6th Sunday in Easter

May 17th, 6th Sunday in Easter

John 15: 9-17

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.

Quite often I will sit down to write a reflection with one idea or theme in mind and end up with something totally different. In this week’s Gospel, Jesus is telling us the essence of Kingdom ministry: love one another, which will cause us to bear fruit, which will cause us to love one another, which will cause us to bear more fruit…a luscious stream of flowing life. So, I wrote a whole reflection on that. It was fine but something wasn’t sitting right inside me. The phrases that kept coming to my mind were, “I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father” and “You did not choose me but I chose you.”

Have you ever heard the saying, “You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your relatives”? We all know that we are part of God’s family and that we are daughters and sons of God. We talk about being sisters and brothers in Christ and about God being our Father. There is so much in scripture that speaks of our familial relationships to God and to each other.

But…friends? Friendship is an intimate relationship. We all have scads of casual acquaintances but there are only a few people we would call very good friends, and when it comes to revealing the most secret parts of our thoughts and feelings, there may be only one person we feel completely safe with. A real friend is carefully chosen. A real friend is a precious gift.

Friends listen, really listen, to each other. Good friends are usually similar to each other and share a lot of preferences and points of view. Good friends hear each other’s joys and heartaches and empathize deeply with all the experiences the other one is going through. Good friends have an ongoing connection and know instinctively what is important to each other and will support each other in each one’s dreams, desires and visions.

Jesus said, “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Of course. Real friends hear the inner heart of each other and would never knowingly undermine or ignore what is truly important to the other. Jesus is asking his disciples – and us – to move from the master/servant relationship into a real friendship. Jesus pours out to his true friends all that has been poured into his heart by the Father and what has been poured into his heart isn’t just a bunch of rules that encourage us to “be nice and play nice.” What has been poured into Jesus’ heart is Joy. Life. Awesome love for his people. Passion. Compassion. An understanding that whatever this earth holds, it is nothing compared to dancing with the Father and being filled with the wonder of a relationship with him. This is what he wants to pour into our hearts. This is the fruit he speaks of. These are the things that create love in our hearts for others. He longs to share these things with his friends.

Good friends love to share things with each other. It could be a sharing of pain and wounds but it doesn’t stop at that. When I see a great movie, when I read a fantastic book, when I hear an amazing speaker, when I have a mystic and wonderful experience, who is the first person I want to share these things with? My best friend, because I know how much she’ll appreciate my experience and be open to having her own experience of something that gave me such pleasure. There is then huge satisfaction in having that experience together and being able to discuss it with each other. This is the kind of friendship Jesus wants with me and with you.

Jesus has chosen me, as an individual, to be his friend. This indicates longing on the part of Jesus to have more of a relationship with me than that of a master giving commands and directions to a servant or slave. He desires to have intimacy with me. He longs to share with me what he has experienced and learned from his Father because he knows I will love it. He knows it will make a huge difference to who I am, how I feel about myself, how I grow, how I walk with others and what I have to share with those I meet on my journey. Fruit. I will have exquisite fruit to share and I will be excited to share it and to share in the fruit of others.

There is another reason he longs to share all these things with me. He is lonely for my companionship.

He is lonely for yours as well.

You know that nameless and floating anxious desire you sometimes experience? The one where you know you want something really badly but you just can’t put your finger on what it is? It’s a kind of inner restlessness or hunger but food doesn’t satisfy and nothing you can think of seems like it would be the thing to make that longing go away. That’s the longing for the friendship of Jesus and it is in your heart only because he is longing for you. It is the sensation of being chosen. He aches so much to share with you all that the Father has poured into his heart and he knows how it will fill you in ways you cannot comprehend. He knows your heart, your desires, your wounds and your longings for something you can’t identify. He knows what you want and what you need. He knows you as only as a best friend can know you.

He knows your heart. Do you know his?

He wants you to be his friend. Are you?