Transcript
Hi, this is Bishop Brian. And for this Reconciling Thought, I’d like to reflect some on what it means to be lost and to be found.
Last Wednesday, and this is true every Wednesday, the staff and others are invited to join with us on a Wednesday morning prayer that we do together. And if you have interest in that, at the end of this video we’ll let you know how to reach out to join us for this Zoom morning prayer we do every Wednesday. One of the readings last Wednesday related to the gospel about Jesus seeking the one sheep that was lost, leaving the 99 in order to find the one. And in reflecting on that gospel lesson, I remember as a child seeing an image, probably from the children’s Bible, of the shepherd searching and finding his lost sheep that was on the edge of this cliff and being held by a branches and bramble. Otherwise it would be falling to its death.
So obviously, if you’re lost in that sort of way, on the edge of a cliff, the idea of being found is nice and is important. But I’m also aware that there’s a fictional proverb from a Nabokov novel, “Pale Fire” that says the lost glove is happy. Sort of an absurd proverb. But when I think about the lost glove being happy, it reminds me in the gospels of the lost coin. And the lost coin doesn’t know it’s lost. The lost coin has done nothing to get lost. The lost glove doesn’t know it’s lost and it might be happy. So you and I, at times in our lives, might find ourselves seeking to be alone, seeking solitude, maybe even seeking isolation, even if it’s not good for us.
So in that way of being lost and choosing to be alone, the important thing to know in that gospel lesson is the Shepherd seeks all the same. The woman sweeping in her house, again, as an image of the divine, of God as mother looking for the coin, seeking the coin, being willing to be foolish and to be desperate. If you’ve ever left your keys in the house and can’t find them, you race around the house and you might feel somewhat foolish in the racing, but you’re searching for those keys that are lost that they don’t know they’re lost. So in this time of COVID, that maybe you are staying home a lot more, isolating for safety, isolating for the care of others, You maybe in some ways feel lost to a community, but we want you to know that the God that we worship, the God that we worship in Jesus Christ is a God who keeps looking for us and finding us, even if we don’t know we’re lost.
So maybe today, that sense of being lost is a sense of almost a comfort, of time alone, of a reflective time, but that God seeks you all the same. So in this moment, continue to seek community, be it by Zoom, be it by letter writing or phone calling. Stay connected to each other, ’cause we are a tradition of community, a tradition that belongs together, and a God that keeps seeking others to bring us together. And if your sense of lostness is one of frailty, that sense of I’m on the edge of the cliff, know again, God seeks you out, and God is willing to be desperate and foolish in the chase and in the hunt.
So stay together, stay connected. Stay connected in Christ as communities, people of reconciliation, people of connection. We will get through this together, amen.
Email Bro. Andrew at amorehead@dioet.org if you would like to attend diocesan morning prayer on Wednesdays at 9:30 am.