Where do you get your news? Television? “Fair and balanced,” or the other one? Radio? Anyone count on the radio to keep them in the know? The internet! Blogs, and vlogs, and RSS feeds, social networking systems, and streaming quicktime video on the old broadband. (I have no idea what that is—broadband. Is that like The Dixie Chicks? Where do you get your news? It’s estimated that a good percentage of our young adults rely on Jon Stewart and Steve Colbert for their national and world news. And those shows are news satires! Does anyone get their news from this—a newspaper? I know, I know, it’s archaic, it’s full of ads, the type is too small, and the ink gets all over your fingers. And more importantly, there’s no “breaking news” coverage with cool graphics and theme songs. A newspaper only contains news that’s locked in place by the shackles of time, frozen forever in the cold river of past experience. That and the comics—gotta see what ol’ Garfield’s up to today. Anyway! It’s that quality of being able to represent a specific moment in time that interests me today. A moment in time—what was happening, who was who, and so on. If I wanted to know what Amherst was like in the 1940’s, I would only have to strain my brain enough to get my bod over to the library and rummage through the back issues of the local paper. Newspapers are artifacts that reveal the economic, political and, even more so, the social aspects of specific moments in time. They tell us what our society is, or was, like. Each year since I don’t know when, one of America’s great newspapers, The Washington Post, takes a newsprint snapshot of daily life in our fair country, putting out a list that is the ultimate indicator of just where society is right now, after taking into consideration its recent past. You know this prestigious and frightfully important sociological record of American life, right? The name of the list is In and Out. Brilliant! Second only to Letterman’s Top Ten. So here, without further ado, is what’s in and what’s out for 2008. Well maybe just one bit of ado. And that’s just to let you know I’m actually headed somewhere with all this-so sit tight! What’s in and out for 2008… • Ecotourism is out. Staycations are in. • Wanting to be president since you were five is out. Wanting to be Oprah since you were five is in! • Miles Drentel is out. Don Draper is in. • OMG, look at my Dad’s jeans! Out. In: OMG, look at my Dad’s Facebook page! (OMG being of course Oh My Gosh) • Speaking of Facebook…Sudoku is out. Scrabulous is in. (Until it was out due to copyright issues.) • And finally…Out—Kids addicted to Wii. In—Grandmas addicted to Wii. Ahhhh, to be in! That’s everyone’s secret wish, isn’t it? To be in! To cease being an outsider—a geek, a nerd, a loser—and to instead hang with the “in” crowd. To bask in the reflected glory of that stellar gathering of … well—innies! To be with it, up to date, hip, cool, rad, awesome, dope, baaad, I’m afraid I don’t know the “in” word to use about being in. I guess that’s because I’ve always been somewhat of an outsider myself. Not way outside—not like in the wilderness, not the deep, dark jungle of outside—but definitely in the outskirts of in-ness—the suburbs of cool. A moderate outsider. Like I was usually picked next to last for dodge ball teams. I didn’t hang out at school after the bell—I went home and watched The Munsters. I was in the marching band, not on the football squad. I was in the chorus of the school’s musical—never a lead. But I did have some “in” qualities. I liked to crack jokes in class—even at the least opportune times. That won me some innie admiration—and a few hours detention! I drew a good caricature of Mr. Heroy the math teacher. That gave me some street cred. And I played guitar—always a plus in any social situation. So, I wasn’t all that nerdy. In fact, I was up just close enough to the in crowd that I could catch the sweet, elusive, and heady fragrance of popularity, and I longed to be in there with them. I was like the little street urchin, face pressed against the cold glass of the restaurant window, staring with deep desire at both the feast and feasters. Let me in! Let me in! (Oh, sorry—lost my composure for a second there!) But you get the picture. Those on the outside are destined to dream of one day being inside. And those on the inside are obligated to keep others out. That’s the way it works. Otherwise out would be in and in would be out and other confusing stuff like that—there’s just no way around it. So there’s an in crowd for just about any cultural sector—be it fashion, academia, the playground, sports teams, the office, church, ah…what? Did I say church? I hope I did cause that’s what’s written here. Yes, there is a tendency towards labeling the “in” and “out” even within the religious realm. The firm foundation for this is, perhaps surprisingly, scriptural. God chooses Abraham, out of whom is raised a people who are favored by God above all others. Israel