Articles - Miscellaneous

Always be ready to take risks

Jesus and his friends are going to Jerusalem, using the route that takes them through unfriendly Samaritan territory. Why not save trouble and take the Jordan valley route. Why indeed! Jesus asked two men, probably James and John, to go on ahead and if possible fix up supper, bed and breakfast for the group.

They were not welcomed. In fact they were told to go back where they had come from. Humiliating. Rejection like that hurt. They learned later that the Samaritans had been planning an ambush and only held back when they saw that the strangers were just a group of Galilean peasants on pilgrimage.

James and John were angry, furious. They wanted revenge. The villagers surely should be burned alive by divine intervention! Jesus, who must have known what was likely to happen, had to calm them down and the party then moved off to a friendlier village.
Had Jesus deliberately set this up as a test to check out how the men would cope with risk and rejection? Jesus, expecting opposition in Jerusalem, and knowing that real danger lay ahead for all of them, perhaps wanted to make this encounter a sort of case study while he was there with them on the road.

This story that Luke decided to include in his gospel shows up the disciples in a bad light but of course it was extremely relevant to the first century Christians who read it in situations where they were a small minority amid suspicious and often hostile neighbours.
'Always be ready to take risks, to be embarrassed, humiliated, frustrated or rejected. Accept what comes with good grace and don't give up. Go else where, God will guide you'.

All this, of course, is incredibly relevant for us in Leeds as we face the unremitting challenge of encountering people who are or seem to be very different from ourselves.

Back in March three of us went to the conference entitled "Generous Love" in Harrogate. We were concerned particularly with Christian/Muslim relations and learned a great deal from Muslim and Christian speakers. We were left with the challenge to do what those first century Christians had done without whose faithful obedience we would not be here.

If this is something that interests you please do let me know. There is a very short course (4 sessions) that we could run in the autumn to set us on our way.

Pat Hooker.

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay