From the Wednesday morning Eucharist today, the Feast Day of St. Matthias:
"[Jesus said,] ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I 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. You 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." (John 15:12-16)
So I guess this passage fits well with your move toward seeing Jesus as a "friend."
ReplyDeleteI dunno, I think I'm the opposite of you. The "friend" concept works well for me. I didn't like the way the evangelicals at Furman would spin it most of the time, but it has always worked for me in my own way.
It's the transcendent, judging, all-powerful aspect of Christ that has always been the most difficult for me to connect with.