Counting the Missing: A Call to Radical Inclusion

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:06:02] Welcome to worship on this beautiful September day. Whether we are gathered here in person or gathered online, it is always good to be together for worship.
[00:06:12] I have a few announcements I'll highlight before we jump into worship. The first is that during the month of September, we will be collecting diapers, and those diapers will go to Wilkes Community Partnership for Children, and they'll be distributed to families in need from there.
[00:06:29] so if you would like to bring any diapers in you can put them on a table in the breezeway and we'll make sure that they get to Wilkes community partnership for children our peace and justice book club is meeting today for
[00:06:43] their first discussion on what the eyes don't see by mana Hanna so come and join for that this is the first of a two-part conversation 3 p.m. in the library and if you have any interest in the book but you just haven't read it yet come anyway
[00:06:59] and join in the conversation. On Sunday evenings in September, we are having a small group time in which we will be gathering to have a conversation about how we might better welcome our neurodivergent siblings. And that conversation is based on the book Blessed Minds by Reverend
[00:07:20] Sarah Griffith Lund. And that conversation is intentionally designed so that you do not have to have read the book to come and join and learn something we hope together. So come for that at 5 30 also in the church library on Sunday evenings through September. Finally I'll point out that this
[00:07:40] Thursday our church the Thursbaterians will be serving lunch at St. Paul's Crisis Assistance Ministry. This week on the menu are soups and chilies and grilled cheese sandwiches and so you can go to the newsletter to our sign up genius to see what food might still
[00:08:01] be required and also to find out how to volunteer if you're interested in that so make food show up to serve check that out in the newsletter so you that you can be connected I will just refer you to the QR code in our bulletin which
[00:08:19] will take you to our up-to-date newsletter along with a whole host of other useful information tune in there so that you can be connected throughout the week we know that our worship continues throughout the week and we
[00:08:33] have many opportunities for us to grow and learn and serve and love together but we gather here now to worship the one who never stops seeking wholeness who rejoices when the lost are found.
[00:08:50] Like a puzzle incomplete without all of its pieces, God gathers us in here, and together we make up the image of the church, the image of Christ's body here in this place.
[00:09:03] So I invite us all to quiet our hearts and our minds, to open up our spirits, and prepare to worship the God that counts all of us in.
[00:09:14] let us call one another to worship in the image of god god makes us with the sound of god's voice god calls us with the touch of god's hand god forms us from different nations and cultures
[00:09:33] god gathers us of all abilities and genders god creates us children of god god makes us God blesses us. God loves us. Amen.

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:12:49] Trusting in God's abundant grace and mercy, let us confess our sin before God and one another, trusting that God will indeed create in us a new heart and will indeed put a new and right spirit within us.
[00:13:06] We will do so first and foremost by joining our voices with our corporate prayer of confession, the one that's printed in our bulletins. Then we'll offer silence so that we might, each of us, offer those things in the silence of our hearts, those things that cling to us
[00:13:23] and weigh heavy upon us. So let us join our voices in prayer saying, Loving God, too often we forget that you formed us as your children, beautiful and complete, Unified through our diversity Each with gifts to share
[00:13:42] Yet each in need of support Loving God, forgive us Let us see your face in each person that we see Hear your voice in all creation And feel your touch in every embrace Help us to see your face in our own

[00:14:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:14:02] And hear your voice in our song

