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 - September 18, 2013

Wednesday - Change It - Strangers to Neighbours

Jesus says to love our neighbours, and includes enemies in his definition. In this week’s story Jesus confronted the reality that Samaritans and Jews were neighbours yet enemies, and said that his followers need to love and serve one another beyond such divisions. Elsewhere, he says it quite clearly: love your enemy. Turn the other cheek. Go the extra mile. My favourite part is where he says, “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.” Loving your friends is nothing special, but loving your enemies is special indeed. It’s hard, it’s messy, it feels very risky, compromising and vulnerable. But when we avoid loving our neighbours and enemies, we live in isolation, fear of the unknown and misunderstandings. One mayor told a church leader: “The majority of issues that our community is facing would be eliminated or drastically reduced if we could just figure out a way to become a community of great neighbours.” It’s hard to know what to say, do, when life gets messy, and especially when our love isn’t returned. It’s easy to just give up and say Jesus’ command is too hard to follow. But that can be explained simply enough. We haven’t got enough practice loving those closest to us, who aren’t our enemies, in order to be ready for loving our enemies. Loving our friendly, similar neighbours is good training for the big leagues. So – start by just finding out – Who is my neighbour? Download the attached Block Map. Click the Extra file, or link at end of video. You are in the middle of the grid, and think of the other squares in the grid as your neighbours across the street, beside and behind your home. Or if it’s more appropriate, think of it as your workplace, and the squares as neighbouring cubicles. Then write in each square: - Their Name(s) - One Fact About Them - Something Deeper – A hope, dream, fear, challenge, etc. Try and complete the grid as much as possible, and discuss with your group. We meet for coffee every Wednesday night at Starbucks in the Chapters Store in Ajax, in Durham Region just East of Toronto. Maybe we'll see you there?

From Series: "Won't You Be My Neighbour?"

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