In his answer to my challenge to finish yesterday’s Catch about how if there is one lost soul, I am lost, Tim sent us a song performed by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ray Charles and others with the lyric: “None of us are free, if one of us is chained, none of us are free.” Thank you, Tim, because that’s it. That’s the point.
It’s all about identification and connection with the rest of humanity. As long as there is one lost soul then I am not found, because I am that lost soul; that lost soul is me. It’s a means of identifying with others that has me more than just sharing in their situation, it has me being them. It’s further than most of us want to go.
Jesus did this. Jesus so identified with the poor that He told us if we care for them (“the least of these”) we are caring for Him. If in serving the poor we are serving Jesus, then Jesus is poor. Jesus is destitute. Jesus is needy.
Some of you took my challenge yesterday and tried to launch into what remains to be a theological debate on how I could be lost and still found, and I understand, because that’s what I was doing in my head when I was writing about this and not getting any farther with it. I couldn’t get anywhere because I was stuck in my own head. I got stuck because I was thinking about me and on what theological basis I could get away with saying I was still lost. I even went so far as to be concerned about those who would question my theology and how I could head them off at the pass. I was, sad to say, more concerned about my own reputation than about finding why the Holy Spirit had drawn me to this statement in the first place. See what I was doing? I was stuck so far into myself that I was missing what God was trying to teach me with this.
The point is not me – it doesn’t start or end with me – the point is all of humanity and most importantly the lost – anyone who doesn’t get it yet: that Christ died for them. As long as there is one person like that on the earth, I am not found. I am lost.
I am not Noah. God did not tell me that He was going to cut me off from the rest of His creation and start over. But I, and most Christians I know, live like we are. We have detached ourselves from lost humanity and are floating around in a boat no one told us to build. Actually, we’re not even floating; we’re dry docked, because the rains never came. Those are the latter rains the scriptures talk about, and until they come, this is the day of salvation. This is the day to gather everyone in.
I am so ashamed of my smugness. I am so willing to be saved and not give a hoot about those who are not. But here is the point: that feeling of shame is off the point too. It’s still about me! The church, all my life, has only made me feel guilty about this. It has never taught me that I am the lost like Jesus is the poor. It never connected me to lost humanity. It only exploited my guilt and kept me trapped inside myself.
Get out of the stupid boat and connect… because none of us are found if one of us is lost.
John Fischer The Catch 
Love both yesterday and today’s Catch. Thank you for your words. If we aren’t being a blessing to those around us, lost, poor, struggling, sick, in prison, and even other Christians, we really aren’t “living in Christ”. And obviously we can only achieve all that if we let Christ live through us (and pay attention to His direction). I’m still praying I will pay more attention and ACT (get out of the boat)!
I understand what you’re trying to say, John. One famous evangelist put it this way: “The crops (the lost) aren’t going to walk into the barn (the church). We have to go out into the fields (the world) and bring them in.”
I do, however, think you’ve taken your analogy too far. When Jesus talked about the lost coin, the lost sheep and the lost son, He didn’t say, “If one coin is lost, all the coins are lost. If one sheep is lost, all the sheep are lost. If one son is lost, all the sons are lost.” No, He said, “Leave the found coins, the found sheep, the found son, and go after what is lost.” If you had said that, then you would have been right. We need to leave what is found and go after what is lost.
But that’s not what you said. You said that those of us whom Christ has declared “found” – and that He gave His life to find – are still lost. That nullifies what He accomplished on the cross, does it not? If we’re still lost, then what good is His sacrifice? Yes, we’re still stupid and selfish and uncaring and blind about a great many things; but we’re not lost if the Great Shepherd has put us over His shoulders and brought us home.
I just think another analogy would have been better. I hope you’re not feeling lost because of what you’re going through financially, because many of us are in the same boat. It can make you feel lost, and that others are uncaring. But God is still there with you, in the boat or outside it, and He will not let anything happen to you that is not, ultimately, an expression of His great love.
