“Grounded and Connected”

Will you pray with me?

Have you ever considered that the words you hear in one time and place might have a different meaning and impact in another time and place? Sure you have. The words, “I love you, and I hope you are doing well” are nice to hear, but delivered from your bedside in the hospital, or spoken by someone you’ve loved and lost, they have a different impact than in a greeting card created to follow a national holiday schedule.

Imagine, if you will, standing next to Jesus as he speaks the words of his gospel of absolute love. “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 your Joy may be complete.” (V9-12)

Granted, the gospel writer John repeats these words some time after Jesus said them, but they still revealed the gospel of Jesus’ Love. They still sound real and alive today. There is something deeply sensual, deeply spiritual in the hearing of these words. They are specific – not a parable.

Although I wasn’t around for the Second World War, I am intrigued by President Roosevelt’s now-famous fireside chats on the radio. In terrible times, he spoke in a tone that was comforting and assuring. He led the listeners through the map of Europe, showing and telling them where our troops were. Nothing he said changed the dire circumstances of the day, but he made an honest effort to calm the hearts of the people, as best he could. His listeners said they could hear his assurance, and they were drawn by his leadership and by the cause of the nation. Maybe the need for the family to sit around the radio – to listen, and then imagine the situation overseas – drew people’s attention. But, even more importantly, the listener was right there live, and Roosevelt was in the room.

As a kid growing up in Indiana I was an avid baseball fan, just like I am today. Back then, I cheered for the Chicago Cubs and the White Sox. I got to go to a game now and then, but not often. My connection to my teams was deeply emotional – and on the radio, because we didn’t have a TV set then. My radio was a big wooden box with the fabric-lined cutouts where the speakers were, and it looked more like a church organ. It was not technically sophisticated. In fact, it was so bad that even the static was hard to hear. Sometimes I sat bent over, with my ear to the radio, trying to hear the game. Then something remarkable happened. I was shocked, literally, but I found the solution to hearing the words of the announcer. There was a loose wire on the back of this bulky radio. One day I inadvertently grabbed it and got a shock. But, to my surprise, the sound of the radio improved to near perfection – if I just held onto the ground wire. I could hear all I wanted to hear; if I just stayed grounded, I would be connected.

So I would wrap the wire around my finger at night, listening to my games. As I fell asleep, the wire would fall off, but I had achieved what I wanted and needed. I was comforted by the words of the announcer. I felt as if I was there in Wrigley Field or Commiskey Park. I just needed to hear the words, and my mind and heart did the rest of the work. I was grounded and connected, just like the disciples as they heard the beautiful words of assurance in Jesus’ gospel told to us by John.

In the scripture reading, Jesus is about to leave the disciples, and he is offering a new and different context for their relationship. At the very moment when they were feeling the least secure, Jesus offers them the dignity and responsibility of being friends – not servants. He tells his friends the intimate agreement he has with the Father, and then Jesus offers it to them. “I have made known to you all that I learned from my father.” (V15) You don’t offer this kind of intimate friendship in a master/servant relationship.

As you hear these words, can you imagine what the disciples felt that last night with Jesus?  Could they live in the assurance that they were embraced by a divine purpose larger than their own sense of personal power and direction? In our day, we live in a culture that lauds and celebrates self-autonomy and personal choice. Can these words call us back to an awareness of God’s initiative in seeking us out, calling us into a community of faith?

Jesus says,, “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 in my name.” (V16) It takes a while to hear these words of Jesus and to absorb and digest them. We need to grow into them.  We need to be grounded and connected to Jesus.

We share in the inheritance of followers of Jesus chosen for a life that leads to a deeper and deeper experience of joy and friendship. These words of Jesus are living words if we are brave enough to hold our lives, sometimes full of complexities, up to the shining light of Jesus’ love for us. This command of Jesus shows us how to live a life that answers’ Jesus deepest and most intimate hopes and prayers for every one of us. Never once does Jesus ever mention age, gender, race, power or beauty, married or single. It’s all about first-person love.

The love of Jesus’ gospel is a characteristic of God – a truly divine virtue. We share in this love by Grace. This divine love allows us to focus on the good of another person, rather than on ourselves. In a time of economic concern, it is not affected by shortfalls and scarcities. The power of love comes from within.

So, Jesus tells us we are his friends.  We all have friends – most are at different levels of intimacy. So what does Jesus mean by calling us friends? Let’s look a little deeper.

According to Aristotle, the best way to live into a virtue is to imitate, to emulate a person who already embodies the virtue. This is most likely to be successful when we have become friends with those whose lives we hope to emulate. As Aristotle says, “A friend is another self.” Think about that for a moment. True friends form each other, taking on aspects of the other person.  This includes both the good and bad aspects of our friends. I bet your parents said at least once, “You are known by the company you keep, young man, young lady.”  Sound familiar? In fact, we are likely to become the company we keep. Maybe that’s reason enough to choose Jesus as a friend.

