This week we’ve been exploring the story of Levi meeting Jesus, and having a big party with his former partners in crime, now his friends.  Jesus’s transformative effect brings Levi’s colleagues into a new friendship with Levi first, then that friendship brings his friends into contact with Jesus.

It’s no different today, this is very reason we held an outdoor movie night.  We brought a bunch of people together over a great feast of popcorn.  Our online users met one another, and made some new friends.

This app and web site is meant to be more than a transaction, more than something to watch/listen to.  It’s meant to bring us into community.  It’s meant to be made up of real people, in real community with one another.

Obviously movie nights and apps are large scale.  But it depends on the small scale.  It depends on people like you.  You can be a Levi.

At parties, people mingle and meet, and often discover things in common.

So, have some people over to dinner, see what happens.  It doesn’t have to be fancy. Or maybe have a hockey watching party, a playdate, a block party, whatever your scene is.

Through that kind of party, I hope you and some people you know and work with, or have helped, will become friends, and friends can talk about what really matters.  When followers of Jesus are present in the room and real deep things of life come up, I think that’s when Jesus enters the conversation, just like at Levi’s table.

When he throws a great feast, his partners in crime learn the money grubbing tax collector actually isn’t driven by money anymore, but now he’s driven by love for Jesus, which makes him love them.  Imagine the transformative effect on their lives.  More than that, they just met a Jewish rabbi who will actually eat and drink with them, get to know them, love them, despite the risks, rather than standing outside and shaking his head.

So, go and show your neighbours the same!  Learn their names, stories, needs, and then become friends.

Challenge: Plan a party, big or small!  Please tell me the story, I’d love to hear how it goes.

Ryan Sim - September 12, 2013

Thursday - Act On It - Neighbours Matter

Won\'t You Be My Neighbour?

Yesterday I asked you to define love. One common way people today define love is to be as tolerant and permissive as possible, as long as the other person does not to hurt others. See what a low standard that is? Jesus defines love to a much higher degree, he says to love one another as oneself. He knows we are self-centered…and Jesus uses that to teach us love for others. Between loving God with everything, and loving neighbours as ourselves, Jesus has declared self-salvation to be impossible. We may love God to one degree or another. But with everything? We can and should try, but we reach our limits since we are only human, and separated ourselves from God in sin. We need help. Equally true, we may make ourselves harmless and never say a word to anyone who isn’t harming another, but we can’t make ourselves completely love others as ourselves – we always want more for ourselves than to be tolerated and put up with. We can and should try to love others as ourselves, but we need the help of another to do this. Jesus made himself harmless, and willingly sacrificed himself on a cross in the ultimate action of love for God and others. He led the way, and did what would be impossible for humans, so we could follow him in love for God and love for others, rather than trying to trailblaze ourselves. We’ll look at this more in this upcoming series on neighbours. Challenge: How do your actions “hang’ under love of God or love of neighbour? Is there anything you’ve done in the last week that doesn’t fit one of those loves?

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

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