Friends of Jesus

Jesus tells us that we are his friends.  I wonder what that means for our everyday lives …

Friends

Psalm 98; John 15:9-17 

Each week when I begin my sermon writing preparations, I read the passages that I am going to use and listen for the words and phrases that “shimmer” for me – the ones that catch my attention and set my imagination working. This week that word was friend:

“I do not call you servants any longer, … but I have called you friends ..” [John 15:15]

So I went looking for hymns about friendship and discovered there are 68 hymns in the New Century Hymnal that use the word “friend.” But my choice for today’s prayer hymn was pretty easy – “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” is one of the few things I remember from my years in Sunday School. What I didn’t know then was that this hymn has an interesting story behind it. The words were written in 1855 by Joseph Scriven, an Irishman who moved to Canada after the tragic death of his fiancé on the eve of their marriage. He devoted his life to helping others, especially the poor and needy. He actually wrote the words we will be singing as a poem, and sent them to his ailing mother back in Ireland. The tune was written in 1868 by Charles Crozat Converse, and published in a book of children’s hymns in 1870. The words and music came together in 1880 and have been a comfort to untold numbers of Christians in the ensuring 129 years.

What strikes me about this hymn as I read it today, though, is what a limited picture it paints of having Jesus as a friend. It is a text that features these words: sins, griefs, pain, trials and temptations, burdens, weakness. Yes, these are part of the human condition, and when we are in their throes, we are indeed grateful for friendship – both divine and human. But these words do not describe the whole of the human condition, and they certainly do not describe the whole of friendship.

Jesus, I think, offers his disciples a much richer vision of friendship: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” [John 15:12-13]

The conventional reading of those words sees them as presaging the sacrifice that Jesus will make on the cross. But I think we can also hear those words as describing the quality of sincere and life-giving friendship.

Eugene Peterson, in his version of the Bible called “the Message” puts it this way: “Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends.” [John 15:12-13] These words help us to remember that Jesus put his life on the line for his friends in many ways, long before his death. He invited them to join him in his travels and his ministry. He spoke to them about the things that mattered most to him. Occasionally he chided them for the shallowness of their understanding or the limits of their generosity. He ate with them. When he was tired, he sometimes took them with him when he took time off. He challenged them to do things that they did not think they would be able to do. He encouraged them when they were afraid. He drew out the best in them.

That is the kind of friend that Jesus was to his disciples, and I believe it is the kind of friend that he is prepared to be for us, if we are willing to accept the invitation to be his friend.

Most of you have heard of Facebook, an online social networking site on the internet. The heart of Facebook is having “friends” – though I am quick to add, Facebook friends do not always, or even usually, have the qualities I am talking about this morning. But what is striking about becoming friends on Facebook is that someone must make an explicit invitation, and the other person must explicitly accept that invitation. It is only when a friendship is mutually established that all of the entertaining Facebook things begin to happen: sharing messages and photos, playing games, celebrating birthdays, organizing political campaigns, and so forth.

Today’s reading from John’s gospel reminds us that the “friend invitation” from Jesus is already out there in a particular form: “You did not choose me but I chose you.” [John 15:16] The divine invitation to friendship always comes first; we are the ones with the choice of accepting that invitation or ignoring it. In some sense, that is what it means to become a disciple of Jesus: to accept that offer of friendship, understanding that accepting the friendship of Jesus means accepting the commandment to love one another as he has loved us.

This is not a casual, Facebook style, request. This is an invitation to a way of life. And as if to reassure us in accepting this invitation, Jesus explains why he is asking: “I had said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” [John 15:11] Somehow, in modern culture, we have the idea that making a religious commitment is a solemn thing that requires us to be perpetually serious, ponderous, and possibly glum. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Making this commitment – saying yes to divine friendship – is a joyful thing that requires us to live in ways that are life-giving, enriching, and delightful.

Consider, for example, the psalm that we heard this morning (and sang a version of for our opening hymn): “O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.” [Psalm 98:1] The ancient poet invites us to sing, make music, and celebrate, because God’s love has shown itself all around us: the sea and the hills and the “floods” (which I hope means “rivers” in this context!). The tone is not melancholy or constrained; the joy is evident and exuberant.

I do not have the gift of writing hymn texts, but if I did, I would want to add a few verses to those penned by Joseph Scriven. I would want to write about Jesus’ companionship through all the events of our lives, not just the painful, suffering ones. I would want to write verses about Jesus challenging us to be more generous, more just, more compassionate that we could manage by ourselves. I would want to celebrate Jesus’ extravagant hospitality not just to those who are in need, but to those who are seeking a better way of life. I would want to find words to describe the solid, continuing presence of Jesus in the lives of faithful people, a presence that provides a grounding that is stronger than the winds of upset, change, and conflict. I would want to include a verse about the way Jesus takes joy from our joy, just as we rejoice when our human friends rejoice. I would, in short, like to expand this beloved hymn to reflect more fully what it means to have Jesus as a friend.

But since there are no new words for us to sing today, let me instead invite you to sing the words we have before us with the inner knowledge that they tell only part of the story. Let us sing with the belief that God’s love and Jesus’ friendship are far more complex and nuanced that any set of lyrics can reflect. And let us sing with the conviction that comes from accepting Jesus’ invitation to be his friends. Amen