Pastor's sermon is based on the gospel reading from John 15:9-17. Jesus calls his disciples friends. Nowadays, "friends" are people with whom you share interests. You have fun and hang out. You enjoy the same diversions; you might even look a lot alike. But in the ancient world where Jesus said what he said, they had a cool notion of friendship. Aristotle said that a friend is someone who helps you to be wise or to be good. Then a few hundred years after Jesus said what he said, a man named Soren Kierkegaard said: “To love another person is to help that person to love God. And to be loved is to be helped into loving God.” We, here today, are absorbed in a common interest! We need some help in loving God, and Jesus is our ultimate friend, helping ordinary, flawed people like us to be wise and good; helping us, forgiving us, and abiding with us, into loving God. Amen!
