E-mail Sermon May 25, 2008 - "You Are My Friends"

“You Are My Friends”

John 15:9-17

Willapa United Methodist Church

May 25, 2008

Stan Norman

Please pray with me.  May the words of our mouths, the meditations of our hearts, and the conduct of our lives, be always acceptable to you, O God, our strength and our blessed redeemer.  Amen.

You may, or may not, have noticed that I am not preaching from a lectionary text this morning.  The lectionary is a three-year set of Bible readings for each week that helps us linear thinkers stay on track, and not skip large parts of the Bible.  Some preachers who don’t use the lectionary consider it the tool of the unimaginative, but I know that I would probably yield to the temptation to preach from just the New Testament year-round.  We really do need to hear the texts that we don’t like, along with our favorites.  Anyway, this is Memorial Day weekend and I’m going to preach about friendship to honor all of our veterans.

Right about in the middle of our text from the Gospel According to John, we find these words from Jesus: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved 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 do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.”

Let’s talk for a moment about Stephen, one of the first action heroes of the Christian church. When the disciples got so busy preaching the Gospel, after they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; that they neglected their daily duty to distribute food to the widows, they appointed seven very ordinary men to assume the distribution duties.  One of those men was Stephen.  But, Stephen was so filled with the Holy Spirit that he started preaching whenever he wasn’t busy distributing food.  Now Stephen never attended seminary and was probably not too well educated, but he was certainly on fire for Christ…and this fire within would lead ordinary Stephen to become the first Christian martyr, stoned to death while praying for those doing the stoning.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends…or one’s Lord.

Stephen died defending his faith; on Memorial Day we honor ordinary men and women who went to extraordinary lengths to defend their country and their brothers and sisters.

Stanley B. Schipper was such a man.  Stanley was an ordinary man by most measures.  He was the youngest of four brothers, raised on a farm in western Michigan, he inherited a strong Dutch reformed faith from his parents and grandparents.  Stanley would probably have lived a relatively unremarkable life as a farmer or craftsman, never straying far from his home, or the little church in the country, where he sang in the choir with his only sister, Dorothy.  But, Stanley’s quiet life in the country was interrupted by World War II. 

Stanley and all but one of his brothers enlisted and went off to war.  One brother received a deferment to stay behind and take care of the family farm.  During basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Stanley met a man from Arkansas, named J. A. Norman.  They became close friends, fighting their way through North Africa and Sicily, and then invading Europe on D-Day as part of the Division Artillery of the famous Ninth Infantry Division.  By September 14, 1944, the Ninth Infantry Division had fought its way to the German border with Belgium.

We may never know exactly what happened on September 14, 1944.  In the history books, it was an important day, marking the beginning of the end for Hitler’s Third Reich.  For the Schipper and Norman families it was a day that would tie us together with bonds stronger than blood, bonds of selfless Christian love, modeled on the sacrificial life of Christ.

September 14, 1944 was day that Stanley Schipper died so that J. A. Norman, my father, could live on and raise a family.  Like Stephen, Stanley was an ordinary person who was able to do extraordinary things through the grace of God and faith in Jesus Christ.  Stanley is my namesake and that’s why Memorial Day is a religious holiday, as well as a national holiday, for me, and for many who lost loved ones in our wars.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

It is a remarkable thing to be called “friend” by God.  There is a song written by Israel Houghton that captures this:

Who am I that you are mindful of me
That you hear me, when I call
Is it true that you are thinking of me
How you love me, it's amazing (Who am I Lord)

I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
He calls me friend

God Almighty
Lord of Glory
You have called me friend

In Disciple Bible Study we talked about choices, God’s choices and our choices.  Rev. Duane Steele, a Lutheran pastor talks about this amazing friend of ours who is always so ready to give us another chance:

God has chosen to put all the people of the world on God’s team.  Yet, strange though it may seem, God has also extended to all the people of the world the freedom to walk away from the team.  Some prefer not to enter into divine friendship and Christian service to the Lord.  Today, some young people make the conscious decision to leave the church for a while because they suppose that the church’s worship services and educational programs no longer speak to their particular needs and concerns.  But some long forgotten verse of Scripture or some old familiar hymn-tune causes thoughts of Jesus to resurface from somewhere deep within the sub-conscious.  They recall hearing in church and/or Sunday school that Jesus died for them; and renewed faith takes on greater meaning as He is revealed to them as Lord and Savior and friend and they return to the church strengthened and energized because Jesus has met them in their situation.[1]

But, I think we need to hear a word of caution before we celebrate our close relationship with the Almighty!  The kind of friendship that Jesus is talking about is tough stuff.  Dr. Fredrica Harris Thompsett of the Episcopal Divinity School says:

The blunt truth is that the expansive friendship modeled in Biblical texts is not a category for wimps, or those who dwell in sentimentalism and nostalgia.  Divinely-inspired friendships require reciprocity and risk, responsibility and change, pain and struggle.  Friends speak the truth in love to one another, and truth – once it breaks through the grip of the silent, unthinking politeness and deadly denial which too often hold sway in elite cultures and in privileged churches – striving for truth “among friends” is seldom cheap or painless.[2]

Let me illustrate how this works.  Many of you have heard me speak about Bill Brackett, my pastor and mentor and one of my dearest friends – God rest his soul.  One Sunday at Sunrise United Methodist Church, my assignment was to give Pastor Bill a gift from the congregation.  I was the Church Council Chair and already into my second year of seminary.  Just as Bill was about to introduce the closing hymn, I jumped up from my seat, strolled to the front the sanctuary and began my little speech with, “Hold on a minute, Bill, you just think that you are in charge.”  Bill quietly turned to me and said, “No, Stan, I think God is in charge.”

Did I deserve that?  Yes.  Did I enjoy it?  No.  Did I need that correction?  Absolutely, it was a lesson that I will always have with me.  Was it as painful for Bill as it was for me?  Probably, more so.  But, Bill was my friend. 

Someday, God willing, I plan to thank St. Stephen and Stanley Schipper and Bill Brackett for their friendship.  But I’ve still got some unfinished business down here.  Jesus said, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved 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.”

Amen.