Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Matthew 25:34-40 ESV

Spoiler Alert – Stop reading now if you haven’t seen the Internship, and still want to!

The premise of the Internship, is that a competition for a Google internship.  It essentially comes down to a team of misfits and a pompous rich kid and his team of stars.  The bad guy makes it clear he doesn’t have time for anyone but those he thinks are important.

This becomes most clear in his interactions with a scruffy headphone guy who is painfully shy, and never listens to music but wears the headphones because it lets him keep to himself.  One of the two bumbling protagonists goes out of his way to befriend headphone guy, while the pompous villain makes fun of him.

At the final announcement of who won the internship, the pompous guy can’t believe he lost, and interrupts the announcement to say, “lets get someone down here who matters.”

Headphone guy appears, is revealed to be the head of a major department at Google, and he’s been listening to the whole thing.  He tells the villain – you haven’t shown very much googliness.  We learned earlier in the movie, this googliness is all about community and creativity.  But the villain says, “what does that even mean?”

The headphone guy sums it up, “The fact you don’t even know is why you’ll never work here.”

Jesus says this about his kingdom.  Compassion is a sign that you get what my kingdom is all about.  Its part of kingdomliness.  The way you treat those who don’t seem important, is actually very important.

Jesus even puts himself in their shoes – says it’s like you’re serving him when you serve others.

He goes so far as to say that this is how he sorts out those who want to be in his kingdom, with him, and those who want to take a pass.  He says its like separating sheep and goats – the ones who want to be in his kingdom will act like it, and those who don’t, won’t.  He says this twice, and I only read one version here, which  is the positive describing who gets in, but he also tells the story in the negative, describing who stays out.  What becomes clear is that we choose God’s kingdom, or separation from him, not just with words but with actions.

We’ll see tomorrow how this applies to our neighbours.

Question: How do these six actions benefit the recipient, the doer, and Jesus?

Ryan Sim - March 26, 2014

Wednesday - Change It - Reset Society

Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I'm Ryan your host of the Daily Challenges. Here we are in nature. And that's because this week we're studying how following Jesus resets our views of society’s divisions. We saw yesterday a vision of those in Christ being one with no divisions due to class, race or gender. Unfortunately there have been many divisions between Christian individuals and churches from history, influenced by wars, political differences, etc. but that is no excuse. For Christians this passage makes it clear that nurturing divisions from other Christians for race, class or gender comes under God’s judgement. Note the particular emphasis on Christians here – those who have been baptized into Christ. He’s reflecting on the ways a committed follower of Jesus acts in response to the gospel. His emphasis on baptism didn’t mean he thought a Christian was made by water – he’s so clear elsewhere that one is saved by faith alone. Water signifies what happens on the inside, and wouldn’t have been taken lightly in his day. No one was likely being baptized out of tradition, like we unfortunately have today. Only those who deliberately meant to follow Jesus, and were willing to risk everything for it, including family, social standing, inclusion in their ethnic group, would bother being baptized. The baptized risked these things for Christ, and gained a new family, a new society that is meant to be unified. To see further division in that would be a terrible shame, and undermine the message. When people are bound by Christ, those differences are not cause for division, but can be celebrated. Now this isn’t a statement that all religions are equally valid and good. Nor is it a statement that everything in every culture should be celebrated. He is saying those who say they follow Jesus need to overcome the divisions that others may promote. Here’s how John Stott put it: Celebrate richness of culture but not the idolatry that may be at its heart. What comes first is the faith and baptism into Christ. Then that changed, and reset heart can be led by the Holy Spirit to discern what parts of culture, ethnicity, gender roles, etc. are of Christ, and what is about idolatry – of the religious variety or the selfish variety. Paul himself tried to navigate this carefully. When he spoke in Athens, he explored a city full of altars to various gods, including one to an “unknown god”. He told them he knew the unknown God they’d been looking for. He found the one thing in their culture that he could celebrate. Question: Think critically: What parts of your own culture are rooted in idolatry? Idolatry doesn’t just mean worship of golden statues, but worship anything God created – things like money, power, ego, etc. What parts are compatible with life in Christ?

Related Topics: Class, Diversity, Gender, Race, Reset, Society | More Messages from Ryan Sim | Download Audio

From Series: "Reset"

When our computers get bogged down and unmanageable, we know to hit a reset button to simply start over. Wouldn't a reset button be great in life? We know it would be complicated, with all our responsibilities and routines to consider, but imagine the freedom and refreshment of a new start in life! What would you do differently? What would you pay more attention to, and what would you ignore? How would you avoid getting bogged down and broken again? The great news is, in coming to earth as Jesus Christ, God has begun to "reset" our universe, our world, and even us. We're invited to start over with him, in what he calls his kingdom. We're invited to start a new life with a clean slate. What gets wiped clean, and lived differently, when God resets our lives? We'll explore how God resets these key areas of our lives: Reset: Goals Reset: Time Reset: Money Reset: Work Reset: Body & Food Reset: Sex & Marriage Reset: Family Reset: Compassion Reset: Nature Reset: Society Reset: Death Join us for the next several weeks, and invite God to reset your life.

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