There's no shortage of folks who want to be known as
"Christians" and wear
crosses as symbols of their faith. There are plenty of buyers of
Christian
CD's and Christian T-shirts and there are growing numbers who
are going to
great lengths to preserve other public expressions of their
Christianity
whenever or wherever possible. I suppose all this is good, but
the important
question is and will always be:
Is there anyone on earth who really wants
to be a friend of Jesus?
Being a true friend of Jesus, our text tells us, means abiding
in his
love---a love that takes us beyond ourselves. His love takes us
beyond our
opinions and cherished ideas, beyond our tight circle of friends
who think
like we think and who do what we do. Is there anyone anywhere
who really
loves another as Christ loves us?
Clergy and laity alike commonly think of themselves as servants
of the living
God. Much good has come out of that understanding of
Christian discipleship,
but being a servant of God, great as that is, isn't all that
Jesus had in
mind.
"I do not call you servants any longer
(Jesus says), because the servant
does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you
friends,
because I have made known to you everything that I have heard
from the Father.
Jesus knew there was a next step, and he wants us to take it. He
loves us so
much that he wants to give us a promotion from servant to
friend. A servant
does whatever his master tells him to do, but a friend is
willing to do what
the master wants him to do without even being asked.
Recently, a story was circulated among clergy (whether true or
not) of a
homeless young man named Bill---with long, snarled hair, torn
clothing and
rather imperfect personal hygiene. He was a brilliant college
graduate, who
had been raised in a strong church-going home, but whose life
had fallen
apart because of alcoholism, a series of job losses, and a
painful divorce.
Very near the city park where Bill spent his warm summer nights,
was a
beautiful although somewhat staid and formal church. One Sunday
Bill decided
to go there. He walked in wearing frayed but clean jeans, a
slightly torn
T-shirt, worn tennis shoes and, of course, his wild, uncombed
hair.
The service had already started when Bill headed down the aisle
looking for a
seat. The sanctuary was completely packed so the people were
looking a bit
uncomfortable as Bill made his way toward the front, closer and
closer to the
pulpit. When he realized there were no available seats and no
one was moving
over to make room, Bill just squatted down on the carpet, right
in front of
the pulpit.
By now the people were becoming pretty uptight. As the tension
in the air
thickened, a highly respected, silver-haired deacon in his 80's,
made his way
toward Bill from way in the back of the church. As he walked
slowly down the
aisle, supported by a cane, and looking very dignified and
courtly in his
dark, pinstriped suit, folks begin to whisper things like:
"You can't blame Mr. Kirkwell for what he's about to
do."
" How can you expect a man of his age and upbringing
to accept that
kind of appearance and behavior?
It took a long, uncomfortable minute for the deacon to reach the
boy. The
church was utterly silent except for the shuffling feet of the
old man and an
occasional clicking of his cane. All eyes were focused on him.
Uncertain as to what he should do, the minister stayed in his
seat beside the
pulpit, thinking:
"Well, George will simply have to do what any good deacon
should do! He will
politely ask the young man to leave before he disrupts our
worship any more
than he already has."
The worshipers watched as the old deacon stood before the young
man, smiled a
friendly smile and dropped his cane to the floor. Then, with
great
difficulty, old George lowered himself to the floor next to
young Bill and
together they looked toward the pastor, as if to say,
"Let the Service begin!"
The command to love God and neighbor was something Israel had
known for
centuries. Christians are reminded that this "agape
love" of both old and new
testaments could indeed be commanded precisely because it is an
act of the
will rather than emotion.
Friendship, however, is something that does involve emotion and
while
friendship may not mean that you are always in a state of high
emotion, it
does mean that most days there is the quiet, steady, happy sense
of well
being. In one way, "friendship" is far deeper than any
other
relationship---even deeper than the "marriage
relationship." Without
friendship no relationship can stand or have redemptive meaning.
There are, today, a growing number of Christian churches that
are
experiencing profound divisions among their members over the
nature of
scriptural authority and interpretation---more specifically,
disagreements
over what Christians should believe about Christ's command to
love one
another and his call to be ONE body, united in love and
friendship. These
divisions and disagreements are nothing new, but disappointing
given the
number of generations Christians have had to "get it
right!"
In my opinion, while there is much debate and emotion within and
between the
various Christian churches, there seems to be more
"heat" than "light"---more
angry rhetoric than thoughtful dialogue. Missing from current
struggles
within our own "Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America," more so even than
between us and other denominations, is this whole idea of
friendship with
Christ and with each other as parts of His one body. Rather than
being
willing to lay down one's life for one's friends, we won't even
lay down our
particular view of some peripheral ecclesiastical issue long
enough to hear
whether, indeed, we share the same beliefs about matters of real
consequence.
If we desire to be friends of Jesus, we have to not only keep
his
commandments to love one another, we must honor his example of
true,
"sacrificial friendship." Certainly, if others are
going to "buy into"
Christian discipleship, Christians themselves must have a
greater sense of
what it means to be authentically Christian. According to this
morning's text
from John's Gospel, to be a follower of Christ means, quite
simply, to be a
true "friend" to your neighbor---even strangers!
The Quakers call themselves the "Society of Friends."
Their name recognizes
that the Church, at its best, is a place marked by friendship
with God, in
Christ, and friendship with one another. In the 19th century,
Quakers were
often arrested because of their efforts to free slaves and
because of their
ministries among criminals, the destitute and other so called
"undesirables."
They took comfort from their scriptural understanding of
what it meant to be
a true friend of everyone, especially strangers, and most
especially
strangers in desperate need! A Quaker hymn titled, "How Can
I Keep from
Singing," gives insight into their faith and their reason
for hope.
The last verse of that hymn goes like this:
"In prison cell and dungeon vile,
our thoughts to them are winging,
When friends by love are undefiled,
how can I keep from singing."
In short, there is nothing trivial or incidental about the
designation
"friend" when it comes from Jesus' lips. The direct
implication of the text
before us is that if disciples obey Jesus' commandment to
"love their
neighbor," they are by definition his friends. And, as his
friends, they know
Jesus will gladly give his life to save theirs.
Until we accept the fact that Christ offers to live in
this kind of
"sacrificial relationship" with us and until we accept
the fact that he wants
us to offer the same kind of friendship to others, all that we
are and all
that we do will count for nothing.
We are meant to be more than faithful and loyal servants of
Christ. We are
meant to be good friends of Jesus, good friends to each other,
good friends
to our neighbors, and good friends even to those neighbors with
whom we do
not agree. Finally, and most importantly, we are called to be
good friends to
strangers who are so strange we may find friendship with them
very difficult
at best!
Two people were discussing their thoughts about heaven. The one
person said,
"I think that in heaven, everyone we love will be
there." But the other
person said, "I think that in heaven, we will love everyone
who's there!"
To that bit of wisdom let us say "AMEN!"
---"AMEN!"
