Living out God’s Friendship in Community
Because the last words of Jesus are the last words he spoke to his friends, they come to us with a gravitas or weightiness. I promise you, if I know I have one last night with my family to communicate with them, I will weigh my words carefully. I have lived in the three chapters of John that record the last words of Jesus to his friends for some time now and the thing I keep coming back to is the simplicity of what he says.
Jesus' three years with his disciples is over, and on the next day he will go to the cross. Humanly speaking, God's mission to heal all the broken things of the world rests on the weak shoulders of Jesus' disciples. So it seems like this time would be best spent outlining how the disciples will strategically go about this grand mission. And yet, Jesus really does not do that. Rather what he talks about is deep friendship with God and deep friendship with each other in the community.
Somehow, on what must seem to the disciples like the world's last night, Jesus' vision is that they be deeply connected with God and the people in their community. And here is what is interesting--you really can't have deep friendship with God and not intuitively go after deep life-giving friendship with other believers.
Some have imagined that this is possible - that you can look to Jesus deeply and yet be indifferent to other believers, or they have imagined that if you really go after deep friendship with other believers it will detract from a deep friendship with God. Nothing could be further from the truth. Join us Sunday and we'll talk. This is good stuff and will only take you deeper into a robust and messy life of community!
Blessings,
James M. Holland