Sermon, Lost and Found
Pentecost 24.07
Herb Palmer
Faith Lutheran Church, Bellaire
September 16, 2007
Exodus 32:7-14; Psalm 51:1-10; I Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10
“Lost and Found”
My son bought a new house this summer and he has been doing some renovations before he moves in. Major work was done in the kitchen and the bathroom to update the place and make it look like a guy lives here. Turquoise, pink, and green tiles from 40 years ago had to go. The subcontractors, who did this work, put the broken tile and concrete in plastic bags and piled the bags on the back patio.
The challenge was: what do you do with these bags of broken tile and concrete? Or, better yet, what is the cheapest thing to do with it? Heavy trash pick-up day for that community is on the first Monday of the month. So, that was the plan. In September, the first Monday of the month is Labor Day, so the pick-up day was on Tuesday. It wasn’t how I wanted to spend the morning of Labor Day, but my help was needed.
It took two of us to lift these bags of tile and concrete. We put them on a utility truck and rolled them out to the curb. I am not sure if we made 50 trips to the curb or moved 50 bags out there. Either way, it was a lot. Needless to say, by the time I was finished, I was hot and sweaty, and ready to go home. I was putting some things in my car and I heard someone from the street yell, “Good Morning.” I looked up and saw a man coming toward me.
At first, I thought he was a neighbor or someone from the neighborhood association, coming to complain that we had put all this trash on the curb. I didn’t want to talk with someone. I just wanted to get home, get cleaned up, and get to my Labor Day plans. This man wasn’t a neighbor. He was looking for work to do with yard care, repairs, cleaning gutters. I told him that this was my son’s house… and… I am thinking “Great, now that all of this work is done, NOW this guy shows up!” I wanted to keep this conversation short, get home and get to my Labor Day plans but that wasn’t happening.
The man kept talking. By some of the things he was saying, I could tell that he was religious. You know how religious people can get. If he starts talking about religion, I’ll never get out of here, especially if he finds out that I am a pastor. I knew it was coming. I couldn’t avoid it. I was trapped. He got the question out before I could do or say something: he asked, “And where do you work?”
“I am a Lutheran pastor, serving with a congregation in Bellaire.” I said.
“I am a minister, too, with our congregation in Southwest Houston.” he said…. And then he began his story. “Every Day I am thankful that I am alive.” I am thinking: “I am so happy that he is a Christian, but he is not obligated to share Christ with me. I’m in. I just want to get home.” But he keeps talking.
“I wasted 30 years of my life”, he said. “I was addicted to drugs, spent years of my life in prison. I just wasted my life away. God rescued me; and now I am giving my life to God to help others who are in the same situation as I was.”
I am getting curious now. “How is it going?” I asked.
“We are working with some very tough people, but God is doing tremendous things. I am so grateful to do something. I wasted my life for 30 years.
I don’t want that to happen to anyone else.”
Our conversation did not go very much longer. He gave me his business card and he went on his way. When I was driving home to get cleaned up and get on with my Labor Day plans I couldn’t help but think about Tjuri and what he was doing. As much as I would like to think I could, I would have a huge learning curve to do what he is doing. I am worlds away from his world.
What seemed to motivate him was that he knew what it was like to waste his life. He knew what it was like to be snatched from death. He knew what it was like to know his life has a purpose.
With that kind of motivation he didn’t mind getting dirty. He didn’t mind being with irreligious people. He didn’t mind associating with people who were part of a life he walked away from. He doesn’t mind sharing that his life was snatched from death. He didn’t mind any of that… because he didn’t want anyone else to make the same mistakes.
He lived what it meant to be lost. He was living what it meant to be found. His name is Tjuri, but I think I saw the face of Jesus that day. He is casting out demons, Eating with sinners. Rescuing the lost.
There have been times lately when I was very discouraged about the church and what we are doing with the time we are given and how easily we get distracted from the main thing. Tjuri was one of those grace moments for me, reminding me that it matters what we are doing…as long as we get it straight what exactly we are suppose to be doing.
