John 15:9-17

Easter 6 – Year B

John 15:9-17

Institutionally, United Methodists are called to "make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world."

This passage from John clarifies that we are not to make servants of Jesus Christ. But if we are to make friends of Jesus Christ there are additional questions to be asked.

Can you "make" friends? What does that take?

Have you experienced bringing your various friends together and found that they thus became friends of one another?

Would this be primarily about our motivation – what would you do for a friend, for Jesus? Lay down your life? What difference would being a disciple or a friend bring to a motivation and consequence-in-living.

Would this be primarily about expansion of Jesus' friends (as if he was incapable of being someone's friend on his own) and so we become the proverbial and catalytic best friend who gets left behind when new connections are made between your best friend and another (sound like a familiar movie plot)?

How would it change a congregation to be made up of friends of J rather than disciples of Jesus?

This friendship talk is supposedly to strengthen our love of one another. How's that working out for Jesus? Has this tactic worked?

We might profitably play with these intersections between servant-friend-lover. On which boundary are you finding your work these days?