The frantic search. I guess we’ve all done it, haven’t we? Lost an item of real value to us and then experienced that awful feeling when recovery seems hopeless. And then, if we’re lucky, we experience that joy upon joy when we find it.

Today, we’re given two of the parables about ‘lost things’ – the lost sheep and the lost coin, which come in an interesting location in Luke’s Gospel, in chapter 15.

I say this because for at least three chapters beforehand, the themes that emerge are the demand for repentance (13.1-9) and the costliness of following Jesus (12.49-53; 14.25-33).

Even when Luke recounts his favourite subject of healing, the theme which emerges is conflict, that is, the conflict which Jesus encounters with the religious authorities, who adamantly oppose any kind of ‘work’ - including healing - on the Sabbath Day (13.10-17; 14.1-6).

Then Jesus raises the eyebrows of his opponents again by joining the dinner party given by a prominent Pharisee. He confronts the guests and his host with their need for humility and their failure to attend to the weak and marginalised people of the town (I’m going back to chapter 14.12-14, where he says ‘When you give a luncheon or a dinner, don’t invite your friends or your relatives or rich neighbours, in case they invite you back and you’d be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.)

This is the context in which Jesus offers these parables. They are told in response to the persistent grumbling of those who try to oppose him. He told these memorable stories to highlight the immense joy that God experiences when the lost are found.

Both of them function as a disturbing response to the complaints of the Pharisees and scribes, because both the shepherd and the woman are examples of the downtrodden of Jewish society in Jesus’s day. Shepherds had notorious reputations and were generally avoided as outcasts and women were treated as second-class citizens. So Jesus’s choice of the two images to display the generosity and love of God must have shocked those first listeners, and especially those who complained, because Jesus socialised with tax collectors and sinners.

Granted, these stories are not wholly without a word of judgement to the grumblers, but before they are judgement they are good news. Whatever warning they contain is preceded by the unforgettable figures of the shepherd and the woman who are frantically searching for their lost treasures, which are then restored to them.

The question is, what have these stories got to do with us?

The first and most obvious answer is that they show us the compassionate concern of a searching God. The shepherd risks temporarily abandoning the ninety-nine sheep in the wilderness (a decision many would no doubt question), and when he finds the straying sheep, we’re told, “he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices” (15.5).

The woman is described as lighting a lamp and taking a broom in hand in her attempt to recover her missing coin. (Perhaps she was saving up for something special?)

The point is, neither the shepherd nor the woman has a moment’s hesitation as to what to do: neither of them stops searching until the sheep or the coin is found.

God is like that, is today’s message. God meticulously pursues confused and rebellious creatures – that’s us, at times. We might take offence at being seen as sheep (i.e. silly creatures with no mind of their own). We might not even like to think of ourselves as sinners (we might think they’re the layabouts, the lawbreakers, or whatever). But here, the point is that the Pharisees think themselves above reproach. If we make the same mistake we, like them, risk cultivating a “them-and-us” attitude and put other people into the “sinner” category because they’re different, because they don’t match up to our standards, because they’re of another race or creed or class or whatever else it is that makes them different.

God is not like that. He does not discriminate. His searching gives value to those he is searching for. They are then treasured and significant because they are not left for lost: Jesus makes them the objects of God’s divine love and concern.

The second striking image is heaven’s delight in the recovery of the lost. So overcome are the shepherd and the woman with the success of their search that they call their friends and neighbours to come for a party! Neither of them wants to celebrate alone. Blow the expense! In both cases, the cost of the entertainment might have been more than the value of either the sheep or the coin, but that possibility only serves to add to the extravagance and joy of the occasion.

Now I don’t know how you picture God, but I rather like this one of him throwing a party in heaven: it’s an extravagant party, which even the angels dare not miss! Granted, this may be difficult if you think of God as a stern taskmaster or a vindictive judge or a divine scorekeeper. But that’s not the picture we’re given today and that’s certainly not the God I believe in.

Whilst we are called to seek forgiveness when we need to, these stories are not primarily calls to repentance. After all, sheep and coins can’t repent! The image of a merciful and joyful God completely overshadows any interest in the behaviour or remorse of the lost.

The good news is the same as it ever was: God’s extravagant love for each and every thing that he has created. His joy upon recovering one who was lost is way beyond our human imagining. Our human value system is inadequate: God’s value system gives indescribable worth to every person he has created – even, perhaps especially, to those who feel unworthy or worthless.

Such is the remarkable generosity of God. Today we are reminded of the good news – whether for ourselves or others we know who feel themselves unworthy or beyond saving – it is never too late. Because God patiently searches for each and every one of us until he finds us. He does not discriminate. We are all equal in his sight. And his joy is complete when we let him find us.

This is a timely reminder as we gear up for Back to Church Sunday in a fortnight’s time (30th September), when we are given the opportunity to invite anyone we wish to join us at the 9.30 am Service. Back to Church Sunday is a national church initiative, which our Diocese of Chelmsford has chosen to engage in this year. Together with lots of other churches throughout Essex and East London, we’ll be inviting those who used to go to church but stopped going, for whatever reason, and those who perhaps are searching for God. (Invitation cards are provided for this purpose and are available from today. I would encourage you to take one each and think and pray about who you will invite.) This is our opportunity to offer an open invitation, a warm welcome and gracious hospitality – the hallmarks of the love of God, who longs for each person we invite to come home and into his kingdom: that would make his joy complete.

God has been saving for years. God has been saving since the beginning of creation, loving us extravagantly, forgiving us unconditionally, waiting patiently. God saved the chosen people from slavery in Egypt, and, as we recollect in our Eucharist this morning and every time we share Holy Communion together, God saves all people, through the cross.

We all fall short from time to time but, in Jesus, God’s love reaches out to us, searching for us until we’re found. We only need to acknowledge when we get things wrong, which simply means to recognise that we’re lost, and to listen for the voice that is calling us to a joyful reunion: we listen through prayer, the scriptures, worship together, and everyday life.

The Eucharist is a foretaste of the banquet we anticipate in heaven: our joyful celebration on earth is a sample of the party that is to come, when we will be reunited with the saints and angels, and all those we have known and loved who have gone before. But we don’t need to wait until then to make God’s joy complete. His invitation to a foretaste of that party is now.

Amen.