“The Lost”
Picture for a moment a group of people bounded by some kind of barrier. The barrier might be made of walls, the people might be in a building. Or it might be that the barrier is more economic, the people might be part of a particular suburb. It could be a barrier of race or of political viewpoint. Now, picture that the people on the inside of the barrier consider that anyone who is not part of that group is “lost”.
In my experience in the evangelical church, people who are not part of the evangelical church or at least people who are not Christians, are often referred to as “the lost”. The arrogance of this posture is something that insiders often don’t see. If you have friends who don’t share your faith, they are among “the lost”.
The evangelical church sometimes uses the term “the lost” as a motivation for missionary action. It is used in a way that accentuates difference.
I recently read Howard Thurman’s masterful book, “Jesus and the Disinherited”. It is said that Martin Luther King Jr. carried this book with him and built much of the philosophy of non-violent civil disobedience upon it. Early in the book Thurman speaks about how missionary work is often misguided,
“For decades we have studied the various peoples of the world and those who live as our neighbours as objects of missionary endeavour and enterprise without being at all willing to treat them either as brothers or as human beings.”
[Image - Howard Thurman]
Thurman calls this one of the “subtle perils of religion”.
Even as a pastor, I did not like how the term “the lost” was spoken in the church. I have come to hear the term “the lost” in a different way. When Jesus says he has come to “seek and save the lost”, when he speaks a parable about God as a shepherd, seeking and finding the lost sheep, it is a reminder of how God loves all of us, not a reminder of how we are to see ourselves as somehow better or “found” as compared to other people. The term “the lost” in scripture is not used to show how we are different, better or more “found” as compared to others. Instead, it is used in contexts that reveal the loving heart of God for all people, for each and every one. In God, none is “lost”.