God Finds Us
March 30, 2010
Luke 15:8-10
The penny may be in trouble in the next several years in terms of its viability as a coin in our system. After all, what can you get for a penny? Perhaps we could round down to a nickel in a similar way in which we round down from forty nine cents or up from fifty-one on our income tax forms. After all, would we miss the penny?
According to Jesus’ parable today the woman who loses a drachma, a coin worth considerably more than a penny (about one day’s wages) searches carefully to find her one lost coin. But more importantly when she finds it she not only is glad for her own sake, but throws a party for her friends and neighbors over her discovery. So God rejoices in the same way over one sinner who repents.
What marks the lost coin as being different than the lost sheep or the lost son? The coin can do nothing for itself, but is dependent on the finder to discover it. So the woman needs to have company to rejoice over the lost since the coin will not do it. So we need the Christian community to rejoice over our being found by our gracious God.
When I was in seminary in the seventies there was a movement in the church that emphasized “I found it.” By that phrase those who created the saying meant that the individual ultimately needs to find God. In response the Lutheran seminary that I attended emphasized “God found me.” Although there probably shouldn’t be too great of a contrast made between these two positions, this parable clearly is on the side of “God finds us.” We can be thankful that it does not rest on our GPS abilities, because if left to ourselves we may just remain lost. But our loving God can find us no matter where we might be lost. That is something for which we can be eternally grateful.