[00:14:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:14:05] Friends, the grace of our God overflows upon us through the faith and love that are ours in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is indeed good news, so let us join in reassuring one another of our forgiveness. Be at peace and know that God loves you in your strengths, but also in
[00:15:01] your vulnerability. God's grace is granting us the opportunity to grow. Our gifts are to be shared in abundance. Amen. Indeed, God is a God of abundance, lavishing love and mercy, grace and forgiveness, peace and justice upon you, me, upon everyone. This is good news, so let us take a
[00:15:26] moment to share the gifts that God has given us. Let us share the peace of Christ with one another.
[00:15:33] You can do so in whatever way seems sensible to you. The shake of a hand, a warm embrace, a fist bump, an elbow tap, peace gesture, or a kind word. In whatever way makes sense,
[00:15:46] let us extend the peace of Christ to one another saying, may the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. And also with you. Well friends, as we prepare to listen for God's word, both read
[00:19:28] and proclaimed, let us take a moment to open ourselves up to hearing God's word anew today.
[00:19:35] Would you join me as we sing our prayer for illumination? That is hymn number 452, Open the eyes of my heart. Amen. Well, our first scripture lesson for today comes from the book of Exodus, chapter 32, verses 7 through 14. So listen, listen for the word of God.
[00:20:57] The Lord said to Moses, go down at once. Your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt have acted perversely. They have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them.
[00:21:14] They have cast for themselves an image of a calf and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it and said, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. The Lord said to
[00:21:30] Moses, I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are.
[00:21:36] Now let me alone so that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I may consume them, and of you I will make a great nation.
[00:21:48] But Moses implored the Lord, the Lord his God, and said, O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power?
[00:22:01] and with a mighty hand. Why should the Egyptians say it was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth?
[00:22:14] Turn from your fierce wrath, change your mind, and do not bring disaster upon your people.
[00:22:22] Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them i will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven and all this land that i have promised i will give to your descendants and they shall inherit it forever and the lord
[00:22:47] changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people holy wisdom

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:22:56] holy word thanks be to god our second scripture lesson for today comes from the gospel according