We are doing God’s work: and God’s work is pursuing people.
God loves people inside and outside of the church. God loves the baptized and the unbaptized. God loves people even more than the rules God gives us to live by. Jesus shows by his words and his actions that God desires a relationship with every human being. God doesn’t want anyone to be missed. God desires for every person to know that they are a child of God, deeply valued by God.
I wouldn’t encourage anyone to take the path Tjuri took to be where he is today. But the same God is in pursuit of each of us for the same outcome. When we are not in a relationship with God, we are lost, and God will not rest. What I admire of Tjuri is his passion and I wish that the whole church had it.
Often when we think of people who are lost we think of those who are like Tjuri. But that is not true. Lost people are often people like us who let the things of life get in the way.
Very soon we are going to be in our Spiritual enrichment time with 40 Days of community. It is our goal to invite others in. Invite them into worship, into study, into Faith Groups. We want to invite them into our lives and invite them into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We are also going to seek invitations to be invited into their lives by serving them. Maybe some of them will be like I was: hot, tired, thinking about my plans. But will we be like Tjuri, keeping at it because this is about life and death.
I hope that this will be an opportunity for some people who have not been close to God find that God is in pursuit of them. I want to pray that there will be celebrating all over the place.
Here is what the good news for us today is: Get in touch with the work of God in your life and on your behalf. You are likely doing a wonderful job serving God and taking care of your spiritual life. Keep it up; but keep your eyes on God who’s Spirit has been working to keep you close to God. God is celebrating every bit as much about you as he is about someone Tjuri helps out of their death traps.
Get in touch with the work of God in your life and also celebrate the work of God in the lives of others.
The point of each of the parables told by Jesus is that the owner, found what he valued, and he invited everyone else to celebrate with him. Go ahead; celebrate the work of God in your life and in the life of one another. When we do, we are told that we get in tune with what is going on beyond this place in a place where there are angels and heavenly beings. Heaven and earth are rejoicing even when it is just one of us. That is pretty amazing. AMEN
Herb Palmer
Faith Lutheran Church, Bellaire
September 16, 2007
Exodus 32:7-14; Psalm 51:1-10; I Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10
“Lost and Found”
My son bought a new house this summer and he has been doing some renovations before he moves in. Major work was done in the kitchen and the bathroom to update the place and make it look like a guy lives here. Turquoise, pink, and green tiles from 40 years ago had to go. The subcontractors, who did this work, put the broken tile and concrete in plastic bags and piled the bags on the back patio.
The challenge was: what do you do with these bags of broken tile and concrete? Or, better yet, what is the cheapest thing to do with it? Heavy trash pick-up day for that community is on the first Monday of the month. So, that was the plan. In September, the first Monday of the month is Labor Day, so the pick-up day was on Tuesday. It wasn’t how I wanted to spend the morning of Labor Day, but my help was needed.
It took two of us to lift these bags of tile and concrete. We put them on a utility truck and rolled them out to the curb. I am not sure if we made 50 trips to the curb or moved 50 bags out there. Either way, it was a lot. Needless to say, by the time I was finished, I was hot and sweaty, and ready to go home. I was putting some things in my car and I heard someone from the street yell, “Good Morning.” I looked up and saw a man coming toward me.
At first, I thought he was a neighbor or someone from the neighborhood association, coming to complain that we had put all this trash on the curb. I didn’t want to talk with someone. I just wanted to get home, get cleaned up, and get to my Labor Day plans. This man wasn’t a neighbor. He was looking for work to do with yard care, repairs, cleaning gutters. I told him that this was my son’s house… and… I am thinking “Great, now that all of this work is done, NOW this guy shows up!” I wanted to keep this conversation short, get home and get to my Labor Day plans but that wasn’t happening.
The man kept talking. By some of the things he was saying, I could tell that he was religious. You know how religious people can get. If he starts talking about religion, I’ll never get out of here, especially if he finds out that I am a pastor. I knew it was coming. I couldn’t avoid it. I was trapped. He got the question out before I could do or say something: he asked, “And where do you work?”
