Going to Samaria

When my wife and I were first married, she had a heart for ministry with kids in jail. I thought it was a nice thing, and I certainly wouldn't want to interfere with her "call" from God. But I was not interested in wasting my time on such kids. These kids, after all weren't just disadvantaged, they were the ones who took advantage of others.

I had grown up in a community where the tracks were plainly marked. And it was clear to me that most of the problems in our community came from those on the other side. I had also been jumped enough times by that same band of hoodlums during my growing up years, that while I wouldn't discourage my wife from ministering to them – as long as she was careful – it wasn't where I was going to waste my efforts.

I had some internal boundaries. And over time, I was forced to face them.

Jesus addresses those boundaries in Acts 1:8.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Samaritans represent the outcasts. They are the people we are most repulsed by and want nothing to do with.

I think most churches do reasonably well in equipping members to reach their Jerusalem—those in close proximity like neighbors, co-workers, fellow soccer parents. And in Judea—people residing in other parts of the country or world, but who are mostly like us—relatives, fellow employees in other locations, or the guy in the seat next to you on a plane. And we engage lots around the ends of the earth these days, as record numbers of us head off to Haiti, Guatemala, or Africa on short term mission trips.

Where is Samaria, anyway?

But when is the last time you were challenged to reach into Samaria? And by the way, where is Samaria, again? For Jews living in Jesus' day, Samaria represented those half-breed "dogs" to the North who were in love with their pagan idols. And so stories like The Good Samaritan that might have a nostalgic ring to contemporary ears came off to first century Jews as a contradiction of terms at best, repulsive at worst. Perhaps it would be analagous to a modern-day sermon entitled: The Good Al-Qaeda Member. For most contemporary listeners, the terms good and Al-Qaeda could not legitimately appear together in the same sentence.

Now we're getting the point of it. Samaritans represent the outcasts. They are the people we are most repulsed by and want nothing to do with. For Jonah it was the Ninevites. Not because he was afraid of them, but because he was afraid God would forgive and bless the scumbags (Jonah 3:10-4:2)!

Where is your Samaria?

I recently returned from speaking at a church in Long Island, NY. After walking through the town and speaking to several parishioners, it seemed that for Long Island Christians, Samaria is the Wiccan community. Many were not happy about the new series on TLC called Long Island Medium, and how that labeled what was going on in their backyard. There was scarcely a block in that quaint downtown area that didn't have a Psychic reading stand or some sort of New Age shop. Obviously, these two groups—the Church and the Wiccan community—were not intersecting much with one another. On Long Island, Wicca was Samaria. Imagine delivering a sermon at that church where The Good Samaritan is replaced with The Good Witch. It could you get run out of town. And now you're getting to the point of it.

I live in the Boston area, where terrorism hit close to home last year. It got even closer to me, when the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the accused mastermind behind the Marathon Bombing ,was brought to a Worcester, MA funeral home two blocks from our ministry headquarters. For days there were traffic jams as media vehicles, SWAT teams, and protestors filled the sidewalks and streets.

That week a local pastor came told me saying he felt like God was prompting him to offer to bury the body in his church's cemetery. Wow! You sure about that? was my initial response, thinking of the angry protesters marching just outside my office. He told me how he then received a call from a parishioner who said she felt like God was directing her to give up her plot in that same cemetery for him. She phoned her children to see what their reaction, as their father was already buried beside an empty plot that would eventually be her resting place.

After some time of reflection, each of kids called back to say: "We think that's what dad would want too … and we think it's what Jesus would do."

My pastor friend asked if I would accompany him through the crowd of protestors to see funeral director. He wanted to be sure it was even possible before taking the next step, which was even scarier … Bringing it to his church council!

While visibly moved that someone would actually be willing to do this, the funeral director explained how in our state, even if a church owns a cemetery, it's the town who has the final say about who can and can't be buried there. After hearing where this church was, he assured us there was no way. As we were leaving he said "I can't tell you how refreshing it is to see someone willing to follow the Good Book and love the unlovable. Now that's the story that should be told here, and not the one being filmed out on the street today."

