"Friends and Moms" - Sermon for Easter 6

Sermon:

Text:

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who is our friend.

A girl at confirmation wore this great shirt that had a definition of friend on it. It has annoyed me to no end this week, because I cannot remember how it went, all I can remember is something about belly laughs or something similar. I spent a good long time trying to find the quote that was on the shirt, an hour or more. I found one that may have been it, “My favorite kind of pain is always the kind when your friends make you laugh so hard that it hurts your stomach so badly.”

I wish I could have found the actual shirt online to make sure it was correct, but it did help me find a bunch of other quotes about friendship. “A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow. ― William Shakespeare

Helen Keller says “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.” 

And finally for right now, author Albert Camus  “Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”

I love the simplicity that’s involved in these quotes. It’s not about doing great things for someone else, or showering them with wealth and riches, not bribing them with goods. But, simply being with the other. Not for your own sake, but for their sake. Walking with someone else where they are, not where you want them to go, or dragging them from where they were, but just being with them. 

Our gospel lesson for today is the continuation of our text from last week of Jesus the true vine. And again I love the simplicity of this text.

Jesus calls them friends. “I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have call you friends.”

I love that! We’re friends! Now this is not just facebook friends where I clicked a button so we’re besties, it's real friendship here. It contains all those quotes from above, Christ walks with us, encourages us to grow, and is with us whenever we feel alone. But, it’s more. A friend here means that we are now a part of Christ’s mission in the world. We don’t just blindly follow orders like a servant or slave, but we are active participants in Gods world. 

And then Jesus gives a commandment. Love one another as I have loved you. Be with one another, care for one another, walk with one another, not for your own benefit, but for your friends benefit. Christ’s commandment is essentially, be friends with one another.

Be deep, deep friends with your neighbors. 

Another friendship quote, this one from Henri Nouwen, who was a Catholic Priest who found himself while helping and living at L’arche Toronto, a home for mentally handicapped individuals. “When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”

It’s really very simple to be a friend. It’s simply being present fully with someone.

We get caught up so often with the stress of life, the craziness of family and work, the endless cycle of bombardment from the culture around us that we forget that we need something else. We don’t have time for our friends anymore. We say we do, we click like on facebook, we favorite a tweet, we say aww to a picture in the paper, but how often are we present with someone.

That’s the kind of friendship that Jesus calls us to, the kind that deeply cares for someone.

Today is also Mothers’ day. And it’s often said that you shouldn’t be a friend to your kids, you should be a mom, a parent. And I don’t know if I think that's correct, at least not if we look at friend like how Jesus looks at friend. A great mother is one who walks with their kids through hard moments, doesn’t just push them out and not care for them, but also not the kind who just does everything for them. You need to let kids make decisions, but also need to walk with them as they do so. That certainly sounds like the kind of friend that Jesus is talking about.

It’s also really simple, to be a great mom you don’t need to shower them with stuff, or have the best cooking, or the greatest cleaning skills, or let them get away with the most stuff, even though they would like that. To be the best mom you need to do what Christ here commands us, to love them. To walk with them, let them know that they are never alone.

It's all that simple.

Now, simple does not mean that it's easy. It’s really, really hard to be a mom. And it’s really, really hard to be a friend. It’s hard to not concentrate on ourselves, because it’s so tempting to do so.

But, thank God, that Christ is indeed our friend, and that God, like a mother hen, gathers us in, and like a mother comforting a child, comforts us.

Because the reason it is indeed so simple to be a mom and friend, despite being so hard, is because we have Christ as a friend, and a God who cares for us like a Mother. When we don't know where or what we are doing, God walks with us caring and comforting us.

I want to leave you with a quote from Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, because it’s simply wonderful, and I don’t know what to say about it besides share it, well maybe say, This is friendship.

“I don’t feel very much like Pooh today," said Pooh.

"There there," said Piglet. "I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.” 

Amen.