http://reverentreveries.blogspot.com/2014/01/journey.html

"...There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Luke 15:10
Today, I get to witness an event that will bring about great joy in heaven. In a little under an hour from when I started this post, there will be a baptism. Now, I don't know that I've ever met a group of people that gets more excited about baptisms than the Church of Christ, and I like that. I think it's a phenomenal experience, to witness an event that God and the angels will rejoice over even more greatly than we will tonight. It's suspenseful leading up to the event for us, and everyone has a hushed energy about them just waiting to escape. Some, like our minister, don't even try to hide their excitement. It's a big deal, someone being baptized. Someone, in this case, a young woman in our congregation, has decided to give her life over to our great God and to his purpose and plan for her. We get a little pumped up. It's the beginning of a huge journey in her life, and one that we will be accompanying her on. And the thought of the journey is really the thought I want to explore today.

I've had a bit of a dry spell in the blog from the first post to this one, and even that was a journey. A journey from the stir-craziness of being stuck inside during three weeks of winter break snowstorms, back into the hectic energy of the college life. Life itself is a journey, from birth to death, wandering a path, searching. Searching for greatness, searching for happiness, or, in the case of the religious wanderer, searching for deity. For instance, Luke 15, in my mind, is a chapter about journeys.

We see in this chapter three acts, three journeys, all with the same backdrop, as Jesus is trying to hammer it into the heads of the Pharisees and tax collectors. In act 1, we encounter the dearly loved parable of the lost sheep, in which our protagonist, a shepherd over a hundred sheep, realizes one is missing and dashes off on an adventure to find it, leaving the 99 more responsible sheep to find the one who got sidetracked along the way. In act 2, we see a woman who loses a coin, worth a day's wages, in her house, and searches carefully all over to find it, and when she does, rejoices with her compatriots, for her lost possession was found. Finally, in act 3, we read the story of the lost son, who receives his inheritance and runs off with wild abandon, away from the influence of his father, and squanders all his inheritance on wild living. Then, away from the care of his father, the boy gets caught in a famine and is without food and, in desperation, runs back to his father's house, feeling undeserving of anything higher than being a hired servant of his father. Yet instead, his father puts the best robe on him and puts out a feast in celebration of his return, to his brother's chagrin (a topic for another day). The common thread that connects these three stories is the end of each of them. They end with, respectively, "there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent;" "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents;" and "we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

The end of the story is rejoicing. Rejoicing in heaven when we return to our father. There is great rejoicing in heaven when a person becomes alive again, revived from the sin that made them dead...when they use their life to bring light and life to others on this journey through life. That is what we celebrate when we baptize. That is what gives us this exuberant energy that we can't possibly hold in. We are rejoicing because of commitment, because of the sacrifice of Christ that makes us alive, because of the return to the embrace of the father. So, if you ever see someone from the church of Christ really excited about something, it should probably be your first guess that there's a baptism happening somewhere, and soon.

The journey is long, friends, but on the horizon is hope and joy, and in heaven there is rejoicing. Journey on, rejoice with the angels, and know that the father searches for you. Blessings and peace on the journey.