Trinity Episcopal Church-September 2007

September 2007

In our gospel today we heard a simple story of something that was lost and then found. A woman loses a silver coin and diligently searched for it: lighting a lamp, crawling around on the floor, looking under beds and dressers, and sweeping out every nook and cranny. She rejoiced because she found the coin, and she called up her friends (or did she text message?) and said, "Come on over and let's have a party because I found the coin." Why did Jesus portray the tireless searcher as a woman? I figure it was because a guy would stand in the center of the room and call out "HONEY, HAVE YOU SEEN MY COIN?" and she'd end up looking for it anyway.

What does the story of a lost coin tell us today? The idea of being lost and God desiring to find us is one of Jesus' favorite pictures of God's love. Do we represent the coin in this story and God is the woman who desperately searches for us? Or are we like the woman in our story as we desperately search for God? Perhaps both ways of looking at the illustration is good, but because Jesus is talking about God's seeking love for us, I think the former is true, that we are like the coin being sought after.

Doesn't it feel wonderful and humbling to be so valued by God that He would search after you, even sweeping out every earthly nook and cranny to find you? God searching: wanting to meet you; or if you've wandered away, God wants to collect you back in; or if you are feeling like you want to grow spiritually, your very desire is God drawing you closer to Him. God is seeking each one of us! And when we are found by God, whether it's our first meeting, or a return to Him, or a closer relationship with Him, God rejoices and calls all the angels together and they have a party.

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September 2007