Friends (Love One Another)
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Psalm 98 and John 15:9-17
May 5, 2024
How many of you remember the children’s game, Red Rover? I vividly recall standing on the playground during school recess when I was about seven years’ old playing this game.
The words ring clearly in my ears now as I stand here talking to you about it. “Red Rover, Red Rover, send Jane on over?”
My friends and I loved to play Red Rover, and it was such fun as we stood there in a line facing each other waiting for our name to be called. Waiting to be chosen.
Everyone wants to be chosen at some time during their life, whether it is for a game with our friends, a date to the prom, or an invitation to a party. Perhaps most importantly, we want to be chosen as a friend by a friend because when we are chosen, we feel loved.
The dictionary defines a friend as ‘a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection.’
Comforting words spoken by Jesus in our scripture today are, “YOU are my friends,” and “I have called YOU friends,” and “I chose YOU!” If you were playing a game of Red Rover with Jesus, he would for sure say, “Come on over!”
If you have been following my Centering Prayer sessions this year, you know that I have been sharing readings from a book by Audrey Elledge and Elizabeth Moore called “Liturgies of Hope.” These liturgies are not only heart-felt but also thought-provoking. They cause me to pause and consider the words that I am reading and my relationship with my Lord.
I would like to share with you one they have written called, “A Liturgy of Friendship:”
Oh Christ, I rejoice in the deep satisfaction of your friendship,
in the unceremonious familiarity of being known,
in the freedom to be no one other than myself.
Thank You for these signs of grace:
the ease of conversation,
the spontaneous eruption of laughter,
the safety of silence,
the relief of finding our way back to one another.
Let me never see friendship as commonplace
but as a rare and lavish gift.
As playful companions mature into confidants,
protect our growth with the cloud of Your presence.
Braid Yourself into our entwined hearts
so that the cords of partnership are not easily broken.
Teach us the way of covenant friendship
so that we may live by the words of Ruth —
Where you go I’ll go; where you stay I’ll stay.
Your people will be my people, and your God my God.
May we know the unselfish endurance of a friend who
Loves at all times.
May we willingly receive their wounds.
May ironclad honesty sharpen us,
sustaining our purest hearts,
smoothing our rough edges,
slicing away what keeps us from growth.
Just as You spoke face-to-face with Moses,
so we unveil our hearts to You in breathless wonder,
for You do not call us servants but friends.
We desire this friendship with You, too, Lord,
for even unto death have You loved us.
Oh Lord who extends the arm of kinship to all who desire it,
this is the greatest joy of friendship —
to freely abide in the company of one who loves us.
May we know this intimacy with You first and foremost
and with humble bravery allow ourselves to be known.
Amen.
Thinking of Christ as not only our friend, but our best friend, like these writers of this liturgy, and the Psalmist in our first reading of scripture, it is easy to rejoice in our Lord’s love for us. There is no better feeling than knowing that we are chosen and we are loved by Christ as he was loved by his Abba Father.
Jesus takes it a step further by saying you are no longer called servants, but friends.
Why? Because a servant does not know what his master is doing, but you who are his friends, you who are chosen, now know everything that Jesus heard from his father.
This really gives us a new perspective, doesn’t it? I mean we hear over and over again how we are called into service for the Lord. And we are, but Jesus makes it very clear that we are called into service as his friends.
We do not have to go out alone as a servant might to do the work to which we have been called, but we go out as friends with Christ. As our dictionary definition noted, we have a mutual bond of affection. It’s not just an assignment, it’s a relationship.
Knowing this makes our everyday lives a little easier. We can get up each day, and say, “Come on Lord, let’s see what fruit we can bear today!”
No matter how many of our earthly friends disappoint us throughout our lives, we can awake each day knowing that we have a friend in Jesus waiting to greet us.
Now, let’s think about another children’s game, “Simon Says.” Now if you didn’t remember Red Rover, then certainly you remember Simon Says! When you play Simon Says, you do what the leader is telling you to do right? Sometimes what you are being told to do might be silly and funny, or it might be awkward and dreadful, but you have to do what Simon Says if you are going to play the game with your friends.
I clearly see the first part of our scripture as statements that could be inserted into the game of Simon Says, but Jesus is our Simon, so in our game, it is “Jesus Says.”
Jesus Says, “Abide in my love.”
Jesus Says, “Keep my commandments.”
Jesus Says, “Love one another.”
Now if you want to play the game of Simon Says with your friends, you have to do what the leader is telling you, no matter how silly or awkward or dreadful it may seem, you do it. The same is true in the game of Jesus Says!
