“How did they miss it?”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Sunday, August 20, 2023

Isaiah 56:1,6-8 (Forward, p. 22) CEV p. 751

Many of the Jewish leaders at the time of Jesus were actually hostile towards foreigners or outsiders to the people of Israel. Not only did they avoid them and were disdainful towards them—calling them ‘dogs’, but they were so hostile towards them that they wished for nothing less than their total destruction. They considered them worthy only of ‘burning in hell.’

And yet all through the Hebrew Scriptures, including today’s passage from Isaiah, there are strongly worded and rather unequivocal messages that God’s message and God’s invitation were for all the peoples of the world. As Jesus quoted during His infamous ‘cleansing of the Temple” (Mark 11:17), “My house will be known as a house of worship for all nations” (verse 7c). And earlier in today’s passage, God says, “Foreigners will follow me. They will love me and worship in my name; they will respect the Sabbath and keep our agreement. I will bring them to my holy mountain, where they will celebrate in my house of worship. Their sacrifices and offerings will always be welcome on my altar” (verses 6-7b).

Now a few things here don’t quite fit the post Biblical context. For one thing, there is no longer a Temple in Jerusalem upon which we can offer sacrifices and offerings. We now keep the Sabbath on Sunday, the Day of Resurrection, rather than on Saturday, and the agreement (or covenant) we keep in other ways than those that we strictly mandated by the Jewish authorities of Jesus’ day.

Even so, the note of inclusion offered here is radical and all inclusive, and, sad to say, missed both by certain people in Jesus’ times, but also by many of us today. Often subtly and unconsciously we can exclude people—often totally unintentionally—by things like dress or deportment, or familiarity and comfort with printed books or papers, or financial standing, or worship style. For instance, we may ‘look down upon’ those who come to church looking slovenly or who act strangely (as in shouting or gyrating like some ‘holy roller’). Or, we may expect people to be able to read, and follow quickly and easily, the order of service found in a book or printed service sheet. Or, we may set up unconscious financial expectations in terms of the collection plate or people offering to bring food for coffee time or potlucks.

Or they may feel that our worship to be unfamiliar, and honestly, quite boring and unattractive, quite unappealing. And then, on another note, can people not feel strange or uncomfortable if they are the ‘only ones’ there from a certain cross-section of society—for instance, a biker, or a hippy, or a street person, for instance?

Be that what it may, God’s vision, and God’s call, is for everyone to be welcome, and included, no matter who they are, where they are from, or what their background or behaviours happen to be. And so, we, if we are truly His followers and disciples, should seek to do the same. We may well wonder how Jesus’ contemporaries missed this, but then, do we not do the same at times? After all, we are saved, not by any of these things, but by His grace, which He offers and extends to all people, no matter who they are. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Forward notes: “Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered” (verse 8).

“Always those outcasts. You’d think God would have something to do besides worry about outcasts. But then you read, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples,’ and you think God is onto something. This screed from Isaiah begins with this dazzling and obvious word of the Lord: ‘Maintain justice and do what is right.’

“This sounds incredibly simple until you realize that to do what is right, you must open the doors of God’s house to all people. You must reach further and gather in the outcasts. Of course, there are always outcasts du jour, and the line marking the outcasts is even shifting and often depends on where we sit. But there can be no mistake: salvation will not come until those ‘out there’ have been welcomed into the house of prayer for all peoples. As another great prophet, Zephaniah, promised of God, ‘I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.”

Moving Forward: “Imagine yourself as one of the outcasts. Sometimes this perspective makes it easier to welcome others.”