NOTES: 1] Given the lost sheep & the lost coin lead up to a lost son,  Jesus is targeting lost people in front of him! 2] In the Hebrew Bible, shepherding represents God's care for us & the care kings & priests, e.g., ought to have for us as God's agents. 3] If we have a concordance (book listing biblical words) maybe we could look up how 'righteous' & 'sinner' are used?

WARMING UP: Have we ourselves lost something valuable to us we can't find despite all our hunting for it?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything that's happened since last week's group?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:

1-2       Do we often see people we regard as out-siders, or even out-casts 'coming near to listen to Jesus' in some way? Or, do they steer well clear of him & us? If so, how has such a reversal come about? Have we become too like the Scribes & Pharisees of old? If we do find someone come among us who shows their beliefs & values are not ours, how comfortable / uncomfortable do we feel in their joining us? Are we able to relate to them quite naturally, is our relating a bit strained, or do we just avoid them? What is there about Jesus that means he has no problem in relating to those different from the mainstream?

3-7      For those of us who live in societies where sheep are counted in tens of thousands rather than dozens, has the imagery Jesus uses here lost some of its bite? If so, how do we put the bite back in? Do we just have to look for other imagery, or must we learn to make the principle Jesus illustrates in the parable bite still? Translating 'sheep' into people, how concerned are we for individual people we come in contact with, or have the numbers just grown too big too cope with in today's church & world? Or, again, how can we re-instate the principle Jesus sets out here?
          How well do we recognize the Eucharist as a celebration, a rejoicing of our own lost-ness & found-ness? When we re-enact this week by week, how much do we extend the rejoicing to others, include them in our celebrating, or is that in the 'too hard' basket? If it is, do we need to be 'found' all over again? As well as find ourselves all over again? Do we ever feel it's easier to stay lost, than to become 'found'? Would remaining 'lost' like that mean we're missing out on something? Such as? Does it seem fair that there should be more joy in heaven over 'one sinner who repents' than over 'people like us' who need no repentance? Might it be a mistake to take that 'who need no repentance' bit too far? Isn't that exactly how we get lost? What does it mean - in practical terms - to be 'righteous'? What's the difference between being 'righteous' & being 'self-righteous?

8-10  Is it easier to find lost physical things than to find other kinds of things we lose? What if we lose, say, our innocence, our  simplicity, generosity, direction in life, any of that kind of thing? How do we recover things like those? Can people tell we've lost them as readily as they might discover we've 'lost our money'? Would they be as conscious that we're searching for qualities we've lost as they might be of our hunting for our 'lost coin'? Are there things people can see we're searching for? Because we've lost 'it'? Or have never had 'it'? Have we ever been conscious of there being 'joy in heaven' when we've found something, or been found? Have we ever celebrated when someone else was 'found' - in any sense?