Life on the Edge

Scripture: Isaiah 42:1-5  

When I stand on the shore of one of our barrier islands here on the Eastern Shore, I am often aware that I am living on the edge. Here on this narrow peninsula between the Chesapeake Bay and the wide Atlantic Ocean are people who know that they live in a marginal place. Like coastal people of every age, they see the water as both a source of life and mystery and occasionally, as when great storms appear on the horizon, a threat. It is the edge of the world and the verge of heaven.

The people who heard Isaiah’s words so long ago would have heard his reference to the coastlands in verse 4 as something like “the ends of the earth.” God’s servant was coming to establish justice throughout the earth and that meant even to the western edges of Israel where the land met the Mediterranean Sea. The peoples of the coast were waiting for the teaching that would come to the whole of the hope-starved country, announcing a new day when God would make right the wrongs and set free the oppressed.

What would it mean for the same sort of vision to fill our annual conference, even to the shores of the barrier islands? The “All Things New” report proposes a cultural change that would move us from lamenting declining church membership to embracing fruitfulness as we meet “the Risen Christ in our growing Commonwealth.” It is not the case that the lights are slowly going out, but that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. Perhaps we cannot see the light because we have moved away from the margins where God is already at work. Something new is waiting to be born in the margins, among the poor and the sojourner and the young person. Can we stand with them? 

Prayer: A voice in the wilderness cries out,
“Come discover your salvation at the margins,
where waters lap the land,
where winds rush through open marshes,
where heaven touches earth
and our souls meet their author.” 

In the strong name of the Trinity,
we come to live on the edge.
Believing that God is able,
that Christ is sufficient,
that the Spirit is moving across the face of the waters,
we come to live on the edge
of a new and promised day. Amen. 

Alex Joyner
Pastor, Franktown UMC