Luke 15:1-10 Dear Partner in Preaching, It’s September, and your parish life, like mine, is probably full to overflowing with the start of a new program year, stewardship events, planning for the fall and winter, looking ahead to planning a budget and a mission rationale to accompany it, and more. It’s so easy to get caught up in all these important, even vital, activities of church leadership and, perhaps, to forget, or at least lose track of, the reason for all the work: to share the news that God loves us more than we can imagine. Fortunately, this week we have before us these unbelievably brief and evocative and beautiful...

Luke 15:1-10 Dear Partner in Preaching, I apologize for the late post. It’s been one of those weeks! So here’s what I’ve got. Actually, two things. First, this story is about joy. We understandably focus on issues of being lost, of being found, of the Pharisees and scribes displeasure, of avoiding judgment, and so forth. But what we often miss is the common denominator of both these stories is joy. “Just so, there will be more joy in heaven….” Repeat twice. And here’s the thing: I get that. Shortly after we’d moved to Minnesota, I took my then four year-old son out to the Mall of America, an enclosed shopping center so large...