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Friendship
SERMON – 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 17th January 2009
Revd. Canon David Pickering
John 15; 13,14 &15a
13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15 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,
My Hungarian daughter-in- law is mad about Friends, the TV programme. This is a great help when it comes to buying Birthday and Christmas present. We just purchase the next DVD.
A year or two ago there was a lot of fuss about the book and the film, the De Vinci Code.
A number of Christians felt it was blasphemous in the way it portrayed Jesus. Neither the book nor the film interested me and I felt the protests and boycotts just gave more publicity.
I think there are far greater blasphemies in the world.
To me the De Vinci Code is just a fanciful story based on Jesus.
Presenting him in a certain light and giving a particular angle on his person and character.
What's new? This has been happening down the ages.
Who was and is this Jesus?
Was he like a rabbi, attracting students to learn from him?
He was certainly a teacher.
Was his movement political, gathering recruits?
He crossed the political powers of his time and place.
Was he a philosopher, addressing anyone he could get to listen and hoping that some would become his disciples?
People hung on his words.
Was he a man with a mission, needing helpers to spread his message?
He came proclaiming the good news of the rule of God's love and goodness.
All these models apply to Jesus in one way or another, but none fit perfectly.
And this morning Jesus offers another one; the disciples were simply his 'friends' and he was theirs.
He is our friend and we are his.
'Friend' is not just a word of loose association. It can and should have depth and strength.
The ancient world reflected a great deal about friendship. People saw it as essentially a mutual or reciprocal relationship. To be friends, two persons needed to be in a relationship of equality, being able to give and receive advantages from each other.
Jesus' definition seems to go along with this. He recognises that those whom he calls friends cannot also be his 'servants', and the Greek word that is used, 'doulos' can mean 'slave'. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing.
Jesus also includes another important factor in friendship. These words also occur in this morning's gospel reading; I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. Friends should not have secrets from one another; Jesus shares with his friends everything he knows, even his privileged knowledge of God.
But there is a difference about this friendship, which at first sight seems rather daunting. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
It's a bit like the school bully: Do what I tell you and you can be in my gang.
Can a friendship with Jesus depend on some kind of slavish obedience?
Certainly not, when we see and understand his commandment.
Verse 12 this morning: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
The one commandment that Jesus gave us; that we love one another.
Let's also go back to the very beginning of the passage; As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 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. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
Here we see love and joy coming together, the basic ingredients of true friendship.
Friendship is shared interests that bring mutual joy and happiness, leading to love and affection for one another.
Love and joy are two sides of the same coin.
Two sides and the same coin, and that coin is God.
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