Pastor Sarah R. Cordray

Luther Memorial Church

September 11, 2016

Luke 15.1-10

(Rally Sunday, God’s Work, Our Hands)

In Sync with God’s Heart

To be in sync used to mean to be in harmony with one another. To be in sync meant that you had a harmonious relationship. BUT this is NOT the definition today! To be in sync today means that all our technological devices are synced with one another so that calendars are shared … walking steps are recorded … reports are placed on multiple hard drives, and so forth. In between our Smartphones, our watches, our computers, our IPads, and even our cars, we sync the data of our technological lives. To be in sync now means that you need to make sure that your Bluetooth is on and you sync your information or data regularly so that you will on be on the same page.

I am learning about this world of being “in sync” technologically. For instance, I constantly sync my FitBit of my watch with my Smartphone, so that I can record my walking/exercising steps and compete with friends of who gets the most steps of the “Work Week Hustle.” Being in sync allows us to network from afar … to share and celebrate with one another in a way we had never been able to before.

However, I truly believe that long before the today’s technological world of Bluetooth, Smartphones, and FitBit, God has known how to sync before we did. I believe that God has always known how to sync God’s heart with each one of you! God’s Bluetooth—God’s connecting device—was his only Son, Jesus Christ, who cleared all through giving his life on the cross. God used his own connecting device-Jesus Christ, so that when our sin and failure causes interference and we cannot get in sync, Jesus clears all in forgiveness. Jesus connects you with God, so that your heart will always have the possibility of being in sync with God’s heart!

Being in sync with God’s heart means that we are called to learn about God’s heart and its deepest desires. God’s heart is primarily about love, rather than rules. God’s heart is primarily about joy, rather than fear or impatience. God’s heart rejoices anytime anyone is drawn back into relationship with God or anytime anyone lives into their God-given potential helping God in redeeming the world for God’s sake. This is God’s heart’s deepest divine desire—to draw all people and all creation into God’s amazing love, redeeming and making them God’s own. God’s heart will even go as far as it needs to go after the missing 1%. When 99% are there, God’s heart leaps forth going after the missing 1% in order to sync them back into the fold.

For us in our world, a 99% return rate is quite successful and most of us would stop there. We would not worry about the 1% loss. Or as the woman who lost one coin out of ten, we would not even worry about the 10% loss. Chris Wallman and I acted as if we were not worried about a 10% loss a year ago at the National Youth Gathering.

A year ago in the summer of 2015, Chris Wallman and I took ten of our high school youth to Detroit, Michigan for our ELCA National Youth Gathering with over 30,000 other youth and adults. Chris and I carefully watched over our ten youth, made sure they made it from point A to point B each and every day without any major mishaps. Chris and I carefully counted our success each day as we kept saying our mantra, “It’s okay if we suffer a 10% loss; we’ll still have a 90% successful return rate.” However, can you imagine what would have happened when we got home if we literally meant what our mantra said and only brought home 90%? Can you imagine the parents of the 10% lost? These parents would have immediately hopped on the first plane possible to Detroit and searched high and low in every corner of that city until their lost one was found.

This is what God is willing to do for you when you are that 10% loss, even when the rest of the world writes you off. This is also what God is willing to do through you when you are part of the 90% already kept and found. God uses your hands, like today for God’s Work, Our Hands day as we reach out into our community. God uses your feet to go out to where the lost 10% is, so that God can bring them back into God’s loving fold. God uses your heart, as God’s heart syncs to yours as you extend God’s mercy and compassion for the lost, the lonely, and the disconnected. This is what God has been teaching us as a congregation.

A year ago when we measured how connected we felt as a congregation, a church family, this is how we are living before.

This is the life cycle of participating in our congregation. There are initial connecting points (where the blue arrow points into the cycle) that draw you in and there are continuous connecting points that continuously keep you connected with others in the congregation. AND there are also disconnecting points, where something or someone upsets us, frustrates us, or alienates us. Every one of us experiences disconnecting points in this cycle of being part of the congregation. We experience disconnecting points, where we move out of the life cycle of participating (follow black arrow). In the past, this is what happened when we relied on our own hearts to reach out when someone disconnected. If you or another disconnected away from the congregation, it was completely up to you or them to reconnect (follow the red dotted line) because any reconnecting points we as a church provided were back with us (notice the small blue circle). Most of the time when one disconnected from the church, we left them out on their own, similar to the one lost sheep or one lost coin. However, transformation has happened to us Luther Memorial. This last year as we sought to reach out and deepen our connections with one another and our disconnected, our hearts became IN SYNC with God’s heart.

God’s heart became in sync with ours as we realized we must join the shepherd who goes out to the 1 sheep lost or join the woman who looks high and low until the 1 lost coin is found. Before the disconnected, lost ones from our church family had only one choice: Bring yourself back in or remain disconnected. BUT now it is not up to the disconnected, lost one; it is up to US—God’s people. Notice where the reconnecting point (small blue circle) is, as it is moved out where the disconnected, lost one is. Our hearts have been moved to be in sync with the Shepherd’s heart as now we changed … now we go out—reach out to the lost, disconnected ones. We extend hospitality and love wherever the lost, disconnected ones are. We go where they are and say, “We miss you. We need you. God’s church, our church family, is not the same without you.” We go out to the lost, reconnecting them, and journeying with them (notice the blue and red lines—two of you) as you walk back together. This is what it is to have our hearts in sync with God’s.

This faith journey in life is NOT about counting the numbers—butts in the pews and money in the plate. It is NOT about a 90% success rate that we turn into our synod each year; rather it is about living as a church with a heart in sync with God’s. This faith journey is about living the desires of God’s heart as we reach out to the 10% disconnected, lost ones in this life and then REJOICE!

Three times in Jesus’ story today, he describes this joy. The Shepherd finds the lost sheep, puts it on his shoulders and rejoices. The woman finds the lost coin and rejoices. However, this is not a party of one to rejoice; this is a party for all! The shepherd says, “Rejoice with me!” The woman says, “Rejoice with me!” Today on Rally Sunday and God’s Work, Our Hands, REJOICE! Rejoice with God as God has put your heart in sync with his!

And all of God’s people say, “Amen!”