May I Bring My Friends? 

Scripture: Ephesians 2:11-22 (NRSV)

So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called "the uncircumcision" by those who are called "the circumcision" --a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands-- remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. 

Last Week…

This scripture passage moves us a little further along in Ephesians from where we were last week. Last week (Ephesians 1: 3-14) was all about “the big picture,” a God that “had us in mind” from before the foundation of the world. It was a wonderful exercise in grounding ourselves in God’s love… for… us. The service ended with “Victory in Jesus,” the old gospel hymn. It all fit, because that hymn is focused on “me.” Song: “Victory in Jesus, MY savior for ever, he sought ME and bought ME with his redeeming blood; He loved ME ere I knew him, and all MY love is due him; he plunged ME to victory beneath the cleansing flood. The old tent revival chorus fit well, because the focus on the passage last week was about centering us in God and leaving us very clear of God’s love for us.

This Week…

Now Ephesians takes us down the faith path another big step. In the verse before our passage for today, the Message paraphrase says this, “He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”

Having established our place in God’s love, we are reminded that once we are “right with God,” there are good things to be done “joining Christ Jesus in the work he does.” 

In Christ, We Are One – “The Message” Selected Verses Paraphrase

And to prepare us for that work, Ephesians moves into the scripture passage for this week reminding the Gentile hearers of the letter (and us) that in Christ, all are one. Some paraphrased verse from The Message read: “Now because of Christ – dying that death, shedding that blood – you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.”  “He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.” “Christ brought us together through his death on the Cross.” “He is using us all, irrespective of how we got here – in what he is building.”

So, We Get The Point!

Although the original message was directed to the gentile believers in Ephesus, we get the point. Those who God loves, are worthy of our love. Those who are the friends of Jesus are our friends too.

“When Jesus Came Into My Heart…”

When we sang “Victory in Jesus” last week, it made me think of an old revival chorus I sang in church when I was little. Hymn Chorus: “When Jesus came into my heart, when Jesus came into my heart, Oh the joy floods my soul like the sea billows roll… (imagine a tympani roll here!) , when Jesus came into my heart.” At that young age, I had no idea what sea billows were, but I knew I loved Jesus. My family had gotten me started on that path many years before, and Miss Paessler in bible school had taught me to sing, “Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, Oh how I love Jesus, because he first loved me.”

Rev. Dr. Peter Storey

At Annual Conference year before last, the conference had invited a United Methodist preacher named Peter Storey from South Africa to speak. This former South African Bishop and leader of the Central Methodist Mission which once housed 1,000 Zimbabwean refugees is now teaching at Duke Divinity School. I was moved by his sermon on the friends who lowered the man who needed healing through the roof, so Jesus could help. He said something which grabbed me right where these two old gospel hymns leave us. During a question and answer session following his sermon, he responded to someone by saying, “When we say,” I have Jesus in my heart, “ I can imagine Jesus saying in a loving voice, “May I bring my friends?”*(See footnote at end.) The movement of the Ephesians passage from last week to this, and the movement from the gospel hymns which celebrate the place of Jesus in our hearts to the openness of our hearts to those Jesus befriends is a logical and important next step on the path of faith.  In the back of our minds we hear Jesus’ words in John 10:16: "I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.”

 One Leg / Other Leg… We’re Walking, We’re Walking!

After the Ephesians were reminded of their place in God’s love, (one leg hits the ground last week), they are also reminded that their world does not just consist of themselves and a loving God. There are others that God loves and there are others that are Jesus’ friends that are not only our friends too, but should be joined arm and arm with us in doing God’s work. (other leg hits the ground this week). Now, we’re walking!

Ephesus / Houston

As I as was poking around in the introduction to the book of Ephesians, I had one of those “aha” moments. It made me feel like Ephesians had our name on it, too! The words said, “In Paul’s time, Ephesus was the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire. What is the fourth largest city in the United States? (Houston) And it also said, “Ephesus was a port city on the western shore of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey).” Isn’t that interesting that we share so much in common!

Circular Letter

The letter to the Ephesians was probably a circular letter, meant to be shared, from a home base at the church in Ephesus and circulated to churches all over. We get circular letters today. I’m not talking about the one your aunt writes that goes on forever and doubles back on itself several times. It’s more like the Luton Christmas letter which is duplicated and sent to friends and relatives. So, you can imagine what an impact just the first two parts of this letter would have had, not only in the church to whom it was addressed (which shares so much in common with our city), but in the all the other churches in the area which would have received it and heard it.

The Friends of Your Friends

Well what about this business of Jesus bringing his friends into our hearts? Have you ever noticed that your friends sometimes have friends so different from you that it seems impossible that your friend could like you… and them too?

Children’s Book

Darlene Dibble puts the letters on our church sign each week. She had just put my sermon title up on the South side of the sign. I was in the office and saw Darlene’s face appear in the door, out of the corner of my eye. “Is your sermon based on the children’s book,” she asked. It took me a second to connect with the question. “What children’s book?” As a librarian, she knew of a children’s book with the title, “May I bring my friend?” written by Beatrice Schenk De Regniers.   So, after Darlene gave me the gist of it, I read the synopsis of the book on-line.

Synopsis: “May I Bring A Friend?”

“What could be more natural, when invited by the King and Queen to tea, than to ask to bring a friend? And that, of course, is what the hero of May I Bring a Friend? does. Not only to tea, but to breakfast, lunch, dinner, apple pie and Halloween - one invitation for each of six days of the week. The King is most gracious. "Any friend of our friend is most welcome," says he. And his graciousness extends to giraffes, lions, hippos, monkeys, all kinds of friends. Not all of whom are on their very best behavior. It must be assumed however, that everyone (including the reader) enjoyed the friends, for why else would the king and queen step off to the zoo for tea on the seventh day.” Later in the week, she brought me a copy which we used today for the children’s sermon.

