine on its own. You have to wait for it to be discovered by its owner completely passively. And although it is inconvenient, the essence of the gospel is here.

We are found by God. It's not our effort. God is coming. What is found is not the result of what we diligently searched for. What is found is a gift given to us by the hard seeker. The sheep found by the shepherd is a gift from the shepherd to the sheep. The coin found by the woman is also a gift from the woman to the coin. This paradox lies at the heart of the gospel. We have been found by God. That is salvation.

So, repentance is to give up the thought and desire to achieve salvation on your own and listen to the voice of God who seeks you. What we need, as the very first step, is to realize that we are lost. That is the true beginning of faith and salvation. The most positive action we can take for our salvation is to be willing to seek God to find us, to realize that we are lost by God. In faith, the most passive attitude becomes the most active action.

What do you think you have lost in your life of faith? What have I lost? Could it be faith? To lose faith is to lose the conviction that you have been found by God. Also, not being sure that someone is looking for me, doubting that a shepherd or woman is trying hard to find me. That is the state of losing faith. But the paradox is that we are more likely to be found when we are in such a situation.

On the other hand, there were those who had confidence in their faith. They were the Pharisees and teachers of the law. They never thought that they were lost, that God had lost them. Therefore, they fundamentally blocked the possibility of being found. That's why they couldn't accept Christ. This is the tragic reality they face as they draw a line and reject sinners. They firmly believed that sinners were wandering, but in reality they were the furthest from God. The parable emphasizes this tragedy and paradox. This passivity is essential to holiness.

Are you looking for God? Are you sure you know God well? We need to make sure we are ready to hear God's voice. The sheep in herds in the field need not listen to the shepherd. It usually maneuvers according to the movements of the surrounding sheep. Lost ones need awareness. Passivity ready to listen, that is the path to holiness. God can find us on the path of holiness.

After realizing that we are lost and being found by God, it is a festival. This festival is not easy to comprehend when trying to understand this parable arithmetically. If only an arithmetic analogy is produced, it may be more profitable for the owner to just lose one. When you have a party, shouldn't you share what you have stored up in the warehouse? Looking for a sheep can cost you more for the festival. It is a way of life that is different from the rich man in other metaphors who try to expand and accumulate warehouses.

The same goes for a woman who lost a single drachma and struggled to find it. She stands in search of her and tells her to rejoice in finding the lost drachma, calling her friends and neighbors for the rest of her joy. One drachma is worth the price of one sheep or one fifth of a cow. But the woman invites her friends to a feast, and spends more money on her feast than she finds. She would think that it would be better for the home economy to not look for those who count fast. However, this parable completely goes beyond our self-interested habit and gaze. God seeks the lost, rejoices in those who find it, and shares that joy with others.

What the murmuring Pharisees and teachers of the law should learn is to share this joy. The goal of faith and salvation is to share this joy. Salvation from God is not eternal deliverance, but eternal celebration. And this celebration was a serious challenge for the Pharisees and teachers of the law at the time.

Rescuing someone isn't easy, but it's more difficult than that. It's about being accepted into the community. God saves us just like a sheep in a thornbush or a coin lying in an unseen place. But that salvation is not just about finding things. To find and accept. It takes effort to save someone who is in trouble. Sometimes, the person who saves it may be in danger. However, if you subtract that rescue time, you can spend the rest of the time unrelated to that person and unconnected. But accepting it is different. You have to stay together, you need intimacy and socializing. Asking can be done with the body, but receiving must be done with the mind.

The Pharisees and scribes do not like to associate with those whom they define as sinners and heavenly beings. You may be in favor of differentiating and rescuing so-called sinners. We can solve their problems. But hanging out with them is another matter. So, Jesus clears the distinction from the beginning and shows that sinners and tax collectors are no different from the teachers of the law or the Pharisees. They are a lost sheep. Just as the Pharisees and teachers of the law are the 99 sheep, they are sheep cared for by the same shepherd, the same lost coin as the well-kept coin. As God said when He created them, they are all created people that God likes.

You might think that ninety-nine sheep are enough. Jesus is not speaking to fill in the number 100 or the number 10. It is God's joy and our joy to find those who are marginalized, abandoned, suffering and neglected.

What the Pharisees and teachers of the law should be happy and thankful for is not that they are different from sinners. It is the fact that those who have been lost by God have been brought back to God's church and community, that those who are outside of our self-sufficient boundaries are all God's people, and that God is most pleased with the complete restoration.

Passivity is not a value we admire. But before God, passivity is indispensable for our salvation. It's not because I'm looking for God, but because God has to find us. And we are all found by God. In the presence of God who calls us to the feast and joy through worship, I pray that all of us will participate in the holy path with active passivity.