A CHRISTMAS CAST OF OUTCASTS
by Pastor Rick Sams
Our MUC Purple Raiders are returning from the Amos Alonzo
Stagg Bowl without the outcome they and we wanted, but we�re still proud of our
9 time national champions: champions on and off the field.
The man whose
name is on that title game was also a champion on and off the field. He
wanted to be a minister, but accidentally overheard a prominent pastor of his
day comment unfavorably about his preaching. So he shifted to coaching as
a "calling from God, a way to contribute to the body of Christ. And
contribute he did as his innovations shaped the game and his character shaped
young men.
After 41 successful coaching years at the University of
Chicago they thanked him for his service by firing him. Stagg knew what it
was like to be an outcast.
Most of the people who played a part in the
first Christmas story knew what that felt like too. Start with Luke.
He�s the only NT writer who is a Gentile: outcast to pious Jews. Lepers
have a more prominent and favorable place in Luke�s Gospel (5:12ff;
17:11ff). Roman soldiers, hated by Jews, constantly surface in a favorable
light (7:7ff). Jesus earns his name as a "friend of sinners
(outcasts) in Luke�s Gospel (7:36-38ff). The hemorrhaging woman was a
social and religious outcast (8:43ff). The demon-possessed had a special
place of priority in Jesus healing ministry (9:37ff; 10:17). The
heroes in two of Jesus most famous parables were outcasts: the Good
Samaritan and the Prodigal Son (Lk 10:25ff;
15:11ff).
In the
Christmas story first we see the barren Elizabeth and Zechariah (a disgrace,
1:25). John the Baptizer, was a joy to his parents, but was required to
live as an outcast in the desert so he could speak against society�s sins
(1:80).
Mary is an outcast; pregnant and unmarried. Even Joseph
needs an angel convinces him she�s a righteous woman (Matthew 1:18-21).
The entire holy family is outcast in Bethlehem that first Christmas (Luke
2:6-7).
We romanticize the shepherds, but they were outcasts in the
Jewish world where they couldn�t keep the law rigorously, they stank, and they
were on the bottom rung economically.
But Jesus exalted them by calling
Himself The Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep-for us (John
10:14-15). In doing so He honors many professions that others look down
on. What do you do? Can you envision your job as a way to serve God
and people, like Amos Stagg did?
More important is who you ARE and how
God sees you. Most of us have been excluded from something at some time in
our lives. Maybe we�ve been outcasts at our work, school or family, for
nothing we�ve done. Or maybe it�s totally our fault. Regardless, we
know how it feels. Do you need Jesus love, forgiveness, acceptance
and healing? Do you need to offer that to someone you�ve treated as an
outcast?
God doesn�t see us as an outcast if we are IN CHRIST. The
only outcasts to Jesus are those who choose to be by refusing His free gift of
forgiveness: "You were…separated…excluded…foreigners, without hope and without
God…BUT NOW IN CHRIST JESUS you who once were far away have been brought near
through the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:12-13). Believe and receive
Him.