Wednesday, 5 March 2014

The Need For Friendship

I believe friendship to be one of the greatest gifts God has given us. To be able to do life with people; to laugh hysterically, to cry and weep, to share experiences and journey with another person is a wonderful thing. I love to story of David and Jonathan in the Bible Their love for each other was deeper than the love of a brother. What a beautiful picture of friendship that is! Jonathan, who, knowing David would be King over him, walked so closely with his friend, standing up to his father, even risking his life for Daivd. And that’s what the Bible defines as true friendship, as a true expression of love for another human being. 1 John 3:16 says: ‘by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters.’ (Holy Bible, NIV) A slightly less quoted passage then John 3:16, but nonetheless true, beautiful, challenging.

So who is my brother/sister? That sounds similar to the question a Pharisee asked of Jesus when asking what the two most important commandments are, and Jesus replied: love God and love your neighbour, so the man asked, ‘who is my neighbour?’ Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man, attacked and beaten, left for dead. And who looks after him? The Samaritan. The stranger. In this example, the enemy. (Luke 10:25-38).

Let’s look at our world today. Who could represent the man dying in the road? How about the 1 in 8 people who go to bed hungry every night? How about the 1 in 4 women in the UK alone who will be victims of physical abuse? How about the 27 million people currently trapped in modern day slavery? How about the victims of the horrendous events in Syria, Egypt, Ukraine…I could go on! They are all our neighbours! But let’s be honest, statistics are numbing. So let’s look at it this way:

How about the child who lives in slums in Uganda. Who has no food to eat tonight. Who didn’t eat dinner last night and may well not eat tomorrow. Who’s body is slowly failing because there is no food.

How about the woman who was forced to marry a man twice her age. Who is beaten, raped, absued every single day and fears to speak.

How about the boy from Cambodia who was sold to traffickers because his parents could not afford to keep him. Sold. Like property, in order to work intensely long hours doing back breaking work all so we can have a cup of tea.

They are our neighbours, our friends, our brothers and sisters. What about us? Are we the Religious Leader or Teacher who crosses by? The one who talks the talk but when it comes to it, we fail to walk the walk? Or are we, as Jesus says we ought to be, the Samaritan? The one who will stop everything he’s doing to rescue someone whom the world had forgotten. Someone who, tragically, those representing the church had left for dead. How true is that of our churches today? Do we say all the right stuff but when it comes to practically loving our neighbour, cross over to the other side, claiming we’re too busy, too tired, it’s not our calling. (That one gets me…social justice isn’t a calling for a few, it’s in the genes of Christianity.)

The Good Samaritan did not even know the name of the guy he helped on the side of the road. But he looked at him and saw a neighbour. Saw a brother. Not an enemy, as society would have told him, not a statistic, which we often hide behind, not a waste of time, which tragically often speaks volumes about are attitude to the poor, a friend. A brother. And if we are to live like Jesus tells us, when we look at those ‘dying’ on the side of the road, either physically, spiritually or emotionally, we are to see them as friends. And if they are our friends, how are we to react? ‘To lay down our lives for them.’

So what does this look like? Well in some senses it may mean literal death. If God calls us to ‘go’ sometimes that entails going to places where we will risk our lives. But it also means surrender. It means surrendering the choice to decide where you live, how you live, what you buy, how you spend your money, your time. It means to surrender it all to God and let him guide you to the dying friend, and calling you to stop whatever you’re doing, bend down, clean up his wounds and rescue him. It’s radical love. It’s Christianity at its core. Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, the outpouring of which sees us love our neighbour as ourselves. And so willing to give ourselves to that neighbour. To that friend. To that brother or sister.

This is just to present some thoughts and ideas, but I would love just to point you to a couple of websites that will help you do this and guide you on living differently.

-Rhythms, Tearfund’s amazing website and app which has loads of ‘actions’ which transform the way you live and in turn can change the world.

-The 'A21 Campaign.' A charity committed to seeing trafficking eradicated. ’21 ways to act’ is a great tool which shows you how you can be involved in the fight for freedom.

-Child sponsorship. Sponsoring a child can see them have an education and the chance to learn the gospel in a setting which they otherwise might not have. Lots of charities do child sponsorship, but I will highlight just two: Smile International and Compassion.

Check out the websites for any of these charities and see how you can begin to be a friend, a Good Samaritan, to lay down your life for the sake of your friends.


*Statistics and casestudies from Tearfund, A21 campaign, Restored.