LOST AND FOUND |

November 5, 1989
8:30 and 11:00 a.m. Worship Services
| John M. Buchanan
Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago
| Scripture

Hosea 11:1--4, 8-9.
Luke 15:1-i10

"Whither shal} I go from thy Spirit?”
-Psalm 139: Ta (RSV)

‘There. is some pretty good theology in Robert Fulghum's delightful
_ best-seller, All I Need to Know 1 Learned in Kindergarten.

"Ty the early dry dark of an October's Saturday evening, the
. neighborhood children are playing hide-and-seek. How long since I played
~ hide= and-seek? Thirty years; maybe more. I remember how.

“pid ‘you have a kid in. your neighborhood ‘who always hid so , good, a
nobody: could. find him? We-did. 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

2p ye all mad: because we didn't keep looking for hin. And we would get mad.
back: becatise 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. No matter what; though, the next time he would hide too good |
again. “He's: probably stil] hidden somewhere, for all I know.

“As. t write this, the neighborhood game goes on, and there is a kid

under a pile of leaves in the yard just under my window. He has been there

a long time now, and everybody clse is found and they are about to give up
on him-over at the base. I considered going out to the base and telling. |
them ‘where. he is hiding. And 1 thought about setting the leaves on fire to .
drive him out. Finally, I just yelled, 'GET FOUND, KID!' out the window.
And scared him sa bad he probably wet his pants and started crying and ran
home.to tel). his mother. It's real hard to know how to be helpful

Saméetines."” o[p. 56-57]

“This:is a-sermon about getting lost and getting found. It has. always
occurred to. me that there is something about the experience of being last.

that is -more powerful than it shouJd be. ‘There are surely few things-more-

-frustealing or disconcerting. We have all done it... Not long after moving

tu Chicago] summoned the courage to descend to the depths of Lower Wacker
Drive, and somehow, before emerging at the north end, Jost my sense of
-direction:”..When ] emerged I turned the direction 1 thought north was and
there was the Jake! Of course my first assumption was wrong, obvivusly...
easy enough to straighten out, but it took me a while to get it and it was
unsettling until I did get it.

= Sometimes being lost can be humiliating, particularly if you have
family. members or friends in the car relying on your sure sense of
direction. The standard way to handle it, of course, is to keep driving
“with confidence, under no condition admit that you're lost, never stop to
ask directions; keep driving faster...something is sure to turn up.

“I. suppose there's something about being lost that forces the issue of
one's. vulnerability, fallibility, mortality even. You know in that there
is no threat to life, that it's simply a matter of collecting your
thoughts; getting directions, and all, sooner or later, will be well. I do
know an elderly couple, however, who were driving to Florida frum
Pennsylvania and decided to take back roads to enjoy the scenery - or _
rather he did, she was more interested in getting there - and somewhere in
West Virginia. he took a wrong turn and drove 400 miles out of his way. -In
any event no-one ever perished because they were lost... on the back roads
“of: West Virginia | er the streets of Chicago or tortuous ‘cul- de~- ~sacs- in
“suburbia. “But: the thought does occur. Les

Someone told me recently that deep in all of us, related to the fear
of. separation. and rejection that Sigmund Freud identified as the source ‘of:
-our anxiety, is a fear-of lostness. Often it is. related to, or: amplified
by an early childhood experience. I remember the day we moved to-a new.
neighborhood. and. I was taken to school with careful instructions about how
-to find: my: way home. I got. lost. I remember walking in strange territory

for” what: seemed like a very long time, knowing that I was becoming ‘more -
“lost... I-also recall hearing the familiar whistle and the relief and joy

when 1 looked down a hilly street and saw my father, looking for’ me.

: “Jesus was a master story teller. One time he drew on the power of
the human ‘experience of lostness and told a sequence of unforgettable
vignettes: They are familiar favorites. The first is about a lost sheep
anda shepherd who finds it. The second is about a lost coin and a woman
who looks-until she finds it. The third is about a father who has two
sons, one of whom leaves home and is lost in a far country until he decides
‘to return to his father's house; and the elder son who stays home but. is
equally, more seriously lost actually, by reason of his own resentment.

