Social Pariahs at Christmas

  Haven’t we all had moments where we felt we just didn’t fit in?  At a party where we knew no one?  Being teased at school, or even bullied?  When something seems easy for everyone except us?  Of course we have. 

The most recent shooting spree at the Connecticut elementary school leaves us with heavy hearts.  Feeling like one is a social pariah or being bullied cannot be a ticket to nightmarish actions.  How can we help these people that feel as if they are the world’s only misfits?  Especially now at Christmas time, a time of love and goodness?

Social media has sprouted photos of sweet humanitarian moments that restore one’s faith in humanity.  See: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/moments-that-restored-our-faith-in-humanity-this-y.  I saw such a moment myself just the other day, a driver pull over and offer a highway beggar a cup of hot soup.  The steam from the soup enveloped the man’s face in sweet savory heat and no doubt his warmed his heart too.  

We see pictures of a cop buying a homeless man boots, or people buying others dinner.

Even Christmas songs speak of friendless Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and how, because he was different, could not find friends.  Yet he prevailed.

My favorite story of a social pariah overcoming her obstacles is a Bible story of the woman with an issue of blood for twelve years (Matt 9:20-22; Mark 5:25-34; Luke 8:43-47).  Considered unclean by her society, she was friendless and alone, have spent all that she had on physicians, suffered many things, and was not better.  Struggling to cope with society shunning her, she never gave up hope.  The determination that she could be healed led her to the Christ, and against society’s laws, reached out to the heart of love for a healing.  And healed she was, bravely acknowledging her personal and socially unacceptable problem as a beacon of hope to all.  Throughout centuries, she’s been an inspiration to many. 

Let her courage be a continued beacon, leading others to the Great Physician who can heal where others fail.  He who counted tax collectors, prostitutes and lepers among his acquaintances can help social pariahs in any age, and can work though us.  His love, our hands.  Let’s not have any more shootings by people who think they are socially destitute.