Pod the Alien Sketch : ‘Why serve others?’
Standard entrance (Compere responds to banging on the door) That must be Pod. (Spaceman enters)
Hello Pod
Hello Bee-Sissy!
It’s been a while since you last visited. It’s good to see you again
Yes it is isn’t it? So tell me what are you learning about at the moment?
Well this week we are looking at serving others.
Ah now that’s something I know about. It’s all about getting the round thing in the square box isn’t it?
If you mean putting money in the offering? It’s not quite the same, but they are both giving without expecting anything back, I suppose.
No, no, you get it in the box to bounce it out again. You know on the other side of the net. I’ve been watching your transmissions on my TV monitor all the way here.
Oh you must mean Wimbledon, Pod. The tennis finished a week ago. And anyway, that is serving to others, not serving others.
Well it seems like the same thing to me. And I must say, it’s been the only thing I been able to find to watch. It was either people trying not to hit the net with the little ball or people trying to hit the net with the big ball.
Oh you saw some of the football too? There were some great games weren’t there?
I wasn’t watching any football. What I saw was called Euro-Four. But anyway I’ve not come here to learn about games, I’ve seen enough of that through the square window to last me a lifetime. What I want to know is what is this servicing.
OK. Well serving is something you do for someone else. Jesus said, that we should do for others what we would like to have done for us.
Oh well I can tell you straight off that that will never work.
Why do think that, Pod?
Well if I want to cross the road, I’ll cross the road myself. If someone else helps me to cross the road, I’ll just end up back where I started again. So what use is that?
Now that’s being silly, Pod. That would never happen would it?
OK, OK. I take your point. But how is it going to work then?
Well…
But I’m telling you now, when it comes to service, there’s one voice that shouts louder that anyone else’s in my life; and that’s me! I am most demanding, and I easily get most of my attention.
That’s because you are quite normal Pod..
Glad to hear it!
Quite normal, and quite ordinary. But if we have Jesus in our lives we have the capacity to be extra-ordinary. Because Jesus was extraordinary.
Yes, yes I know that, but I still don’t see how it can work. No one’s going to spend all their time feeding other people, because they’d end up starving themselves. It doesn’t make any sense.
Let me put it this way Pod. You understand space don’t you?
Indeed I do. I myself come from outer space.
Then you’d know that our planet spins around a central Sun.
Of course, and there are other planets that do the same thing.
Yes, but when you’re standing on Earth, it seems like the Sun is going around the earth. Because it rises in the East and set in the West.
Yes it does seem like that when you are standing on a planet.
So what about the other planets what do they look like from the earth?
Well to be honest you hardly ever see them from here, so they don’t seem very important at all. And it’s quite hard to work out where they’ll be in the sky, even if you were interested.
But it you were to see them from the Sun you would see that they all look as important as each other, and they all belong to the Sun, because they all revolve around it.
Yes, I see that. But your point is…?
My point is that if my world revolves around me, then no one else seems as important as me, no one else’s needs are as important as mine.
As opposed to…?
If I recognise that everything really revolves around God, who made the universe, and around his Sun, Jesus. Then I can see things more from God’s point of view. I can see that others are just as important as me, but that their needs could even be bigger than mine. So I might then find that I want to help someone else even more than I want to help myself. It actually becomes that little bit harder to be selfish when you see things from God’s point of view.
Ahhh. I see. So it’s all about what’s at the centre of your universe. Whether it’s Jesus or yourself.
That’s right. And if God is at the centre then his priorities become more my priorities, and his strength can be my strength. So then I can be more than just ordinary.
Yes, so I guess that if you see people through God’s eyes, then it doesn’t really matter if they can pay you back or not. That’s not why you’re serving them.
That’s right Pod. In fact sometimes it doesn’t even feel like serving others. It can feel like they’re doing you a favour by letting you. I’m really pleased that you’re getting the idea.
Yes, you know I am. And I’m delighted that my knowledge of space has helped you to understand how to live your lives better. Indeed it is a wonderful way to live. Caring for others before yourselves. Seeing other people through God’s eyes. Yes, if more of you Earthlings could grasp it, how much better the Earth would be. I can’t recommend it more highly…. But it’s certainly not for me. I’m staying right here at the centre of my universe, and no one’s gonna budge me!
Oh Pod! (disappointedly)
But I have learned something important on this trip… that you can only live the way that pleases God, if he is at the centre of your universe. The serving others becomes easy and something you want to do. Well have a great summer every one and I’ll look forward to our next meeting. Good-bye everyone.Standard exit (Spaceship takes off on DVD to accompanying sound effects through PA.
© M Day 09-June-2004
Synopsis
More Pod pages
Downloads
– Why serve others? in pdf format
– Power point of Pod’s summer Landing sequence without intro
– Power point of Pod’s summer Take off sequence.
NB power points with intros feature a old fashioned movie-style leader countdown with ‘pearl & dead’ sound track. This is simply an attention grabber for when the Pod sketch has been an unannounced opener for a service. Only summer versions are available here (there are also winter versions to match the conditions outside the venue).