- -Together. those vignettes represent a very new way of thinking about.
God and about religion... They were prompted by a tension which is. present
and mounting throughout the career of Jesus.

“Proper - people" were noticing and complaining about the kind of
company this presumptuous young Rabbi from Nazareth insisted on keeping.
It was terribly important to them. It still is. The movie “Trading
Places" was a very funny statement of that old dynamic. Eddie Murphy, an
experienced survivor of the ghetto and Dan Akroyd, blue~blood, Tvy League,

11/5/89. 2

“Philadelphia lroker, trade. places. and each has to deal with the reality 00
oo tha is: often: known by the company one keeps... Not wonderful sociology: its
eo whan: Murplsy! s old friends trash his new apartment, smash Ming vases ‘and rub.
oat cigarettes: in the Oriental rugs, or when Akroyd's old friends, at the =
tennis club-and the Union League Club, absolutely shut him out because of»
his: ‘station in life, the point is eloquently made. Proper people notice..
vou are. known ‘by the company you keep. ie!

: “The ‘proper people” weren 't bad. They were proper: politically,
gosiaity: morally; ‘religiously. They were the pillars of society, the oe
“intellectual elite; the financial and commercial leaders. They are 7
identified as the Scribes and Pharisees: the religious leaders: - ‘church:
office , if you will. And they didn't like it -at al] when this” young
“Rabbit from Nazareth presumed to comment on their ‘values, while seeming:

: almost. ta go. Out: of his way to violate and contradict them.. -howhere® as =
~~ blatantly as in the company he kept. How in the world can you be: a. ‘teacher
of religion and. associate with “those people?"

: ‘Those people" were known to the proper people as sinners. . ‘They were.

essentially. common folk who. had neither the time nor the resources “tes.

participate in-the niceties ‘of formal religion. They didn't observe. ‘the.

sand the rituals: they couldn't afford to buy. the prescribed: animals.

n Temple’ sacrifices, they didn't. keep kosher kitchens, they

oF generally. ‘disregarded the: formal rules and the informal customs | by which
polite, society governs. itself. ;

o © Jesus apent: a ‘Jot of time with these people: ‘the outcasts, the .~
underdogs y the: poor. It was not only bad taste. socially, it was also: an-
intentional abrogation. of.a clear religious rule. Because they hadn't
- the time or the inclination. to: be properly religious, these people were Bd

: officially ‘unclean:. It was forbidden for a clean person, a_good. person,

“to. associate. with ‘then, particularly to sit down at table with them, oy

pre

a SS So. the picture is) Jesus in the ‘shabby home of one of these people: ato
table, eating. And-a- smal] cluster of people outside, Pharisees who °-).
--- wouldn't-be caught: dead in a house like that, peering in, seeing: hin: ‘and © os
clucking, “Would: you look at that! -Who in the world does he think: he is, :
assoclating: with: then: and then presuming to lecture us?" rece

“That's: the. kind of ‘comment Jesus. must have heard. And I. sense that.
Et was to his table. companions, who were lost according ‘to the accepted -
‘standards: of religion, but-also to the people peering in through: the- door
“who- were: just. as surely Jost, that he told these little stories. :

“the first ane draws on an image everybody leves — the shepherd.
Moses. was called a shepherd. David the King was a shepherd boy.. The
images of-shepherds and sheep are rich... but there is an interesting”

twist, “Actual shepherds were among the sinners with whom the Pharisees
‘would not, could not associate. So even the character in the story...

~gupports” Jesus! commentary on the values of his-critics. The story is ae
“powerful.- “This shepherd. does: something a shepherd would not do. He: leaves oO
“ninety- ine sheep alone tu track down one who was Jest. And wher he finds
jt, he leaves the ninety-nine again while he carries the Jittie lost sheep

Ww

u/s/e9

to the village for a homecoming celebration. The shepherd actually works
for those people, tends to their sheep. Se they're happy he's found one
but. their major concern is that he walked away from ninety-nine.

