Outsiders

--There are the tempests that loom so large in the life of a teenager; such as being excluded from the “in” group, or being shunned by a former friend.

--There are the difficulties of being an immigrant and not really understanding the new culture, the colloquial expressions, the local history, and dealing with the inevitable distrust and sometimes resentment of native citizens.

--There is the lonely and empty feeling brought on by the death of a beloved family member; the party and life in general goes on, but this person may feel left behind, forgotten, or an outsider in one’s own community.

Those are three samples, and I’m sure we can come up with many more.

An outsider has a lonely time of it, and this is nothing new.

1.We remember the Israelites, dragged off to Babylon and slavery after their utter defeat and the sacking and burning of Jerusalem.

It was a very effective sort of ethnic cleansing; people from one subjugated area we taken to another region and put under the rule of people they did not know, and people from somewhere else were brought to Israel.

It kept things in turmoil, so that revolts could not get organized.

Everyone was either an outsider in someone else’s land, or having outsiders ruling over the remaining residents in their own land.

But in this part of Isaiah, the prophet says that this situation will not last forever.

The Lord has not forgotten his people and will bring them back from wherever they have been forced to go, or the places to which they have fled.

They will come from the north or the west, as well as from the south, from Syene which was the border of the known world in present-day Sudan

The label “Outsider” will not be attached to them forever; the Lord has spoken.

It is an interesting word-picture that the prophet uses to describe it: it is like a bride dressing and getting ready for the wedding banquet.

That is of course a time when she is no longer to be an outsider, but is to be joined into a new family.

2.The same image shows up in our Second Lesson today.

The people of the heavenly Jerusalem (considered as a whole) are like a bride adorned for her husband, the Lord Jesus.

The Lord makes sure that they are not “outsiders” in any way.

Indeed, he makes all things new, John the Seer says.

He gives water to the thirsty, he wipes away pains and sorrows from the grieving.

His gives his word of command, so that these people can inherit what they truly need from the Lord.

They will conquer, the Lord proclaims; they will be in his own family, he says.

3.Today’s Gospel reading is also about outsiders.

Whatever and whoever these strangers were from the east, the Magi, it is clear that Matthew sees them as outsiders.

Whether they were astrologers, astronomers, sooth-sayers, or royalty, they did not belong in an Israelite village.

But their effort was honored and their gifts received.

Outsiders no more, they escaped from the clutches of King Herod and found their way home with the very best news for which one could hope.

4.How nice for all of them, but what about those who gather here this afternoon?

Has the Lord passed us by?

That may be the way some are feeling this day.

As our hymn says: [LBW#61]

The hills are bare…, no future for the world they show;

the stars are cold…,no warmth for those beneath the sky;

the heart is tired…, no human dream unbroken stands….

That may be true, but that is not the full measure of our situation.

The hymn continues:

Yet here new life begins to grow….

Yet here the radiant angels fly…

Yet here God comes to mortal hands….

That is the Good News of Christmas; we’re not left alone in our sadness of whatever sort.

We shall not be outsiders now, or finally.

The crisis that seems so large to us is not an ultimate crisis; God gets the last word, not sin, death, or the devil.

Keep listening for it, looking for it, praying for it, and expecting it.

It will come, even as we have a small taste, an appetizer, in the Holy Communion today.

This fellowship spans all time and every place, and it brings together the saints of every generation.

And the hymn-writer proclaims that in us it will be like a brown branch sprouting forth a new shoot, bringing joy like a fiery gem, and renewing hope.

To all this, with confident hope we say “May it be so,” “I wish that it be so”, “It is so.” “May God make it so,” or to put it into a single word, let us all say Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.