Community Church Sermons

First Sunday After Epiphany – January 12, 2003

“A Faith Worth Finding:

Working In The Lost And Found”

John 1:35-51

 

We’re sounding an evangelistic theme in these early months of 2003. You know, the world in which we and our neighbors and our children and grandchildren live today is pretty challenging. People are finding it difficult to cope. Some have lost their direction. Others are afraid of what the future will bring. Many don’t know where to turn to find a solid foundation upon which to build their lives.

 

But we Christians have a faith that can make all the difference in peoples’ lives – a faith that can guide people, and bring healing to people, and strengthen people, and even make a connection in peoples’ lives between this world and the next. We have a faith worth finding!

 

So we’re talking about how we can share this faith worth finding with the people around us. But first of all today, let me tell you a story about my High School class ring.

 

I should begin by telling you that I fell head-over-heels in love when I was a Junior at Burncoat Senior High School in Worcester, Massachusetts. I was just a baby - just 17-years old. Today, I realize just how young I was, and that I was virtually stolen out of the cradle! Of course, I should also disclose that the young woman who stole me from the cradle – Miss Sandra Lee Angell-with-two-L’s - was a freshman and just 15 years old herself! We went together the rest of that year, and when the calendar turned once again, and her sophomore and my senior year began, I knew that one of the things I most looked forward to was receiving my Senior Class Ring so I could give it to her.

 

Finally, the Spring of the year arrived, and so did the ring. My parents were sort of upset that they had paid all this money for my class ring and now I wasn’t even going to wear it. But I rationalized that they were an old married couple, and what did they know about love? So I went ahead and gave Sandy the ring, and our hearts were cemented together in a special and wonderful way.

 

Later, in the summer following graduation, Sandy and I were spending the day at one of the beautiful beaches in Rhode Island. It was getting time for me to go off to college, so we were spending as much time together as we could. We had a wonderful day, and as we got ready to return home to Massachusetts, Sandy went into one of the bathhouses to change and get cleaned up. Somewhere along the line, she removed the ring. And forgot to put it back on. We didn’t realize it was missing until we were all the way home.

 

Frantic telephone calls were made. No, no one had turned in a ring. No, a search of the bathhouse did not turn up a ring. We were out of luck. The ring was gone.

 

We were brokenhearted. After all, that ring symbolized so much – my achievements in high school, our love for one another. And not only that, but what would my parents say when they found out about the lost ring they hadn’t wanted me to give away in the first place?

 

It was pretty devastating. If you’ve ever lost something precious to you, you know the feeling.

 

But one day, weeks later, something wonderful happened. The telephone rang. It was the office at our high school. Had I lost something at a beach in Rhode Island that summer? Yes, my class ring! Had I lost it in the ladies bathhouse? Well, that took a little explaining, but yes, that’s where it was lost.

 

We have the ring here, they said! So I dashed up to the high school, and sure enough, there it was. My Senior Class ring. It had arrived in the mail, along with a note. Some beautiful person from Rhode Island had found the ring that day, and knowing how much it must mean to somebody, they had scoured telephone books and city directories, and finally gone to their own local school department to research where, in all of New England, there might be a Burncoat Senior High. And when they found it in Worcester, Massachusetts, they sent the ring and the note. And the good people in the school office spent some time peering over class lists to find out who the engraved initials MCS might belong to. And that’s how my high school ring was found!

 

You know, sometimes in the church, we get to thinking that our main job is holding worship services, balancing budgets, teaching theology, taking care of buildings, getting fed spiritually, getting fed at pot-luck suppers – all sorts of stuff like that. But today I want to challenge you with a different idea. The number one job of the Christian Church is to find lost things and return them to the One they mean the world to.

 

You may have noticed in today’s brief Scripture text from John, the word “find” or “found” occurs five times! “The first thing Andrew did was to FIND his brother Simon…We have FOUND the Messiah…FINDING Philip, he said to him…Philip FOUND Nathaniel…we have FOUND the one Moses wrote about…”  Five times the word “find” or “found” is used to describe this flurry of activity at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. What do you suppose the Bible is trying to tell us here?

 

Well, the number one job of the Christian Church – and of Christian people – is to find lost people and somehow get them back into the possession of the One they mean the world to, and the One who can bring them fully to life.

 

This passage from John is interesting because it reveals what almost appears to be a three-way process for operating a Christian Lost and Found Department. Would you take a look at it with me?

 

Well, first of all, we read that Andrew found Simon.

 

I think that’s really the basic job of every Christian. You and I are individually called to go and find people. So Andrew went and found his brother.

 

Sometimes I ask myself why Andrew went looking for Simon in particular. I mean, why Simon? Why not his neighbor George? Or his hairdresser Mary? Why not Caesar Augustus, or Dennis Astrella for that matter?

 

Why Simon?

 

Well, I think that Andrew must have known that his brother Simon was lost.

 

That’s an important word in our faith, you know. Lost. And often, we modern people don’t understand and appreciate what it means. Sometimes, we think being lost means being without any hope at all. Or that it means a person is a loser. Or that a lost person is a bad person. But that’s not what the Bible means when it uses the word “lost.”