This is a complicated metaphor but its point is both clear and
radical. Religion that excludes and divides is wrong religion. True
religion unites, includes, invites al] to table. And God... not the
heavenly gatekeeper, checking credentials at the door, but the strong
shepherd who will go wherever necessary to make sure that al] are included.

The second stary makes the same point but with a more provocative
character, a woman, herself an outcast in a society which was absolutely
patriarchal. She has lost one coin and turns her house inside out until
she finds it.

_., Not only is your religion wrong, Jesus is saying, with all its rules
and regulations excluding people, so is your basic notion of God. In fact,
it's because your theology is so off base, that your religion is so bad.
God, the presumptuous Rabbi from Nazareth was proposing, is like a shepherd
who goes after one lost sheep and stays at it until he has found that sheep
and brought it safely home. God is like that woman - a breathtaking simile
who will not stop searching until she has found the lost coin.

‘That..is a very basic posture which distinguishes Judeo/Christian
religion from all the religions of the world. A handy definition of
religion is “the human search for God." It has occupied a good portion of |
the human race's intellectual and physical energy. It has inspired poetry,
music and architecture...cathedral buildings... It is the god of
philosophy, literature, and even science: to know ultimate truth... or to
know for sure that there is no ultimate truth... Steven Hawking's, A Brief
History of Time, is characterized as the brilliant astrophysicist's attempt
to “know the mind of God." Some religions emphasize introspection and
meditation: some focus on disciplined study and prayer: others on rigid
self-denial some emphasize emolional catharsis. But almost al] of them
end up with a form of exclusivism: “our religion is the only way to find
God: all others are wrong, misguided, ultimately dangerous." Some of the
sorriest chapters in human history were written because highly motivated,
disciplined religious purists believed they had to do whatever was
necessary to protect the purity of the true faith and to guarantee the
ultimate: salvation of more people by eliminating the competition. The
people who burned witches in Salem were highly motivated peaple wha
believed they were acting in the best interests of the community. And
before that the Inquisition was sincerely committed to the notion that the
faith once delivered had to be cleansed and protected from the threats of
heresy.

There is a tragic flaw in human religion, or at least a trayic
potential. The "Ff Found Tt" bumper stickers of a few years ayo were
harmless but they expressed the view that “we're al] looking for the same
thing - but I know the only way to reach it." An appropriate rejoinder had
a Siar of David on it, the lettering looked Semitic and it, announced, “We
never yoast it."

11/5/89 —

Before it becomes a religion which excludes, the earliest ideas in the
Bible are about a God who includes: a God who decides to create human
‘beings; who decides to Love them, who nurtures and cares for them, who
wants them to live in peace with one another and in responsible ,
accountability with God. Behind it al] is a God of infinite graciousness,
a "Courteous" God said Julian of Norwich, a God who welcomes all and
excludes ‘none, a God whose whale purpose is not to recruit an exclusive
Club of the elect but a whole family of humankind."

One of our oldest ideas is that God works at including all: God the
seeker: _ the pursuer... if religion is a search, the one doing the searching
is God:

“Whither shall I go from thy Spirit,
_» or whither shall I flee from thy presence?"

asked the Psalmist in those haunting images.

“If I take the wings of the morning.

‘and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there thy hand shal] lead me

: and thy right hand shall hold me."

ae Phat! sa very different idea of God: not: at all a gatekeeper,

excluding all but those who have obeyed the rules, performed the duties,
affirmed the creeds... this is a God who pursues, lovingly follows the lost
sheep, keeps at it, even to the far reaches of time and space until the
lost one. is found. .So Francis Thompson's mystic poetry...

"l fled Him, down the nights
and down. the days

I fled him down the arches of the years:
r fled him down the labyrinthine ways
of. my own mind; and in the midst of tears

I hid from Him, and under running laughter...
_. From those strong feet that
followed,

Followed after.”
(The. Hound of Heaven] _

. “There are many places to get lost in the middle of life. And it's no
secret that when Jesus talked about the human condition he rarely used
categories of sin but frequently employed metaphors of lostness.

