Sermon Notes May 13 I John 5, John 15:89-17

John 15:9-17 Jesus says, no longer do I call you students/disciples but friends. The metaphor into specific relationships from the vine and the branches is now extended . Friendship presumes a basic equality. That is why I stand against the notion that parents can be friends with their young children. They are parents, not buddies. Friendship are chosen, or at least emerge from common experience. Jesus moves from the more unequal position of top-down teacher to student, disciple, image and speaks of friends. For some reason pop culture images of friendship have been circling around inside. In songs we have you’ve got a friend, thank you for being a friend,. Bette Midler sang you’ve got to have friends as does Elton John about the road being lighter when you have friends along the way.The eminent philosopher Bruce Springsteen sing I’ll wait for you/should I fall behind, wait for me.” At graduation for the Indianapolis children’s choir, the seniors would sing Friends by Michael W. Smith. Movies, too, see friendship and important relationships-Return of the Secaucus seven, Big Chill, In that film the Jeff Goldblum character says that he always felt his best when he was with this group of people. Four seasons. TV had Lucy and Ethel, the work friendships of MASH and Mary Tyler Moore, or the comedies from Happy days to Friends, How I Met your Mother, or Big Bang Theory. Joy is promised too in this ode to friendship, divine friendship. In surveys, joy does nto appear to be the first word to leap to mind when people describe christians. Gasow said a friend never gets in your way unless you are going down the wrong path. (Greek view of friends)When I was a kid we emphasized integration and openness to having friends from a variety of backgrounds. Now being inclusive has a more mandatory feel, and we have reacted against. it. We are now in a more affinity-based period, and our ambit of friendships seemed to have grown smaller. The unitive push of romance I don’t feel in friendship, so it is not the same soul in different bodies but 2 distinct selves who occupy the same social space, 2 souls who have found common ground. Addison wrote that friendship doubles our joys and divides our griefs.Proverbs 18 reminds us that a good friend may well stick by us closer than our deepest kin. Buddha spoke of friendship having a mutual sympathy. I realize that we often say that a sign of a good friend is that we can be apart for a good while and pick up where we left off fairly easily. I suppose that is true, but it is also true that neglect has left a lot of our friendship by the roadside. Jesus Christ calls himself our friend. How do we nurture that friendship? Perhaps we sing What a Friend We Have in Jesus in church or to ourselves.; I was reminded by one of my classmates back at Princeton that a brilliant attorney who left to study with us used to hum Blessed Assurance when he would get stressed, so it was like the soundtrack of Greek and hebrew classes.We can unburden ourselves to a friend and still be accepted as a friend. At its best, confession can be speaking with a spiritual friend to admit some wrong. What is therapy but having a professional friend weigh one’s troubles and perspective, to point out obstacles to well-being external or self-imposed?