The following homily was shared at our Sunday Evening Eucharist Service May 5, 2024.

Jesus said to his disciples:
"As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father's commandments
and remain in his love.

"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you
and your joy might be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one's life for one's friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.
This I command you: love one another." (John 15:9-17)

I think it’s absolutely bonkers that Jesus wants to be our friend. Being someone’s friend is not an easy thing to do. Probably any of us here know by now that trying to be someone’s friend is fraught with all kinds of dangers. Especially in ministry. If you’ve been a Wesley Intern or on the Discipleship Team, then you know the risks. You’re liable to be ignored, ghosted, laughed at. You might think you’re making huge amounts of progress, only to have the rug pulled out from under you. You might think you’ve found a real one who’s gonna be there in the trenches with you next year, only to find out that they’ve decided that schooling, or their career or some other third thing- literally fill in the blank and some goofball has probably said it: “Sorry I just really feel like God is calling me to focus on my water skiing career during this season of my life.” Anyway, whatever the thing is, they’ve decided that it’s more important than your friendship.

Or maybe you’ve found somebody that you just like a lot. You get along and like so much of the same stuff. It’s really easy to hang out with them because the conversation is never forced- it just happens- and you can’t wait for it to happen again and again, and you think they feel the same way, and sometimes they even say it! They acknowledge that you could be great friends…but then suddenly, they feel like this Jesus thing is getting to be too much, and you never hear from them again.

The business of making friends is hard. And before all is over, you’re going to be left with some scars. Thinking about it makes me want to cry and give up and run away. “Why haven’t you?”, you might ask. Why not take the hint and just leave everyone alone? It would be so much easier that way for everyone involved, so why not?

The reason I haven’t given up on being a friend to others is because Jesus hasn’t given up on being mine, despite the fact that I’ve done all those same things to him. I’ve stubbornly ignored His teachings, rejected His pursuit of me, and spurned His love who knows how many times. And yet, still, at all times, every minute of every day Jesus is pursuing us, desiring us. He wants to be with us. He wants so badly to listen to all the things we’re worried about. Jesus wants to go for a long walk with us and then get chicken and sit the car in the rain and eat it. Jesus wants to be our friend so much that he was willing to suffer the ultimate wound to make friendship with Him possible for everyone. God wanted so much to be with His creation that He came down in our form and did the difficult, blessed, insane work of trying to be friends with us, despite the kind of creatures we are. Don’t imagine, though, that He did this because He’s a glutton for punishment or anything like it. He did it because it’s worthwhile. He did it because even if it’s just one person who sticks with Him out of thousands and thousands, He will count that one as an overwhelming victory. That is incomprehensible love.

Tonight, I want to urge you all not to take your friendships for granted. In this room right now is an incredible resource that should not be squandered. Hang out with each other. Go get food. Go play. Go worship with each other, fellowship and live life together. Pray together. Shirk your responsibilities a little bit (and only within reason) if it means that you can be a good friend to someone. Oh, what a good and joyful thing it is when Christians live together in community. This time you have together right now is precious. It won’t always be this way. No Christian is guaranteed a faithful community to be with, and oftentimes they must struggle and fight and suffer and endure just for the chance at communion. Tonight, I urge you to practice befriending- and just as important- being befriended. Because how else are we going to recognize Jesus’ attempts to make friends with us? When we have gone astray, Jesus wasn’t just waiting for us at the end of whatever destructive path we were on, ready to welcome us back once we finally learned our lesson. In reality, He was chasing behind us every step of the way, hoping against hope that we would get a glimpse of him there, and that we would turn back and be saved from so much pain and hardship. So don’t stop chasing after people, even if they seem beyond saving, and don’t forget to pay attention to the people chasing you. It might just be Jesus in disguise.

"I have called you friends": Akin Bailey

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