March 2 - Luke 1: Island of Misfits

 “Most of us, most of the time, feel left out – misfits.  We don’t belong.  Others seem to be so confident, so sure of themselves, 'insiders' who know the ropes, old hands in a club from which we are excluded.

“One of the ways we have of responding to this is to form our own club, or join one that will have us.  Here is at least one place where we are ‘in’ and the others ‘out.’  … the principle of exclusion.  Identity or worth is achieved by excluding all but the chosen.  The terrible price we pay for keeping all those other people out so that we can savor the sweetness of being insiders is a reduction of reality, a shrinkage of life.

“…But with God there are no outsiders.

"Luke is a most vigorous champion of the outsider.  An outsider himself, the only Gentile in an all-Jewish cast of New Testament writers…. As Luke tells the story, all of us who have found ourselves on the outside looking in on life with no hope of gaining entrance (and who of us hasn’t felt it?) now find the doors wide open, found and welcomed by God in Jesus.”  (Peterson, Intro. to Luke)

Reading these words this morning were like soaking in a warm bath – soothing and comforting all over to read words that express what I feel.  They reflect how I perceive myself – a misfit, an outsider, never quite belonging.  It’s nothing new, it’s just reared itself again in my life.  It’s difficult when my intense, innate desire to be included collides with God’s desire to call me out of the norm.  I find it helpful to know that there have been many others throughout the Scriptures.

• Zachariah and Elizabeth were outside the norm in not having children.  Then, he had an unexplainable, misunderstood encounter with an angel of God and became even more isolated by not being able to speak.  And Zachariah and Elizabeth weren’t told of the side effect of having a son who would “achieve great stature with God” – he would be considered bizarre and then would be beheaded.
• Mary was surprised and told that she would become pregnant with God’s son.   The angel called her “blessed among women” but this “blessing” came with the shame of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy and the broken trust of her betrothed – an outcast of society, not a blushing bride celebrating with the other newlyweds in the village.

Luke, Zachariah, and Mary did not seem to dwell on their being left out of a normal life, out of normal societal expectations.   They believed God’s every word and lived in praise of Him.   God’s power was mightily shown through each of them.  They were given the great privilege of playing a part in “present[ing] the offer of salvation to his people, the forgiveness of their sins”  (1:78-79 ) Which brings my dissatisfaction with my own outsider-ness into question.  Why do I so long to belong,  desire to be on the inside, thirst to be valued and wanted?

“You must now determine which you want more:  apparent maturity that wins recognition from others and numbs the anguish of feeling desires that nothing in this world can satisfy – a way to live that never enters the deep battle going on in every redeemed soul – or perfect maturity that puts you in touch with desires that will remain unsatisfied till the next life, that engage you in an internal battle that depletes your resources and leaves you exhausted – sometimes feeling that your worst nightmare has come true:  that you’re worth nothing and that you are nothing – a battle that leaves you entirely dependent on me for the courage and strength to continue. 

“That road to perfect maturity will make you vulnerable to severe temptations that those how settle for apparent maturity will feel less strongly.  And it will stir doubts about My reality that you could avoid by choosing the easier path.  But if you want to be formed like My Son, this is the road you must choose, the one less traveled.”  (66LL)

Standing (again) at the fork in the road…