Nancy Ferree-Clark - "Lost and Found" (September 17, 1989)

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-	A reading from the gospel according to St. Luke.	0:14
	"Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near	0:20
	"to hear Jesus.	0:24
	"And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying,	0:27
	"This man receive sinners and eats with them."	0:31
	"So Jesus told them this parable,	0:36
	"which one of you having 100 sheep,	0:39
	"if he has lost one of them does not leave the 99	0:43
	"in the wilderness and go after the one	0:46
	"which is lost until he finds it.	0:49
	"And having found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing	0:53
	"and when he comes home, he calls together his friends	0:58
	"and neighbors saying to them, "rejoice with me,	1:00
	"for I have found my sheep, which was lost."	1:05
	"Just so, I tell you there will be more joy in heaven	1:09
	"over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons	1:13
	"who need no repentance.	1:19
	"Or what woman having 10 silver coins,	1:22
	"if she loses one coin,	1:25
	"does not light a lamp and sweep the house	1:27
	"and seek diligently until she finds it.	1:31
	"And when she has found it she calls together her friends	1:35
	"and neighbors saying, "rejoice with me,	1:38
	"for I have found the coin which I had lost."	1:41
	"Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God	1:45
	"over one sinner who repents."	1:50
	This is the word of the Lord.	1:55
	It seems very timely that while we're still	2:02
	in the early part of a new semester,	2:05
	we should encounter a gospel lesson	2:08
	about being lost and found.	2:09
	For all of you newcomers to campus,	2:13
	I don't have to tell you that the options for getting lost	2:15
	and feeling lost are legion.	2:18
	There's the initial problem of making your way	2:22
	from west to east to north to central campus and back,	2:24
	but of course, I assume most of you have lived that problem	2:29
	by now, but rest assured, greater challenges await you,	2:32
	just wait until you attempt to navigate the downtown streets	2:36
	in Durham they're all one way.	2:40
	Of course, there's always the challenge of classes	2:43
	and mountains of new material, which make you wonder	2:46
	if your acceptance letter to the university,	2:49
	might have been a computer glitch.	2:52
	I remember feeling lost for most of my freshman year,	2:55
	especially in math 31 and 32,	2:58
	never having had a calculus course in my life	3:01
	while the rest of the people in there seemed	3:03
	to be majoring in it, it wasn't much fun.	3:05
	If any of you have a similar problem,	3:09
	just see me after the service, I can sympathize.	3:10
	Then there are the inevitable feelings that go along	3:15
	with social life on a college campus of being lost.	3:18
	What group should I hang out with?	3:22
	How am I coming across to other people?	3:25
	Why don't I feel so sure of myself anymore?	3:28
	Will I ever feel like I really belong?	3:32
	My friends, if you currently are experiencing any	3:37
	of these feelings or other symptoms of lostness,	3:40
	I thank you for coming today,	3:44
	for you are uniquely well equipped to receive the good news	3:46
	of today's gospel.	3:49
	You see a parable about being lost is very difficult to hear	3:51
	for those who feel they've never been lost.	3:56
	This is one of the tricky parts about a discussion	3:59
	about of this topic.	4:03
	You see, people don't always know when they're lost,	4:04
	and even when they do, it can be awfully tough to admit it.	4:08
	I have in mind such a stereotyped example of conflict	4:13
	in American families over this particular problem,	4:17
	that I'm reluctant to mention it	4:20
	for fear of being called sexist,	4:21
	but it does seem to happen a lot, even in my own household.	4:24
	Have you ever been riding in the car with your parents	4:29
	on a summer vacation or maybe on the way	4:32
	to see an out of town friend or relative?	4:35
	When one of the passengers, perhaps your mother,	4:37
	suggested to the driver, perhaps your father,	4:41
	that just maybe you were lost?	4:44
	(audience laughs)	4:47
	Nothing looked familiar anymore,	4:48
	the landscape seemed to be changing,	4:50
	and suddenly the license plates,	4:52
	we're all from out of state.	4:54
	(audience laughs)	4:57
	I've been this way 1000 times before,	4:58
	"Oh no, dear, I know exactly where we are."	5:00
	replies the driver, but honey, we've been driving around	5:03
	for five hours since you said we were almost there,	5:07
	maybe we should stop and ask directions.	5:10
