Along the Way

Recollections of Our Trip Through Samaria

7-5-09

Text: Luke

● There are (10) chapters in the center of Luke’s account which many scholars and theologians refer to as the                    “Travel Narrative”.

            “leaving Galilee” (9:51) – “and arriving at Jerusalem” (19:11). Between the two is the journey through Samaria.

Samaria… the place you often fail to appreciate or fully experience because you’re on your way to some place else.  

● In most of the segment you see Jesus speaking in rather “informal” ways: at the dinner table, with friends, walking along the lake.

Jesus was so wonderfully conversational. His style of communication seemed not so focused on simply the delivery of information, but on the re-shaping of our imaginations, forming our visions of life in his Kingdom.

● In being so wonderfully relational and spontaneous, Jesus could allow the circumstance to shape the “text”; whatever was happening at the moment was “sacred”… filled with God-possibilities.

He was aware that something more was happening than what was happening! That life wasn’t about waiting for God to “show up”, but waiting for us to realize that life is saturated with God [not ‘secular’ and ‘sacred’].

● The way to Jerusalem was through Samaria, but the Samaritans wouldn’t let you “cut through their yard”!

Samaria was decidedly “unfriendly” territory. They were a people whose values were often in conflict with the Jews. The Jews and Samaritans had enough “history’ to not only connect them, but to create clear animosity and division.

● Samaria is not “home-field advantage” for the disciples. They are out of their element, so to speak, away from the familiarity of Galilee and the camaraderie of the Temple in Jerusalem. They have little in common with these people.

● In Samaria, there is no consensus about God except that there is no consensus.

Samaria is where we will spend the better part of our lives.

            With people who neither share our beliefs nor our conclusions about God and life in his world. Unfortunately, we have made a habit of avoiding the Samaritans. Samaria is a bit “irreverent” and “shocking” and often makes us uncomfortable.

Isn’t it interesting that our identity in God, meant to make us more relevant and more connected, often leaves us distanced and unable to identify with those in Samaria. Ironically, Jesus seemed right at home there.

● Jesus, for all intents and purposes, knew he was on his way to Jerusalem to be killed (it’s what someone who said the kind of things Jesus said and did the kind of things he did would expect to happen), but he didn’t’ seem panicked at all. His ability to relate was never reduced to loud ultimatums or lectures.

● He is simply telling mini-stories we have come to identify as “parables” (lit. ‘something thrown alongside’). It’s not really about telling us anything new, but about causing us to notice what’s been there all along.

            The effectiveness of the parable is in its capacity to evoke a response. Information can be easily ignored or dismissed, but the parable seems to connect with us at a place that’s not limited by the intellect.

● In parables, we are not immediately offered the answers, but encouraged to question. In parables, we are not told what to think, but challenged to “think again”.

We are thrust into the story and suddenly, we are engaged at a deeper level.

 The parable has a way of exposing the futility of truth as merely a collection of facts. Right thinking always requires a right response.

For example, when Jesus told the parable of the Samaritan coming to the aid of the man who had been robbed and beaten, everyone knew who the “neighbor” was. Jesus would not let you get away with an intellectual response which ignored or denied what was true (real; the way that it is).

 The parable is not meant to simply convey information or clarify your doctrinal position, but to expose and re-shape your heart.

● The target of the story is not your ears or your head, but your heart. Jesus knew that there is a way of hearing and understanding that penetrates beyond the facts. The parable never by-passes logic, it simply requires more of us.

● If we are honest, our conversations with Samaritans are often superficial and awkward. We’ve simply memorized a few “conversation starters” from our training and call it “Relational Evangelism”. We often don’t know what to say because we haven’t stuck around long enough to hear their story. We live in Samaria but we know so few Samaritans.

Samaritans can spot “God-jargon/God-speak” within the first syllables from your mouth. They can tell the difference between a presentation and a conversation right away.

● Presentations are rehearsed and scripted and trained to react to the frequent “no”. When they refuse our pitch, we become agitated and quickly label them “godless” or “hardened”. Maybe we were just “obnoxious”.

Conversations are respectful and spontaneous (gracious), actually allowing another the freedom to hold another point of view. Samaritans know they make us nervous!

 John 4:4 “He (Jesus) had to go through Samaria”.

            This is not meant to be understood as some directional or geographical restriction, but as his missional necessity.

● It’s the “musts” or the “have to’s” which lend direction to our passion. Jesus was passionate, active and productive, but never “busy”; always interruptible because the people were the “must”. If we are honest, most of our busyness comes from not really knowing what we “must” do.

I have discovered that I have a great deal in common with the people of Samaria.

Growing up rather insulated from Samaria, I was surprised to discover that what goes on in their homes and lives looked a great deal like what went on in ours, huh?    

● Samaritans desire meaningful relationships, they pursue the common good, they are interested in lives that are somehow transcendent (larger than mere existence).

            This is where we should recognize that we have ‘history’ with them and allow that foster healing-relationships.

Know that our interaction in Samaria will always challenge our pre-conceived notions about Samaritans and expose our prejudices as unloving and ungodly.

            In Samaria, Jesus will intentionally put his followers into situations which will expose their biases and challenge the limits of their boundaries--- who we believe is “in” and who we are certain are “out”. You might be surprised.

Remember that in Christianity, the goal is the means.

            The goal of all of life is community… being “with God” and “with each other” in a manner that allows for the free-exchange of life: God to us, us to each other.

It’s not only our desire to see people immersed into the Jesus way of life, but we discover that the community itself actually becomes the means by which most will enter. In community, we offer not a list of irrefutable facts, but lives which undeniably are being informed and formed by the truths of Jesus, so that, in the context of community, faith is not argued, it’s embodied.

Be available for the people God chooses to love through you.

            Consider that God is at work in everyone around you. Look for signs that God is at work outside of the boundaries of your own personal creed. “Get your shoes off! That place is ‘sacred’” .

Stop feeling so threatened by other’s pursuits because the minute we begin to feel threatened, we move toward regaining control (of the conversation or the relationship) and lose our ability to love.

Honor their quest and invite them to explore the mysteries of God with you.

            Don’t concentrate on answering all their questions, but in providing a safe context for asking them.

Don’t be so quick to label their hesitancy as “resistance”, but a desire to make the best possible choice.

            Not even Jesus demanded that we make professions with our mouths that our hearts were not able to support.

1 Thessalonians 2:8 “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well”.

            Never assume that you can share the message without sharing your lives with them as well.

 I discovered that in Samaria, conversion was never a “pre-requisite” for hanging out with Jesus, but it was often the result of having spent time with him.