Completing the Puzzle

September 12, 2004 (Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost -- Proper 19)

  by The Rev. Linda Yeager, Deacon

- Exodus 32:1,7-14
- Psalm 51:1-11
- 1 Timothy 1:12-17
- Luke 15:1-10

(From The Lectionary Page)

The English Poet Charles Caleb Colton said, "True friendship is like sound health, the value of it is seldom known until it is lost." Most of us would agree that we often don't appreciate what we have--friendships, good health, security, independence -- until we lose them. I am reminded of this on the days when I am busiest. I scoot around town, driving from hospital to nursing home, watching the clock and thinking of all that must be accomplished before the day is over. Then, I go into a person's room who is bedfast, who cannot "scoot around" anymore, and I am humbled. Instead of appreciating the freedom that soundness of body and mind offers me, I am preoccupied with the details of the day. It is only when we lose something that we truly appreciate it.

I have often taken Wednesdays as my day off. I have been fortunate to have a day off in the middle of the week, for my young granddaughter and I shared Wednesdays until she got old enough to go to school. Those were special days to both of us, but I probably didn't truly appreciate them either, until she was in school and we didn't have those days anymore. Anyway, she and I both enjoyed working on jigsaw puzzles. We would spread the pieces out on a card table and work on fitting the brightly colored shapes together. As she got older, we graduated to puzzles with more and more pieces, sometimes putting our skills to puzzles with as many as 100 pieces.

Working painstakingly, we would turn each shape this way and that, circling it 360 degrees, trying to match colors and notches. Sometimes we would get the entire puzzle together except for -- you guessed it -- one missing piece. No matter how colorful or interesting the puzzle looked, it wasn't complete until we found that one piece, and we would crawl around on the floor, looking under the sofa, lifting the edge of the rug, feeling with our fingers as well as searching with our eyes, until we found it. This piece became the focus of our attention, and the satisfaction of the finished product was missing until we located that missing piece. Once in awhile, when we did find the piece, we discovered that the dog had found it first, and it was a bit worse for wear. Nevertheless, we patted it down, smoothed it out, and -- at last -- put it in its proper place. YES!! Now we had the complete puzzle and we could look at it with satisfaction.

Well, I'm sure you get the analogy to today's gospel lesson. Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees and the scribes who were "grumbling." They were unhappy with the people Jesus chose to welcome and eat with. After all, tax collectors and sinners were unacceptable as far as the Pharisees and scribes were concerned. So, in response to their disapproval, Jesus told them not one, but two parables, both very familiar to us, both also very familiar to those who lived in Jesus' time and were accustomed to the ways of shepherds and to the darkness of homes with no windows. Jesus reminds them of the value of that which is lost, whether it be sheep or coins or people. The word that Jesus uses when referring to the recovering of the lost is "joy." Not happiness or satisfaction or comfort, but joy. "Joy" is a word that is often missing from our vocabulary in this age of angst and discouragement, so I take particular notice that it is joyful to recover that which is lost.

I think, also, about those 99 sheep whom the shepherd left to go find the one sheep that was lost. How did they feel? Did they, too, have a sense of loss, of being incomplete, of longing for the return of the lost sheep? I believe that they did, just as we feel incomplete if one member of our family is missing at the Thanksgiving table or at the family reunion. While we love and appreciate all the others, the missing member is the one who is foremost in our thoughts. If the missing relative suddenly shows up just in time for the pumpkin pie or the family tug-of-war, we are filled with joy, more joy even than we would have felt had they arrived on time with the rest of the kin. "Joy" is, after all, an appropriate word for the recovery of that which was lost.

Now, let's pretend for a moment that we are the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost puzzle piece, or the missing family member. And, to tell the truth, we have all been lost at one time or another -- missing from family or friends or job or church. When we feel lost, aren't we waiting to be found by someone? Aren't we longing for a sense of community? Aren't we wishing that we weren't all alone out there -- that someone would welcome us back into the fold? And it's very difficult to find our way back without help. Being on the outside of a community is not only isolating and lonely, but it can also be divisive, for we become defensive and we begin making excuses for our behavior, for our "lostness." We don't fit in, we say; we don't like the way things are being done, we add; we enjoy our solitude, we protest; we are fine by ourselves, we contend. But the bottom line is, we aren't fine alone and the community is not fine without us.

In today's Old Testament reading from Exodus, we find a whole group of people who are lost, who are alone because one of them, their leader Moses, has left them to go up on the mountain. They turn to his brother Aaron and ask him to make gods for them because they don't know what has become of Moses. They are in that category of those who make excuses when they are lost and alone. God isn't happy with their attitudes and would like to bring wrath down on them. But Moses entreats God to think it over and keep the promises that were made to the people. "And the Lord changed his mind," the scripture says, "about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people." God's compassion overcame righteous indignation. God found value in them.

And God finds value in us, the parts of us, even, that are lost. God does not give up on us when we stray. And God is joyful when we are found. We, too, are joyful when he or she who has been missing is found. So, the two important words for today's readings are "value" and "joy." We are valued and there is joy when we are found, no matter how or why we are lost. It is never too late to reconnect, to move back into the group, to find the comfort of being surrounded by those to whom we belong. And we must reach out to those who are lost in whatever ways we can -- through prayer, through friendship, through spiritual listening, through inclusiveness--to help them reconnect, to move back into the group, to find the comfort of being surrounded by those to whom they belong. Whether it is a family member, a church member, a community member, or a friend, there is great value in each one and great joy when each one is found

This chapter of Luke, which continues with the story of the Prodigal Son, has sometimes been called "The Gospel Within the Gospel," for this chapter truly presents the good news, the startling news to the Pharisees and the scribes and even to us that God is searching for us, actually searching for us. Furthermore, God rejoices when we are found. This is a loving God who, in fact, loves us so much that he sent his son to come and seek and find us.  The power of that love is what gives us joy and reminds us of the value of each one of us, even when we have lost our way, even when we have become separated from God.

The all-encompassing Jesus stresses the importance of belonging, of being found. Christianity is like a great and beautiful puzzle that isn't complete with even one missing piece. Strive for the joy that comes when the valued one who is lost, is recovered and fits perfectly into the missing spot. Seek to be found; reach out to others; understand the value of each one; pray; and be joyful.