Faith Daily | 20 May 2022

PRAYER of the DAY - APBA p 512

Saving God,

who called your Church to witness

that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself:

help us so to proclaim the good news of your love,

that all who heart it may be reconciled to you;

through him who died for us and rose again

and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

Amen

GOSPEL for the Day: John 15: 12-17

12 ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15I 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 that I have heard from my Father. 16You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

GOSPEL REFLECTION: Rev’d Sandra

In today’s Gospel reading, if we borrow the language of social media, one might say that God has ‘friended’ us. Jesus said “I no longer call you servants……instead, I have called you my friends.” And if we think about that for a moment it is awesome! The God of the universe, the One who speckled the night sky with stars, who set boundaries for the oceans, who sent the planets spinning through space, is the same God who calls each of us ‘friend’.

And not only does Jesus call us his friends but he was willing to pay the ultimate price for us – death on a cross. By dying for us, Jesus destroyed the labels of ‘enemy’ and ‘servant’ forever. Because through his sacrifice, Jesus made certain that he established a friendship that would not only last a lifetime but would endure for all of eternity.

As friends of Jesus, we are therefore called to offer sacrificial friendship to others, even if it means laying down our life for a friend. So, it seems to me, at the very least, as followers of Jesus we are commanded to lay down our life for him, to take up our cross and follow him, whatever that might look like.

I am so thankful that Jesus calls us his ‘friends’ and I am so thankful that friendship with Jesus is unconditional and will last forever.

FINAL PRAYER A MEDITATION FROM ALISTAIR MACLEAN

Of all in earth and heaven

the dearest name to me

is the matchless name of Jesus

the Christ of Calvary!

I cannot help but love Him

or tell his love to me

for he became my ransom

the Christ of Calvary!

I could not live without Him,

His love is life to me,

my blood-bought life I give him,

the Christ of Calvary.

Amen.