Search and Rescue God
From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
Search and Rescue God 13 March 2011 The Revd Jenny Wilkens
- Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 16-25
- Psalm 50:1-15
- Luke 15:1-10
http://wellingtoncathedral.org.nz/index.php/Sermons
None of us could fail to be impressed by the quiet heroism of the Japanese Search & Rescue workers as, exhausted after their fortnight of fearless, painstaking searching in the rubble of Christchurch, they boarded a plane back to their own country, now so devastated by its own earthquake and tsunami disaster, and prepared to get straight to work there.
They came with all their experience to assist us in our hour of need, and now it is heartening to hear we are sending Kiwi Search & Rescue teams of our own back to help them out. And yet our hearts are full of both admiration and trepidation for them as they go, and for their families as they watch on - our prayers go with them, and for all in Japan at this time.
Over the last days since February 22nd, we have watched TV footage, and heard countless stories of the courage and dedication of such Search & Rescue teams, toiling in the rubble, exposing themselves to danger and risk, at great cost to their own safety, and yet persevering to extricate the injured and the dead with huge care and dignity.
To me, it is people such as this who are modern day illustrations of our Search and Rescue God! As we heard in our well-loved and well-known Gospel stories tonight, our God is and always has been in the Search and Rescue business, displaying those same qualities of dogged perseverance, never giving up, seeking and saving those who are lost.
Perhaps our Search & Rescue crews would be a little taken aback at me seeing them as images of God, but you can be pretty sure that the shepherds and women of Jesus' time would have found themselves no less surprised to be used as Jesus' sermon illustrations!
While of course there is a long tradition in the Hebrew Scriptures of picturing God, kings and religious leaders as shepherds, as in our first hymn this evening (The King of Love my Shepherd is), yet we know that in Jesus' time, actual real-life shepherds were looked down on, considered outcast and somewhat dodgy, on the fringes of society, despite our romanticised view of them at the Bethlehem stable!
Women too we know were regarded as second-class citizens in a patriarchal society. So Jesus is using two figures from the underside of his society to image God, which must have shocked those who were critiquing Jesus for his own fraternising with 'tax-collectors and sinners' (Lk 15:1,2) - those from the underbelly of his world.
Jesus rubs it in even more by challenging his hearers to put themselves in the story, to imagine what it would be like to be the shepherd looking for that one lost sheep, to be that woman turning the house upside-down searching for that lost coin… to identify with this searching God, who goes all-out in search of that which is lost and helpless.
I've heard it said that in our own agribusiness communities, one lost sheep would never be worth calling out the rescue helicopters, that one sheep in a hundred or a thousand would be quite expendable, in cost benefit analysis terms.
Yet this is not the way it is with our searching God, to whom noone is expendable, and each is of infinite value in the sight of God, a dearly loved child of God's creating.
It's perhaps interesting to reflect on the common ending of both our stories, where each time the lost is found, and the finder calls to friends and neighbours to come and celebrate, to come and party! The lost is restored not just to the finder, but to the whole community - and to the wider community of heaven and earth, mirroring each other in one great act of rejoicing!
I'm reminded of the heart-warming stories we've seen in the news of some who've been rescued from quake-ravaged buildings, finally getting to meet their rescuers, who are usually unassuming and fairly lost for words in good old Kiwi understatement!
Sadly too we have seen those other manifestations of community, as families and friends gather to mourn lost loved ones at funerals. And yet this too is a vital part of what we do as healthy community - to rejoice with those who rejoice, and to weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15)
Perhaps that is something we are seeing at this time of gut-wrenching tragedy in our country and in our world, that people are turning to one another again, affirming the value of community and neighbourliness, turning to face each other.
Perhaps it does take that wake-up call, that blow to the stomach, that shaking of our world to its foundations, whatever it is that makes us re-evaluate everything we’ve ever known or thought or believed, to bring us to ourselves, to bring us back to ourselves, to turn us around to face ourselves, to face each other and to face God - and find that God is already searching for us.
That after all is the root meaning of the word repentance, 'metanoia', one of the words which is a feature of this season of Lent. Turning around to face ourselves, to face each other and to face God - and to find that God is already out there on the road, looking for us, searching for us, longing to find us and welcome us home.
One of the dangers of Lent though is that we make it a campaign to find our way back to God, berating ourselves for the distance we've allowed to grow between us, and furiously piling up brownie points by our abstinences - and beating ourselves up when we fail!
One of my favourite prayers based on tonight's gospel is by Thomas Merton. He prays thus:
Good Shepherd, You have a wild and crazy sheep in love with thorns and brambles. But please don't get tired of looking for me! I know you won't. For you have found me. All I have to do is stay found. Amen.
I want to end tonight with some words of welcome which we have made into simple paper bookmarks and put at the back of the Cathedral on the desk by the Cathedral office. I don't know who originally wrote these words but I never cease to be amazed how often we have to make more of these particular bookmarks - and each time I read the words again, they speak to my heart also. Let them speak to you tonight as we prepare to journey through the season of Lent together:
Whoever you are, God says, welcome home! Wherever you have been, God says to you, welcome home! Whatever you have done, God says to you, welcome home! In the midst of temptation, anxiety, or confusion, welcome home! Whether you feel you deserve it or not, God says, welcome home!
Go in peace, journey with God, know that wherever you go, wherever you are taken, whatever befalls you, whenever you find yourself lost, simply turn, and know that God Creator, Friend, Companion stands arms outstretched to welcome you home.
