The rive

Our Kiwanis Club is like a group of friends traveling together through life, working toward a common set of goals.  I am going to use that theme for this month’s Spiritual Aims article, if you’ll please read on.  As I pondered this thought I was reminded that Jesus gathered a group of friends around himself too.  He didn’t make his journey alone.  There were good reasons for that. 

For one thing, it is safer.  Traveling with others means that you don’t face the potential thieves and bandits of the road by yourself.  In an age without a highway patrol, only numbers could keep you relatively safe.

A group of friends are there to help one another.  Mark 1:29-31 says, “As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.”  So, Jesus takes his new friends to Capernaum where they enter Simon’s house and Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law.  Obviously this is far beyond borrowing a cup of sugar or helping a buddy change the brakes on his pickup – but relationally, it is the same action.  Friends are there to help one another.

I don’t know if you have thought about this before but Jesus chose an inner circle of 12 friends to share his journey.  Peter and several others were fishermen.  The crew needed to eat!  Matthew was a tax collector – perhaps he brought financial resources and political connections that helped sustain their lives through the years of their common journey.  I don’t know what gifts and assets Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, James, Thaddaeus, or Simon the Cananaean brought to the table but they also made their contribution to the group.  Even Judas Iscariot was a helpful member of the group up until the end.

The fact is, these friends were central and crucial to Jesus’ ministry!  So why, would any of us think it “optional” to surround ourselves with others?

We think the Duluth police Dept. keeps us safe.  That the airbags lining our car interiors, the locks on our doors, the security system in our cars or homes are all that is needful to keep us safe.  They aren’t.  We’re never really safe.  But partnering with others in our lives remains a source of security.  Gathering with friends becomes an oasis in the wilderness.

We often think we can do life on our own.  Money gives us a sense of independence that blinds us to the price we actually pay.  Have a problem?  Hire someone else to fix it.   They enter your property, take care of the problem, and you might never see them again.  So much for the “old days” when neighbors depended on one another.

Duluth is a big enough town that we can get cut off from the way life used to be when neighbors added to the joy of life.  We drive home from work, hit the garage door opener, close the door behind us and enter the nest without ever seeing, let alone interacting, with our neighbors.  Is it any wonder, in an age such as this that breeds such terrible loneliness, that a 40 inch flat panel plasma television could convince you that it is a necessary part of life?

I think Jesus had a great time with his friends.  They talked, they laughed, they got to know one another deeply and truly.  I honestly don’t think we can do life without that.  Perhaps that’s partly why I am a Kiwanian.  

Let us pray:  Dear Lord, many people are lonely today.  They are cut off from friends and family.  They live in little enclaves where only the rest of the world only exists electronically for them.  We know this is a dangerous way to live so we need your guidance and encouragement to open the doors of our lives and invite others to come and share our journey.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen