God's Question

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Religion consists of God’s question and [our] answer

          Abraham Joshua Heschel

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God asks

“do you love me?”

 

As on the seashore long ago

With waves crashing

And boats rocking

And smoke rising

 

The question came

“Do you love me, Do you love me, Do you love me?”

 

“Do you love me more than these?”

 

More than what?

Than his fellow disciples?

Than the wind and the waves and the sell of the lake

On a crisp early morning?

Than his old way of life? 

 

Agapas me?

Came the question

Philo se?

Came the answer

Agapas me? Philo se

Phileis me?  Philo se?

 

Do you love me unreservedly, unconditionally, passionately!?

(the way I love you)

 

Yes, Lord, I friend you!

 

It wasn’t everything, perhaps

But it was enough

“I have called you friends,” said Jesus

 

Jesus calls us friends

 

Oh there are other words used

In all those parables

 

Laborers, servants, farmers, travelers

People who toil

 

But most of all we are friends!

“Friendship is mutual,

a hand extended, a hand reaching back”¹  

 

Astonishing

We who fumble and bumble through life

We who lust after wealth and power

We who pillage the earth

We who wounded each other so grievously

 

Friends of God

 

God has made us God’s friends

And asks one primary thing

 

That we befriend one another, take care of one another

“Feed my sheep, tend my sheep, feed my sheep”

A trinity of compassion

 

The question comes

Won’t you be my friend?

The question comes

Won’t you tend one another?

 

Our answer should be

Yes! Yes! Yes!

 

Yes, we have our limits

Even Jesus ultimately accepted Phileo love from Peter

 

But when God befriends us!

In the grace space that offers

We find it within us

To be not merely befriended

But to be friends

 

People need friends

They need

“Somone to talk to, someone to depend on, and someone to enjoy”²

 

I know God loves me

I know God friends me

I look out at the beauty around me and know

God wants to walk through this beautiful world with me

In mutual delight

 

I also know God asks me to “friend” those around me

To tend those around me

 

The question comes

Won’t you be my friend?

The question comes

Won’t you tend one another?

 

Our answer should be

Yes! Yes! Yes!

 

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1.      Diana Butler Bass, Freeing Jesus Harper One, 2021, p. 14

2.      Quote by William Rawlins, p. 16 in Freeing Jesus.