[00:27:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:27:17] to luke chapter 15 verses 1 through 10 so listen again for what the holy spirit is telling god's people now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to jesus and the
[00:27:34] Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, this fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them. So Jesus told this parable, which one of you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it.
[00:27:59] and when he has found it he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices and when he comes home he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them rejoice with me for I have found
[00:28:14] the last sheep just so I tell you there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 religious persons who need no repentance?
[00:28:30] Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?
[00:28:42] And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.
[00:28:51] Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
[00:29:02] Holy wisdom, holy word. Thanks be to God.
[00:29:08] When I was growing up, my grandmother lived with us.
[00:29:12] She watched my sister and me when my parents were at work, and through our time together, she instilled a lot of her loves.
[00:29:20] Her love of crummy daytime television, her love of all holidays, and especially perhaps her love of puzzles.
[00:29:31] By her reclining armchair, she had a stack of crossword, sudoku, and word search books.
[00:29:38] And every so often, when she was in the mood, she would pull out our folding card table and set up a puzzle for us to do together.
[00:29:46] I was always anxious to jump in and start assembling the pieces of the beautiful picture that was on the box, but my grandmother had absolutely no patience for that.
[00:30:00] She taught me that you always have to start on the edges, the outer edges, and work your way in.
[00:30:06] She did not allow any skipping ahead.
[00:30:10] This is where I usually lost interest and let my grandmother and my sister keep doing the puzzle.
[00:30:15] It must be said, though, that one of my grandmother's other loves in life was finding a good deal.
[00:30:25] And that meant that almost all of our puzzles came from garage sales or second-hand stores.
[00:30:32] That also meant that almost all of our puzzles had quite a few missing pieces.
[00:30:38] Isn't that the worst?
[00:30:41] Jesus talks about the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin.
[00:30:45] but is there ever a more frantic search for something lost than when you get near the end of a puzzle maybe a puzzle you've been working on for days only to notice that there are pieces
[00:30:57] missing you always end up on your hands and knees crawling under the table checking under the seats wondering if maybe the pieces have sprouted legs and moved into other parts of the house you will do anything so long as you don't have to admit that the puzzle may be incomplete.
[00:31:19] If you finally do have to give up and put the puzzle away without finishing it, you're always left wondering, did I lose the piece or was it lost before I started?
[00:31:30] One summer, my grandmother decided that she was going to try to lift some of that psychological burden of wondering if all the pieces were there when you started by doing every single one of the
[00:31:43] puzzles we had and then writing in the box how many pieces were missing. So you knew when you got started that you didn't have to keep looking for those final six pieces. They were already long
[00:31:56] gone. It usually didn't stop us hoping though. Our brains are funny that way. We would start out on one of those incomplete puzzles and always secretly in the back of our minds we'd be hoping
[00:32:11] that somehow as the puzzle sat in the box in the closet something mysterious and magical happened and all of the pieces were found and placed back in the box because even if you know what to expect
[00:32:26] it really is never completely satisfying to put some to put together an incomplete puzzle Jesus seems to have a similar longing for wholeness as he tells his parable about the lost sheep and the lost coin.
[00:32:44] We tend to interpret this parable by saying that the shepherd and the woman, they're like God.
[00:32:51] They're in the place of God, seeking out the lost.
[00:32:55] But if I'm honest, something about that interpretation never really sits quite right with me.
[00:33:01] the shepherd loses his sheep and the woman loses her coin but I can't say that I believe that God ever loses us along with the writer of Psalm 139 I would like to proclaim where can I go from your
[00:33:21] spirit or where can I flee from your presence if I ascend to heaven you are there if I make my bed and Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits
[00:33:38] of the sea, even there you shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say, surely the darkness shall come over me, and night wraps itself around me, even the darkness
[00:33:54] is not dark to you. The night is as bright as the day, for darkness as is light to you.
[00:34:03] No, God does not lose people. So maybe the shepherd and the woman are meant to be someone else.
[00:34:14] Jesus tells the parable after the religious leaders begin to grumble and complain about the kinds of people Jesus welcomes, the kinds of people with whom Jesus eats. And so I wonder if maybe the shepherd and the woman are not meant to be God at all, but meant to be the religious
[00:34:36] folks, as they should be, as they could be, if they would learn how to stop counting others out and start counting who was missing so that they could be brought in.
[00:34:51] Jesus tells the story of the lost sheep, and to begin, he asks, Which of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?
[00:35:09] We're used to this parable.
[00:35:10] We know how it ends, and so it's easy for us to fill in some things.
[00:35:16] We think maybe, of course, a good shepherd would seek out the lost sheep.
[00:35:22] But is that really how Jesus' first hearers would have thought, I wonder?
[00:35:28] A hundred sheep is a large flock.
[00:35:30] If you only had five, perhaps one missing would be easy to notice and more valuable to retrieve.
[00:35:37] But would a shepherd of a large flock risk leaving 99 unattended to search for just one?
[00:35:47] Is it possible that a wise shepherd might judge that that was too great a risk to take?
[00:35:54] But Jesus' shepherd isn't willing to leave even one behind.
[00:35:59] And perhaps it is in the shepherd's surprising commitment to wholeness that we learn something about God's accounting and something about how we are supposed to be counting too.
[00:36:15] And something about how we're supposed to be counting too.
[00:36:19] One missing means the flock is incomplete.
[00:36:23] And that's just not going to cut it if everyone counts.
[00:36:27] In the story of the woman searching for the lost coin, we see exaggerated rejoicing when the lost coin is found.
[00:36:37] It makes sense. 10% of her savings is missing.
[00:36:42] So it makes sense that she would tear her house apart and search for it until it was found.
[00:36:47] But after finding it, does it make sense for her to call all her friends and neighbors and throw a party to celebrate?
[00:36:55] there is an exaggeration in the rejoicing.
[00:37:00] Perhaps if we learn from the shepherd and the woman, who are both frantic to find what's been lost and overjoyed when wholeness is restored, we might be challenged in our own time and place to look around and to count.
[00:37:17] Who do we welcome and who do we leave out?
[00:37:21] During our Sunday evening small groups throughout September, we're learning from the book Blessed Mind, Breaking the Silence on Neurodiversity by Reverend Sarah Griffith Lund. The book is written to the church, encouraging us not only to accept
[00:37:39] neurodivergent folks, but to celebrate their belonging in our communities as a gift from God.
[00:37:47] neurodivergent is maybe a term that is not very familiar to all of you it's not a medical term it's not a diagnosis it's a word that grew out of people's lived experience living with brains that
[00:38:04] somehow work differently from other people's sometimes that comes with a diagnosis like adhd or autism spectrum disorder, but not always.
[00:38:15] Neurodiversity then recognizes that there are all types of brains with different strengths and with different needs, much like in our understanding of biodiversity, in which we know that an environment is made stronger by the diversity of plant and animal and insect species.
[00:38:37] Neurodiversity strengthens our community, makes us stronger The challenge for church communities is that we're generally set up to accommodate neurotypical brains Reverend Griffith Lund writes in her book That while churches should be a place of unconditional acceptance
[00:38:58] Differences and symptoms originating in the brain Sometimes prove particularly challenging for Christians to understand She writes about the teenager who can't stay quiet and still in worship.
[00:39:14] The man whose comments in Bible study leave others scratching their head.
[00:39:20] The woman who remains depressed despite everything for which she can be grateful.
[00:39:27] Many faith communities count these folks among their members and friends, yet keep them on the margins, she writes.
[00:39:35] but if we learned anything from the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin God calls us to a different kind of counting not just to count neuro divergent folks as members and friends who stay on the outside but as people to
[00:39:56] be welcomed in and celebrated rejoiced over the neurodiversity paradigm paradigm helps us to see that it is not people who are deficient because their brains work differently it is our communities that are at a loss somehow when we do
[00:40:17] not welcome or create space for people whose brains work differently this is not the kind of work that happens overnight it is the kind of work that takes persistence as Sarah Griffith one calls for we need to start by breaking
[00:40:34] the silence of neurodiversity by talking with each other and with other people who know more than us who have to live into experience becoming a more welcoming community will require us to take the time to stop and learn new
[00:40:50] things because the truth is we really can't love people until we know something about them we need to start learning about the beloved among us who have been counted out, perhaps learning how we might make accommodations for their welcome.
[00:41:08] Jesus says there is rejoicing in heaven over the one who is found. What if we sounded more like heaven, celebrating each and every one who comes in from the margins? That's the joy God invites us