“I am a Lutheran pastor, serving with a congregation in Bellaire.” I said.
“I am a minister, too, with our congregation in Southwest Houston.” he said…. And then he began his story. “Every Day I am thankful that I am alive.” I am thinking: “I am so happy that he is a Christian, but he is not obligated to share Christ with me. I’m in. I just want to get home.” But he keeps talking.
“I wasted 30 years of my life”, he said. “I was addicted to drugs, spent years of my life in prison. I just wasted my life away. God rescued me; and now I am giving my life to God to help others who are in the same situation as I was.”
I am getting curious now. “How is it going?” I asked.
“We are working with some very tough people, but God is doing tremendous things. I am so grateful to do something. I wasted my life for 30 years.
I don’t want that to happen to anyone else.”
Our conversation did not go very much longer. He gave me his business card and he went on his way. When I was driving home to get cleaned up and get on with my Labor Day plans I couldn’t help but think about Tjuri and what he was doing. As much as I would like to think I could, I would have a huge learning curve to do what he is doing. I am worlds away from his world.
What seemed to motivate him was that he knew what it was like to waste his life. He knew what it was like to be snatched from death. He knew what it was like to know his life has a purpose.
With that kind of motivation he didn’t mind getting dirty. He didn’t mind being with irreligious people. He didn’t mind associating with people who were part of a life he walked away from. He doesn’t mind sharing that his life was snatched from death. He didn’t mind any of that… because he didn’t want anyone else to make the same mistakes.
He lived what it meant to be lost. He was living what it meant to be found. His name is Tjuri, but I think I saw the face of Jesus that day. He is casting out demons, Eating with sinners. Rescuing the lost.
There have been times lately when I was very discouraged about the church and what we are doing with the time we are given and how easily we get distracted from the main thing. Tjuri was one of those grace moments for me, reminding me that it matters what we are doing…as long as we get it straight what exactly we are suppose to be doing.
We are doing God’s work: and God’s work is pursuing people.
God loves people inside and outside of the church. God loves the baptized and the unbaptized. God loves people even more than the rules God gives us to live by. Jesus shows by his words and his actions that God desires a relationship with every human being. God doesn’t want anyone to be missed. God desires for every person to know that they are a child of God, deeply valued by God.
I wouldn’t encourage anyone to take the path Tjuri took to be where he is today. But the same God is in pursuit of each of us for the same outcome. When we are not in a relationship with God, we are lost, and God will not rest. What I admire of Tjuri is his passion and I wish that the whole church had it.
Often when we think of people who are lost we think of those who are like Tjuri. But that is not true. Lost people are often people like us who let the things of life get in the way.
Very soon we are going to be in our Spiritual enrichment time with 40 Days of community. It is our goal to invite others in. Invite them into worship, into study, into Faith Groups. We want to invite them into our lives and invite them into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. We are also going to seek invitations to be invited into their lives by serving them. Maybe some of them will be like I was: hot, tired, thinking about my plans. But will we be like Tjuri, keeping at it because this is about life and death.
I hope that this will be an opportunity for some people who have not been close to God find that God is in pursuit of them. I want to pray that there will be celebrating all over the place.
Here is what the good news for us today is: Get in touch with the work of God in your life and on your behalf. You are likely doing a wonderful job serving God and taking care of your spiritual life. Keep it up; but keep your eyes on God who’s Spirit has been working to keep you close to God. God is celebrating every bit as much about you as he is about someone Tjuri helps out of their death traps.
Get in touch with the work of God in your life and also celebrate the work of God in the lives of others.
The point of each of the parables told by Jesus is that the owner, found what he valued, and he invited everyone else to celebrate with him. Go ahead; celebrate the work of God in your life and in the life of one another. When we do, we are told that we get in tune with what is going on beyond this place in a place where there are angels and heavenly beings. Heaven and earth are rejoicing even when it is just one of us. That is pretty amazing. AMEN
posted by Faith Lutheran Church at
11:43 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home