Easter 6B- May 6

John 15:9-17

            Growing up in central Illinois in the 1950’s & 60’s, I was a huge sports fan & spent many a night listening to baseball & basketball games on the radio. (For you younger folks, there were games on TV ONLY on some Saturdays or Sundays back then.) And one of the announcers I loved was the voice of the Bradley University Braves, Chick Hearn.

            Bradley was a national basketball power back then; & Chick Hearn had a voice & manner that made you feel like you were there at the game. It was clear & smooth. He was so good, in fact, that by the early 1960’s he became the voice of the LA Lakers & later was only the 3^rd announcer to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

            Now, thinking about Chick Hearn, I wish I had his silky voice to take you into a small, stone, chilly room, where Jesus and some guys--not chosen for their stellar spiritual resumes, but a few fishermen, a tax collector, & some others—are gathered for a special meal. I think Jesus has chosen these guys to make the point that anybody would do, anybody could be a disciple, anybody who could listen. Because it's the hearing that matters. Martin Luther said that the organ of faith is the ear; we walk by faith not by sight, because what we see often misleads."

            Now Jesus, who's just washed their feet & shared the Passover supper, opens his mouth, & we hear him say, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you." At first it's so lovely, warm, fuzzy--God is love, Jesus loves me, Love one another. But if I think about these words, I want to lift my finger & punch the button on the radio to get another station.

            You see, these guys had seen the way the Father loved Jesus. Oh yeah, they were dumbfounded by Jesus’ passionate intimacy with God; & they wanted in on that. But they had also seen what issued from that intimacy. How did the Father love Jesus? He had pushed him out of the comfortable confines of heaven down onto earth where, as a baby, Herod tried to kill him. The Father sent him into the wilderness for 40 days under assault by the devil trying to get his claws into him. The Father loved him by pressing him into conflict with the super pious & with violent bureaucrats who plotted to put an end to him. And the Father loved him by encircling him with friends who were total knuckleheads, never "got" what he was about, & who ran for the exits when he could’ve used a few friends.  How did the Father love Jesus?  Peril at every turn, demons to be cast out, the sick pulling on him, crowds pressing, no roof over his head, & then the worst conceivable end....

            We might wish Jesus had said something else, like: "As the Father has loved me...well, I’ll spare you all of that; I’ll love you differently; I’ll let you live on an island of ease & weave a spell of protection around you." But, no, it seems that Jesus' words of love are the same as the Father's; & if we abide in his love, we may lose the roof over our heads, we will battle devils, people will wrinkle their brows & be totally puzzled by our weirdness.

            Love is intriguing, isn't it? Jesus' friends seem to be massive failures as friends--but when our minds recoup from hearing Jesus say, "As the Father has loved me so have I loved you," we pick back up & hear him say, "You are my friends; no longer do I call you servants, but I have called you friends." I'm glad he said "called." I have "called" you friends. He doesn't say, "You have proven yourselves to be great friends." No, he simply--by divine fiat, the way God created the whole universe out of absolutely nothing--dubs them "friends."  Our only reaction can be to stifle a confused chuckle....Jesus calls us “friends?”

            So, what is a friend? Nowadays, for us, "friends" are people with whom you share interests, you have fun, you enjoy the same diversions. But in the ancient world, where Jesus said what he said, they had a cool notion of friendship. Aristotle said that a friend is somebody who helps you to be wise or to be good; & a few hundred years after Jesus said what he said, Soren Kierkegaard said that to love another person is to help that person to love God & to be loved is to be helped in loving God. I don’t know about you, but I often need some help in loving God; & here is Jesus, our ultimate friend, helping us knuckleheads to be wise & good, helping us to love God.

            Friendship can be hard. Aristotle said, "The opposite of a friend is a flatterer;" & Jesus would never flatter us or inflate our egos. But he does offer friendship. No, that's not right. He simply declares that we are his friends, like it or not, & irrespective of whether we've been good friends in return or not. We are the Body of Christ; we are the friends of God, as Jesus calls us…calls us near to himself. "Be near me Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay,” we hear at Christmas time, “close by me forever, & love me, I pray; bless all the dear children in your tender care, & fit us for heaven to live with you there."

            Fit us for heaven. I’m not fit; we’re not fit. So fit us for heaven. “Faith comes from hearing,” Paul tells us in Romans, “& hearing comes from the word of Christ.” Jesus calls us in dulcet tones that soothe our troubled lives. Jesus calls us his friends, & calls us to love God & to love one another as he has loved us—all the way to the cross & beyond. Hear the words of Christ. Amen.