where is your samaria?

I am English and awfully reserved so when the worship leader asked people at the True City conference to put arms around each other when singing I was glad I was taking photos and did not have to take part! Relatively speaking, however, embracing those who dress, believe and act like us is easy, it is embracing those who are “different” that is a challenge. And the True City conference asks Christians to do just that—it asks churches to reach out and embrace communities and people who may not fit easily into our current congregations. This reaching out is not about getting them to dress, act or behave in ways that turn them into a traditional church crowd. Rather it is about the church helping them as they are in their need and with no strings attached. Venturing into this space can be uncomfortable and to illustrate that point a conference presenter asked, “what is your Samaria?”

Samaria is where the Good Samaritan came from. You remember the story—after Jesus said that we must “love our neighbor” a Jewish leader asked, “who is my neighbour?” Jesus answered with a story about a traveler who was robbed and left beaten by a roadside. A priest passed by and who did not help (maybe to maintain his ritual purity) and then a Levite ignored him too. Then a Samaritan stopped to help.

Jesus knew that the religious leaders listening to this story did not like Samaritans because they regarded Samaritans as apostates or heretics. More than a theological dispute, considerable animosity existed between the Jews and Samaritans with each acting in very un-neighborly ways toward the other. To Jewish religious leaders this story presented a significant challenge—how could an unclean Samaritan heretic be considered a neighbor let alone a person acting in accordance with God’s law?

The True City speaker asked those at the conference “where is your Samaria?” Said differently this question asks us to think about who the church treats as non-neighbors today. Who do we judge, feel morally superior to, and actively shun? We can answer this question by imagining who in our community might have a hard time coming into our church on a Sunday for fear of the ways we might react. Maybe those with mental health issues, perhaps those struggling with alcoholism or drug problems, possibly people living with AIDS and maybe same-sex couples. In relation to this last issue the conference speaker asked people present if they had a hard time caring for gay and lesbian people (and I would add transsexual and transgender people too). Whether the speaker intended it or not I think this last question was excellent because in some Christian circles raising that particular question can create a similar discomfort and puzzlement to that felt by those religious leaders who first heard the Good Samaritan story.

The speaker went on to say, “I don’t know what your Samaria is but I know that God wants you to reach it…. one of True City’s visions is that we will identify and reach out to our Samaria.”

In terms of the people the church goes out into the community to embrace and help—I am up for that vision—how about you?