Founder's Day

I have been here at Bold Spring for 80 days now, and it is amazing what all can happen in that short amount of time. Jules Verne, the iconic French Novelist, wrote a book entitled “Around the World in 80 days,” which showed the hero, Phineas Fogg traveling around the world by train, boat, and even elephant, using only public transportation. Now, I can’t say that I have been around the world in these 80 days, but I have been listening and observing all of you, and the community, to see what kind of church we are, and what kind of church we can hope to be.
And here is one of the things that I have observed the most with all of you. This church will do whatever it takes, as long as it takes, until the job is done. And so you inspire me, and this community to do the same. If we see a need, then this church will fill it. Whatever it takes, as long as it takes, until the job is done.

It’s a rare quality in this world, and this church has it in droves.

That is how I view this shepherd and peasant woman in these parables.

In our scripture today, we hear two parables that are essentially the same story. A shepherd, and a peasant woman lose one of many things. And they leave them to go in search for them. Doing whatever it takes, as long as it takes, until the thing is found. The sheep and coin that are lost, can do nothing to help themselves be found, they can only rely on being found by their owner. Then, there is much rejoicing because that which was lost has been found.

When I lose something, I am much like these people. I will be sitting there, minding my own business, doing work, when I will think about one article of clothing or trinket, and I can focus on nothing else until I find it. I will tear the house apart, putting things in all kinds of disarray until I find it.

When I was in seminary, I took P501, which is the introductory preaching course. I held out until my third year to take this course, and I actually took some higher level preaching courses in my time at seminary and purposely delayed taking the introductory course for one reason. I wanted to take the course with Dr. Tom Long when he was offering it to a small group of students.

Dr. Long wrote the book on contemporary preaching, literally. He is a wonderful preacher, and a wonderful professor. So I was really excited that he was going to be reviewing my sermons so that I could glean his insight. (Secretly, I think I was hoping for him to tell me that my preaching was the best he has ever seen, and that I was on the right track.)
When I got into the class, I learned that Dr. Long would NOT be evaluating our sermons, but a local minister from the community would be. I was disappointed by this because I wanted Dr. Long to evaluate me. So, I wrote a draft of a sermon I was delivering later, and made an appointment with him during his office hours, so that he could evaluate it.

We sat at a round table he had in his office. He read my sermon. Put it down, and looked directly at this hopeful student’s eyes, and said something I won’t soon forget, “It’s a good sermon, well written and presented, but you make one, huge, glaring theological mistake throughout its entirety.”

That’s not what I wanted to hear. He went on.

“Throughout the entire sermon you talk as if it is our action, and not God’s.”

That changed my life.

It is God’s action, not ours.

Lately, what has been en vogue when it comes to churches is “seeker friendly” churches. In a society where we choose where we go to church not because of denominational affiliation, and we have become able to travel wherever we want, churches have had to employ marketing strategies in order to entice people to choose their church over another. It is just the culture we live in where churches have even been subjected to the marketplace, and are consumer-driven.

“Seeker-friendly” is the term that has been employed by the mega-churches that you hear about, in that those who are “seeking” God can find access to God through these churches with their particular worship style and offerings. It is not confused by creeds, or sacraments, or traditions. Everything about it caters to the individual who is “seeking.”

Seekers read this parable and see themselves as having lost something. And they would see it as a call to search high and low, tearing their house apart so that they would find God.

But, I think when it is read that way, we make one, huge, glaring theological mistake throughout its entirety. We think it is our action, and not God’s. We make the mistake when we make ourselves the shepherd, or the peasant woman. We are the sheep, and we are the coin. God seeks us. God seeks those who are lost. God celebrates the finding of those that are lost. God celebrates finding us.

We don’t seek God, God seeks us. Its part of who God is. The one who continually calls for us, even when we do nothing to be found. Even when we run away. God searches for us.

The sheep and the coin can do nothing to be found. The sheep is in the wilderness, scared, and doesn’t want to make a sound because the sheep most likely will be found by a predator. Same with the coin. It cannot make a noise or shine any brighter so that it might be found. It can only be in the state it is in.

When I was leading backpacking and kayaking trips for Camp Glisson, I was trained and certified in Wilderness first aid. In that class we learned that if you get lost, don’t move. Because if you continue to walk around, you will continue to move out of reach of those tracking you, and searching for you. Its best if you stay in one place.

If we are feeling lost. That we don’t know where God is. When we hear bad news at a doctor’s office, if a loved one is dying, if we feel trapped in our career. It would be good for us to remember, God seeks us, and calls to us, and God finds us. It is God’s action, not ours.

Today is an important day in the life of this church. It is a day when our third and fourth graders received from this church their Bibles. God seeks us with his words in scripture, that we read and study so that we might be found. So that we might be called to service because we have been found. I want to encourage you kids to read your Bible. Apply it to your lives. Ask questions about it. Challenge it. Embrace it. It is God seeking to find you through words that have been passed down and made holy.

When we are found, the entire community rejoices. So if there are any in our community or beyond who come here because God has found them and brought them here, we will celebrate with God. Because they once were lost, but now they are found. And we can get glimpses of God’s grace embracing us as a community of faith. Only glimpses, because we cannot understand the depths of God’s love for us, but we can be assured, that we are found.

I want us to be a “founder-friendly” church. Those who are found and welcomed by God. Welcoming others who are found, which the scripture tells us, will be everybody. We need to be the church that celebrates with God when another founder comes through the doors. Being the community that is gathered together knowing God will continue to seek, and God will continue to find.


Phineas Fogg traveled around the world in 80 days. And he ended exactly where he started. When we become lost, we end up where we started as well. It does us good to remember that we are constantly coming home. That we will be found. And we will end up where we start, in the palm of God’s loving hand…where we will always be.