The Gift of Friendship

This week our congregation said goodbye to a dear friend, whose journey earthside has finished. As our community mourns his death, I am struck by the many, many stories I have heard about how he was a friend, cheerleader, and encourager. While I need more time to process this all, I am convinced that what he modeled for us and offered to us was true Christian friendship.

In my last visit with our dear brother I asked him if he had one last sermon to send to the Phillips family. His last sermon was this: even more important than the worship services are our relationships with each other. 

Friends, I will have more to share on this later, but for now as we mourn our loss and celebrate his life, I encourage you to contemplate how you might strengthen your relationships with those around you. Hard times and easy times are better navigated and celebrated with friends. Jesus himself went through his entire ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension with friends at his side. 

This week, find a way to reach out and check on your friends, to get to know some new friends, and to strengthen the bonds that warm our hearts.

“For Friendship”

May you be blessed with good friends,

And learn to be a good friend yourself,

Journeying to that place in your soul where 

There is love, warmth, and feeling.

May this change you.

May it transfigure what is negative, distant,

Or cold within your heart.

May you be brought into real passion, kindness,

And belonging.

May you treasure your friends.

May you be good to them, be there for them

And receive all the challenges, truth, and light you 

need.

May you never be isolated but know the embrace 

Of your anam cara. 

(Anam Cara = “real true friend”)

(From John O’Donohue’s To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Beginnings)

Blessings,

Pastor Amy