I love and pray for you and your ministry every day.
It’s not about me, it’s not about now. It’s all about God and it’s all about eternity.
Blessings,
Pastor Jim
I think we can say with confidence that we, as Christians, are “lost and found.” “Lost” in the Greek literally means “destroyed,” or destined for destruction. “Saved” means to be delivered from destruction. We “have been saved” legally by Christ’s work on the cross, and we “will be saved” ultimately at the Judgment, but Paul also says we “are being saved” as believers. We are assured of our deliverance from destruction because of Christ, but our actual deliverance from sin and destruction is yet in the future. Until then, we are in the process of being delivered…we are lost (destined for future destruction because of our sin) and found (assured of our future deliverance because of Christ).
Jesus came “to seek and to save that which was lost.” The cross accomplished the forensic part of that mission, and the church, the presence of Christ in the world, continues to accomplish the practical part of that mission to offer salvation to all the world (all humanity). But Christ uses broken vessels who are yet “being saved” to reach those who are, in a sense “being lost.” Why? Because we are all the same. We all are lost while on this earthly pilgrimmage, just in differing degrees. Because we as believers are still “being saved,” I believe Jesus seeks us who have been found with him no less than he seeks those who are lost without him. Because we are truly “in Christ,” how can we can ever feel fully found, or saved, as long as the heart of Christ that is “in us” is seeking the lost. It is a paradox, but I think it makes ultimate sense.
We are all lost until we are saved. We are all sought by Jesus. We’re all in the same boat!
I love that, thanks for sharing.
Ah yes. As in the words of everyone’s favorite hymn, “I once was found, but now am lost…”
No, wait…
Perhaps that’s what the Apostle was talking about when he looked back on his religious and academic pedigree and called it “worthless” (to use the polite phrase). In other words: I had it, but lost it on purpose.
I am reminded of of the John Donne Reflection XII: No man is an island. “Therefore never sent to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Come on John… snap out of it! Lost is found… and found is lost!? I think you are stumbling over your substantial intellect again. “My thoughts are not your thoughts; my ways are not your ways”, He said. Some of the things of God are beyond our ability to fully grasp… and we don’t like that…we don’t like having to wonder about extremely important things that we feel we should have a better handle on. That’s where simple, child-like faith kicks in. Just believe…. and trust that He knows what He is talking about. He has shown all of us how trustworthy He is… believe what He has said based on what He has shown us of this trustworthiness. I think that if the much-gifted Apostle Paul had to admit that we (and him included) are ‘now looking through the glass darkly,,,,’ and, that ‘now we know in part, but then, we will know even as we are known…..’ if he confessed this inability to see everything crystal clear, then surely you and I, and all the rest of us mere mortals have to admit the same. I think He revels in the thought of us taking Him on His word on some of these more difficult mysteries He has presented us with. I’m thinking now of a time when I was a boy, and I asked my dad (who is now gone), “Daddy.. how does a tree grow?” He looked at me, and the tree… thought a bit, and spoke about roots, and leaves making food as they pointed towards the sun, and how all these things made the tree get bigger and stronger. And I listened, and because my dad “knew everything”, I said “ohhh”. I had it in my head and it was the truth that was given me, and even though I thought I knew and understood this mysterious thing, I really didn’t fully get it….. until Biology classes years later. And now, with more understanding of what goes on inside each cell, I find my understanding of living things once again full of awe and partial. It just makes me more awestruck with our Creator. I don’t mean to insult you with this simple analogy, but I just had this warm memory of that moment. A GPS unit gives one an extremely accurate location of where, on the entire earth, one is. Then, one can say with certainty “here is North… here are you… now go North. I know I have irritated you John, many times. My motivations and intentions were good, but never the less irritating. Iron on iron makes sparks sometimes. …,r
If Christians weren’t lost they wouldn’t need religion