Having the courage to go into Samaraia has always been the best story told of God's people. Even one of the biggest opponents of the early church, Lucien of Samosta, had to concede: "Though I hate what these Christians stand for, I must concede that they not only take care of their own outcasts, widows, and orphans, but ours as well!"

What happens when we go there?

A few months after my wife Hanne and I were married, she was given permission to lead a Bible study in a detention center in our area. There had never been a Bible study in a Massachusetts juvenile jail, so getting this open door was a big deal. I knew it was really important to Hanne and so it was important to me too, and I prayed about it as often as it came to mind.

In June of 1987 she was allowed to lead that first Bible study group. I prayed during the commercials of The Cosby Show and was delighted when she came home and reported that all but three kids had signed up for Bible study! A few months later Hanne's Bible study partner was on vacation and she asked if I would come in so she didn't have to go alone. Though I wasn't all that interested, what kind of husband would say no to protecting his wife in a jail of teenage boys?

When I arrived, Ricky was the first kid to approach me. "Hey are you the Church guy?"

"Ya, I guess so."

"Can you pray for me?" he asked.

"Sure. What for?"

"I have court tomorrow." Why wasn't I surprised?

"Oh. So you want me to pray that you beat the case?"

"No … Pray that I tell the truth."

That took me off guard. "Have you talked to your lawyer about this?"

"Ya. And when I did he swore at me. He told me if I did I would do 20 years in adult prison."

"Well Ricky, God can do anything, but if you plead guilty you've got to plan on doing 20 years."

"I know. But I've been reading this Bible you guys gave me and it says you're supposed to tell the truth, right?"

"Ye-aah, I guess so."

"So, just pray that I follow through on it and don't chicken out," he said.

"I will. I definitely will, Ricky."

When I left I felt a little shaky. Here was a 15-year old kid, who after a few months of reading the Bible was ready to put it all on the line in a way that most 45-year olds I know wouldn't do. In a way that I'm not sure I would do. I would definitely be praying.

Samaria—that place of the outcasts and the unlovable—has always been as fruitful a venue for the Gospel as it has been a repulsive place for Christians to consider entering. Jesus headed there early on in his ministry—but not without great resistance and disapproval from his disciples. And when he met that infamous Samaritan woman at the well, John 4 chronicles the longest recorded encounter Jesus has with any one person in all of the Gospels. It's also the only place we read about where nearly an entire city comes to faith! One would think that such an experience might have made a bigger impression in those disciples' minds—but they seem in all too big a hurry to leave, and not return until years later as detailed in Acts 8.

Even though Jesus gave the command to go into Samaria in Acts 1, it didn't happen until chapter 8 when persecution hit Jerusalem and the Apostles were forced to leave town. It was Phillip who ventured into Samaria. And when he arrived, he found the people there to be very different than he had no doubt learned in Jewish school. They actually were so receptive to the Good News, that Phillip had to send word back to the others for help—not to fight the opposition, but to help respond to the massive outpouring the God's Spirit as, "with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed" (Acts 8:7, NIV). Peter and John headed right over to join them in laying hands on and teaching the multitude of new converts. And from there they went to many other Samaritan villages as well.

The Church needs Samaria

Our ministry has worked for 26 years to bring the church and our community's youth held in juvenile jails together. These two worlds seldom intersect, sometimes because they know so little of each other, and other times because of their mutual dislike and distrust. Many of those locked up feel the church would not want them. Unfortunately, they are mostly right. And many of us in the church are working hard to keep our sons and daughters far away from such trouble.

Several years ago we were given property to build a program to expand our aftercare programs for troubled teens. In the months that followed, we received several death threats on our phone, and posters were put up around town that said, "We came here to buy our piece of Heaven and Hell is Straight Ahead Ministries" with flames above it. We found out later that the campaign was started by a Christian in one of the local churches.

Where churches are focused on reaching into Samaria there is a vibrancy in the congregation. You feel it quickly.