Let’s take the word abide. The dictionary defines abide as to accept or act in accordance with (a rule, decision, or recommendation).
When I think of abide, I think of it not as just a fleeting thought or a momentary event, but something I live with. So if I want to have Jesus as my friend, I have to do what he says, and it starts by abiding with him in his love for me. Sometimes he asks me to do things that I’m not really comfortable with doing, or something that might seem difficult to accomplish. Yet, I’m learning each day as I walk this faith journey, I’m not asked to do these things on my own, rather I’m asked with my friend Jesus at my side, nudging me and leading the way.
We can’t just come here on Sunday mornings, and say hello to our friend, Jesus, and let that be enough, because that is not abiding with him.
If we are a true friend, we keep his commandment to love one another. That sounds easy enough, although sometimes it is not so easy.
Let’s explore two types of love. Mutual love and obedient love. Mutual love might be explained as a love shared between two people because one treats another one well and loves us back. It is often reciprocated love due to commonalities and understanding.
However, with obedient love, we choose to love, and by making the choice to love another, we might have to put away other things that might hinder that love. It’s a love that makes a commitment and looks past flaws to hold on to the commitment of loving another. This is the love Jesus commands us to have with one another. It may not flow up easily within us when we might find it hard to feel the warmth of friendship with another. Obedient love is when we love those who don’t love us back, or don’t love us in the way we expect or would desire.
However, Jesus Says, “love one another.” We can trust these words even when the other person doesn’t love us back. God’s love flows to us through Jesus, and it is God’s love that inspires and enables our love for others.
Because it is God’s love flowing through Jesus, our friend, we are able to get up each day as Jesus takes us by the hand, and leads us to the places where we are able to show obedient love that bears fruit. It may not always be an easy task or one we want to do, yet when we step out in faith to show this obedient love, we will find it is a fruit that feeds the hungry and shines God’s light into a world of darkness.
With God’s love inspiring us and enabling us, we are able to reach out to love others without backing down from the hatred in the world. Even in a hostile environment, obedient love can be a spiritual force that can be turned loose for the good of those who may not even recognize they are being loved at the moment. Obedient love certainly takes practice, and often strength and courage to show, yet when we allow it to happen, it can be powerful!
Friends, as we watch a world where tempers flare and evil seems to be infiltrating into our daily lives, let us remember that Jesus came into a world of darkness to shine the light of love. As he knew he was called to a third kind of love, a sacrificial love, he called his disciples together, his friends, and he said, “Love one another.” He said, “Abide in this love,” because he knew this was the oasis to which we can retreat when the world becomes too much for us to endure.
The love of God that flows through Jesus is a love that becomes a well from which we can draw when our love runs out. What a blessing!
When the world gets a little crazy around us, rather than dwell on all that seems wrong that seems bigger than us to be able “fix,” we can go to our friend, Jesus, and we can draw up a big bucket of love and drench ourselves with it, and we can know that God’s got this. And God’s got us because HE CHOSE US!
We might find happiness in a lot of things; however, only the love of God that comes through Jesus can lift us up above the trouble in our lives and the trouble in the world so that we can abide with God in complete joy. Sometimes we have to let go of things we cannot fix, and simply practice an obedient love, and let God do the rest.
When we love in this way, we may never see the results of the fruit, yet very often the seed is planted, left to grow outside our presence, nurtured and watered by a love that heals and brings complete joy.
What a friend we have in Jesus! To God be the glory!
(Silent Reflection)
[PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE and LORD’S PRAYER]
We sing for you, O God, for you are coming to judge the world with righteousness and fairness between nations and between people. We pray for the poor and the desperate as well as for those who abuse and oppress them, both here and abroad. Comfort those who suffer and are held against their will, and turn the hearts of those who cause suffering so that they release from their conscious the need for power. May your justice be known in all the earth. We pray for families, communities and nations torn apart by violence. Heal the broken places and fill your earth with peace. We pray for the sick and dying, for those who are friendless and lonely; for those living with grief or depression, and we pause now to remember those who have asked for our prayers, and for those who do not know how to ask for prayer
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Bring all these, we pray, your friendship and renew their joy. Fill us with the Holy Spirit so that we are alert to the needs of those in our midst, and those we pass along our every day journey in life, so they may also know your love and your joy. We pray for this church, that we bear fruit of peace, hope and love that spreads to others among us in our community, and may we share lasting fruit. For it is in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our friend, and in the Holy Spirit poured out on us, that we sing a new song to praise you as we joyously pray together, the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, Our Father, who art in Heaven………AMEN.