Lost & Found
September 11: Proper 19:
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28 & Psalm 14 or
1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10
Draft text of the homily, please pardon any typos, and do not cite without permission.
“O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved.
In quietness and confidence shall be our strength.
By the might of thy Spirit lift us we pray thee to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou art God.”
That’s known as the Prayer for Quiet Confidence [p. 832]. Written almost 100 years ago.
It’s lovely, isn’t it? It’s one of my favorite prayers.
“In returning and rest we shall be saved.”
Well, we have returned. Welcome back. I pray that those of you who have returned and those of you who have joined us a new, will find here a place of rest, and renewal.
Well, not all of us have returned…that’s not to say that some of us are lost, although we might be, but simply to acknowledge that there are some who are not here. Some have died. Some have moved. Some have just drifted away. Some might just be busy this week. Some are gathered at other churches, around other altars across the Commonwealth, and across the globe. So we are not all here.
Some are returning after being here last week…some are returning after a long time away…some are here for the first or second time; some are happy to be back in a place that is intimately familiar, some are not sure and are just trying this out. I’m sure there are many different reasons why people are here, but at some level I bet we’re all looking for something…rest, quietness, confidence, peace, strength…God.
Because you’ve all come to this place at 10:30 on a Sunday morning, I’m assuming that at some level, you’re looking for God. Maybe you look out at the world and wonder where God is; is God still at work in the world, and if so where? Is God trying to say something to us? Is there something I’m supposed to do about any of this? What are you looking for?
Let me change that question around: What if you stopped looking and started being found?
What if instead of looking for God, what if you stopped and rested and allowed yourself to come to the realization that you have already been found by God?
The 14th century medieval mystic, who we know only by the name of the church where she lived in a cell, Julian of Norwich tells an parable about the human condition about looking and not seeing, about being lost and found that was revealed to her in one of her “showings” [Chapter 51]
What she saw was this: she saw a ruler, and a servant. The ruler sat stately in rest and peace, and the servant stood ready to do the will of the ruler. The ruler looks lovingly on the servant and sends the servant to do the ruler’s will. The servant is so excited, and so passionate about doing the ruler’s will that the servant sets off at a run and almost immediately falls into a ditch. Covered in muck and badly injured, the servant struggles to get up, but cannot. The ruler stands over the servant, ever ready to help the servant up, but the servant…now convinced that no help is ever going to come lays in the ditch unable to turn and look up, and grows more and more despondent about this awful condition.
This is Julian’s understanding of sin. And it’s a very helpful one, I think. We run to do God’s will, or we go looking for God, and trip and fall, and get stuck in the ditches of our lives. Blinded by ego temptations, and our fears of not having enough, of not being enough, our self-doubt, our insecurity. And we struggle and struggle and sink deeper and deeper into the muck, and grow more and more convinced that God doesn’t care, that God is absent, that we have done something horribly wrong. When God stands ever ready to help. All it takes is returning and rest—learning how to realize that you have been found. That God has already found you. Stands above and beside you always ready to help.
“O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved.
In quietness and confidence shall be our strength.
By the might of thy Spirit lift us we pray (out of the ruts and ditches of our lives), and into thy presence, where we may be still and know that you are God.
What if you stopped looking and started being found.
How do I do that?
Here we are, in the ditch, looking around, trying to find God, hoping that we are found by God…isn’t there something we can do? To, you know, help the process along?
Yes, we need ways of clearing the mud from our eyes, we need practices that help us stop struggling, we need help turning around and returning to God…those are the core meanings of the word “repent” “to turn around, and to return.
This is where practicing our faith comes in. You’ve probably heard the phrase, “she’s a ‘practicing Christian’” Which I think is a really good way to think about it, because being a follower of Jesus Christ takes practice. We have to work at it a bit. We have all already been found by God, but we have to practice really knowing that, and and living that way. I like to remind people that God loves you just the way you are, and God loves you too much to let you stay that way.
We need to practice. Practices like, participating in and receiving Communion, like many forms of daily prayer, keeping sabbath, study of scripture and other scared texts and spiritual writings, making music, fasting, exercise, practicing hospitality, and generosity…giving of time, talent, and treasure to the spread of God’s reign of peace and justice. Many things can be a spiritual practice if approached with intention and integrity. Almost everything we do here is practice. Practice that helps us remove the mud from our eyes and see, that helps us pick ourselves up, and help each other up, when we’ve fallen (and we fall and make mistakes pretty regularly…which gives us many chances to practice both giving and receiving forgiveness).
This fall a number of us are going to be exploring a variety of practices; the youth will be practicing in Basecamp, the choir will be practicing with the wonderful music on Sundays and at Evensongs, the Daughters of the King will be practicing with prayer and quiet days, we’ll be exploring new ways of practicing hospitality with the MANNA program at the Cathedral, and those are just a few. We want this to be a place of rest, and renewal, and a place where we practice and gain confidence and strength. Because the world needs people who can see clearly, and can guide others with grace and peace and quiet confidence…there’s a lot of mucky ditches out there.
And I know it can be exhausting looking at the list of opportunities. The needs of the world are great. So maybe you thinking that all the rest sounds pretty good but the practice sounds a little too much, maybe your ditch is still too deep, the mud too thick, maybe you’re thinking that you’re the sheep that’s just not meant to be found, you’re the coin that’s really a bad penny, Let me tell you one more story about another ruler and their child, this one comes from the Jewish tradition:
A ruler had a child. The child was beloved. The ruler adored the child. But as children often are, the child was rebellious and left went far far away.
The ruler was terribly sad. Friends found the child and said, “please, come back, your parent loves you and misses you terribly. But the child replied, “I cannot do that.”
The parent sent a messenger to the child, saying: “please come home.” But the child, now worn down by the cares of the world replied, “I cannot. I don’t have the strength.”
When the ruler heard this they sent another messenger saying: “Then return as far as you can, and I will come the rest of the way.”
What if you stopped looking, and started practicing being found, just go as far as you can. God will meet you there.
Amen.