While there may be an intial resistance to going into Samaria, if we get beyond that and actually venture out to those in prisons, group homes, AIDs clinics, homeless shelters, or Wiccan churches, fruit is inevitably born—and it also brings enormous energy back into the church. As I have opportunties to speak in all kinds of churches, I have noticed just how palpable—or not—that Samaritan energy is. Where churches are focused on reaching into Samaria there is a vibrancy in the congregation. You feel it quickly.And in those churches where outreach is not a high priority, one can sense how that energy is often replaced with inward strife that shows up as back-biting, or conflict over carpet, the color walls, or an infinite number of other relatively meaningless things.

While I have long observed that people coming out of lock-up need the church in order to come to maturity in Christ, more recently I have become equally convinced that the church needs people out of prison and other places in Samaria, to come to fullness and maturity in Christ. Read Isaiah 58, or notice how often Jesus goes well out of his way to reach at least five groups of people—the poor, the sick, the orphan, the widow, and the imprisoned. In fact, Matthew 25 goes a step further, declaring that the degree to which we reach out to—or don't reach out to—these folks is the degree to which we reach out to—or don't reach out to—Jesus.

Reaching out instead of reaching down

So, how do we best reach Samaritans? Just inviting someone "on the margins" to hear a guest speaker on dysfunctional families at church (as you subtly hint how much this could help them) probably won't do it. No one likes to be the mission field—especially Samaritans, who are sensitive to society looking down at them already.

Samaritans, like the rest of us, need to feel they belong, before they can believe.

Rather, notice how Jesus began his dialogue with the Samaritan woman. He asked her for a drink of water (Acts 4:7)! I find that you can get troubled kids, prisoners, nearly any Samaritan to your church simply by asking them to help you. Help you with setting up, with the sound, with directing parking, or any number of things. Samaritans, like the rest of us, need to feel they belong, before they can believe.

A couple years ago our ministry opened a café and thrift store in a rough area where many of our youth reside, so that we could provide jobs for them. As we were undergoing renovations I took notice of who the main drug dealer was on our street. He was there when I arrived in the morning, and still there when I left at night. One day I said to him. "I can see that this is your territory, and I wanted to ask a favor of you."

"I know who you are" he responded, "I used to go to your Bible study when I was locked up as a kid." I refrained from saying what I was thinking… "So, I guess it didn't work, huh?" When I told him how we wanted to be a positive place in the community and were concerned about having drugs and prostituion dealt in front of our building he said he understood and would move his territory over a block—and make sure no one else dealt on our block too! Samaritans can do things that no program or police can pull off.

Our churches will never become all that God has for us if we ignore Samaria. And going there is not a "have to" but is a "get to." God is already very active in Samaria, and when we venture there, not to preach down to people but to join God in what He is doing there, powerful things inevitably happen.

After Ricky's initial court date (he told the truth—and plead guilty), he returned to that detention center for five months while he would wait for his sentencing in adult court. While my commitment in Samaria was only for one week, I instead went in every week and sometimes twice as I would meet with Ricky to help him get spiritually ready for what would lie ahead for him. He was changing to be sure, but I was also changing as a result of being with him.

When the day came for his sentencing in adult superior court, Hanne and I were the only others in the courtroom with Ricky. When the judge asked him why he would go against the advice of his lawyer and plead guilty, he told her that he found Jesus when he was locked up, and began a whole new life in that place. He had decided that he would rather spend the next 20 years of his life in prison with God, than to leave without Him.

She sat silent for several seconds and then said, "You know, I'm going to do something I have never done before … I'm going to overturn the decision for you to enter the adult prison system and keep you in the juvenile system until you're 21."

When I left that court house, I still knew I was called to work with leadership kids. But now I knew I was privileged to do so in Samarita.

Dr. Scott Larson is founder and president of Straight Ahead Ministries, an international ministry working with juvenile offenders in more than 350 juvenile detention centers in 15 states and five countries. He has authored or co-authored 12 books on working effectively with troubled youth and is an adjunct professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary's Center for Urban Ministerial Education (CUME) and Gordon College.