Modern Day Outcasts

Yesterday morning I arrived at church in time to grab a small cup of coffee then get settled into my chair for Sunday School.  There was nothing unusual about this morning.  Since I am the secretary/treasurer for our Sunday School class, I got busy taking care of the administrative side of things.  Once that was done, Sunday School began!  Yes!  Time to learn more about Jesus and His Word!  Time to strengthen my relationship with Him!  All of a sudden there was a knock on the door followed by, "We need somebody to teach the youth class this morning their teacher isn't here."  Silence filled the room.  Nobody wanted to teach those young kids.  I said, "I'll do it."  I have very little experience working with youth but I knew they needed somebody.

I walked in and head their little sighs of disappointment that they weren't going to be left to themselves!  We began to take praises and prayer requests.  I asked them what they were studying and they gave me the book.  I started flipping through the pages looking for the lesson.  It was about their relationship with God via The Woman at the Well.  We dove into the lesson and got down to the fact that the woman was an outcast.  Jews and Samaritan's didn't associate with each other.  We discovered the woman had to go draw water in the heat of the day and that she had a long walk.  After we got through the details of the woman, the location of the well, and the distance she had to walk I asked them, "Who is your modern day outcast?"  "Who is the person that people stay away from, shun, and talk about because they don't dress like you, look like you, or have the clothes you do?" 

As Sunday School finished up I challenged them all to do two things this week:

1.  Read a bible verse each day.
2.  Go out of their way to say something nice to their modern day outcast or to do something nice for them.

It's easy to sit in our church pews and be comfortable with people who agree with us and who are like us.  What about you Christian?!!!  Who is your modern day outcast?!!!  I dare you this week to the very same challenge I gave those young teenagers.  Read one Bible Verse this week and do something nice for your modern day outcast.   We were the outcast all caught up in our sin.  Jesus visited us at the well and told us to go and sin no more.  So, get out there beyond your church pew and do something nice for somebody who is considered an outcast.

Blessings,
Alicia