• Isaiah 66:18-21
• Psalm 117:1-2
• Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13
• Luke 13:22-30

We have a dangerous tendency to project God in our own image and likeness, and to assume that the Creator of the Universe is interested only in our tribe or nation or social class; in short, that God cares only about “People Like Us”. Next Sunday’s readings offer our narrow rigidity a chastening reminder that God is bigger than that.

The first reading is from almost the very end of Isaiah. It is written at a time when those who had been exiled to Babylon were at least returning to Jerusalem, and finding the holy city a depressing and unwelcoming shambles. One thing that they had learnt in their exile, however, was the lesson that we stand in dire need of today, the lesson that other people can speak to us of God. So in this reading, the prophet hears God say, astonishingly, “I shall come to gather all the nations, and they shall come and see my glory”. And the promise is made that it is these outsiders who “will bring all your brethren from all the nations…to my holy mountain Jerusalem”. Amazingly, moreover, “even from among [these outsiders] I shall take some as priests and as Levites”. This is a God of broad vision and great heart.

The psalm is a cheerful hymn that we used to sing in Latin at the end of Benediction, that also recognises the possibility that “outsiders” can praise God, “Praise YHWH, all you Gentiles, laud him all you peoples. For his love is great over us, and YHWH’s faithfulness is for ever”.

The second reading also carries a reminder for those who wish to cram God into preconceived categories. It is written (we do not know by whom) for second-generation Christians who are finding the going a bit tough, and who feel that perhaps this means that God has abandoned them. So he lectures them sternly: “You have forgotten the consolation that he addresses to his children, ‘My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and don’t fall apart when you are corrected by him’.” So what we have to do is “endure the discipline – God is treating you as his children”. And although discipline (which in this world meant corporal punishment) is uncomfortable at the time, “later on it yields fruit in the form of peace”. So they (and we) have to keep going on our journey to God.

The message of the gospel reading can at first sight appear a little discouraging. It is set in the context of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, which is a very important element in Luke’s gospel; and he is asked, “Lord, are the number of those who are being saved just a few?” Presumably the implication here is: “You and me, Jesus, and a couple of others like us”. But Jesus does not give an answer. Instead, he speaks of the importance of entering “through the narrow gate, because, I’m telling you, many will seek to enter, and will not be able”. And the questioner is himself challenged, “You’ll begin to stand outside the gate and knock at it, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us’ – and he will reply, ‘I don’t know you, or where you come from’.” And it will not be possible for us to respond: “we ate with you and drank with you; and you taught in our squares”. You cannot treat the Lord like the head waiter in your favourite restaurant, “who knows me, and will always find me a table”. Otherwise we may hear those dreadful words, “Depart from me, all you who do immorality”, and the astonishing information that people who are Not At All Like Us “from East and West and North and South will sit down to eat in God’s Kingdom”, and we get flung out. The gospel ends with a warning to chill our complacency, “Look – they are last who will be first, and they are first who will be last”. God is greater than we can imagine.