	You know the rest of that scenario.	5:14
	(audience laughs)	5:16
	Perhaps it's a genetic predisposition	5:17
	that says not only is figuring out	5:19
	that we're lost very difficult,	5:21
	but admitting to it can be more so.	5:23
	Whatever the reason, Jesus recognized the complexities	5:26
	of dealing with lostness in our lives,	5:30
	and so he introduced the topic by way of a parable.	5:32
	Jesus' parables standout to us	5:38
	as some of the most beloved passages of scripture.	5:40
	They take examples from our daily life, or at least life	5:43
	in first century AD to tell interesting stories	5:47
	that we all can relate to, but most of all,	5:51
	they are very familiar to us.	5:54
	Therein lies one of the great hazards	5:56
	in interpreting the parables however,	5:59
	we think we know what they mean for the kingdom of God	6:02
	because we know them so well, when in fact,	6:04
	Jesus told the parables to point out the unsatisfactoryness	6:08
	of all the previous understandings	6:12
	that his hearers brought to him.	6:14
	Mark quotes Jesus as saying he taught through parables	6:18
	so that seeing, they may see and not perceive,	6:21
	and hearing they may hear and not understand.	6:26
	He's trying to tell us that the mystery of the kingdom	6:31
	is a radical mystery,	6:33
	which is beyond our usual level of comprehension.	6:35
	The challenge in studying Jesus' parables, therefore,	6:39
	is to focus on what he himself has to say	6:43
	to us in these stories,	6:46
	rather than what we are simply looking to find.	6:48
	Thus we overhear Jesus telling the scribes and the Pharisees	6:52
	about the lost sheep and the lost coin	6:55
	in response to their criticism that he received sinners	6:58
	and ate with them,	7:02
	that is he was actually serving as host to them.	7:04
	Now before we start making hasty judgments	7:08
	against the Pharisees for their narrow mindedness,	7:11
	we would do well to recognize	7:14
	the reasonable stance they represented in their time.	7:16
	Their position reflected a warning,	7:20
	which was firmly grounded in the Old Testament	7:22
	about association with evil persons.	7:25
	Saint Paul himself didn't mind calling on these teachings,	7:27
	when he wrote the Corinthian church	7:31
	about some of their problems.	7:33
	And most all of us either as parents	7:36
	or children have participated in discussions	7:37
	about the hazards of associating	7:40
	with the wrong kinds of people.	7:42
	It's easy enough for us to cheer Jesus on	7:46
	as he receives sinners and socializes with them,	7:48
	but it's quite another matter to put ourselves in his shoes.	7:51
	The point is, the Pharisees stood well	7:56
	within a long, respected tradition, kind of like us,	7:58
	they would never have imagined themselves to be among	8:03
	the lost, although that was part of what Jesus was about	8:06
	to show them.	8:09
	No wonder Jesus in challenging all	8:11
	that represented respectability, reason and religion,	8:14
	was perceived as radical, disturbing, threatening	8:19
	to the status quo.	8:23
	So Jesus begins by proposing to the scribes	8:26
	and Pharisees a hypothetical case.	8:28
	Suppose, he suggests to them a shepherd,	8:30
	which just as easily could have been a shepherdess,	8:33
	has 100 sheep, and one of them gets lost.	8:36
	Won't he leave the 99 in the wilderness	8:40
	and go after the one which is lost until he finds it.	8:42
	Time out to ponder just what it is Jesus is saying,	8:47
	while this may represent the example of a sheep,	8:51
	utterly devoted to his,	8:54
	a shepherd utterly devoted to his sheep,	8:56
	it can hardly be interpreted	8:59
	as good management technique for sheep ranchers.	9:01
	As Robert Capon suggests, it would seem that the result	9:05
	of going off in pursuit of one lost sheep,	9:08
	would only be 99 more lost sheep.	9:10
	But maybe he had an assistant who looked after the 99,	9:14
	you probably assumed, perhaps, but remember,	9:17
	we want to hear the story as Jesus told it,	9:21
	not as we fill in the blanks.	9:24
	Perhaps Jesus is pushing the saving paradox of lostness,	9:26
	to its irrational limits.	9:31
	Could he be implying that if all 100 sheep get lost,	9:34
	it won't be a problem for this most unusual, good shepherd.	9:38
	He's first and foremost in the business of finding the lost.	9:42
	Lostness is his specialty,	9:47
	give him a world with 100 out of 100 souls lost	9:50
	and he'll do just fine according to Capon,	9:53
	besides when he refers near the end of the parable	9:57
	to the part about 99 who need no repentance,	10:00
	he's just pulling our legs, we all know there are not	10:04