As we consider our friendships, we know that some of them exist only because the relationship is useful in some way. That’s not bad; it’s just true. Some of our friendships exist because they are pleasurable. We all can see how folks enjoy time together here in so many ways, at so many functions. It is truly a pleasure to be in community here at Dennis Union and beyond. Some friendships exist for the sake and depth of the friendship itself. It’s hard to nurture too many of these friendships. On the other hand, we don’t have much energy for constant impersonal contact either, at least I don’t. Betsy and I seem to have reduced the breadth of our relationships, so that we can go deeper in the ones we commit to and treasure.  A true friend who loves as God loves will, in time, teach us how to love as God loves.

I saw an article in Sports Illustrated about athletes’ internet blogs and Twitter pages. Have you heard of Twitter?  You use it on your computer or Blackberry, and it’s designed to keep everyone you know updated on what you’re doing every minute of every day, in 140-character “tweets.”  Don’t worry, a “tweet” is just another word for a text message.  Imagine – with Twitter, you can have a group of followers who sit on edge, waiting to hear from you about, well – ”I’m at the store…got bread…I hate fish, don’t you?” I saw that Shaquille O’Neal, the 7 foot 1 inch, 300-pound pro basketball player, has 950,000 followers who read and can respond to every ”tweet” he sends.  Wow, can you imagine the scintillating chatter that Shaq offers? Now, I have nothing against Shaq, or pro basketball for that matter. I love the Red Sox’ Jonathan Papelbon, but I’m not terribly interested in what he has to say either. But it’s “tweets” and “friends” made on Facebook – people you may never see or have a face-to-face conversation with -- that pass for friendship these days.  Not what Jesus had in mind, I’m sure.

We can offer our kids another kind of friendship.  We are called as friends of Jesus Christ to help our young members of this church determine and assess the dependable strengths that form the foundation of their lives. I can assure you, our confirmation class, church school, and youth programs are far more than play dates. We, all of us, the younger and the more mature, have a responsibility to live out these words of Jesus, and to pass them on to the next generation – to say them clearly so our youth are grounded and connected to the gospel of Jesus.

In today’s scripture, when Jesus says to the disciples, “You are my friends; do what I command of you,” he is not texting haphazard small talk to us. He is not talking about some surface prattle that drops off our screens in a nanosecond. No, Jesus is offering us the very friendship Aristotle holds up as the ultimate sense of God’s Presence. This friendship will last our lifetime – and beyond.

Thomas Aquinas offered another perspective on Aristotle’s philosophy when he said, “The goal of our Christian life is to become friends with God, through Jesus Christ.” Through this friendship, we hope and trust to take on God’s characteristics, no matter how preposterous that sounds to us now.

Listen to the words carefully and quietly, hold onto the ground wire if you have to, and put yourself next to Jesus as you hear the call to His love. Maybe you can see yourself as a young child, grounded and connected to the Love of God, listening intently, until you fall into a deep comfortable sleep, assured you are in the right place to take it all in. The sound of those words connects you to Jesus. That’s a solid friendship, for sure and forever.

Amen

Pastoral Prayer:

Loving God,

You come to us in so many ways. You offer us your grace and Love through Jesus and even through our friends. We thank you for your Word that teaches us of how you abide in us and lead us to do the same in Jesus Christ.

Lord, we pray for those who wonder when and where their sense of justice will come to aid them. The Middle East, Africa, Asia and the cities and towns of our own country and state. We are called to be the bearers of your Love to those who are misused and wronged. Give us the compassion and energy to stand by them, the courage to speak for them where they cannot, and the commitment to work for change in the systems that overlook them.

Loving God, we celebrate those followers of Jesus that show kindness without the thought of their own gain. They are the members of Jesus’ House who glide gracefully from chore to chore with the touch of Jesus, and the energy of the Holy Spirit. We ask for the strength to carry on their ministries of Love.

We pray for ourselves lord, that we can fully live the command of Jesus to love one another as He loves us. Help us to support each other in the lives we live to be the bearers of Jesus Gospel of Love.

God of all we can see and know, we pray for our service men and women who are near and far from their families and homes. We pray for their safety in the days ahead of them where they are at risk in so many ways. Let your peace be upon the innocents of all places, so that they will know your love as freely as a breath of fresh air.

Lord there are those among here today who are struggling to see the brighter sides of their days. There are those who are relieved and joyful for a positive turn in their lives or those of their loved ones. We offer these prayers and celebrations to you whispered, spoken silently from our hearts, or offered in a full voice of thanks.

Bill Tucker…Jerry Chinnault….Linny Clancy…..Ollie and Carol Pelton

Loving God, we offer our thanks to you in the beauty of the prayer Jesus taught us saying….. Our Father….