Sixth Sunday of Easter
Acts 10:44-48 Psalm 98
1 John 5:1-6 John 15:9-17
“I do not call you servants and longer...but I have called you friends.” In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen
I doubt I’m much different than you all, that as a kid growing up I had LOTS of friends. I had friends I played sports with, friends I went to school with, friends I had from church. My neighborhood friends included a group of guys, our gang, if you will, that included Greg, Ralph, Eddie, Mark, and Jim. It wasn’t until I got into middle school that my circle of friends began to include girls like Jody, Marcia, Janet, and Kathy. After middle school, many of us attended the same high school where our classmates we considered friends began to ebb and flow. Oh sure, our neighborhood and school friends were still our “friends,” but the groups started to coalesce around different interests and demographics. Truth be told, I haven’t connected with any of these “friends” in over 40 years.
During my time at seminary, I had two professors at Sewanee that I thoroughly enjoyed and respected deeply. One was Dr. Colin Cornell, my New Testament professor. He was fairly young, a newly minted PhD whose emphasis was on the Psalms. He would cheerfully greet us each class with “Good morning, friends” and was quite comfortable in having us refer to him as Colin. He would occasionally join some of us at the Blue Chair, a local eatery near campus, and chat about whatever was on our minds. I think when he referred to us as “friends” he meant it as a term of endearment.
The second professor was the Rev. Dr. Julia Gatta, who had served as a parish priest for over 25 years prior to coming to Sewanee, a professor who wore her black teaching gown to class, who did not suffer fools easily, who
had a conversational yet very direct approach in her teaching style and commanded respect and decorum in her classroom. She did not offer to have us call her by her first name; it was either Mother Gatta or Dr. Gatta. Not surprisingly, both of these very accomplished individuals were highly sought out for their expertise and “personality” and it was difficult to get into their respective classes.
In a similar vein to today’s reading from John’s Gospel where Jesus says to his disciples that he no longer calls them servants but friends, Dr. Gatta tells all the seniors upon graduating that they are now colleagues and that she would be most pleased if they called her Julia. While she still holds a status different from us graduates, (she will always be a mentor and guide to me), she nonetheless now considers our relationship that of colleagues, not one of teachers and students. Our relationship is now one of “friends.”
Today’s passage continues the story of Jesus with his disciples in the Upper Room that began at the beginning of chapter 13 and runs through chapter 16, a section of John’s gospel known as the Farewell Discourse. In today’s portion, Jesus is giving some final instructions, things that need to be remembered after he’s gone. He commands them to love one another as he has loved them and that the laying down of one’s life for one’s friends is the greatest manifestation of this type of love. This love stems from God, the Father, whose love for Jesus is exemplified in Jesus’ love for the disciples. This depth of love is ultimately revealed by Jesus’ death on the cross which is to serve as an example of the love the disciples are to have for one another.
Jesus initiates the change in relationship from servant to friend with the words that he has “chosen” them and not the other way around. But Jesus’ choosing them does not negate the disciple’s free and willing choice to follow him. This new relationship has been forged in the crucible of real life through which he has shown and taught them all that the Father had shown him. The disciples are now equipped and charged to live as friends, not as servants who don’t know what is going on. As friends, they share a solemn obligation to look out for one another and they share a common mission
and purpose: to bear the fruit of love that serves the purposes of God. Just to underscore the significance of this new relationship as “friends” there are only two occasions in the Old Testament where humans are referred to as “friends of God”: Abraham in the books of 2nd Chronicles and Isaiah and by implication, Moses, in the book of Exodus. As obedient believers and now friends, we follow in the footsteps of our faithful ancestors and enter into this relationship with God that transforms our very being as we live out the commandment to love one another.
So it seems to me that we’re faced with several challenging questions in light of today’s reading: Who are your/my friends? For whom will you and I lay down our lives? What does laying down one’s life entail?
For me, as I have gained a little maturity and perspective, I have come to realize that I have had TONS of acquaintances and very few “friends” during my life. Over the years I developed cordial relationships with many folks yet very few with deep and abiding connections. I’d like to think that if push-came-to-shove I would give up my life for one of these dear friends while hoping that I do not have to face this reality. But the love that we are to have for one another that Jesus talks about goes beyond our feelings; it is a decision we must make each and every day. As I mentioned last week, this decision to love as Jesus loves is nurtured in the same daily discipleship grounded in prayer, worship, and service that keeps us abiding in the vine of Christ. This choice to abide and love is a way of life that has as its core the welfare of the other. It is a decision we make as “friends” of Jesus and not as servants.
As friends of Jesus, we lay something down of ourselves when we serve someone else, when we express God’s love to those we like and to those we don’t. We lay something down of ourselves when our concern for the welfare of someone else drives our decision making process. We lay something down of ourselves when we’re willing to serve than be served, to be last and not first, to wash feet and not wage a war. I don’t know about you, but this happens when I lay down my need to “be right” and take the time to truly listen to the other person or when I lay down my desire to “fix”
things in order to let situations play out more organically and healthful. When we lay down something of ourselves that brings joy to the downtrodden, that offers hope to the hopeless, that seeks justice and not revenge, we live the love to which Jesus speaks and demonstrates. This love emanates from a friendship with Jesus that can only grow and expand as we give it away. This type of love is grounded in self-sacrifice, for everytime we lay something down of ourselves, we are actually laying down our lives for another.
Dear friends, by God’s grace and your willingness to share yourselves with me, I now have the joy and privilege to count you all as “friends.” I’ve seen and experienced the love that lives in this place and among you all. It’s obvious to me that the love we share among us goes well beyond feelings of goodwill and kind thoughts. The love I see in this place has an energy to it that is contagious. The love that I’ve experienced in my short time with you clearly demonstrates that you’ve been “friends’ with Jesus for a long time. My prayer is that you will continue to give away the love that dwells within you, that you will bear fruit that fulfills the purpose of God for your lives, that this community will know that we are committed followers of the Risen Lord by our love for one another and by the joy of Christ that shines in your faces.
Thanks be to God.