is “in.” God’s holy people. Everyone else—gentile, not Jew, outsiders. Now, from God’s perspective this isn’t a bad thing. But in the hands of human beings such information can go to one’s head. And it did. The people of Israel got cocky—and they laid a thick layer of exclusivity over the simple commandments that God gave them to order their lives. To be “in” was now a matter of how well one kept the “law,” strict codes designed to ensure that there be no possible was a commandment would be breached. This, unfortunately, had the effect of alienating some of their own crowd. Making insiders out. Like the woman with hemorrhages—unclean because of blood flow. She’s out. The ten lepers—unclean because of their condition. They’re out. Or the disciples themselves. Today’s gospel picks up right after the disciples have a run in with the Pharisees—the “innie police.” They ask Jesus why his disciples don’t follow the ritual of hand washing before meals. For them, this places Jesus’ friends decidedly out.. What did Jesus have to say to that? Speaking to all the Pharisees rules and regulations regarding eating—what you could eat, where, when, how, and with whom—Jesus negated each and every one, saying cleverly that it’s not the food or unwashed hands that go in your mouth that makes one “unclean.” It was what came out of the mouth, brought up by the heart turned to evil—that’s what defiled a person. In simpler terms, for Jesus, being out has to do with being opposed to God. Being in is to be caught up in God’s love. And God wants all that’s out to be in. All in all. That’s a radical notion for us humans. We’re so focused on being in and keeping those we consider to be out, out, that we sometimes fail to recognize that, as we say in the Eucharistic prayer, “on the cross Jesus opened his arms to all.” For those Pharisees that meant adherence to their restrictive codes didn’t define Israel as God’s people. God defined that. And from what the gospel says today, that definition was even more expansive than Jesus realized. The Canaanite woman is worse than unclean—she is a pagan. About as far outside as you could get—plus she has a sick daughter. She comes to Jesus asking for the child’s healing. Jesus’ reply? The equivalent of, “Sorry, not my table.” She persists, he resists. She begs. He insults. She is humble, he is, well, it seems to me Jesus is changed by this encounter. Looking at her, a foreign pagan woman, he is inspired to see instead a child of God. And, at that moment, the mission of God breaks loose from Israel and spills out into the rest of the world. God in Christ is turning the outside in! How does this impact us—here, today? Well, obviously it is the explanation of how we became part of God’s chosen people. The love flows first into Israel and then out to the world. Paul calls this being grafted on to God’s people. But this topsy-turvy notion of radical inclusivity is far broader than simply that. So often in the church we look at the people beyond the sanctuary walls as outsiders, who are somewhat inferior due to the fact that they aren’t “one of us.” They are the ones we are to separate ourselves from, for we hold to a higher standard. All while we are talking about evangelism and how we need more members. We want more people to be in, but we want them to be “in” people—and we want them to come in. We don’t think we should go out there to get people in here. Today’s gospel gives us an opportunity to open our minds to the expansion of our mission here in southern New Hampshire. Lately we’ve been focused on our definition of “in.” A building, pastoral care, Christian education, a place in which we have a place. We established a church here—a place where the word of God is heard and preached and where the sacraments are made available. It is a good church—a strong church, a generous church, a spirit led church, a servant church. A church that we believe people should want to be “in.” And some who visit here do, and some don’t. And some who come in and become members—some will stay, and some will leave. Caring for these is part of our mission. But there’s more to it than that. Because what the story of the Canaanite woman teaches is that for God, the outside is in. Which means our vision for mission needs to broaden to accommodate the “outsiders,” for they are the ones whom Jesus came to give the good news to. Outside is in. The first lesson puts it this way: “the house of the Lord shall be a house of prayer for all the people.” We need to open our eyes to the vast potential of this congregation and determine ways in which this house of God can be for those outside. Ways in which we can get outside of our inside-ness, and welcome the community into a relationship with us, based not on their jumping through hoops to be “in” with us, but based on God’s inclusion of them already! For that’s the good news that we proclaim today. That with God there is no inside or outside, there’s only God’s side. Amen