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 - October 17, 2013

Thursday - Act On It - Friends to Family

In this series on being great neighbours, that ends this week, we’ve looked at 6 shifts: Stranger -> Neighbour -> Acquaintance -> Partner -> Friend -> Family We’ve encouraged you to learn neighbours’ names, stories, work together, become friends, and now your challenge is to find people of peace in your life. Start sharing Redeem the Commute with them. Perhaps you could do the Marriage course with your spouse and some other couples. Or you could do the parenting courses with other parents. Then take Christianity 101 together, and then the daily challenges. Make a habit of eating together whenever you can, and talking about things that matter. This is our vision, to be a network of small groups who are being the church. We don’t want to be a church you go to, but a church on the go. We don’t want you to just go to church, but to be the church every day. We’ll be the church when we are scattered around the GTA at work, and scattered around our various neighbourhoods, but also when we gather for community events. We started this with our outdoor movie night, and next we have a trivia night. After that, we’ll have a Christmas event. We want it to be welcoming for local residents and families, generous for those in need, and introduces the story of the original Christmas party. We’re about to start planning, so let Ryan know if you would like to help! In the next series, Becoming Like Family, we’ll look at what it means for you, and perhaps your own immediate family to be part of God’s family, called the church. See you there! Challenge: Ask your person of peace for help with the party you’re planning. Then invite them to follow challenges, or another course, with you.

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

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