RCL Easter 6B
5 May 2024
Church of the Epiphany
Surrey BC
On my father’s side I am a descendent of some of the earliest European settlers to what are now the states of New York and Massachusetts. My ancestors came from a variety of Christian backgrounds including the Religious Society of Friends or, as they are more commonly known, the Quakers.
The early Quakers were committed to the equality of women and men as well as being pacifists. Their pacificism was not popular during the American Revolution and even caused divisions between Quakers themselves as to whether they ought to pay taxes they knew would go to the war effort.
The story is told that during the battle of Saratoga, a battle fought in part on my family’s farm on the banks of the Hudson River, members of my family gathered with other Quaker neighbours to pray. Their meeting place was surrounded by British soldiers. When the soldiers realized that people were Quakers, the soldiers are said to have stacked their muskets and joined the Quakers for prayer. Whether this act of kindness contributed to the defeat of the British and the victory of the Americans will for ever remain a mystery!
For Quakers the Gospel according to John has always been one of their more important theological authorities. Today’s reading from John 15 forms the foundation of the Quaker approach to Christian discipleship and is the source of the official name of the movement, the Religious Society of Friends (emphasis added). To be a disciple of Jesus means many things, but to Quakers it means friendship.
According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, a philosopher well-known to many early Christians, there were at least three kinds of friendship. [1] One kind of friendship we might call ‘useful’ friendship. Such friendships are socially beneficial. In the world of the early Christians much of social life was shaped by such friendships. You might remember the saying, ‘It’s not what you know but who you know.’ This was the world in which John’s gospel was read. But this is not the friendship that John means.
A second kind of friendship is ‘pleasurable’ friendship, friendships that are based upon shared interests or activities. For many years I followed my younger son’s rugby team on its various adventures. During the course of those years I made the acquaintance of many other parents, some of whom I might call ‘friends’. But, since my son’s ‘retirement’ from the game due to recurring shoulder injuries, I have little or no contact with these adults. I’m sure that, if I were to meet them again, we would have a pleasant time, but the base of our friendship no longer exists.
It’s the third kind of friendship that today’s gospel invites us to share. This is friendship for the sake of friendship. It requires physical presence and availability that ought not to be stretched too thin. Such friendships can teach us how to love ourselves and others as God loves us. It is friendship based on agapē, that love that “ . . . is primarily concerned in the good of the other person, rather than one’s own. It does not attempt to possess or dominate the other. Nor is it limited by the scarcities that are imposed by time and space: one can have a few good friends and fewer lovers; but one can have agapē for all.” [2]
There are many ways we describe the Christian community, but as someone who has spent his entire life within that community, a community of friends is what means most to me. I do have friendships of ‘the third kind’ with people who are not members of a religious community, but most of my friendships are with people within the Jewish and Christian communities. Socially these friendships are not ‘useful’. They are friendships that share particular activities such as worship and theological and spiritual exploration. But I think that, for the most part, they are friendships in which we value each other simply because we are who we are. I remember a fridge magnet we had that read ‘Friends don’t judge you by your housekeeping skills.’
As I begin this new ministry among you as the interim priest in charge, I hope that we will become friends. I hope that we will discover ways over the coming months
· to grow into the words of Christ;
· to grow into joy;
· to grow into friendship, and
· to grow into an understanding of what it means to be chosen by Christ. [3]
There is no doubt that this Parish and so many others faces significant challenges. There is no doubt that there are times when we feel disappointed or discouraged or doubtful. Replacing furnaces and caring for aging buildings can test the best of us. But friends walk with each other – even when we can’t fix what’s wrong, we can at least sit with one another. Challenges are not so daunting when they are shared.
But our friendship has yet another dimension. As disciples of Jesus, as friends of Jesus, we are called beyond ourselves to offer friendship to the community among whom we live and serve. We are to be the friends of this neighbourhood by doing what is within our power and ability
· to promote health relationships in families and communities;
· to embrace strangers, and
· to promote meaningful encounters between people of different cultures and even different faiths. [4]
Jesus said, “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.” [5]
When friends gather, something greater than the sum of the parts happens. When friends gather, battles stop and, if only for a moment, peace reigns and the possibility of a new future can be glimpsed. My friends, we are Christ’s friends now, but what we shall become remains to be seen. But God, working in us, does do infinitely more than we can ask or even imagine.
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