These are challenging times for my congregation: we lost our Pastor to illness 18
months ago (although we are still served by a wonderful Deacon in whom Jesus’ light
shines brightly); we are homeless, having left our building of 74 years last September;
and we are divided in what we want next.
For four Sundays after Easter we met to reflect on where we are. It was joyful to be
together—members I hadn’t seen in months turned out. It was also painful and sad as
we acknowledged the grief we all feel for our losses—our building, our church family,
and our sense of comfort in thinking we know what comes next.
We also felt stuck—how to move forward? Some wish we could just go it alone.
Others feel they’ve found a new church home and want to commit to it. Others feel
abandoned by those who want to worship somewhere they can’t abide.
As I reflected on our discussion, the parable of the lost sheep came to me. Jesus’
parables are always challenging—they turn conventional wisdom on its head. In this
parable Jesus describes a shepherd, who upon realizing he is missing one of his 100
sheep, leaves the 99 to search for the one. This seems crazy—isn’t that shepherd
putting the 99 at risk? In our “majority rules” world, the missing one has been
outvoted.
But that’s the beauty of the parable: Jesus seeks ALL of us, always, even when it’s
inconvenient or impractical. Every single one of us matters to God.
Applying this parable to our situation, members crafted a proposal: those who want to
go forward with the church where we’ve been worshipping will do so, and they will
move from being roommates to exploring a deeper connection. And those “lost sheep”
who seek a different church home would be assisted in finding one. It may be this
group would end up together at another church, it may be that they would scatter. But
they would be supported in their journey by the whole congregation.
The lost sheep parable applies to our world right now too. Every single migrant (or
American citizen child of a migrant) in this country matters and deserves due process.
Every former recipient of U.S. AID funding, whether an AIDS-infected expectant
mother in Africa or a starving child in Northern Gaza, matters. Every researcher or
scientist whose funding has been cut off, ostensibly as a rebuke for their university’s
alleged antisemitism, matters. Every government employee fired in mass layoffs
matters.
Every plant, animal or human harmed by rollbacks on environmental protections
matters.
As told in the book of Luke (15:3-7), Jesus describes how the shepherd behaves when
he finds the lost sheep:
When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing. When he
comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to
them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’
Let’s all take up the call to seek out and support the lost and rejoice in bringing them
back to the fold.