2024-05-07
Brooke Strong
Sermon Text...
5-5-24 Federated Church Scripture & Sermon Rev. Betsy Wooster
Today’s passage from the gospel of John immediately follows the teaching about the vine and branches from last Sunday and comes immediately before Jesus is betrayed by Judas where soldiers and police with torches and weapons arrested and bound Jesus, took him to the high priest, then to Pilate and ultimately to the cross.
Here is what Jesus said to his disciples at the moment in time shortly before his arrest.
From the Gospel According to John:
9As God has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept God’s commandments and abide in God’s love. 11I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. 12 ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15I 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-Mother. 16You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that God will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
Let us pray: Gracious God, give us ears to hear what you are saying to your people across the ages, as we seek to live as followers in the way of Jesus. Amen.
Sermon:
Twenty-three years ago, my best friend gave me the book Anam Cara by Celtic author, philosopher, and scholar, John O’donohue, who wrote and taught about the rich gifts of Celtic spirituality and faith. Anam means soul and cara means friend. Soul-friend. We had become fast friends in middle school and high school, eventually were college roommates, and we remain fast friends, soul-friends, to this day.
When Jesus spoke to his disciples on that fateful night, and called them friends, my mind went back to anam cara. To be anam cara with Jesus is a gift from God. A friendship that is an act of recognition and belonging. It also begs the question: what does it mean to be chosen by God, by Jesus, as a friend? For us mortals, it seems surprising in a way. To be friends with God? Think how it must have felt to those disciples who followed and served Jesus, who claimed him as the son of God and their redeemer.
The idea of Jesus befriending them, befriending us, suggests that he is opening us to the deepest temple of his spirit, where his presence and life can ground our lives.
While our friends in this life are an amazing and grounding gift, there is something unique, something deeper, about Jesus calling us friend. For instance, at the same time Jesus claimed his disciples as friends, he also gave them a directive, a commandment to love one another as he has loved us. So, this is different from most friendships we have. We don’t expect our friends to give us commands. It might feel like our friends are telling us what we should do, and indeed they might be, especially when their suggestions are for our good.
Jesus had chosen his friends in ministry and then had appointed them, directed them, to continue the ministry of love that he was living out. He needed them to be his voice, his hands and feet in the world. He handed them the baton; he needed them to stay in the race for love and justice in the world. Jesus has handed us the baton; he needs us to stay in the race.
We are Jesus’ Anam Cara, soul-friends. We rely on and trust in him to lead our lives in the way of love. Of all the commands we might receive, doesn’t the command to love one another say everything we need to know about Jesus? I think it is helpful to be commanded to love one another, to be in community with one another in this love. We are not called to do the work of love by ourselves. Sometimes love is work. Aristotle wrote that “patience is required to develop real friendship.”
The book of 1st Corinthians reminds us that love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. So there we have it, love is both beautiful and it takes work. The scripture passage describes the intention of love even when we are not always our best. God’s commands are always intended for the good, intended to bring resolution, healing, and love, always love. The commandments take work because the work is important. That kind of love doesn’t always come naturally, it’s not always easy, especially when we are worn out, when we have little gas in our tank, and we feel the burdens we carry. And love takes work when it comes to people we find hard to love, for whatever reason.
It’s hard to do by yourself. Taking on the work of love with one another is so much easier, so much better, than trying to love and save the world by ourselves. Even Jesus didn’t go it alone! He called the disciples to follow him, to be with him to carry out the work of love.
Notice that Jesus did not name just one or two of the disciples his friends, but calls them all, as a group, his friends. He trusted them with his friendship, even though he knew they would sometimes fall short, and he knew they would need each other, to carry out his ministry in their lives ahead.It’s as if Jesus is using the words love and friendship as one and the same. Friends care for each other through mutual commitment and affection.
We can’t have a close friend if there is an absence of love for them. We may know and appreciate a lot of people, but we love our friends. Jesus uses the word love 9 times in today’s 8 verses of scripture. The biblical stories about Jesus and the disciples focus on the details of Jesus’ ministry… where they were traveling, who they encountered, miracles performed, and more. What we don’t hear as much are the stories of laughter together, of ribbing each other about their foibles, sharing about their families, holding each other up when the work and travel were hard. But these things surely happened.
They were a band of brothers, hiking, and camping together for a very long time with the One who chose them to be with him on the journey. Who is Jesus to you? Do you recognize your value in the eyes of God? If you are Jesus’ disciple, follower of the way he lived his life as the incarnation of God among us, how does it change you? An even better question: “how do we allow the love and passion of God to change us?” Do we love God the way we love our dearest friends? One way to know this love, is to do as God has commanded, by leaning on one another, by joining the community of God’s people where we work together to love the world as God has loved us. What are your gifts? What can you bring? You can bring love. Love is always the best place to start.
I bet you can think of friendships that have helped to shape your life. The attributes of your friends became your attributes. Maybe a friend has deepened your appreciation for a style of music, or an author, or helped you to discover that you love Brazilian food. Maybe you’ve even picked up a speech mannerism or a phrase that your friend uses all the time, just because you spend time together. Friendship will change you. Friendship with Jesus will change you, just by spending time to abide in God’s love – to dwell in God’s love. Of course by spending time in God’s love we will become more loving with another.
O’donohue writes that with your anam cara you open the eternal. In this soul space there is no distance. With our soul friends, we don’t even need to be together. Soul friends can be influential even when we live miles apart, even at a great distance. Why would it not be even more so with Christ? Jesus speaks of love, telling us to abide in his love, the love that abiding in God creates within us. O’donohue’s description of the Anam Cara and Celtic tradition teaches us the kind of friendship that Jesus created for his disciples and for us.
When we recognize what a gift friendship is, then we remain open to the blessing that it brings to our lives. What if the idea of Jesus befriending us, means he is opening us to the deepest temple of his spirit, where his presence and life can ground the unfolding of our lives? Friendship is life giving. Friendship with Jesus eternally life giving.
As Jesus has named it, friendship is the nature of God. So of course, it is in our nature, too. We, you and I, are made in God’s image, and like God, we cherish deep friendship, for the mutual commitment and love that defines it. Think for a moment about your best friends over the course of your life. It is the time you have shared together that has shaped you. It is the way you were honest and vulnerable with them, and they loved you just as you were. It is the way that you can still count on them, even after a distance of years and miles.
So does Jesus shape you with deep friendship, he who has called you friend, your Anam Cara. Thanks be to God, Amen.