Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14
Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10
On August 1, 2007 my beloved state of Minnesota, where I had lived for six years, experienced one of it’s greatest tragedies. On a beautiful Wednesday afternoon in the midst of rush hour, the I-35W bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River, for reasons still unknown.
I watched in horror, utterly helpless, as the TV news showed images of twisted metal and burning trucks. 35W is a major artery connecting the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Everyone knows someone who used that bridge. The cell phone towers jammed as I tried to reach my friends and family – texts messages were the only thing that would go through.
As the days passed, stories of people’s goodness emerged. Jeremy Hernandez, a young man working as a camp counselor, was on a school bus with his camp charges when the bridge collapsed. His actions ensured that every child made it out of the rubble and into their parents’ arms. Two teens who saw the bridge collapse ran onto the rubble and helped a pregnant woman to safety. Within a half hour of putting out a call for volunteers, the Red Cross was overwhelmed by the response and had to turn volunteers away.
As the days went on, we also became aware of the missing. Six people were unaccounted for, and divers were called in to search the river. Like the shepherd searching for the lost sheep or the woman for her missing coin in today’s gospel, I picture those divers diving again and again into the murky Mississippi, day after day. When the water was too dark to see through, the divers used what one described as the “Braille method:” running their hands over the riverbed in an attempt to find the missing.
Like the shepherd and the woman, the divers and law enforcement did not stop until everyone was found. On August 21, three weeks after the bridge collapse, as my husband and I were moving from Minnesota to our new home in Washington, D.C., we heard the news that the last missing person had been found and identified.
These parables, of the one lost sheep and the one lost coin, illustrate the relentlessness of God’s love for each of God’s children. Each one of us is a distinct and precious child of the divine. No matter how far we stray from the goodness God desires for us, we cannot escape that love. The Psalmist implores, “Cast me not out from your presence, and your Holy Spirit take not from me.” As Luke’s gospel shows us today, God will do no such thing. Instead, God always is drawing us near, celebrating with the whole communion of saints when we open our eyes and realize we are home.
Johanna