[00:41:29] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:41:29] to share. Amen. Having heard God's word read and proclaimed, with God's word ringing in our ears and bouncing around in our brains and embedded deep in our hearts, let us affirm our faith together. Our affirmation of faith today comes from the Iona Abbey worship book, so I'll invite
[00:42:05] you to rise in body or spirit so that we might say what we believe together. We believe in a bright and amazing God, who has been to the depths of despair on our behalf, who has risen in
[00:42:24] splendor and majesty, who decorates the universe with sparkling water, clear, bright light, twinkling stars, and sharp colors over and over again.
[00:42:38] We believe that Jesus is the light of the world, that God believes in us even though we make the same mistakes over and over again we commit ourselves to jesus to one another as

[00:42:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:42:53] siblings and to the maker's business in the world amen now let us turn ourselves in prayer to god

[00:45:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:45:50] lifting up our concerns for this world that god so loves holy incarnate one word made flesh we thank you for the gifts of all people made in the image of God we thank you for loving us so completely that you took on the joys and sorrows pains and
[00:46:14] pleasures of this world we know that you lived and walked among us touching our pain and feeling our hurt we praise you that in your reconciling love you restored lives and communities through your healing acts and in doing so proclaiming the
[00:46:35] belovedness of all abilities. Lord, hear our prayers. We come to you with hearts heavy and weighed down with worries and sadness. We lift up to you your beloved children whom this world considers disabled. We praise you for the lives of the one in four Americans who identify as
[00:47:01] disabled, and we pray that as the conversation around disability continues to grow, you would pour out your compassion and mercy. Hear our prayer, oh God. The lives of disabled people are obscured by popular stereotypes misunderstandings and stigmas give us
[00:47:26] the clarity and awareness to move past our judgments to notice the real living breathing people in our midst soften our hearts and open our minds to the challenges and triumphs that disabled people experience you remind us that
[00:47:44] that while people with disabilities may or may not want to be healed, they are already whole.
[00:47:56] Lord, hear our prayers.
[00:48:00] The types of disabilities vary widely, and there are many that cannot be seen or recognized.
[00:48:10] Many people do not have disabilities which are visible.
[00:48:14] So give us grace to learn about and really welcome those who are neurodivergent, whose brains work differently. Teach us to embrace the wide variety of our differences as a gift from you. Lord, hear our prayers. Many living with disabilities are isolated from their communities, both in the
[00:48:39] scriptures and still today. We pray for all those who wrestle with their bodies or with their minds.
[00:48:46] Help them to know that they do not wrestle alone. Lord, hear our prayers. We give you thanks for all those who help and serve others, medical caregivers, nurses and doctors, therapists and counselors.
[00:49:04] Thank you for the teachers and tutors, for all those whose life work is to build up other people with their expertise and talents. Lord, hear our prayers. God of peace, on this Sunday morning, we find ourselves again in the wake of more violent tragedy in our country. We confess that
[00:49:30] too often we choose violence as our answer to difference, as our solution to conflict.
[00:49:38] We confess that there have been 302 mass shootings in our country in 2025.
[00:49:46] We see the ripple effects, families shattered, children traumatized, communities marked by loss and fear.
[00:49:55] Forgive us, we pray.
[00:49:58] us a better way, a holy imagination of justice, mercy, and reconciliation. Make us builders of bridges, makers of community, and keepers of hope until the swords are beaten into plowshares and your reign of love is all in all. Lord, hear our prayers. Present God, we trust to you our
[00:50:24] concerns for the big things that worry us and weigh us down. And we also trust that you are never far from us personally. No matter how lost we feel in this world, you are with us. So we lift
[00:50:39] up to you now the prayers that we know from our community, those who we know by name who are in need of a little extra care. Anna Jo, Karen, Chris, Susan, Martha, Trula, Mamie, Richard, Michael,
[00:51:01] William, Betty, Kathy, Evelyn, Debbie, Joelle, Barbara, Cole, and Leslie. And we also lift up the prayers that we each know in the silence of our hearts, trusting that you hear. Lord, hear our prayers. God who seeks us, who offers us grace, and who celebrates our presence,
[00:51:37] hear us as we join together in prayer using the words Jesus taught his disciples, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
[00:51:48] Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
[00:51:54] Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
[00:52:02] Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
[00:52:07] For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

