Sermon

Friends Together

John 15: 9 – 17, Acts 10: 44-48, I John 5: 1-6

When I was a child my best friend lived across the street. We played baseball in the empty field at the end out street; we went to movies on Saturdays; we ate at each other’s houses; we helped my father garden the big field next to our house and on and on. But one of the really big things we did was shared our comic books.

We both collected comic books and we often exchanged them to read and now and then traded them. So, we were best friends.

Like most best friends when we had a disagreement it was much more bitter and deeper than if it had been with someone else. You could tell when the battle between us was the severest because that is when we returned each other’s comic books. Now it was not simply, taking the comic books back over to his house or him bringing mine over to my house. No, returning comic books in anger was much more dramatic.

He came over in front of my house – we lived on a dirt street with side ditches – and proceeded to throw my comic books into the ditch, often into the mud. I returned his by going over and taking whatever time it took to throw his comic books up into a tree, across the tree branches.

Years later, in retrospect, I realized that my friend and I, while we were careless with each other’s comic books when we were angry, never did we throw in a ditch or up in a tree the comic books we knew were the other’s favorite ones. Friendship was stronger than the present anger we had and we did not step across the line of really hurting each other by destroying the cherished comic books.

Friendship. It is one of life’s greatest blessings. There is nothing sadder than to hear someone say, “I really don’t have any good friends.”

Jesus told his followers, “I have called you friends.” (John 15: 15b) When Peter went to the home of Cornelius the centurion, Peter said, “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” (Acts 10: 47) In other words, these people have discovered the saving power and friendship of this risen Savior. Just because they are not Jews, how can we withhold this outward and visible sign of the love and friendship of God – namely baptism?

What I learned as a child and youth is that you can love friends with intensity, but the anger with friends can also be intense.

For me, that is also the way it is and has been over the years with God. There have been times of intense trust and assurance and love felt for God. There have been times of alienation, anger and a desire to rail out at God. The love of God and the love for God equate, for me, into a sense of a strong friendship with God.

The hymn writer knew that friendship of God when he wrote:

“What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!”

In the last stanza of that hymn the friendship of God is elevated above all earthly friendships: “Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer. In his arms he’ll take and shield you; you will find a solace there.”

A key to truly loving God is to work to develop a friendship with God. Then God becomes that place within ourselves where we can be honestly and openly authentic about who we are – what hurts, what makes us angry, what brings out the love in us, what are our hopes and dreams and on and on.

In 1 John (5:1) the writer points out that our intensity of love for Christ is because Jesus is born of God and, according to I John, “… everyone who loves the parent loves the child.” Thus because we love God, the parent, we naturally will love God, the Son. When I read that scripture I can see, for myself at least, why it is that the sense of intensity for Jesus is so great, even to the point sometimes that other religions believe we worship three Gods – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – rather than one God manifested in three ways.

As a grandparent my love for my grandchildren is intense. They came into this world already loved because I already loved their parents. It makes absolute sense to me to read in the scripture that those who love the parent love the child. I have also become aware that when grandchildren get sick the worry and fear is doubled because now you are concerned for your grandchild and your child both. If you love the parent you will love the child. Love God and you will love God’s Son.

Being friends with Jesus carries a responsibility to live in the world among those who are either not friends or outright enemies and still offer the friendship of Jesus. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of all religion. The other is merely business.”

It is not enough, however, that we try to be friends with Jesus. The important affirmation for Christians is that Jesus has called us friends. In fact, we are reminded (John 15: 15a), Jesus said, “I do not call you servants any longer, 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 my Father.”

Friendship, whether between two human who are friends, or whether between God and us, is two ways: We are friends of God. God is a friend of ours. We know that instinctively. Many of our hymns have a familiar friendship message in them, as we heard a few moments ago in the words “What a friend we have in Jesus.” But listen to the words from another hymn where Jesus is making his friendship clear:

“And Jesus said: don’t be afraid. I’ve come to turn your fear to hope. I’ve come to take you through the deep, to be your friend until the end, and give your troubled heart to sleep.

And Jesus said: don’t be afraid. I know your emptiness and grief. I hear your words of unbelief, but if you will, I’ll heal your soul and give your doubting heart relief.

And Jesus said: don’t be afraid. I am the Way, I am the Light. I am the truth that holds you tight, and in God’s home you have a room, a place of welcome and delight.”

A friend who cares. Christians affirm that Jesus is just such a friend. We are striving to build a community of such friends throughout the world-wide church among those who follow Jesus.

Henri Nouwen in his writings, Out of Solitude, captured that caring friendship in these words:

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing, and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”

The African-American spiritual captures this friendship with Jesus and our response, in the song Thank you Lord, as the last stanza is simply: Been my friend, been my friend, been friend. I just want to thank you, Lord.

Amen.

Jim Bell

05-17-09