	and never have been 99 such people anywhere, not even one.	10:08
	And so when the lost sheep is found,	10:15
	the shepherd carries it home rejoicing.	10:17
	He gets the word out to all of his friends	10:19
	and neighbors rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep,	10:21
	which was lost.	10:25
	Sort of life a couple of years ago,	10:28
	when elation swept much the nation	10:30
	as we witness by way of television,	10:32
	baby Jessica being pulled out of an abandoned well in Texas.	10:35
	It's not that the evening news very often brings tears	10:40
	of joy to the eyes of so many.	10:42
	We've talked a lot about celebrating already	10:46
	in this sermon	10:48
	so I don't need to remind you how crucial joy is	10:49
	to the telling of Luke's story.	10:53
	Joy which is the root of the shepherd's will to find is also	10:56
	the fruit of his efforts.	11:00
	Thus he concludes the parable, I tell you,	11:02
	there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents	11:05
	than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.	11:09
	Hmm, a parable about sheep ending up	11:15
	on the subject of repentance.	11:19
	Doesn't it seem like an odd connection to you?	11:21
	All the poor sheep had to do was get lost,	11:24
	and it's just as likely	11:27
	that the same thing will happen again tomorrow.	11:28
	That surely doesn't bear much resemblance	11:31
	to a penitent sinner,	11:33
	crying on his knees never again, precisely.	11:35
	From the look of these parables many of our notions	11:40
	about repentance, maybe missing the point.	11:43
	It is simply being lost that most commends us	11:47
	to the grace of God, and not our own proclamations	11:50
	of our momentary lapse and behavior which thanks to God	11:53
	and our better nature,	11:58
	we are quick to recognize and correct.	11:59
	As our epistle lesson reminds us,	12:02
	and our choir just sang so beautifully,	12:05
	Christ came into the world to save sinners,	12:08
	not people who are so good that Christ didn't need to die	12:11
	for them in the first place.	12:14
	I find this passage of scripture to be very enlightening	12:18
	about the whole subject of repentance,	12:21
	what it is and what it is not, let me elaborate.	12:24
	First of all, repentance as described	12:29
	in these parables has nothing to do with feeling guilty,	12:31
	and if you don't remember anything else from this sermon,	12:35
	I hope it will be that.	12:38
	Repentance does not mean feeling guilty.	12:40
	Guilty is a form of self hatred	12:44
	and hatred never does any good,	12:46
	especially when it's your own hatred of yourself.	12:48
	In fact, it can be a subtle source of pride	12:52
	when we lord our guilt over all those who seem	12:54
	to have less of it than we do,	12:57
	counting ourselves among the spiritual elite,	12:59
	who have had to come so far	13:02
	that they truly deserve God's grace.	13:04
	The sheep and the coin represent lostness in a way	13:07
	that has nothing to do with guilt.	13:11
	Remember, the joy erupted in these stories,	13:14
	the moment the sheep and the coin were found,	13:17
	not after their guilt was established.	13:20
	Then there are some people who think repentance means trying	13:24
	to make yourself sorry for the things you've done	13:27
	in the past.	13:30
	Suppose you went to a party had too much to drink,	13:32
	and became boisterous and offensive.	13:36
	Human nature being what it is, it's nearly impossible	13:39
	to make yourself sorry, when most of you still approves	13:42
	of what you did, and knows you would enjoy doing it again.	13:46
	This makes any attempt	13:51
	at being sorrowful ridiculously shallow	13:52
	and the furthest thing from repentance.	13:56
	Or perhaps you did something which resulted	13:59
	in unpleasant consequences, you stopped going to class,	14:01
	never turned in any assignments and failed the course.	14:06
	You've now resolved never to let that happen again	14:10
	by repenting of your laziness and irresponsibility.	14:12
	That, however, is not the kind of repentance over which	14:17
	the angels rejoice.	14:20
	When I experienced the unpleasant consequences	14:23
	of doing certain things,	14:25
	my resolve not to do them again,	14:27
	is a matter of mere instinct, self preservation.	14:29
	The person who won't eat oysters	14:34
	because they always make him or her sick,	14:36
	can hardly be described as an example of true repentance.	14:38
	But if repentance doesn't mean any of these things,	14:43
	then what is it?	14:45
	More than something you do, repentance is something	14:48
	that happens to you.	14:51