[00:52:20] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:52:20] Well, just yesterday, several of our young people, our youth, along with a few of our grown-ups, gave their time and their energy to do the Clemens YMCA Mud Run.
[00:52:35] The event always has its goal to raise awareness and to raise funds to fight chronic disease.
[00:52:44] And our youth have participated in this over the past few years now.
[00:52:48] they have put their time and their energy into it. They've even dedicated their bodies to this cause. They've gotten into the game, so to speak. They've got skin in the game. Is there anything more generous than that? To give of yourself for the good of others, even other people that you
[00:53:08] don't even know. So we take time each and every week to consider how we as a congregation, how we as individuals here might be generous with who we are and with what we have, so that we might
[00:53:22] invest ourselves in the lives of others, maybe even people we don't yet know. So perhaps you'd like to join in. Perhaps you'd like to get your time and your energy to put your resources, even
[00:53:38] your own bodies, your lives into the game. Maybe you want to get your skin in the game as well.
[00:53:45] you know how you can do that there's lots and lots of ways if you'd like to do that by giving to the good work that we are doing there are offering plates here on the communion table
[00:53:56] there's a little white church in the narthex that you can drop something into as you exit worship today you can mail something in or drop it by the church office you can scan the qr code
[00:54:08] and click the link to give online but we also know that there are lots of other ways to give Maybe you want to get your skin in the game by donating your time or a meal at St. Paul's Crisis Assistance Ministry.
[00:54:25] Maybe you want to make bag lunches for Wilkes Ministry of Hope.
[00:54:28] Maybe you want to donate diapers for underserved peoples for the Wilkes Partnership for Children.
[00:54:34] Maybe you want to spend time at Kirk Knight learning and growing together.
[00:54:39] Maybe you want to join the conversation with our Peace and Justice Book Club this afternoon.
[00:54:44] maybe you want to learn about our neurodivergent neighbors here this evening in whatever way is sensible to you in whatever way you feel called use this time to make your own commitment about how you are going to give of yourself who you are and what you have and in just a moment's time we
[00:55:04] will pray all of those dedicating all of our commitments to god would you join me in prayer as we dedicate all of our commitments to God.
[00:59:32] We rejoice and give you thanks, O God.
[00:59:36] Lost have been found, sinners have received mercy, and the dead have been restored to life.
[00:59:44] Send us out in your service to tend your sheep and show the riches of your grace.
[00:59:52] Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
[00:59:55] Amen.

[00:59:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:59:56] It's time for us to go.

[01:02:55] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[01:02:55] And I pray that we go out into the world ready to count as God counts, not counting people out, but looking always to find those who need to be counted in and rejoicing, joining our voices with the songs of the angels
[01:03:11] when there is welcome, when there is wholeness.
[01:03:15] And as you go, I pray you go with this blessing.
[01:03:19] May the Lord bless you and keep you.
[01:03:21] May the Lord be kind and gracious to you.
[01:03:23] May the Lord look with favor upon you and grant you peace.
[01:03:28] Hallelujah. Amen.