The Fugitive-Missionaries of Our Day

21st Sunday of Ordinary Time - Isaiah 66:18-21

Thus says the LORD:

I know their works and their thoughts,

and I come to gather nations of every language;

they shall come and see my glory.

I will set a sign among them;

from them I will send fugitives to the nations:

to Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan,

to the distant coastlands

that have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory;

and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations.

They shall bring all your brothers and sisters from all the nations

as an offering to the LORD,

on horses and in chariots, in carts, upon mules and dromedaries,

to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the LORD,

just as the Israelites bring their offering

to the house of the LORD in clean vessels.

Some of these I will take as priests and Levites, says the LORD.

If there was ever any doubt that the Lord always intended to extend his kingdom to all nations, he put that notion to rest through the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah. Our reading comes from the climactic ending of the book, just before the final verses describe the new heavens and the new earth. This is the most missionary section of the entire Old Testament, painting a clear picture not just of all nations being gathered before the Lord but of “fugitives” being sent out to even further nations. 

The decidedly global scope is emphasized by two waves of nations, the first being gathered directly by the Lord and the second being brought in from all nations by the fugitive-missionaries. The global scope is further emphasized by the references to specific nations (“Tarshish, Put and Lud…”) that echo the Table of Nations given in Genesis 10:1-32 shortly after the Flood. In the biblical narrative, these named nations are all of them. 

Here’s where we come in. You and I are the fugitive-missionaries of our day. We are among the nations who were drawn in by the Lord through the work of the missionaries of centuries ago. We are fugitives (other translations say survivors) of the culture of death in which we live, sent out by our Baptism, strengthened in Confirmation, and fed in Holy Communion to bring our brothers and sisters from all the nations to the Lord. 

This is not just some prophecy from 700 B.C. about events around the time of the Apostles or in the distant future. It’s about us, right now. St. Francis Xavier was sent as a missionary into Japan, and you and I are sent as missionaries into the streets of Ellwood City and Zelienople, into Seneca Valley and Riverside, into Costco and ALDI and Westinghouse, into our family reunions. It’s our job to make sure that those who haven’t heard of the Lord’s fame or seen his glory hear of it and see it.