Can Outsiders Show Us the Way?
Can Outsiders Show Us the Way?
This Sunday’s lectionary passages dive into two ancient tales that, even now, have the power to shock us and disciple us. A Syrian enemy commander with leprosy. A Samaritan outcast. A nameless enslaved girl. These aren’t the religious insiders, the priests, the people who “got it right.” Yet these are the ones Jesus and the prophets hold up as exemplars of faith.
There’s something deeply subversive happening in 2Kings 5 and Luke 17. God’s grace doesn’t wait for the right credentials, the right nationality, or the right moral standing. It crosses every boundary we put in place. The powerful are floundering whilst a child slave knows exactly where healing can be found. A great military commander nearly misses his miracle because the cure isn’t impressive enough, “just wash in the river.” And ten lepers are healed, but only the outsider, the foreigner, understands what’s actually happened and returns with gratitude.
These stories matter desperately for us in 21st-century England. We’re living through times when borders are being reinforced, when “insider” and “outsider” categories are hardening, when grand gestures get more attention than faithful presence. But Wesley’s vision of “social holiness” insists that we cannot be holy alone, that the excluded aren’t objects of our charity but essential teachers, that grace must become visible in transformed communities.
These texts invite us to challenge our comfortable assumptions; to explore why an enslaved girl’s wisdom matters more than a king’s power, why washing in an ordinary river brings healing that spectacular ceremonies cannot, why only the grateful Samaritan experiences true wholeness, and why inclusion isn’t optional, but the very heart of the gospel.
Hopefully the give us cause to ponder. How do we become communities where God’s scandalous grace is visible, the wisdom of the marginalised is honoured, where simple, faithful obedience matters more than impressive programmes and where everyone is truly welcome?
These ancient stories have urgent things to say about discipleship, community, and what it means to be a people of radical welcome in a world obsessed with boundaries.