Intense suffering and physical pain feels like abandonment, which is
a form of-lostness. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus
cried ot. in pain and it. was a confession of radical lostness not
unfamiliar la us. The death of someone you dearly love is a kind of
lostness:. So is the rupture of any relationship that grounds you, centers
you, tells you whe and where you are. The Toss of your dream... the

11/5/89

“ll

er

hopeful vision with which you began your adult life and which after many.

alterations must..be. discarded - feels a lot Jike being cast adrift: in open
“Seas, Tost. There is an- entire literature abotit the moral Jostness of

living: entirely for self, the aimlessness of a narcissism measured anly by
the "stufe” we are able to- accumulate. : :

‘Sone: Jostness is self-imposed. In Fulghum's essay he writes abaut. a

ppiend. “‘whowas dying of cancer. ."He was a doctor... And knew about dy ing
and he: ‘didn't: want to make his family and friends suffer through that .with
him. So-he: kept his secret. And died. And everybody said how brave he
“was to: bear his suffering in silence and not tell. everybody, and so: on and
$0 forth. But privately his family and friends said how angry they were

that. he didn't need them, didn't trust their strength. And it hurt that he
didn't -say:.Good-bye. 'He-hid too well.’ Getting found would have kept. him

inthe game. Hide and seek, grown-up style." {p. 57-58]

“YT don't want. to bother anyone." Lostness self-imposed... Some of.

it: ‘is: our stubbornness, our pride, our sin which Jesus doesn't condemn so

much . “as. identify. it as lostness.

You have to want to be found, I suppose. In personal relationships
you have to be vulnerable, come out of hiding. .You have to open and expose
self to. risk and pain and love and ecstasy. No. one can do it for you. :

OS, People who: love you can keep the search going, keep ‘pursuing you, but in|
; love, yeu have to allow yourself fuily to get ‘found. i

“And so it is with God.

God, Robert Fulghum ‘suggests, doesn't. play” Hide and Seek, but. a -—

_-variation. called Sardines. That's. when "the person who is 'It' goes and

hides and everyone goes looking for him. When you find him, you get in

with chim and; hide there with him. Pretty soon everybody is hiding

together... and pretty soon somebody giggles and somebody laughs and |

~ everybody gets. found. Me, -he says, I think old God is a Sardine player.

And. will ‘be found the same way everybody gets found in Sardine, by the
sound. of ‘laughter of these heaped together at the end."

wow and where does it happen? I think our being found depends on
where we°are lost. I believe God finds us sometimes...

- in the experience of a troubled conscience
“= in anger over injustice
= in impatience with ourselves.
1 think God finds us
ein experiences of intense passionate love
~ in deep and profound grief

ss in experiences of breathtaking and heartshattering beauty

11/5/89 6

} think God finds us

-- in moments of insight when we know our
own mortality —- our smaliness -

our weaknesses - our lostness.

Emily Bickinson, who thought a lot about how God comes to us, wrote:

"He fumbles at your spirit
As players at the keys

. Before they drop full music on;
He stuns you by degrees..."
{The Master]

And Robert Fulghum's "Get Found, Kid" was put more eloquently by

Francis Thompson - when, at the end of The Hound of Heaven, the chase is
over and the voice says -—

“Rise, clasp my hand

And Come! .

Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest
T am He whom thou seekest."

Jesus said simply -

"And what one of you, having a hundred sheep... does not leave the
ninety-nine and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? God,
I believe, pursues us when we are lost... when we hide. God, I believe,
searches for us across the labyrinth of years we are given.

We live by grace... we will be found... the matter rests in the hands
of God...or...on the shoulders ‘of God, if you will.

It's difficult to improve on the way the old hymn says it:
"Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,

But yet in love, he sought me,

And on his shoulder gently laid,

And home, rejoicing brought me."

Amen.

11/5/89 7