In this weeks Gospel Luke Jesus is sitting with sinners and tax collectors while the Pharisees and scribes look and say “This man receives sinners and eats with them. While sitting there, Jesus tells 3 parables. Parables that you may have heard already. The first one was the parable of the lost sheep. In this parable a man with one hundred sheep loses one. Instead of focusing on the 99 sheep that he still has, he focused on finding the lost one. Who would do any different? When you found your sheep would you celebrate? Jesus says there will be more joy in heaven for a sinner that repents then for a righteous person with no need to repent. Then he goes on to tell another parable. This one is about a woman that loses a coin. She searches until she finds it. When she finds it she also rejoices and tells her neighbors that she has found the coin that was once lost. In the last a parable Jesus talks about father and his 2 sons. The younger of the two sons requests that he get his inheritance early. His Father listens and does give him his inheritance. Ultimately, the son squanders all of the money and has to return home. He returns home defeated by life and his reckless living. He tells his father what he has done and instead of being disappointed the father celebrates the return of his son. He celebrates that his son was lost but now he was found.
Each one of these parables deals with the loss of something which in the end is found. I’m not sure if you have ever had the experience of losing something valuable and finding it again. It’s almost as if you were given a new gift. Many years ago my mother gifted gold necklaces to each of her sons. We wore them proudly because she had given them to us as a way for us to always keep her close. It was something special that my 2 brothers and I shared.
Occasionally, I run 5k’s or half marathons as way to stay in shape. One cold winter morning just before a 5k in Washington Heights, I realized that I was wearing my necklace, and decided that I didn’t want to run with it. At the end of the race I rushed back to my car and sped home to shower , change my clothes and get warm again. After my shower I realized that I wasn’t wearing my necklace and had forgotten what I had done with it. Maybe it was the pre race jitters but I sort of misplaced it. Not sure why, but I assumed I’d find it in a day or two and let it go. As the days went by without my necklace I began to slowly lose hope. “My necklace was gone forever” I began to think. Maybe I dropped it during the run. Maybe it fell in Washington Heights and it was just gone. What’s was I gonna tell my mother!? How could I have been so careless? Well, months passed before I found my necklace in the placed behind the passenger seat of my car. When I found it...it felt like a brand new necklace. It was like I never lost it. It was with me again.
When Jesus told the parables of the prodigal son, lost coin and the lost sheep he demonstrated that finding something that was once lost is like being given a new gift. It’s almost better than what you had before. It’s almost as if value increases when it what was lost is recovered. Being lost and then found has a value. That’s what God does. He can add value where you see a loss. In life, you will suffer and you will faces losses. I have grown to understand that suffering is very much a part of being alive. Today I ask you, have you ever felt lost? Have you ever felt misplaced, or out of place? Have you ever felt as if you are out of step with life ? I’d like to say most of us can relate to that feeling. What’s important though is realizing that we will all have those moments and all we need to do is recognize that God is on our side guiding us. Guiding us back to his love. We can be renewed in that exact moment we realize that the lord is always with us. We can become brand new in his eyes and ours. It doesn’t matter how many times you have stumbled. The lord is will always be there to pick you up and dust you off. Renewed and celebrated each and every time. Renewed in the eyes of the lord. So many of us think that we “fail” when we don’t live up to the standards that we hold ourselves to. Just like the prodigal son who returns we are ashamed. We are disappointed in ourselves , but the lord has open arms and welcomes us back. The value we place on ourselves has nothing to do with the value that the lord places on us. Remember that you are no different then a lost coin, sheep or gold necklace. When you return to the lord you are brand new. You are actually better now that you have been found.
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