"I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I have learned from my father I have made known to you."

 

         Jesus is with his disciples in Jerusalem at the time of Passover. It is just before his arrest and crucifixion. He has been speaking to his disciples about his death and what will come next. Then he speaks to them using the image of the vine and the branches, and calls them his friends, and that he lays down his life for them.

         Gary Burge points out that in the temple in Jerusalem there was a curtain at the entry to the holy place, and above that curtain was a gigantic sculpture of a grapevine made of pure gold. As wealthy people brought gifts, artisans would form additional leaves, tendrils or grapes of gold and attach them to this vine, so that it was a work of art that kept growing. The grapevine is a symbol of Israel in the Old Testament. God planted a vineyard and cared for it, and he looks for it to bear fruit.

         Jesus says, "I am the vine and you are the branches." He goes on to speak of the importance of the branches being connected to the vine, remaining or abiding in the vine. In that way the branches will bear fruit.

         Then, after he has spoken using this image of vine and branches, Jesus speaks to them in plain language about love and abiding in his love. And he calls them his friends.

         I grew up in a church that spoke often of God as friend. It was only much later that I realized many Christians do not grow up with that language, with the heritage of the friendship of God. They speak of God almost entirely as King or Sovereign. They have not heard that God is their friend.

         Jean Lambert wrote an article some years back about the "Mission Friends," the ones who began what has become the Evangelical Covenant Church. They used the word friend to describe themselves. They understood themselves to be friends of God and of the Mission of God. But, she points out, they never wrote down what they meant by that. They never formally explained what it meant to be a friend of God. Instead they wrote hymns about God as Friend, and they invited others to also be friends of God:

"O come and join us in this song.

This friend to you would now belong.

Though far from what you'd like to be,

His grace sufficient is for thee.

O Halleluiah, He's my friend;

He guides me to the journey's end.

He walks beside me all the way,

And will bestow a crown someday."

         Or,

"The Highest joy that can be known,

By those who heavenward wend,

It is the word of life to own,

And God to have as friend."

         Lambert points out that they were singing of a lived experience. God was their friend, by experience. That is somewhat different than singing, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." That is true too, but to have God as friend is not just a matter of what we know by God's Word, it is also what we experience in the heart.

         Gary Burge writes that "friendship speaks to the experience side of being a Christian." For him, the key word here is "remain," or it can be translated as "abide." There is to be a lived dependency upon Christ. "Discipleship is not just acknowledging who Jesus is; it is having Jesus spiritually connected to our inner lives."

         The lived experience of this abiding in Christ is joy. Joy is not to be confused with pleasure or mere human happiness. Leon Morris points out that the word "joy" is used only once in the Gospel of John before this passage. It occurs in chapter 3, and there John the Baptist is speaking. He uses the image of a wedding. The attendant of the bridegroom waits for the groom, and he listens and then is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. There is some relief in that joy, an anxiety is replaced by assurance. John says, in the coming of Jesus, "That joy is mine, and it is now complete."

         So in joy there is a period of waiting, of wondering, of doubt, of anguish if this abiding does not amount to anything. There is a feeling of emptiness before God. There is no plan "B." Then, in the presence of Christ, there is a feeling of peace, of assurance. It is like the artist who completes a work and realizes that his vision has become a reality: "It is what I had hoped for." It is a songwriter who finishes a song and the words and the music came together just right to express what was in her heart. It is perhaps even more than she imagined. There is a friendship with Jesus that brings us to this joy.

         In seeking to understand the place of friendship with Jesus, this image of a branch connected in living reality to the vine, Gary Burge then asks: "Is discipleship a commitment to doctrinal beliefs concerning God and Jesus? Is it a way of life, a way of love perhaps, that sets disciples apart from the world? Or is it an experience, a mystical spiritual encounter that transforms?"

         His conclusion is that it must be all three. "It must be a way of thinking, a way of living, and an experience."

         Finally Jesus talks about fruit bearing that comes as a result of remaining or abiding in him. In verse 4 he says that "you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me." Then in verse 7 he says, "If you remain in me, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you." Finally in verse 16 he says "I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." What I notice here is that bearing fruit is really about prayer.

         Leon Morris writes, "The fruit the disciples bear is not transient but abiding. It is possible that here the bearing of fruit includes the thought of service leading to the conversion of others. It is perhaps unexpected that this is subordinate to the aim of prevailing prayer. The disciples are to bear fruit, so that whatever they ask God he may give it. "

         Let me share with you a bit of where I am with the friendship of Jesus. Last Saturday I went to the Catalyst Workshop on prayer. I did not want to go. Saturday was a busy day. I went out of obligation. I went with a bad attitude. I wanted Swedish pancakes and coffee on our patio, not another workshop, cooped up in a church building.

         I proceeded to drive in the wrong direction, kind of like Jonah in a subconscious way, and then I realized I was quite some distance from the church where it was held, and I felt foolish that I could not even seem to read a map, and now I was late. The joy of the Lord was not especially in my heart.

         Then when I got to the church, I came into the sanctuary and they were singing and praying, and I decided as long as I was there I might as well have a good attitude. And so I joined in the praying. One woman stood and prayed aloud, haltingly and humbly, confessing that she was just a novice at prayer, just learning how to form the words of prayer, but she was filled with love for Christ. Through the morning I listened as people – no outside experts, no one selling a new program or pushing a seminar you can bring to your church, but just ordinary people from local churches sharing what they have discovered about prayer. It was very helpful and renewing time, as if this bent and broken branch was being reconnected to the vine.

         Then last week I was at a pastors' meeting concerning the upcoming ShareFest projects. We were to introduce ourselves and then tell what we had learned this summer. The thought that you are supposed to learn something in the summer was new to me, and I couldn't think of anything to share. But later, as I reflected on that question, I think that in sort of an unintentional way, I am learning how to pray again. Not that I ever stopped praying, but that I need to learn again how to pray in a way that connects me with the friendship of Jesus, that brings me joy. And I realized that I want to invite you to join me in that process.

         I am not so concerned with praying for the prayer requests that come. I think we do that pretty well through the emails and the various Bible study groups. But what I would like to learn and experience more is the kind of praying that renews our friendship with Jesus, that brings people who are faithful, to feel the presence of Christ and to know from inside that joy of assurance.

         I would like to suggest a prayer gathering. We could come together and with humble and halting words we could learn to pray in a way that reconnects us to Jesus.

         I would like to suggest an e-mail group. We could share our experiences in praying and what we are learning in our readings on prayer.

         I would like to suggest a prayer ministry. For example, I read in the Mt. Vernon church's newsletter that they had just completed a back-to-school backpack and supplies project, like we and most everyone does these days. They put together 30 churches and agencies and businesses. Then they held the event at the church on a Saturday in August.

         1,400 people came.

         They served breakfast of pancakes and sausage to 1.300 people.

         They gave out 850 backpacks with school supplies.

         They gave away 500 bags of clothing.

         They gave 80 haircuts.

         And then, while all this was going on, they offered to pray for people. And 610 people requested prayer and were prayed for.

         I would like to invite you to learn to pray along with me. Let's build and renew our friendship with Jesus.

"O come and join me in this song.

This friend to you would now belong.

Though far from what you'd like to be,

His grace sufficient is for thee."