CHURCH AS A BEFREIENDING COMMUNITY         To “befriend” is to act as a friend to; to help. Why and how is the Church Community – our church community - to befriend one another/others? The WHY is more obvious. This is the time of the season when we hear of Jesus as the vine and we are the branches; we are to produce fruit and the fruit he describes is love. The energy we receive as we trust in Jesus is meant to be used for love. We know that we are commanded to love one another and then Jesus speaks of friendship. 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 I have heard from my Father. John 15.13f How do we become a “befriending community?” The ultimate virtues of Christian friendship – faithfulness, kindness, and patience are most perfectly shown to us in the example of Jesus himself. Jesus was a friend to a broad range of people, even befriending the outcasts of society. Jesus also had “best friends” in his community. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were among them. The twelve disciples were his most intimate friends and the ones he called “friends.” The Old Testament gives us other examples: I and II Samuel tell of the friendship between David and Jonathan, Proverbs has sayings about friends, the Psalms mention friends, and the Book of Job relates some of the difficulties of friend ship. There are many faces to friendship. Jesus, by his example as well as by his teachings, instructed that humans were not to be individualists, but to be in relationship – in community. Jesus endorsed the OT view of solidarity. Jesus was always a faithful friend. Jesus showed us the way. Make friends a priority. Jesus trusted his followers, opened his heart. Be kind and gentle in criticism, forgive, and be a friend to yourself (a low self-image is not a friend to grace). Friendships permit us to go beyond merely quoting Jesus to living out Jesus’ summary of the law – that we love God with our whole self and love others as we love ourselves. Christ’s spirit present in the circles of friendship broadens them to include more and more people. Community is a gift. Christian unity is a gift also and Christian unity can begin in friendship. Jesus had friends whose names we know; he also befriended the nameless poor, the outcasts, the hungry, and the ill. Friends have in common a unity of spirit. If we are to be friends of Jesus, we are also called to befriend those whom Jesus befriends. Many people turn to the church seeking relationships; the Church, this church, has the opportunity of becoming a “befriending” community and welcoming all people.