 

In our faith, being lost simply means…being lost!

 

Like my class ring was lost…like you were lost the first time you drove down the Kingston Pike…like that young man with MS who wandered off onto the wrong trail and got lost up in the Smokies a few weeks ago…like the golf ball you lost in the lake last week…! Lost simply means lost!

 

When my father died at fifty years of age, my mother – needing now to take up full responsibility for her own life – was truly lost! Some of you can understand that, can’t you? People who get sick and have to suddenly face a whole new range of life-challenges often feel lost! Young married couples, holding in their arms a newborn baby, realize that nothing in life has prepared them for the job of parenting, and often they sense that they are lost. And I’m not even going to mention those who are parents of junior high aged kids!

 

Lost! All around us are people who are lost in one way or another.

 

Many of us have friends and family members who think that life is about accumulating material possessions, that success is described by income, that my personal interest far outweighs the good of others. And not only that, but you and I have family members and friends who truly need God in their lives, but don’t know where or how to find Him.

 

They’re… lost.

 

Who are some of the people in your family, or neighborhood, or circle of acquaintances who are lost right now? Can you think of one or two?

 

I don’t know what form of lost-ness Simon was experiencing, but his brother Andrew loved him enough to care. So Andrew went and found his brother!

 

Notice what happens next. Andrew, once he has found Simon, shares with Simon what HE has found!

 

“I’ve found a person who’s changed my life and might be able to change yours!” he tells his brother.

 

I think one of the true dilemmas many of us experience when we think about becoming personally involved in the evangelism of others is knowing what to say! Most of us don’t know the Bible well enough to talk a whole lot about it. And do you know what? I say, “Thank God!” Because there is nothing more obnoxious in the world than a person who can’t complete a sentence without quoting the scripture. At least in my humble opinion. And most of us are not theologically trained so that we can lay out a convincing rationale for why another person should come to Christ. Again, I say, “Thank God!” because the second most obnoxious person in the world is the one who can’t even talk about the game tonight between the Titans and the Raiders without finding in it some connection to the battle between Michael and the Devil in the book of Revelation and seeing that as one of the sure signs of the end of the world and you’d better accept Christ now before its too late!

 

You know, religious people will drive you absolutely nuts!

 

But Andrew didn’t do any of that. He simply went to his brother and said, “I’ve found someone who I think can help you!”

 

One of the reasons I think it’s so important for adults to become involved in Sunday School is because it provides a comfortable place into which we can invite others to come and engage the issues they’re dealing with in life. “You know, in our Sunday School class we‘ve been talking about how to find strength for facing cancer…you know, in our Sunday School class, we’re discussing exactly what you’re talking about regarding the possibility of war with Iraq…you know, our Sunday School class is unlike any class you’ve ever gone to – you can ask all those questions that you have without anyone laughing at you…you know, in our Sunday School class, we’re trying to figure out how to share our values with our children…why don’t I pick you up next week and you can come with me?”

 

Andrew knew the part of life where Simon was feeling lost, and he invited Simon to come with him to a place where Simon could find help.

 

Inviting a person to Sunday School, or to come with you to church has the effect of bringing them into proximity with Christ.

 

When I was in high school, my pastor George Seale one day handed me a little book called “Run, Baby, Run!” It was written by a fellow who was a notorious gang leader in New York City whose incorrigible life had been changed through the influence of a young Pentecostal pastor by the name of David Wilkerson. I don’t know why Rev. Seale gave me that book to read, but he did, and told me he’d be interested in finding out what I thought about it. What a gift of trust to offer a teenager! So I read the book. And as I did, my heart was deeply touched through the story of how Jesus found a very lost young man named Nicky Cruz. Later, when we talked about the book, I found myself being found, and led into a deeper relationship with Christ.

 

Maybe there’s a book in our new church library that can help you bring someone you love into proximity to Jesus!

 

Just bringing people into the neighborhood where Jesus is is one of the most important things you can do to help people discover this faith worth finding!

 

Identifying lost people, inviting them into a safe setting where they can discover for themselves the Good News you’ve already found, and then one last thing. You may have noticed that in the story of Philip in our text from John, it says that Jesus found Philip.

 

And this is the part of evangelism you have to trust!

 

You see, if you and I will go out looking for lost people, and if we will bring them with us into settings where Christ can be found…Jesus will take care of the rest!

 

One of the most exciting things for me as a pastor is hearing from people after some of our worship services. They so often tell me that somewhere along the line – while the choir was singing – or the preacher was preaching – or the friend was being baptized – or Puckett was being Puckett – or the prayers were being prayed – or the Communion was being served…JESUS FOUND THEM!

 

It was like a hidden door opened, and suddenly, there he was! It was as if a dam inside broke, and suddenly the Holy Spirit was rushing through a life. It was as if…

 

…a ring was found…

 

…and returned to the One who loved it!

 

Friends, we have a faith worth finding!

 

And you and I are employed in God’s Lost and Found Department!

 

Isn’t it time for our church – and for you -  to punch in…and get to work??