Invited into Friendship

John 15:9-17

On the night of his arrest, Jesus delivers a final testimony to his disciples to help them in the days ahead. Here, he repeats the most important of all his commands, that they love one another.

[Jesus said:] “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
 “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. 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. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

The Art of Letting Go II by Cody F. Miller. Copyright © Cody F. Miller.

Ask any child who has moved to a new place and they will probably confirm that their biggest worry was if they’d make new friends. Parents worry for their teenager and young adult in each stage of growth, wondering if new friends will be kind and generous, if their daughter or son will find mutually beneficial relationships. Adults are not immune from their own relationship trials. Busy lives, competing priorities, transitions and death can mean the end of sustaining relationships. Bullying, fear-tactics and misuse of others are common problems, so friendship is precious. We treasure new friendships and work to keep tending those that last for many years—because we need them.

Jesus' words inspire and compel us to love one another and see one another as God does. As the Holy Spirit falls on those outside the inner circle of the circumcised, Peter asks how the water of baptism can be withheld. ... Jesus says followers are no longer servants but friends. So whether they are a stranger with different customs and practices, our family member, or closest friend, we are called today with the challenge and opportunity to love them. The promise is that this unconditional love that comes first from our Creator and Parent, expressed through the person of Jesus and through the Spirit, is splashed all over us, and will make our joy complete.

For those who have experienced great relationships in their lives and for those who have never yet quite tasted that sustaining fruit, Jesus shows how much he loves us and the ways to cultivate deeper relationships. Jesus laid down his life to show his great love. We’re invited to love expansively and experience the joy of friendship with Jesus and through the body of Christ.

from Sundays & Seasons

Connected for Life

A parent stands at the bus stop on the first day of school with a kindergarten student. Another parent lingers in the doorway of a first-year dorm after unloading the final box from the car. These parents are entering new times they will not be present to help their children make some important life choices, and words of advice slip from their lips—eat your sandwich before your dessert, share with others, don’t drink and drive, remember who you are. After years of preparation, their children step toward greater independence.

   

Jesus lingers with the disciples before his death and prepares them for the time when he will no longer be present day to day to help them make their way in the world. Words slip from his mouth: “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). These are difficult words as the disciples try to make sense of Jesus’ impending death and the promise of his continued presence.

   

“Apart from me you can do nothing” may also be a difficult word for a self-reliant, individualistic culture such as our own, focused on personal achievement and success. God is the vine grower, Jesus the vine, and we the branches, who, separated from the life-giving vine, can do nothing.

   

Yet, these are gracious, gospel words from Jesus. He’s been preparing his disciples for years to take this step. These are words that point not toward individualistic, self-reliant independence but toward dependence on the one whose life defies death and whose perfect love casts out all fear. Connected to the vine, these branches are given a death-defying life free from fear. These are gracious, gospel words from Jesus that point to a community nourished by this life-giving vine and bearing fruit for the sake of the world.

  

from Sundays and Seasons

Exhale...inhale...

Jesus breathes on his disciples (John 20:22), beginning the respiratory cycle with this exhalation. The disciples presumably complete it, inhaling the breath that Jesus has exhaled.

Morgan Harper Nichols, in her book Peace is a Practice, describes both the inhale and the exhale: “Inhaling is the act of taking it all in. It’s making room for inspiration. . . . To exhale is to say: I’ve done the work I can do. I’ve taken in what I can take in. Now is the time to release. Let it go.” (Morgan Harper Nichols, Peace Is a Practice, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2022, pp 14-18).

Jesus has done his work. Now he releases the work of forgiveness to his disciples. He sends them, just as the Father sent him (20:21).

from Sundays & Seasons

Resurrection Power

Wounded Resurrection Power Restores Community

Jesus’ resurrection confronts the sadness and loneliness of Thomas’s doubt. Many people in congregations left Easter Sunday’s celebration of the resurrection with feelings similar to those of Thomas. Somehow, Thomas was not in the right place at the right time to see Jesus show up in the flesh. No doubt, people in the pews can relate to Thomas’s missed opportunity. Perhaps they were unable to attend a family Easter gathering. Maybe a bunch of friends had box seats to the hottest game in town, and they were not able to afford one. Maybe a chemo treatment interrupted an opportunity for career advancement. Human beings are endlessly plagued with feelings of not fully belonging to the group, and they desire a saviour to use magical power to restore perfection.

Time and again, the disciples seek a messiah who overwhelms them and the world with crushing military might and magical cures. Today, the power of the resurrection is most realized in the real, deep wounds of Jesus’ own body. Without those wounds and the real sacrifice that God made on the cross, Thomas’s faith would always be hobbled by his overwhelming doubt. Yet people still ask: how can God’s reality of overflowing love and life confront and transform our parched world and wounded bodies?

Jesus makes faith happen today by breathing the Holy Spirit upon the disciples and blessing them with peace. He shows Thomas and all God’s people that the life-changing resurrection embraces the wounds all people carry. God the Creator’s peace, Jesus’ wounds, and the breath of the Holy Spirit lead Thomas to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. Then, Thomas trusts God to care for his body and his life. Just like Jesus’ ministry prior to the cross, Jesus reaches for the outsider and restores Thomas to his place in the community.

from Sundays & Seasons

Radical Hospitality

Following Matthew’s call in Matthew 9, "Follow me", a group of religious folks express their disdain for Jesus’ inclusive table practices. He dines with “tax collectors and sinners,” expanding his circle of welcome far beyond the bounds of what was culturally expected or acceptable.

This moment presents an opportunity for us to think about our own practices of hospitality. Are our dinner guests primarily those who look and think just like we do? Do our social gatherings mirror the broad and inclusive welcome of Jesus?  

What would radical hospitality look like for us?