Let's Be Friends

May 10^th, 2015                            “Let’s Be Friends”                      Rev. Heather Jepsen

John 15:9-17 with Acts 10:44-48

          Our gospel reading for this morning picks up where we left off last week.  This reading is from what scholars have come to call the final discourse, which is Jesus’ last big speech in the gospel of John.  The setting is the last supper of the gathered community.  Jesus has washed the disciples’ feet, giving them an example of service and love, and they have shared a final meal of bread and wine.  The betrayal has been predicted and Judas has left the group.  Jesus then begins a huge sermon, redefining faith and the community.

          Our reading for this morning is also the traditional reading during Thursday night of Holy Week.  In fact, we call that night “Maundy Thursday” based on this reading where Jesus gives a new commandment or mandate.  You will remember from last week that Jesus has been teaching about the disciples’ need to abide or live in him.  He gives the wonderful example of vines which bear fruit only when they are connected to the root.  As we discussed last week, the church fits into this idea as the community that abides in the root of Jesus Christ.

          In today’s reading, Jesus gives the disciples a new commandment a new mandate for a life of faith.  “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”  Jesus explains again that the love he shows is a self-sacrificing love, a love that puts the needs of others first.  Jesus goes on to say that the disciples are no longer to be thought of as servants or slaves, which is closer to the Greek.  Instead, Jesus is calling the disciples his friends.

          This week, I was really caught up in this idea of friendship and what it means to be friends in our world.  On Facebook I have 272 friends.  That seems like a lot.  In reality about two dozen of those people are actually my friends and about 200 of them are friendly people that I know.  Some of those people, I don’t even think I’ve ever met.  It’s easy to be friends when it simply involves clicking a “yes” button on a computer screen.

          In what I would call the real world, (the place of physical interaction, face to face discussion, handshakes, and sharing) most of us don’t have over 250 friends.  Being a friend takes a lot of work.  I have friends on Facebook that have opinions that I really don’t agree with.  It’s a lot easier to scroll past that on a computer screen than it is to actually have a face to face discussion with those people about politics, gun control, Obama, or whatever else it is that’s bugging them.  To be friends in the real world isn’t easy.

          In fact, the real world often makes it extra hard to be friends.  The world around us seeks to divide us into separate camps.  Like some sort of strange game, we are often forced to choose sides in opposition to each other.  Democrats and Republicans, Gays and Straights, Meat Eaters and Vegetarians, Pro Gun and Pro Gun Control; the divisions in our world are endless.

          Of course, I would be blind if I claimed we had no divisions in the church.  Catholics and Protestants, Methodists and Lutherans, Good ol' PCUSA and Cumberland Presbyterian; there are plenty of dividing lines in our own ranks as well.  One could lament that things have really gone downhill as far as this friend thing is concerned, but I would wager it has probably always been this way.

          Take our story in Acts for example.  Peter, present in both of today’s readings, has become a leader in the early church.  He has a pretty good idea of who the friends of the church are, and that includes good Jews who are converting to the message of the new Jesus community.  Peter’s idea of church does not include Gentiles.  See, there’s that separation!

          Prior to our reading, a Gentile named Cornelius sends for Peter as he has been commanded by the Lord.  Around that same time, Peter has that crazy vision of the sheet.  You might remember the story.  Peter is sleeping up on a roof when the Lord grants him a vision of a sheet laden with all the unclean foods and God tells Peter to eat what Peter has been taught his whole life not to eat.  And we have this great line, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”

          Peter travels on and runs into the Gentile Cornelius.  Jews were not supposed to associate with Gentiles but Peter is able to make the connection that just as the food is no longer unclean, perhaps the Gentile people are no longer unclean.  Peter visits Cornelius’ house and while Peter is sermonizing the Holy Spirit interrupts and everyone there starts praising God in their own native languages.

          Those of the old way of thinking, the circumcised believers in Peter’s posse, can’t believe that God would give the Holy Spirit to outsiders.  But Peter had an inkling this might happen and he suddenly calls for all of the people to be baptized right away, without the usual pre-baptismal work of circumcision and confession of faith.  Peter baptizes all the people that are there, he includes the outsider Gentiles into the insider Jewish community.  And in the best part, the Cornelius and the other Gentiles invite Peter to stay with them in their home for several days.  In inviting Peter to stay in their home, Cornelius and his community are inviting Peter to be friends.  I would imagine Peter’s response would be similar to that of Jesus, “I do not call you outsiders any longer, but I have called you friends.”  It’s a wonderful story.

I think these two readings have a lot to say about friendship in our own world today.  I believe that this church community was created to be a community of friends.  Within the community we are called to be friends with each other.  Like our reading from last week, we are all together woven into the body of faith. 

          I read a great quote this week from preacher Tanya Barnett who says “Individualism values our unique, God-given blessedness and gifts.  Individualism can also exaggerate our sense of self-importance to the point that we are cut off from the knowledge that everything God creates, sustains, and redeems is sacred.”  Like the image of the vine, the church is a place where we are unique branches and yet we are connected in the faith.  We can celebrate our gifts as individuals, but in a culture which places an overemphasis on individualism, the church can be a wonderful reminder of the gift of connectedness.  I cannot be a friend if I remain alone, I can only be a friend when I am connected to others in community.

          The unity of the church is a witness to the love of God in a world that is broken and divided.  As such, the church community is called not only to embrace friendship within its ranks, but to be a friend to the world as well.  This community of faith strives to be a friend to the world.  From my preaching on justice at the MLK service to my voice in the community for Medicaid expansion, I have been representing this community of friends as a friend to those in need in our world.  From our support of the Food Center, to our renewed commitment to the Hunger Takes No Vacation project, we are a friend to the world and to those in need in our community.  In our trips to Malawi, we are a friend to the world as we seek to share genuine friendship with those in need who live far away.

          Along this line of thinking, the Mission committee has suggested that we take up a special offering for the people of Nepal.  Our denomination is already working in a hands on way in that community through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.  While we may not be in a position to physically go and offer help, we are in a position to support their ministry as a friend of the world.  The mission committee has pledged $750 to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance work in Nepal and we will be passing the offering plate at a special time next Sunday so that each of us have an opportunity to share in that blessing.  This is a chance for you to be a friend of the world.

          Today we are gathering at the communion table and we spoke last week about the uniting image this table gives us.  When we gather here, we gather as equals and we gather as friends.  Just as Jesus dined with those he called friends, we remember him as we dine together as friends.  We eat the same bread, we drink the same cup, and we serve each other, a community of friends.  And as we learned in our reading from Acts, here at the table everyone is welcome.  Visitors, guests, people from other churches, people with only a budding curiosity of faith, children, the elderly, those that are ill, and those that are strangers; all are welcomed to this table as friends.

          And so the message today is “Let’s be friends.”  Not just Facebook friends where I can “like” what you are doing or simply ignore you; but real friends where we share our lives together, and where we support one another with love.  And let this community of friendship be a friend to the world.  May we speak up for the needs of those that live down the street and those that live across the globe, and may we do all that we can to live into the friendship that Jesus calls us to.   Let us remember that our God is one who no longer calls us slaves, but calls us friends.  Amen.