Samaritans

Thanks so much for all the wonderful singing yesterday! Everyone did such a fantastic job!! I am so glad that so many people could attend!!

This past week all the stories had to do with the Samaritans!

PreK-4 learned the parable of the good Samaritan.

Jesus told this parable when the Pharisees asked him to define who are neighbor is, so they could correctly follow the commandment "Love your neighbor as yourself"

Jesus told the story of a Jewish man who was on his way to Jericho and was attacked, robbed, beaten and left for dead on the side of the road.
 A priest walked by and not wanting to make himself unclean, did not offer any help at all to the man. In fact, he crossed the road so he didn't even walk near him.
Then a Levite walked by, one of the traditional helpers at the temple. He too, walked by on the other side of the road.
Then a Samaritan walked by. He stopped to help the man, got him cleaned up, put him on his horse, took him to an inn, gave money for his care and then went on his way.
Who was the neighbor? The Samaritan, obviously. Those listening to Jesus knew the context- the Jews and Samaritans couldn't stand each other. They would never actually be neighbors, as we might think of it. But a man stopped to help another man, not caring who he was, what nationality, what language he spoke, whether he deserved help or not. We are to go and do likewise.

The 5-7 graders talked about the Samaritan woman at the well whom Jesus shared the message with. She also was not a "good" person. She was a Samaritan, she'd been married multiple times and the man she was living with was not her husband. Yet this is who Jesus shared the Good News with. In 5-7 grade they are talking with sharing the Good News with others who are not like us. We also watched a video called "Vanishing Grace" that talked about how the world sees Christians- not so much like Christ, more like Pharisees. How can we share the wonderful news of salvation and forgiveness with a broken world who God loves? Another church shared this quote, "You will never look into the eyes of someone God does not love."

In November our act of love will be preparing baked goods to sell the Sunday before Thanksgiving- November 18- to benefit Camp Killarney.

See you this Sunday! Invite a friend!!