Easter 46 Friends

"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." [John 15:15]

In the Reign of God finds us not just worshipers of God, but friends with God Incarnate. The community of saints is made intimate with the promise that Jesus calls us friends.

As an often socially awkward introvert, I don't always find this at the center of my gospel comfort, and yet there are ways that I know I crave it---just not always in the ways that you may picture intimate friends behaving. As I've often joked, we German Lutheran farm boys often have a more subtle warmth to offer.

Nonetheless, in these last days of the Easter celebration, I find myself thinking about friends, near and far, Christian and not, who sustain me in what is most certainly a foretaste of the feast to come. They are the Reign of God among us, come near, on the way to the fulfillment that we already experience.

I often say that on Sunday mornings, I go to see Jesus and some of his friends. Amen and alleluia for the friends Jesus brings together.