Joy is Found

Image from "Boundless" summer 2025 newsletter.

It is easy these days to find the bad news.  In a world affected by climate change, war, gun violence, and increasing political violence, it is easy to despair.

The good news for today is that, in the kin-dom of God, God desires that what is lost does not stay lost. 

Luke’s Gospel has these stories about a lost sheep and a lost coin, about repentance and being found.  But there’s a tiny little word that Jesus says twice, and I wonder if you noticed it.  When one sinner repents, WHAT HAPPENS in heaven?  JOY.  And WHAT HAPPENS among the angels?  JOY. 

When you think of something lost being found, maybe you’d think that what follows is relief.  But Jesus didn’t say that.  He didn’t say satisfaction.  Not a sense of everything is as it should be.  Not a happy ending or a resolution or a plot-twist surprise.  Not even righteousness.  The result of repentance is JOY. 

Joy is not foolishness.  Joy does not mean you don’t take things seriously.  Joy comes from a place of deep contentment. 

Jesus knows what he’s talking about.  He lived in a world marked by economic disparity, people who were very rich alongside people who were very poor.  Jesus lived among humans who cheated and stole, who broke all the commandments, and he still told these stories about how God does not give up searching for people who have traveled a hateful path.  No one is fully lost. 

Rather than despairing, how do we keep seeking?  The stories of the lost sheep and the lost coin are reminders what a gift it is to receive what’s been lost, to feel the restoration of wholeness.  Because when you’re in the fight, when you’ve been searching for peace, when you’ve been trying to help someone, make the world even a teeny bit better place, it can feel overwhelming, or even impossible.  God knows. 

God knows how important it is to celebrate the victories, even the small ones.  One lost sheep, when sheep are often lost?  One lost coin out of so many others?  What difference does that even make?  How can it matter?  Yet restoring that one lost thing brings joy in heaven.  We forget how heaven rejoices alongside what happens on earth. 

What if we celebrated such small victories, mirroring the joy in heaven?  Well, my friends, that kind of joy is what keeps you going, because the fight is not over.  Joy fuels creativity.  Joy gives energy for persistence, which is important for resistance.  If we’re going to resist the evil that surrounds us, if we’re going to refuse to give in to the forces of hatred, then we’re going to need some joy to sustain us. 

As we acknowledge creation in these weeks of the season of creation, today is a good time to take these themes of what is lost and found and apply that to creation.  With climate change affecting all of us in the world, we could conclude that creation is a lost cause, that it doesn’t matter what we do because it’s too far gone. 

And I found this little ray of hope in one of the print materials shared by the ELCA, in a photo of a smiling man standing in a river, just almost waist-deep in the water, next to what looks like a floating garden, a boat full of plants.  I’ll read from the story about this man, from the article entitled “Hope that rises with the floodwaters.”[1] 

“Before your generosity reached Abdur Razzak, his hard work as a farmer in a rural community of Bangladesh was washed away over and over again.  From 2018 to 2022, floods caused extensive damage to homes and destroyed croplands.  Every year, Abdur would plant a bed of rice to provide income and food for his family—and every year, his crop would be ruined.

Then Abdur connected with the Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) Bangladesh, whose flood resilience project is supported by your gifts to Lutheran Disaster Response.  Project leaders work with rural communities to repair flood damage and rebuild in ways that will make them more resilient when the waters rise again.  Across 20 communities and three countries, the program has provided supplies and training to help farmers grow flood-resilient crops, to teach flood safety in schools, to set up community flood preparedness centers, and more.

Through the project, Abdur received supplies to build a floating bamboo seedbed in a pond near his home and mastered the skills he needed to tend it . Now, when waters rise during small floods, Abdur’s crop rises with it.  His rice plants are lush and thriving this year.

…For the first time in many years, Abdur is looking toward the next growing season with not fear but hope.  Your generosity helped the ELCA to share that hope with him and many others who have been affected by disaster.  Until the clouds break, you will be with them.”[2]

To be a community of love and repentance and trust in God to save us, is anything impossible?  Peace is possible.  Joy is possible.  And it’s not unimportant—joy is necessary. 

May the joy of God and the peace that passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 

Amen. 

Pastor Cheryl

[1] From ELCA printed resource entitled “Boundless,” page 6: https://elcamediaresources.blob.core.windows.net/cdn/assets/Flipbooks/BoundlessSummer2025/Boundless_Summer_2025.html

[2] Ibid.