Are you part of the “in-crowd” or are you an outsider? In our family, work, school, political and social circles there are some of us on the inside and others on the outside. We might be on the inside in some groups, but on the outside in others. It’s nice being an insider; we are in the know and, if we’re not one of the leaders of the group, then we have access to them. Our presence and voice count.
But if we are an outsider, or have ever been one, then we know what that feels like. We aren’t noticed or, if we are, its because the insider folk are talking or even laughing about us. Our opinions don’t count, we have no social or political clout. No one tells us when the group is gathering for a purpose or social event. We get the message, they rather we didn’t show up. Why bother, even if we did, we would be ignored anyway.
If we have ever been in outsider we can bring our memories of what it felt like (or feels like now) to today’s Scriptures, for all three address outsiders. The Israelites have returned from their Babylonian exile, where they were outsiders. They are rebuilding their lives physically and spiritually–which includes restoring their Temple. As they re-gather God, through the prophet, calls upon them to live ethical lives.
The people are to proceed to God’s holy mountain, the site of the Temple. The surprise in the passage is that, instead of gathering the fragile people into a tightly-knit community to concentrate on their own restoration and worship of their God, they are directed to allow faithful foreigners to join them. The former outsiders might think that now they are privileged insiders. Instead, they are to keep an open door to anyone who wishes to be with them.
The tendency to restrict certain people and keep them out never leaves us. The current call to limit immigrants coming into our country isn’t new. My childhood Irish friends had grandparents and great grandparents who immigrated to America in the mid-19th century to escape the famine. When they got here they encountered an anti-immigrant backlash. For example, the “Know-Nothing” governor of Massachusetts, Henry Gardner, likened the situation in America back then to the fall of the Roman Empire and called the Irish a “horde of foreign barbarians.” How ironic that decades later I grew up in a parish built by those Irish immigrants and staffed by Irish clergy and sisters. In a way, those Irish were the outsiders, the foreigners Isaiah describes as having “join[ed] themselves to the Lord.” They brought their faith with them and helped build the temple of the Lord. Now new groups of “outsiders” are coming and are doing the same thing.
Through a good part of this summer (until September 11th) we have been hearing a sequential reading from Romans. Last week Paul shared his anguish with us. His own Jewish community had not accepted his preaching. Today he addresses his Gentile readers and names himself “the apostle to the Gentiles.” The work of the Holy Spirit has surprised Paul as he finds himself writing to the believing Gentiles in Rome. These Gentiles would have been the outsiders in his and the Jewish community’s estimation. Now, (surprise!) they have been recipients of God’s mercy. Paul concludes that, through the Gentiles, his people will also come to the gospel. He expresses his hope that the Jews, having perceived the mercy God extended to the Gentiles, might also accept it themselves.
If Paul could come to that gospel conclusion, we too are invited to refocus and, through gospel lens to give us vision, look around us. Who are the outsiders? How can we welcome them to: our family, faith community, workplace, playground and country?
Another outsider presents herself to us today and, outsider or not, she is no shrinking violet. The Canaanite (Gentile) woman comes to plead for her tormented daughter. What could the child be tormented by? Don’t we know tormented children and their desperate parents and grandparents? Don’t the names of these children come to mind immediately when we pray, especially if they are tormented by drugs, mental illness, loneliness, sadness, a broken marriage, physical or sexual abuse, bankruptcy, etc.? What could be worse, but to see a child tormented and not know how to help? It would move a parent to desperate measures to get help.
The Canaanite woman is desperate and, though she is an outsider as a non-Jew, she crosses the boundary line to plead and then cajole Jesus into a cure. Jesus has been limiting his mission to the house of Israel. Perhaps he saw his prophetic task as first helping them receive, according to Isaiah today, God’s salvation and justice. Then, they would fulfill another of Isaiah’s prophecies, that Israel would be a light to the world drawing people from the East and from the West. (“Nations shall walk by your light and rulers by your shining radiance.” Isaiah 60:4) Still, Jesus was open to the Gentiles. Earlier he cured the centurion’s servant boy (8:5-13) — even though he refers to Gentiles with the common expression of his day, “the dogs.” (Some think the term would be better expressed in the more affectionate, “puppies.”)
By going to Jesus the woman had symbolically acknowledged the priority of Jesus in God’s plan. A conversation with him reveals her faith. She calls him “Son of David,” recalling the royal Jewish line. For some strange reason Jesus ignores her. Maybe he sees this “outsider’s” faith and wants to show his disciples, the “insiders,” how strong it is. Despite this seeming-rejection she comes back to call Jesus “Lord.” She is acknowledging that Jews and Gentiles fall under the same authority. Both will be fed from the same table. She may be asking for “the scraps that fall from the table,” but Jesus will give her what he gives all his disciples–his full attention and healing.
Once again Jesus invites to the table the marginalized. As a woman, she would have had no power on our own. Those without authority and influence have a place at the table. Isn’t that true? Look around at those present at our Eucharistic meal. If it isn’t true, if in our congregations the poor, women, divorced, gays and immigrants aren’t given an equal place, then what can we, as church and individuals, do about it?
Jesus challenges us today to listen to those we are excluding. They are the ones we are inclined to look upon as “dogs”–outsiders, strangers, inferiors, not worthy to have what we have. He shows us how to listen to the very ones we would exclude. What are their needs, whether they express them politely or not? What can we learn about God’s kingdom from our encounters with them? Are they signs of God’s all-inclusive love? We are blessed to see God’s welcome for them, for in that, we can also trust God looks down deep and welcomes the “outsider” in us–the parts of ourselves we tend to reject and hide from view. Today’s gospel opens the door for all of us.
The woman’s hunger and need are great. She comes to Jesus, the source of nourishment and healing. She is focused on him and, outsider or not, one of the chosen or not, she will not be dissuaded. She represents each of us today in our longing for God. She encourages us to see the One who loves us all for, as Paul frequently reminded his readers, we were once all outsiders in need of grace. Our being here today expresses our gratitude that God has opened a door to us and welcomed us in.