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LINKS TO THE SERMONS |
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| “Friends” There is an old western movie called “Tombstone.”
It chronicles the career of the legendary Wyatt Earp and his time
in that Arizona cow town. Of course there is the shoot out at the
OK Coral and enough other shoot outs to satisfy all our needs for
regular infusions of violence. But the real story and the heart
of the movie is the development of the friendship between Wyatt
and Doc Holiday. It’s well worth renting the movie just to
follow that story; you can fast forward through all the noisy parts. The reason I remember that scene so completely is because I identify so completely. I have lots of acquaintances; I have them all over the country – people who are happy when I call or drop by, people whose company I enjoy and whose characters I admire. But my definition of what constitutes a true friendship is a lot more restrictive than that. Under my definition, if anybody has two or three people they can call friends, they are truly blessed indeed. A friend is someone to whom you can tell anything
about yourself, your past, your shadow side, without any fear that
they will think less of you because of it. A friend is someone to
whom you can say your most outrageous thoughts and they will know
exactly what weight to give it. You don’t need to put it in
context; the friendship has already done that. A friend is someone
who knows the song of your heart and will sing it to you when you’ve
forgotten the melody. I promised myself that I wouldn’t regale you with hospital stories when I got back to preaching. Most of you have plenty of your own and you know that no one wants to hear them any more than they want to see your operation scar. But, I suffer from the preachers curse; the preachers in the room will sympathize. No mater what I am doing, even rolling around in a hospital bed moaning in pain, I find a part of myself gleaning the experience for potential sermon illustrations. So,I have a metaphor for friendship that I just can’t pass up. It was the visit of my long time friend, Frank Yates to my hospital room at the worst of my ordeal that provided me with some new images suitable for preaching – not so poetic as the ones I just offered, but beautifully metaphorical. Here are a couple. You are a friend when you are a busy pastor and father of two rambunctious boys, one who has a baseball tournament that week which you must attend – You also teach two ethics classes at the University of New Mexico and since it is late August you really need to get those lesson plans ready for the Fall semester. Then the phone rings and it is the wife of an old friend whom you haven’t seen in nearly a year, nor spoken to except the occasional email. The voice says, “Your friend is in the hospital, can you come.” One of the things that is going on in your life along with everything else is that the roof of your house sprung a leak and you had the surprise expense of some major repairs. You can’t really afford the flight from Albuquerque to Los Angeles. But you don’t say any of that - you don’t even hesitate – you say, “I’ll be on the next flight out,” and you set everything else aside. That’s a friend. When you get there you would really like to get to the beach – don’t have any beaches in Albuquerque. But, you go to the hospital instead and volunteer to spend the night in one of those little roll-away beds so that you will be there if your friend needs an ice pack or help getting to the toilet or a hand to hold. The second part is even less poetic. Sometimes the combination of narcotic pain relievers and a shocked physiological system will create a heightened sensitivity to things. Climbing out from under warm covers to the blast of air conditioned air on you back or the touch of bear feet to the cold floor can send one into uncontrollable spasms of the shivers. Then to touch your skin to the cold metal of a toilet seat… Well, you get the picture. So in the time it takes for your friend to drag himself out of bed toward the potty chair, you spend that time rubbing you hand around the seat to try to warm it with friction. That’s a friend. So, what did you do while you were in California? Go to the beach? Disneyland? See any movie stars? No, I spent two sleepless nights in a noisy hospital wing listening to my friend moan and massaging his toilet seat with my hand. But it was better than any E ticket ride. I got to be with a friend in his hour of need and be Christ to him. That’s as good as it gets. Got to be a friend. The scripture lesson for today chronicles one of the most significant moments in the entire Bible and, indeed, in the history of the divine/human encounter – the moment when Jesus looked at his disciples and said, “I’m going to start calling you guys friends.” The relationship between teacher and student is well established and decidedly hierarchical – Master and disciple – Master and slave. They knew that when they signed on. But Jesus decided it was time to re-write the deal – because slaves just took orders. They didn’t know the strategy, the game plan. Jesus called them friends – invited them into the board room where the Father, Son and Holy Sprit worked out the plans for the salvation of humankind and the design for the church that would carry that plan to it’s fruition. The plan was simple really – humble ones self and take on the role of a servant. Would involve some personal sacrifice – putting yourself last. Might get some blisters from trying to warm up a bed pan with your hand. But, that is a wound that Christ will honor. And the one who bears it, Jesus will smile upon and call, friend. Our mission statement says that we are committed to make disciples of Christ and serve as Christ served. But we don’t serve like slaves, just following orders. We have been shown the big picture; what we are about with these random acts of kindness, compassion, forgiveness, is nothing less than bringing about the Kingdom of God. Jesus said it would come in little bits, like a mustard seed, like a little yeast leavens a whole loaf, like a single candle lights up a whole room. He told a story about one such random act of kindness; it sort of flies in the face of my elaborate definition of friendship since Jesus suggests that you can be that kind of friend to a total stranger. The hero’s name is unknown; we just call him the Good Samaritan. And when he got down off his donkey to help a stranger along the road the kingdom of God came – just in that place at that moment. That’s how the kingdom comes – little moments here and there until the world is transformed. Jesus said, “I’m not going to call you servants anymore, I’m going to call you friends and show you that by being friends you change the world, you help bring in the kingdom. That’s what you do for one another, constantly. I hear the stories every week. And you don’t do it grudgingly, you do it joyously because you know how important it is and you do it as a friend of Jesus. That’s what you’ve done for me the last few weeks. That’s what friends do and that’s how the kingdom comes. So what did you do while you were in Southern California? Go to the Beach? Go to Disneyland? See any movie stars? No, I spent time with a sick friend, I massaged a stainless steal toilet seat, and I helped bring in the Kingdom of God. My friend Jesus was pleased. And if he were telling this story I’m sure he would conclude with this admonition, “Go, and do likewise.” As always if you would like a DVD of a service please contact the church office.
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