Sermons/Discussions

“The Land of the Lost”

Sermon: Christmas Eve 2004

The Rev. Matt Kennedy

The Church of the Good Shepherd

I’m going to start this evening by reading a very short story Jesus once told. If you want to follow along, it’s found in Luke chapter 15 beginning in verse 8. “Suppose a woman has ten silver coins and she loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me: I’ve found my lost coin.’” Stop there. It’s a very short story. The woman has ten coins. Now we might think that means she’s poor. But that’s not necessarily the case. In fact some single silver coins could be worth a whole year’s wages. The point is that this coin, whatever it’s worth, is precious to her, valuable. So precious and valuable that she turns the whole house upside down to find it. And when she finds it, her joy is complete.

Most of us have more than ten silver coins, but I do think that all of us as human beings by nature have one thing in common with this woman who lost her coin. We’re all searchers. We’re born searching for that precious coin. For that one thing that will bring us happiness.

Our second child, Aedan, is now 8 months old and is already a dedicated searcher. Take his pacifier for example. I don’t know what it is about that thing but if it’s not in his mouth or within reach Aedan expresses intense dissatisfaction with life and he continues to express himself in no uncertain terms until he finds it or his mommy or daddy brings it to him. Then he’s found happiness. But we know this happiness is only for the moment. Soon he’ll need his diaper changed or he’ll be hungry and then the pacifier will, sadly, pacify no longer. One day, Aedan will grow out of the pacifier and move on to other things that will bring him happiness; toys, cars, trucks, blocks, tree-forts. But those too will eventually ware thin. Then happiness will be getting his drivers license, girls, friends, sports not necessarily in that order. But as he gets older he’ll find that those too while nice, don’t quite fit the bill. After that happiness will be a career and a family, a home and a pet. And these will hopefully bring him great joy. But I know, and I think all of us know that even those things as wonderful as they can be will not bring him ultimate happiness. The search goes far beyond anything that people or things can give him.

Not just Aedan, people everywhere in every culture seek the coin. All over the earth people seek happiness and contentment and they find like we do that the normal things in life, while great, don’t ultimately fit the bill. So the search goes on. In a negative way that search deceives people into thinking they can find the precious coin by purchasing new things: clothes, cars, homes, or by accumulating more money; or by drinking more beer, or finding a new drug, or a new sexual experience. In fact the search can lead people into the whole assortment of destructive behaviors that have been the constant plague of humanity from time immemorial. These are the things and this is the path that ultimately leads people to despair of ever finding anything worth the search and to give up. Mike Tyson the once incredibly wealthy world champion boxer followed this path. After several drug busts, prison terms, divorces, and failed comebacks, he recently said, “Dying can’t be as bad as living.” His search has lead him to a dead end. Some of you might have felt that way before too.

In a more constructive way, at least on the surface, that search for happiness can lead to religion. Religion is a universal human trait. There’s not a society and there never has been, that has not practiced some form of religion. And almost all of them promise help in finding the coin. Pray this prayer, live in this way, worship at this shrine, meditate, practice yoga, fast, read this book, follow this law and in the end you’ll find what you’re looking for. From Hinduism to Islam, from the New Age cults to wicca, all of them say to the seeker, this is the path, look here, search with us, we can find the coin.

And so the world searches on, in ways good and bad, destructive and constructive, it has been searching in this way almost from the very beginning. Searching and searching and searching and yet never finding. Some of you may be searching as well.

Tonight I have some very good news. That thing, that One thing that the whole world seeks; that everyone from Mike Tyson to my baby boy longs for and every religion hopes to find, that one thing has come looking for us.

That story Jesus told about the woman searching for the lost coin was not a story about our search for happiness. It was the story of God’s search for us. For you. Everyone in this room is like that lost coin. And God has turned heaven and earth upside down to find you because you are precious in his sight.

The world has it all wrong. It searches for happiness, meaning and peace and does not find it because it does not know where to look. It doesn’t know where to look because it’s lost; so lost that it‘s even forgotten what it is that’s missing. It’s not the Buddha, not Mohamed, not Shiva or Vishnu. It’s not yoga or meditation or losing that extra 15 pounds. It’s not money, sex, drugs or rock and roll. Its not even job or family. It’s Jesus Christ, the living Word, The Son of God made man.

That’s what John means in the gospel this evening when he says, the Word was made flesh and made his dwelling among us.” He means that God the Son became man. Words reveal our hearts, our true selves, the parts of us that would otherwise would remain hidden. This Word, Jesus Christ, The Word, reveals God. The first line of the Gospel of John says it best, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."

Now look over at the Nativity scene on the side altar. God the Son, through whom the Father created and sustains the entire universe, divested himself, took off his divine glory and majesty and came to us as a weak and helpless baby born in a barn, a stable. Lying in a manger, a feeding trough. God himself came looking for you. That search lead him from the manger to a hard wooden cross where, being the infinite and eternal God, he took the weight of the sins that you and I and the whole world have committed and will commit upon his own back and, being man, human being, bore them and died for them in our place.

Why? Why would he do this? Because you are precious in his sight and he is not willing that anyone of you should be lost but that all might believe, trust in him and be and be found. The woman in the story turned the whole house upside down to find her precious coin. God turned all creation upside down. He came down from heaven and died the death of a criminal to find you.

When the woman found her coin she called all of her friends together and rejoiced. And to sum up the story Jesus said, “In the same way…there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

That’s why this night is so joyous. Because God has come looking for everyone in Jesus Christ, because he has given his only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in him will not perish but be found and have everlasting life. Many of us know the joy, the satisfaction, the contentment of being found by Jesus Christ. He found me ten years ago and nothing has been the same since.

If you are searching tonight, if you feel lost, if you feel your life is spinning out of control then tonight is the night to stop searching and be found. Jesus has come not just to find the whole world, but to find you because you are precious in his sight. All you have to do is pray this closing prayer with me.

"Lord Jesus I am a lost sinner and on my own I can’t find my way home. But you died on the cross to save me from the eternal consequences of my sins and this night I repent and I put my life in your hands. I want to be with you forever. Come into my heart Lord Jesus and make your home there. I give my life to you. I pray this in your holy Name. Amen."

If you prayed that prayer with me, there is rejoicing in heaven. You are home. Come to me or Anne afterwards and we’ll talk about it. And to everyone else, may God give you all a merry Christmas.

Amen