Luke 15:1-10

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. “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? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Reflection by William C. Green

Searching for the lost silver coin, the woman in Jesus' parable swept the house. The search was difficult because floors in those days were tramped-down earth covered with dried leaves and plant stems. The woman swept, not to clean the house, but to dislodge the coin from its hiding-place so she could catch its glint.

So the good news of God's power and presence comes to us. It's not that we're first swept clean of sin and weak faith. Rather what's already within us, the power of God's spirit, is "dislodged" from its hiding place and no longer lost in our hearts. We catch the glint of God -- much the way one mother speaks of catching the glint of a wild uncle in her one-year-old, in the look she gets when she has more energy than she knows what to do with, or in the way her forehead compresses when she reaches for something beyond her grasp.

We bear the image of our creator, tarnished though it is, obscured by other of our features. We have within us traces of divine love and strength. These come to light in our relationships with one another when something of the spirit of Christ breaks through guarded habits and fixed dispositions. This is what happens in the church at its best. Once recognized, we can rejoice with the woman in Jesus' story, "for I have found what I'd lost."

Prayer

Search me, O God, and open my heart. Bring out the best that is too often buried.