by Rev. Aidan Moon
The Gift of Christian Friendship
You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.
“Again, I saw vanity under the sun: one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business.
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
Ecclesiastes 4:7-12, English Standard Version
Two are better than one. Man is not meant to be alone.
These verses are often used for weddings, and that’s just fine – it’s important to note that a cord of three strands – a husband, a wife, and God – is not easily broken.
But if you read this passage as a whole, it is about more than just marriage: it reflects on the gift of friendship. These verses remind us of the vanity of a life lived toward wealth and riches – but the alternative is life and labor lived together, side-by-side. The books of wisdom, Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes in particular, have a great deal to say about friendship. We often talk about the importance of community, on the need to be connected to one another. But too often as we count the cost of community, we forget the gift that is friendship.
I count it a great blessing any time I get to spend time with those individuals whose friendship means so much to me. In this case, it was worth sitting out in the snow around the fire with my brother and my dad to share in the bonds of our friendship. We are family, certainly, but we are also friends. The Christian community, by nature, is not defined by family ties, but by a grafting into Christ’s body. In Christian community friendship forms us in a context where we can tell our stories and live with one another towards the goal of life as friends of God.
Friendship is a gift from God. It is the place where God is at work in the day-to-day. In the mundane interactions of life, of eating, drinking, playing, and talking. As we share space with one another, as we learn to be responsible to one another, to forgive one another, we live tangibly that life which is God’s gift, imaging the goodness of God himself – the friendship given us in Christ, the one who calls us no longer servants, but friends. In friendship with God (what a wonderful and mind-blowing concept) we get to share in friendship with our brothers and sisters in faith. May we learn to value this kind of Christian friendship as God’s gift!
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” – Psalm 133:1
Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado
