Marilyn Lovell, wife of astronaut James A. Lovell, speaking to the Apollo 13 flight surgeon in the viewing area above the flight control room, April 14, 1970. Photo by NASA.
Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?
In the film “Apollo 13,” one of the astronaut’s wives is taking a shower in her cheap hotel room near Cape Canaveral. Suddenly her wedding ring slips off her finger and drops down the shower drain, out of reach and out of sight. She panics. She was already coping with profound anxiety about her husband’s moon mission, fretting over the fact that he could easily be killed at any point, and so the loss of the ring is unbearably hard and worrisome and sad.
But that ancient Palestinian woman who found her tenth coin – she would not have accepted the loss of the ring. She would have dismantled the whole shower stall if she had to, so determined would she be to recover a symbol of such a vital and essential relationship.
And of course then, when she recovered it, she would call all the other astronaut spouses to rejoice in waves of delicious relief. Her husband is still in peril, and nothing truly is secure or safe. (In fact Apollo 13 was a troubled mission that nearly killed all the astronauts.) No, the only things we can rely on, ultimately, are God’s presence, God’s power, and God’s love. But – if she had dug down into the drain and found the ring, well, that would be cause for great rejoicing nonetheless.
Now, I invite you to wonder: who inspires such passion in you? If even a small symbol of your feelings about that person went missing or got lost, you would sweep the whole hut of your life. You would leave no object unexamined. You would search everywhere.
Maybe you feel that deeply about someone you lost in a bitter conflict.
Or you feel that deeply for someone who has left your life for another reason, maybe not even a painful reason: they have just gone elsewhere, as people often do. You have drifted apart, and you miss them.
Now hear this teaching: this is how God calls us to feel about, and to act on behalf of, those persons who do not come to Grace Church. This is how God calls us to feel about, and to act on behalf of, those persons who have drifted away from Grace Church, even for benign reasons. This is how God calls us to feel about, and to act on behalf of, those who know about this faith community but do not feel welcome here, or they feel lonely when they are here, or they simply have never seriously considered that this is where they can find God, find community, find an answer or two, and find peace.
Here is the verse about the woman and her lost coin, rewritten for this place, this church:
Or what Grace member having friendship with another member, if she loses that person, does not search carefully until she finds them?
The first people to hear this parable were a jumble of insiders and outsiders, proper religious officials rubbing elbows with undesirables – tax agents who colluded with the empire, and others whose behavior, health status, or simply their social rank marked them as rejects. The Jesus Movement was growing, but it was growing with the Wrong Kind of People. And Jesus is saying to all the people – to insiders and outsiders alike – that this is his intent. This is what he wants.
So Jesus doesn’t just want an astronaut wife who loves her husband and is terrified by his dangerous job. He doesn’t just want one of us who had a falling out with someone and is desperate to make a repair. He doesn’t just want many of us here who long for other Grace members to return, to come home.
Jesus does want all of those people – but not just them.
Jesus is flattening hierarchies again. He is collapsing the whole structure of insiders and outsiders. The lost coin is overwhelmingly precious to the woman, and the lost coin is an undesirable, an outsider, someone we are likely to overlook, or dislike, or even loathe.
Christian community is not homogenous. It is always a jumble of wealthy people and poor people, those with white privilege and people of color, straight people and queer people, nine-year-olds and nonagenarians, those with excellent reputations and scoundrels who inspire nothing but scorn. Christian community is not homogenous.
So that means that if this Christian community lacks some of those people, then we have lost our most precious coins. Our prized ring has fallen down the shower drain. We are sorely missing critical people, people we need desperately if we want this community to be what God is calling us to be.
Lately here at Grace Church we’ve been focusing a lot on newcomers, and also wondering – and worrying – about those who used to come here by the dozens but now just don’t seem to be around, especially families with children. We are also watching and wondering as this whole region is shifting, with economic upheaval making it impossible for most folks to live near our church, and all the changes in our economy altering how it feels to live around here, and to do church around here.
It’s normal, and even good, to try to get more folks to come to Grace Church by advertising all the great things we’re doing here. Just this weekend our Moms’ Morning Retreat leaders worked with staff at Town and Country to get their vital ministry advertised on the big T&C sign on Winslow Way. This is truly great! We want to tell the whole world that this faith community has tons to offer, for practically everyone who lives or works nearby. We’re looking at our website to improve it even more after a recent redesign. And we’ve finished a parish profile to attract applicants to be our next rector. All good.
But maybe we should just tell everyone that we’re needy. Maybe we should just admit that we’re desperate.
We’re needy for people who look and think and feel differently; for Silent Generation elders and Generation Alpha grade-schoolers; for working-class people and wealthy benefactors; for trans folk and cis folk. We’re desperate for progressives who can’t stand dominant-U.S. culture and want to change this country, but we’re desperate for conservatives and old-school libertarians, too.
We’re needy and desperate, not just awesome and gifted. And yet our website focuses almost exclusively on how good we have things here. Now I admit it: I like this about our website. I love telling the world about all the good things that are happening here. And even when I was in high school and had no idea how to ask someone out on a date, even then I knew: don’t look desperate. Show the world how confident we are, and how strong we are. For we truly are both confident and strong.
Except we really want – we desperately want – all kinds of people to join us here. And we’re not complete until they arrive. Sometimes when I’m at church getting ready for a vestry meeting, I realize that I’m just craving the arrival of vestry members – people to talk to, people who share my love of this church, people who are interesting and funny and insightful. When they arrive, I feel delighted. Sometimes my love for people here is desperate.
I need you.
And that’s how Jesus feels about his people, particularly those who disgust the insiders and the higher-ups. His movement was populated by the worst sort of people, and he loved them with desperate longing and needy desire.
Jesus is shameless.
And so today, on Homecoming Sunday, I am not just going to point to all of our strengths and celebrate how so many of us are already here, though I will do some of that. I also will say clearly that Grace Church is needy and desperate. We are searching everywhere for the people who aren’t here but should be. But they should be here not to bask in our greatness, but for us to bask in theirs. We’re the needy ones.
Go from here, then, and help us find these people. Search high and low. Don’t rest until you find them, and bring them back here. And then we will all come together, and you will say, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the people I had lost.”
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Preached on the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 19C), September 11, 2022, at Grace Episcopal Church, Bainbridge Island, Washington.
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Psalm 14
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10