31Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. (Mark 13)
If this Gospel was depicted in images on the big screen, you would get the sense that time is passing in an odyssey linking events and characters over days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries. The video would speed up, showing clouds careening through the sky, daytime and nighttime running through several 24-hour cycles in a few seconds, a flower blooming from seed in a few, short frames.
The passage of time frames this Gospel text.[1] This story is told in a broad sweep encompassing all of history and eternity. Jesus says that life is like going on a journey whose way is not certain, but one thing is: God comes to us somewhere along the way. Somewhere in a particular situation, surprise! You can count on it. God comes to us, even where and when we least expect.
Have you had the experience of meeting an old friend after a long absence or being apart, someone you haven’t seen for years even decades? And then, whether by chance or by design your paths cross? Some confess it feels like a day hadn’t passed since the last time they met. You just pick up where you left off. It’s a delightful experience. And it serves to strengthen the relationship, doesn’t it?
That’s a taste of who a true friend of yours is. In this Advent sermon series, I want to explore important aspects of a friendship that endures. And the first such building block of spiritual friendship is that it is for life, and beyond!
Jesus said, “The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”[2]
When I was on retreat in France this past summer, I visited three ancient springs found on the expansive grounds of the Bonnevaux Centre for Peace.[3] After centuries, these springs still bring forth water from deep in the earth and were probably the reason people originally gathered together in this pristine valley near the town of Marçay. In fact at least one of those springs has been flowing from the earth there for over a thousand years.
It is natural for humans to gather around sources for life. And we share in the blessings of the nourishment and growth that water provides. But human beings are not the only creatures these springs fed. Giant, sycamore maples trees hundreds of years old dot the landscape in that valley in France.
The maple leaves hanging from these enormous trees reminded me of the symbol on the Canadian flag. Even though I was in France, far away from home, the maple leaf served to remind me of the many maple trees populating landscapes near my home (near Ottawa, Canada).
You don’t need to be in constant physical proximity for a friendship to endure over the years. Though it may certainly help, physical closeness is not the defining ingredient for lasting friendship.
In Christ, God calls us “friends”.[4] Yet, there may be times in our lives, even long stretches of time, when we don’t feel close to God. Our friendship may be blocked on our part, for whatever reason. But the water can only be dammed up for so long before it finds a way. Even another way. And water will find a way, like those ancient springs found a way to bubble up to the surface and flow to where the nurturing of all those trees could happen.
Because though we may be apart and not see each other for a while, we are still joined in a mystical union with one another as friends. The bond of unity runs deep and draws from the source of life, the living Christ, our eternal Friend.
I visited France in the summertime. The leaves I saw were not the colour we normally associate with the one on our Canadian flag. They definitely weren’t blue! But neither were they red, nor orange nor yellow. They were green. Green is the colour of life, life that continues and grows.
Friendship is for life. True, spiritual friendship never dries up. It is like an eternal spring that flows forever. It is full of life that continues to give and provide nourishment for all other creatures.
That is what we do in baptism today. Mikayla receives the water of life. And Christ Jesus comes to her today in the water and the word. In the bread of Communion. But not just today. Today is just the beginning, the beginning of a friendship with God and the church that will last a lifetime, and beyond!
“Will We Be Friends?” is the question I ask in this sermon series. It’s rhetorical, admittedly. Because the answer is an unequivocal, “Yes!”
Somehow, somewhere, sometime God comes to us: In a word, in a song, beholding a moment of nature’s beauty, and in actions of love and care from and for others. God is near, even now, in this time. Thanks be to God!
[1] Mark 13:24-37
[2] John 4:14
[4] John 15:15
Raspberryman 