The Fringe

The Fringe

The fringe. People on the outside. People living on the edges. People beyond the limits.

Homeless.

Helpless.

Hopeless.

Worthless.

The poor. Addicts. People of color. Immigrants. Wasters. Takers. Infestations.

Kick the immigrant children while they sleep on the cement floor. The fringe.

Give children food they can’t eat because it’s frozen and smells bad. They are hungry.

Women drink from the toilet. They are thirsty.

Laughter at the boy crying in the bathroom because he is scared out if his mind.

The babies are not all reunited with their parents. Cages. But they are just the fringe, so who gives a shit?

The stories of the fringe are coming out. As they are released, they are asked, “So, how was it in there? How were you treated in America, “the land of the free and the home of the brave?”

There are those in the Chaos Administration of this country who say it will take longer than expected to reunite families. That’s funny, it didn’t take long to separate them.

The fringe.

I preached today. I stood in a pulpit and preached the Good News. Sometimes it’s hard.

“And wherever he (Jesus) went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplace, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.” Mark 6:56

The fringe of his cloak.

The fringe of his cloak. If they touched even the fringe, they were healed.

I get it. I get it. I get it.

WE are the fringe. The fringe of his cloak.

We are the ones closest to him.

We are the keepers of the Good News.

We are the sharers of the Good News.

We are the ones who do not judge, or discriminate, or hate “the other.” We are the ones who know that all people are made in the image of God. All are worthy of welcome, acceptance, love. All are worthy of bread (the bread of life, too). All are worthy of fresh water (the living water, too). All are worthy of a chance to live in the light and not the darkness (the light of the world, too).

We are the ones who need to reach out and touch those in need with care, gentleness and respect. We are the fringe of his cloak meant to unite the lost, undo oppression, erase bigotry, heal the sickness of addiction, and be as open and loving as Jesus Christ who felt the crush of the world, a world begging to touch just the fringe of his cloak.

We are the conduits of hope, peace, grace, life, love. And in the midst of evil and cruelty delivered lavishly by the leaders of this country, the fringe wins.

What a solemn joyful burden it is

                                                   to be the fringe.