	It's like coming to your senses, realizing that you're lost.	14:54
	You're only a quarter of the person you were created to be,	14:58
	or maybe less.	15:01
	Repentance is not medicine which leads to recovery however,	15:04
	before we can live again, we must die,	15:07
	and if we live again, it isn't because the old parts	15:11
	of our life are simply put back in their place,	15:15
	but because some holy other life takes up residence	15:18
	in our death,	15:23
	it often gives itself away as a lump in your throat,	15:25
	a tear in your eye, or strange ache in your heart.	15:29
	Far from being a pre-planned speech,	15:35
	such as the prodigal son tried to pull on his father,	15:38
	true repentance may just as easily catch you by surprise,	15:42
	as the son later learned.	15:46
	It's a lot like the little girl who hid herself so well	15:49
	in the game of hide and seek	15:52
	that she was terrified she would never be found,	15:54
	only to discover the other children,	15:57
	running toward her with shouts of glee.	15:59
	We become so obsessed with the notion	16:04
	that sinners must first forsake their sins	16:06
	before God will forgive them,	16:09
	that the lost must somehow find itself before	16:12
	the finder will go and look for it,	16:15
	that we carry ourselves straight away from the obvious sense	16:17
	of both of today's parables.	16:21
	Far from being exertations to do something,	16:24
	they are parables about God's determination	16:27
	to act before we do,	16:30
	and neither of them is anything except	16:34
	the will of God portrayed as necessary	16:36
	to the new life and joy.	16:38
	There is not a single note of earning or merit,	16:40
	not one breath about rewarding the rewardable	16:44
	or improving the improvable,	16:47
	there is only the gracious saving determination	16:50
	of the shepherd to find the lost and to raise the dead	16:53
	and much to the surprise of the scribes and Pharisees,	16:58
	no one is exempt from this most wanted list,	17:01
	not them, not us, not even the biggest losers in town.	17:06
	We recognize the truth in these words when we discover	17:13
	for ourselves, that we are all children created	17:16
	in the image of God, and we already have it in us to be	17:19
	what God is like, I'm afraid that doesn't often happen	17:24
	and one great revelation guaranteed to last for a lifetime	17:28
	however, rather, the vision of myself in the image of God,	17:31
	will come and go as a lost sheep wanders	17:37
	in and out of the herd, which is why repentance,	17:39
	is an ever recurring necessity for us.	17:43
	When it is absent, we wander about as aimlessly	17:47
	as a lost sheep, trying to make our own claims on life	17:50
	by grabbing and clinging to it,	17:54
	rather than by giving and letting go.	17:56
	This leads of course, to great frustration	17:59
	and anxiety just like it always does,	18:02
	where we know something is amiss, namely, that we are lost,	18:04
	but just when we are convinced that we are so well hidden	18:10
	that we shall never be found,	18:13
	the good shepherd reveals himself	18:15
	to show us our true identities as children of God.	18:17
	So we shall be brought to our senses once again,	18:21
	as Jesus lifts us onto his shoulders	18:24
	and carries us home rejoicing, let the party begin,	18:27
	thanks be to God.	18:32
	(gentle music)	18:36

Item Info

Title:

Nancy Ferree-Clark - "Lost and Found" (September 17, 1989)

Description:

Sermon start time: 02:02. Sermon end time: 18:35.
Repentance is not forcing oneself to feel guilt but rather the act of God finding and saving us. On our part, we only must recognize that we are lost. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “Repentance does not mean feeling guilty.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4df6kh9n

Date:

September 17, 1989

Speaker:

Ferree-Clark, Nancy

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

Biblical Book:

Luke

Chapter and Verse:

Luke 15:1-10

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0452
ref8673_4j2
uachapelsermaud
duke:321068
dcrau001368
ark:/87924/r4df6kh9n
981ef7f2-b96c-41ec-83b1-25df2ebc9e97

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Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Nancy Ferree-Clark - "Lost and Found" (September 17, 1989)

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1. Nancy Ferree-Clark - "Lost and Found" (September 17, 1989)

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Nancy Ferree-Clark - "Lost and Found" (September 17, 1989)

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