Children’s Books Sometimes Slip Big Ideas Under The Radar!

This children’s book does what so many children’s books do. It explores some pretty important big ideas in a delightful way which disarms and opens up our way of thinking. Yes, it’s true that sometimes our friends have other friends which call on us to expand our horizons of friendship. I’ve seen this at birthday parties, reunions, and wedding receptions, and I’m sure you have too. Sometimes we discover that our friends have other friends which stretch our comfort zones. Hmm…

But What About Jesus?

But Jesus… what about Jesus! What is it that is so disarming about Dr. Storey’s question asked of those us who have “Jesus in our hearts?” He would have us imagine Jesus knocking on the door of our hearts, not only to commune with us … in our heart of hearts, but with one or more his friends along as well. He smiles (at the door of our hearts) and lovingly asks, “May I bring my friends?” And our eyes gaze out to see who his friends might be, illuminated by the porch light overhead. We might think to ourselves, “You know, Jesus, I thought this was going to be just… you and me.” Or we might think, “This is like the dinner invitation I got the other day, that turned into an Amway demonstration!” “Or it’s like the time I was invited to a friend’s house for what I thought was an intimate dinner, only to find several cars in the driveway when I got there.”

We Take Steps In Faith

It’s often starts that way in our faith, you know. First, we find ourselves accepted by God through Christ, warts and all, and start out with little baby steps on the path of faith, “When Jesus Came Into My Heart”, either in a moment when “joy floods my soul like the sea billows roll” or over a lifetime of little “joy infusions” like it was for me. That’s what Ephesians Chapter 1 is all about. But then comes this week (Chapter 2) when the next step of our spiritual journey invites us to take stock of our acceptance by our savior and friend, Jesus, but then… we hear his gentle invitation in our little guided fantasy. “May I bring my friends?”

Vertical and Horizontal

Former Associate Pastor Roy Williamson used to speak of this as the “vertical and horizontal dimensions of faith.” There’s the vertical (me and God). And there’s the horizontal (me and you and everyone else.” Roy helped me remember, while kneeling at the communion rail, that as I was praying to God, sensing Christ “coming into my heart” in holy communion, somebody was bumping into my arms on the left and right kneeling with me. 

The King and Queen “Did Good!”

In the children’s book, the king and queen show that they have big flexible hearts by not only very quickly getting over their shock at the kinds of animal friends the child brought in the door, but also by being open to making friends with them to the point that they accepted their invitation to visit them at the zoo at the end of the book. So, in the book, there is a happy ending!

The Spotlight Shifts From The King and Queen… To Jesus

When the spotlight shifts on the stage (in our minds) from the King and Queen in the children’s book to the question posed by… Jesus, it’s the same disarming question alright, but the answer has a lot riding on it! It holds in the balance who we are as followers of Christ and who we are as “Fair Haven United Methodist Church!”  As we look out the door of our hearts at the friends Jesus has with him, they probably are even more diverse that our own friends’ friends, if the gospel accounts of Jesus’ friends are any indication. In fact, they included all kinds of people, some of them people that the society of his day was trying to forget. Jesus got in all kinds of trouble with his own followers by befriending those who had been pushed to the side of life and were far from “fitting in.” 

Houston / Ephesus - Demographics

Houston shares much with Ephesus, it’s ethnic and religious diversity, among other things.  According to Rice Professor Stephen Kineberg, Houston has the opportunity to lead the country right now in figuring out how to live together when there is no ethnic majority. Ephesus was also an ancient center of nature religion where the goddess Artemis was widely worshiped (Read the story in Acts 19). I’ll leave you to think about how we compare in that department.

Dr. Storey’s Life and Ministry

Dr. Storey, as a United Methodist minister from South Africa, did not ask the question about Jesus’ friends flippantly. As a key figure in working for a non-violent solution to the apartheid struggle his entire ministry, he has seen Jesus in the face of the poor, downtrodden, and marginalized not only his entire ministry, but his entire life as he watched his minister father suffer with some of Jesus’ friends. I listened to a podcast interview with him nearly two hours long this week, and was left in awe at his courage… and God’s power… in his life and those caught up in that struggle. (Here is podcast link: (click and search for “Storey”) http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Feed/new.duke.edu.1339196247.01339196257

As I was about to finish all of this up, I discovered that the Eleanor Colvin, our director of communications in the Annual Conference had posted some of the words from Dr. Storey’s Annual Conference Address. (Link to that article: http://www.txcumc.org/news_detail.asp?pkvalue=627 ) 

Annual Conference News Quote

Here are his words: “When we begin to make space for others inside ourselves, when we let others take up residence in our soul ( – mission cannot happen until we make that space), not just space for people like us, but for those people who need us, for those people who disturb our sleep.” The editor also wrote this: “Storey counted the believers’ request – “come into my heart Jesus” – to be a dangerous and disturbing thing to say, since Jesus will inevitably answer with a question of his own: “Can I bring my friends?” “I start looking at Jesus’ friends and I’m not pleased with what I see, because they’re not the kinds of people who would be on my guest list,” Storey said. “Lord, can’t it be just you and me? [And, he answers]: ‘Love me, love my friends, and that’s not negotiable.’” 

What About Us?

Ephesus… Cape Town…  Houston… or Spring Branch…  These first two chapters of Ephesians encourage us to not only claim our inheritance in God’s love through a Jesus who has “come into our hearts” and each Sunday “comes into the heart of our worship”, but to take the next steps in faith when Jesus smiles and asks, “May I bring my friends?”

Maybe Mother Theresa’s prayer will inspire us: “Lord, break my heart so wide open that the whole world falls in.”

Closing Prayer / Invitation