2024 05 05 Sermon Friendship with Jesus
Friendship with Jesus
Easter 6 B
John 15:9-17
Rev. Karl-John N. Stone
Last Sunday, I spoke about the trip Beth Ann and I took to the Finger Lakes wine-producing region of western New York for the first part of her sabbatical. Our trip continued after that as we drove south through the mountains and valleys of central Pennsylvania to the area where we first started out as pastors, Snyder County. When people heard we were coming for a visit, I got a text from a member of the church where I served my first call. She said, “Do you think you can stop for a visit at Frona’s house? She just turned 95 and it will be a surprise!” So I said yes, and told them what time I expected to arrive.
When I turned into the driveway, several people from the church were parked across the street, and they pulled into the driveway behind me. As we got out of our cars, Frona opened the door and looked around. When she saw me her jaw dropped open in disbelief for what seemed like a full minute. “I didn’t think I would ever see you again!” she said. I didn’t either, I replied. We all went into her living room and caught up with each other on the past 10 years—that’s how long it had been since we’d been back.
When we had first arrived in Snyder County way back in August 2001, I felt like a fish out of water. Here I was, born and raised in the concrete hustle and bustle of New York City, and I had moved to a very beautiful and very rural place where life moved at a different pace, and where as many people lived in the whole town as had lived on my block back home! People spoke with what was to me an unfamiliar accent, cooked unfamiliar recipes, and had life experiences which led them to see some things about the world differently than I did. I’ll never forget the first time I drove past someone carrying a gun as he walked across his farm field. I thought to myself, if I were back home I’d be calling the cops right now, if I saw someone with a gun walking down the street! But this was a different context; he’s just going about his day, coming back from hunting. While I learned a lot about the cultural differences, and even adopted a few of them over the years, I also learned that anywhere you go people are still people, and if you keep an open mind and an open heart—you may still have some differences—but you can support one another, respect one another, learn from one another, and become friends with one another.
And even though it had been 10 years since I had seen them, and 10-years-worth of the ups and downs of life had drifted by—when we were sitting in Frona’s living room it was almost like we had all just seen each other yesterday. They’re still the same people, we still had things to talk about, we still enjoyed each other’s company. Perhaps you’ve had a similar experience, as well, of picking up right where you left off with friends you’d not seen for many years?
Such is the power of friendship to bridge the distance between us. Jesus himself knows this well. “You are my friends” he told the disciples, “if you do what I command you. I’m not calling you ‘servants’ any longer; servants don’t know what their master is doing. But I’ve called you ‘friends’, because I’ve let you know everything I heard from my father.”
What an amazing thing for Jesus to tell his disciples—and by extension, us: We are his friends! Jesus has chosen us to be friends with him and his heavenly Father. Yes, as Christians we consider ourselves servants of Christ—but we do so in partnership with him. As Christians, we are not ‘servants’ who have no idea what the master is up to, and who have to blindly obey whatever the master says or risk being cast aside. Instead we are friends of Jesus: friends who talk with and listen to each other (we call this prayer); friends who seek to understand each other even in our differences (we call this discernment or seeking God’s guidance); we’re friends with Jesus, so we do things together with him to help people and share the good news of Christ (we call this acts of love, or participating in God’s mission to the world). Friendship with God is the natural outcome of the gospel message that “the Word became flesh and dwelled among us”—God brings heaven down to earth, down to our level, in sending his Son Jesus to be with us. What more human way to experience the love and presence of God could there be, than friendship?
Friendship with God through Jesus is the method Jesus has given for us understand the grace of God, and to follow the ways of God. It’s also the method he has given for us to find common ground with others, to build bridges between one another even with our differences.
“You are my friends if, if you do what I command you,” Jesus said, and what is his commandment? He put it very simply: “Love one another, in the same way that I have loved you.” The way to be a friend of Jesus is to love one another in the way that Jesus loves. There are many varieties of love that humans might experience, but the particular kind of love of that Jesus has is known (in the New Testament Greek) as “agape” love. This is unconditional love that’s not based on being “good enough” to earn it, but it’s given as a gift, and it’s based on seeking the well-being of the other person, even when they’re different from you.
Now, if we follow the ways of the world, it becomes so incredibly easy to divide and distance ourselves from people who we might deem different in some way. But the way of Jesus doesn’t offer that as an option. Our unity as Christians comes from Christ alone because of the love and friendship he has given us. It is this gift of grace that gives us confidence in our faith to be able to reach out with a hand of fellowship, and seek what will bring out the best in each other, including to ask for forgiveness, or to forgive. This way of life is counter-cultural, and can be incredibly hard—but it’s full of blessing.
Christ’s friendship with you is also what empowers you to actively participate in the ministries of the church, and these ministries are meant to put you in contact with all kind of people, all of whom have God-given gifts and talents, and many of whom may have life experiences and perspectives that might be different from your own. But again, our unity comes from the love and friendship Jesus has for each of us.
When you are living in friendship with Jesus, he will put you in places where you have the opportunity to build bridges to people who are different than you. Maybe it’s someone who grew up in a different kind of place than what feels like “home” to you. Maybe it’s someone from a different economic or educational background. Maybe it’s someone with different political beliefs or community involvement. Maybe it’s someone who worked different jobs or took a different career path than you. Maybe it’s someone with a different language, or racial or ethnic background, or sexual orientation.
All of these are things that we could easily use as reasons to divide ourselves from one another, or ignore one another, or even make enemies of one another. Jesus says, “no”. You are my friends, he says, all of you. I love you, even as you have sinned and harmed yourself or others. But still, I love you—all of you, exactly for who you truly are, because God has created in you God’s own image.
And we, as Christians, get the opportunity to practice this way of friendship in the way of Jesus; it’s an experiment that we try every time we go to church. By first practicing it in church, we can then take this mindset into the world, and ask God to use our efforts as the “yeast” to mix in with the “dough” of society. Through it the Holy Spirit can be at work to raise up new life, by building bridges of peace, healing, and connection among the diverse people God has made. Amen.