Biblical Theme for the Day: GO and do likewise – Luke 10: 25-37
Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?” He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?” He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.” “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.” Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?” Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man. “A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’ “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?” “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”
Hello from Triennium! Today has been our first full day here, and it’s been jam-packed with worship, fellowship, and fun. We met in a group from our delegation today for something kinda like Bible study. We looked at two stories: Luke’s version of the birth of Jesus and the Good Samaritan. We dived in and asked tough questions about what the text means for us. One of the activities involved us using hashtags to tell the stories! This is what they came up with:
Birth of Jesus: #AugustusCensus #engaged #babydaddy #yourenotthefather #noroomforyou #manger #shepherdlife #angels #didyouseethattoo #goandsee #praiseJesus #seesomethingsaysomething
Good Samaritan: #goodSamaritan #everlastinglife #beaneighbor #likeagoodneighborStateFarmisthere #beatup #robbers #priestandlevitewalkaway #SamaritanLivesMatter #StopAndHelp #LoveYourNeighbor #helpyourneighbor #goanddolikewise
After that we all split up to go to different small groups. The small groups continued to talk about the Good Samaritan story. They made a Vine (a six second video) to tell the story. Coming up with how to make it so short helps us figure out what the most important parts of the story are!
In the afternoon, we had worship. If you’ve never been to Triennium, know that worship is something that you’re really missing. In addition to the normal energizers (dances to get us excited), worship music, testimony, and sermon, we also collected the offering today. It will help to build a shelter at a school in the Philippines, so when there are typhoons or other bad weather, there’s a safe place to go.
Our evening activities involved recreation, which involves games and socializing out on a lawn. I hope we’ll get some good pictures of that to share!
Three from our delegation are college-aged and on the work crew. They get single rooms with private baths, but they definitely make them work for it. They spent some time outside today helping nail nails in pallets. It was not easy, and they were definitely hot out there!
All in all, we’re having a great time, and we’re excited for the rest of our days here!
We are honored to have a team of bloggers from Triennium sharing their experience with us each day this week. Every day we will have a new team of youth, college students and adult advisors who will blog/vlog and share image content to share the story from the 2016 Youth Triennium. Today’s team is: Rebecca Putman (Adult Advisor, Northville), Emma Holly (Workcrew, Northville), Imani Ilad (Youth, Albany/First), Solomon Hasan (Youth, Westminster/Albany), Blaine Parsons (Youth, Trinity/Scotia) and Lily Wilson (Northern NY Presbytery)
The purpose of the Albany Presbytery Blog is to share information, tell stories, and promote the mission and ministry of the presbytery, synod and beyond. While the breadth of this medium is intentionally broad, it is not a platform for opinion pieces related to business coming before the presbytery unless designed as part of an initiative to provide a diversity of viewpoints at the direction of the presbytery council. Exceptions to this policy may be brought to the presbytery officers who will determine appropriateness of submissions.
