Exodus 32: 7-11, 13, 14
1 Tim 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-32

Bishop Untener’s Homily

When Jesus and his disciples left the Last Supper table and were walking to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said to them, "This night all of you will have your faith in me shaken." Peter and the rest of the disciples responded that this would never happen. Well, it did.

This past week we've had our faith shaken. We wonder how God could let a thing like this happen. And sometimes, in a tiny millisecond, the thought flits across our mind, "I wonder if there is a God."

At a time like this a pastor might think of changing the Sunday Scripture readings to find passages in the Bible that bear more directly on what has just happened. There's something to be said for that. But on the other hand, instead of looking for something that we want God to say, it may be better to listen to what God has to say through the readings that are already there, and listen to them with fresh ears.

When we listen to the Scriptures in the light of whatever is going on in our lives, we sometimes hear some things we didn't expect to hear. I can tell you that I have never listened to the words of this Gospel in quite the same way before. I heard it with fresh ears.

Our normal thoughts when we read the parable about the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son are almost predictable. They weren't predictable this time. We all heard it "live," the words colored by the feelings and thoughts that are in us.

The Scriptures read at liturgy are always "live." They are always contemporary, addressed to us here and now. We believe that when the Scripture is read at Liturgy, God is especially present in the words, speaking "live" to us. What do we hear this morning?

This section in Luke's Gospel is about loss - the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Last Tuesday, we all experienced loss. Each of us lost our peace of mind. New York lost its firemen. Families lost fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, daughters, sons. The whole world lost its sense of security.

In each of these three parables, someone takes the initiative to find what is lost. It was the shepherd who went out to find the lost sheep. It was the woman who lit a lamp and swept the house to find the lost coin. It was the father who ran down the road to embrace and kiss his lost son.

The shepherd represents God. The woman represents God. The father represents God.

People ask, "What do we do at a time like this?" What we do is let God find us. What we do is open ourselves up to God who is taking the initiative right now to reach out to each of us. We admit that without God we are lost, in the dark. What we do is turn to God with a new realization that we depend on God. We recognize that our ultimate security lies in God, who is all-powerful. And when we find God - or rather, when we let God find us - we let God comfort us. And we listen to what God has to say, and resolve to do what God tells us to do.

It was eight years almost to the day when there took place in Chicago an unusual event. Some 6,000 people from around the world, representing 125 faiths - all major world religions - gathered for an eight day event called the Parliament of the World's Religions." The last time something like that happened was in 1893. They prayed together, listened to talks by religious leaders, and near the end of the conference 250 of these religions signed a document called "The Declaration of a Global Ethic”. It stated fundamental principles shared by the world's great religions as a framework for dealing with problems in the world.

It was more a statement of basic human values than a religious document, and it invited all men and women, whether religious or not, to commit themselves to this.

Among other things it said: "In particular we condemn aggression and hatred in the name of religion." It also said: "We are interdependent. Each of us depends on the well-being of the whole, and so we have respect for the whole community of living beings - for people, animals and plants, and for the preservation of earth, air, water and soil. We must treat others as we wish others to treat us."

At the very end it said: "We invite all men and women, whether religious or not, to do the same."

Each of us, represented by the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son, may hear God saying words like that to us. They sound like something God would say. Perhaps this awful time in our history is a new opportunity in our history. I call myself and I call all of us to let God speak to us.

Keep in mind that in the parable of the lost son, the older son argues with his father about the way the father has chosen to act. There's part of that older son in all of us. We shouldn't be surprised if part of us wants to argue with God. God's ways are not always our ways.

I close with this. Yesterday I baptized two newborn children. You couldn't help but think, "Who would want to bring a baby into this world?" Well, God would. God did. God's Son was born into the world - God-made-flesh. And the Lord promised never to leave this world. His last words in Matthew's Gospel are: "I am with you all days, even to the end of the age."

So take heart. The Lord is with us, especially in these days, when we feel very, very lost.

Originally given on September 16, 2001