Imagine you’ve spent an entire day running errands around town. When you get home, you realize something is missing. Would you go back and retrace every step if you were missing a penny? What about a favorite book? Your wedding ring or favorite piece of jewelry? If you’re like me,...

God, we keep drifting, wandering, losing our way. Find us and carry us home. Then help us to be finders like you, seeking the ones in our families, communities, and world who are lost, left behind, or overlooked. Amen.


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Lectionary Week
September 5–11, 2022
Scripture Overview

Jeremiah’s warning of coming judgment continues. The children of Israel have become foolish, have ignored God, and have become good mainly at doing evil. God is going to respond to this situation. The psalmist describes the state of all who are foolish: They deny God and follow their own corrupt desires, including oppressing the poor. The author of First Timothy, traditionally Paul, says that this was also his former way of life. He has been foolish and ignorant, a persecutor of the followers of Christ. In fact, he had been the worst of all sinners; yet Christ has shown him mercy, not judgment. Jesus tells two parables to reveal God’s heart. Rather than neglecting the ignorant, the foolish, and the lost, God searches to find each one of us.

Questions and Suggestions for Reflection

Read Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28. How do your actions show others that you know God?
Read Psalm 14. When have you, like the psalmist, felt that no one knows God? How did you have faith that God would restore God’s people?
Read 1 Timothy 1:12-17. Recall a time when you felt unworthy of Christ’s full acceptance. How has that experience made you more grateful for Christ’s mercy?
Read Luke 15:1-10. In a world full of death and violence, how do you rejoice when God finds one lost person?

Respond by posting a prayer.