The actor, Paul Newman, started a food company several years ago, and called it Newman's Own. Walk down the Salad Dressing aisle at A&P, and you'll see Paul Newman's smiling face on the blue cheese, the ranch, and vinaigrette, and a host of other flavors. His face is on popcorn, salsa, steak sauce, and fruit drinks. And the rich get richer ... except in this case, the needy get blessed, as all profits are given away. One destination for funds is a camp for critically ill children. One summer afternoon, Newman was sitting at a table with a camper who asked him who he was. The actor reached for a container of Newman's Own Lemonade and showed the boy his picture on the carton. "This is me." The camper looked at the picture, thought for a moment and said, "Are you lost or something?"

In our Gospel text from St. Luke Jesus tells two "lost and found" stories - with the punchline when things get found, parties get thrown. Why even the angels celebrate over the one sinner who repents - the one who has been found. If we continued through to the end of the fifteenth chapter of Luke, we would read a third story connected to the first two, the Prodigal Son. It's a familiar story of a son asking for his inheritance and wasting the loot in the far country and eventually returning home to a frantic waiting father. If the angels of heaven rejoice ... well so do fathers when a wayward son returns. Again with the party. And everyone is happy except ... the older brother who is jealous of all the attention his younger lavished on his kid brother. Just as the religious leaders are unhappy with Jesus telling such stories to begin with.

The scribes and Pharisees are religious insiders who keep their distance from non-religious outsiders. And if Jesus were really a man of God ... he would know enough to keep his distance too. But not only does Jesus welcome sinners ... he dines with them. Think of the people with whom you choose to eat. Eating together implies a certain intimacy, a relationship of one sort or another. I still marvel at the word "companion." It comes from the Latin and means literally, "to break bread with." A companion is a dining partner! And the companions of Jesus include tax collectors, who work for the Roman occupying government, as well as a motley crew of other assorted sinners.

Jesus does not shun them nor does he shame them. He welcomes them - he breaks bread with them. Perhaps the way to a sinner's heart is through his stomach? Something to ponder each time we kneel with companions at the altar rail. Small wonder the critique of Jesus is, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." The good religious folk tend to be scorekeepers. But Jesus teaches that our God tends to be a promise keeper. "I called you by name," God once spoke through the prophet. "I called you by name, you are mine."

"This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." That sounds so frivolous, and yet, the reason these were such serious charges is the fact that if Jesus is correct in his view of God ... then the picture self-righteous religious leaders have of God is not correct. They don't see in themselves the twin sins of pride and self-righteousness. And thus they do not comprehend the grace and forgiveness of God in their own lives. Be careful of those people in our day and time who are quick to pass judgment on those who lives and lifestyles are less pure than their own! And please, don't join their club.

A quick illustration: The God of the Pharisee is a Shepherd who says, "You left the sheep pen, you wandered off. You'll get just what you deserve!" As one who sometimes wanders off, that's a chilling thought. God help any one of us if we get what we deserve. On the other hand, the God of Jesus is a Shepherd who says, "My gosh, one of the flock is missing. I've just got to find that sheep." And here is the most poignant part of all. We're not talking about a little lamb getting lost at the far side of the meadow. We're talking about people who truly stray from God. The Pharisees think that if God stumbles across the lost sheep, God would throw a fit. Jesus knows something different about the nature of God ... God searches out the sinner, the lost sheep. And when the lost sheep is found, God doesn't throw a fit, God throws a party! Invites the whole neighborhood. Our God welcomes sinners ... and eats with them.

A young mother tells how five-year-old daughter threw out this question one day in the kitchen, "Mom, is God a grown-up or a parent?" "I'm not sure what you mean, honey," her mother replied. "Mom, "Grown-ups love you when you are good and parents love you anyway. Is God a grown up or a parent?" How would Jesus answer? Jesus taught his disciples to pray, beginning, "Our Father...." Jesus knows, as do many five-year-olds, "Grown-ups love you when you are good and parents love you anyway."

Our heavenly Father, our God is at heart a God of mercy and grace. If Jesus is any indication of what God is really like (and he is), a lot of folks are going to be pretty surprised at the kind of people God chooses to give the gift of eternity. I guess this is what the whole thing boils down to - the gift of eternity. If I cannot earn it - that means God is free to extend it. And if God is free to extend grace - even to ME - well. golly, God can extend grace to anyone God so chooses! I've been taught, and so I believe: the extending of God's grace is boundless! That is, no boundaries.

You've heard the old adage, "The church is a haven for sinners, not a hotel for saints." The people of Grace, from pastor on up, are no different ... we are sinners who have been saved by God's amazing grace. Once we were lost, now we are found. Our church, this band of sinners, is called to model God's mercy and love to the world. We who have been mercifully treated have every reason to forgive others as we have been forgiven.

A Jewish story tells of the good fortune of a hardworking farmer. "The Lord appeared to this farmer and granted him three wishes, but with the condition that whatever the Lord did for the farmer would be given double to his neighbor. The fortunate farmer wished for a hundred cattle. Immediately he received a hundred cattle, and he was overjoyed until he saw that his neighbor had two hundred. So he wished for a hundred acres of land, and again he was filled with joy until he saw that his neighbor had two hundred acres of land. Rather than celebrating God's goodness, the farmer could not escape feeling jealous and slighted because his neighbor had received more than he. Finally, he made his third wish: that God would strike him blind in one eye. And God wept." A well-known theologian, Dr. Alan Culpepper, concludes: "Only those who can celebrate God's grace to others can experience that mercy themselves."

It usually happens after a wedding or a funeral here at Grace, times when there are a lot of guests and outsiders occupying our pews. Two or three days after the event we'll get a phone call from someone who has misplaced something, like a cell phone, or camera, or pair of glasses. The person will ask, "Do you have a lost-and-found department at your church?" And I'll say, "Lost-and-found department? That's precisely what our ministry is about. Hello? Hello?" Some folks just don't have a sense of humor. It is true, though. In a very real sense this is why many of us gather on a Sunday morning: to celebrate our foundness ... and to receive assurance from God's Word and the nourishment of God's meal ... that we will never again be lost. In this vast and sometimes lonely universe ... we have been found by God. Like one lost sheep or one missing coin, we have been found. By God, we have been found.