6th Sunday of Easter May 21,2006 “Series B”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, you sent your Son, Jesus the Christ, to reveal your will and grace for our lives. He is our Lord and Savior, who gave his life to redeem us from our sin, and to restore us to a right and meaningful relationship with you, our Creator. And yet, he calls us his friends. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, help us to live according to Christ’s law of love, so that our discipleship will not be a solemn burden that we bear alone, but a shared experience of growth in faith, as we embrace each other, as he has embraced us. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
Last Sunday, following our worship service, Pastor Blair, in his usual way, greeted me with a comment intended to help me grow as a pastor. Ralph always has a comment for me. As a retired pastor, he has a lot more time than I do to keep abreast of current issues facing the church, and I think he sees it as part of his continued ministry to keep me up to date on these issues.
Ralph has even taken out a subscription for me to the Lutheran Forum magazine and newsletter, to help broaden my horizons. But perhaps the most treasured gift he has given me is a leather bound, four volume, two-year daily devotional, which has really helped in my personal spiritual development.
I have really come to enjoy Ralph’s support of me as a pastor, and his willingness to see me grow as a preacher. On a few occasions, Ralph would make the comment, “That was good Ron, very good.” On a few more occasions, he would suggest another illustration that I might use in the future to help emphasize the main point of the Gospel more vividly.
And then, there have been a few times that Ralph greeted me on the way out of worship with the words, “Ron, are you going to be in the office Tuesday morning?” Of course, not all of his visits on those Tuesdays pertained to my sermon. On some visits we talked about personal issues, theological issues facing the church, etc..
But there were times that Ralph came to offer truly meaningful criticism regarding my sermon – especially about my delivery. Apparently I have this habit of dropping my voice at the end of a major point that I was making, which he sometimes was unable to hear. Twice he mentioned this, and I would guess that he was not alone. So I apologize for that tendency, and promise to strive hard to overcome it.
But Pastor Blair isn’t the only one in our congregation that offers caring support to me as your pastor. Those who have participated in our Bible studies and various classes, who have challenged and reflected upon what I have presented, have offered their support. Those whom I have visited in the hospital, or in other crisis situations, and shared with me their deepest concerns, have offered their support. Those who have offered me their criticism and support in many number of ways, have offered me their support, and have helped me to grow in faith.
Thus, if I might dare to claim it, I look upon Ralph and the members of our congregation as true friends in Christ. And I don’t take friendship lightly. A true friend is one who really cares about you, who is willing to help you grow as a person. A true friend is one who will not only offer you encouragement and praise for a job well done, but also offer criticism in a constructive manner, when it is needed.
Quite often, it takes time and maturity to recognize what true friendship is really about. During our early years, we tend to think of a true friend as a person who agrees with us, and promises to keep silent when we engage in activities that we know are wrong. But that is not what it means to truly care for another person.
To be a friend means that we care enough to do and say what we believe to be in our friend’s best interest. If we are true friends, we will listen to what each other has to say, even when it might hurt. To be a true friend means to do what we can to help the person whom we love come to grow and develop into a stronger, more fulfilled, and more caring person. To be a true friend means to give of our self, for our friend’s welfare.
In our Gospel lesson for this morning, Jesus says, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I 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.
Think of the impact of these words! According to John’s Gospel, they were our Lord’s parting words to his disciples, spoken on the evening in which he was arrested – the evening before his crucifixion. They are a part of his farewell discourse with his disciples, as he was about to give his life for their welfare.
For the past three years Jesus the Christ, the very Son of God had taught the disciples and encouraged them to grow to live in relationship with God. He had at times praised them for a job well done, and at other times he had challenged them to think beyond the scope of their worldly existence, and grow to become more caring persons. Throughout those years he had helped them to develop as individuals, to deepen their faith, and to live their lives reflecting the grace of God.
During this time, the disciples had referred to Jesus as their Rabbi, their master, and as the Christ, the Son of God. He was their teacher and mentor. But here, on the eve of our Lord’s death, Jesus embraces them as friends! It is a term that implies that our Lord truly cares for his disciples personally, not just as students! It is a term that reflects true caring and love.
How often we, as Christ’s present day disciples, do we come to worship God on Sunday mornings – to offer our praise and thanksgiving for the Father’s gift of creation, Christ’s gift of redemption, and the Holy Spirit’s gift of inspiration and counsel – and yet fail to realize just how intimately God cares about us. How often we tend to think that God is “up there” somewhere, in his heavenly kingdom, deserving our praise, but rather aloof from our real lives here on earth.
This is perhaps more of a problem for those of us who worship in the liturgical tradition of the church, with our formal liturgies, than those who worship in a less structured formats, which tend to be more emotional. Yet the truth is, regardless of the structure of our worship, God does care about us personally!
Think about these words of Jesus, as he addresses us, his disciples, on the night before his crucifixion. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends… I do not call you servants any longer… but I have called you friends. Isn’t that an awesome thought! Don’t these words of our Lord challenge us to think of God in a different perspective?
God is not just some deity who sits on his throne in his heavenly kingdom, issuing rules and commandments for us to embrace in order to please him. He didn’t send Jesus into the world simply to teach his great precepts for a life of faith, and to reveal his redeeming grace. He didn’t just send his Holy Spirit to prod us to keep on the right path to confront our conscience with how we have strayed away from God’s will for our life.
God, the Supreme Being of the universe, did this, and continues to do this, because he truly cares about us. This is the true definition of “friendship.” God cares for us and loves us enough to want to see us grow to become better persons, more caring persons, more loving persons. God does this because he wants to see us grow into our full potential, that we might come to more fully enjoy life.
Jesus gives us the true definition of friendship, a model of what it means to truly care for one another. And he has called us into fellowship with each other, so that the friendship he offers us, might continue to be offered through us, to each other. Thus, I am thankful for all of those times in which you have offered to me support for a job well done, and for those times that you have encouraged me with constructive criticism. I am thankful that you care for me, as I care for you.
And finally, if I might return to Pastor Blair, and the comment that he made to me as he left worship last Sunday. Ralph had to supply this morning, and in preparation for his sermon, he borrowed some of my commentaries, and visited a web sight that I suggested might provide him with some help. Being that he had several weeks to prepare his sermon, he said to me, “Ron, next week you can preach on the grace of God. There is no better definition for grace, than Jesus saying, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.”
Well, I didn’t exactly follow Ralph’s advice, but I’m not that far removed from the theme of the sermon that he is offering this morning in Sharon. I have often heard that you can’t choose your relatives, but that you can choose your friends. I’m not so sure that this is true.
If we mean by this that we are able to choose to hang around with persons who share our interests and are of a like mind, I might agree. But a friend, a true friend is really one who chooses us, who chooses to really care for us and love us enough to give of themselves for our best interest. Christ’s point is true. A true friend chooses us! And therein we behold the loving grace of God.
Oh, and by the way, knowing that Ralph was not going to be here this morning, is not the reason that I chose to use him as an example in my sermon. I did call him and share with him in outline what I wanted to say. A true friend does not blindside another.
Amen.
