Their secret signs might be the same as mine. Those of us who wear these signs know that Jeremiah's message to the exiles in Babylon is written for us. We cannot sing the Lord's song in that foreign land. We know they want us sinners, to keep away from them, to stay at a distance. But we also stand apart from each other, because one of us is always the foreigner, the Samaritan.
Misery only loves company among countrymen.
But Luke tells me there is good news. Jesus is always heading for Jerusalem, walking along that borderline. He'll be treating me as an equal, and that presents me with new wine, with the challenge of faith as a verb. Not a blemish among them. They might find signs that I didn't even know I was wearing.