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Friends Together
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17 May 2009 Fans of Doug Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy will know that one of the questions asked is, “What’s the answer? What’s the answer to life, the universe and everything.” And the answer is 42. I enjoy Doug Adams–in small doses. Hitchhiker’s Guide and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe were fun reads...and the source of our dog’s name, Trillian. Trillian is a contraction of Trisha McMillan, the last surviving female of the universe, so it seemed a fitting name for our German Shepherd, who was a stray rescued from 270. But I digress. According to Adams’ science fiction/comedy series, the ultimate answer–42–is known to the series’ main characters long before they know the ultimate question: What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything. It’s safe to say that the writer of the gospel according to John never met Doug Adams. But as offbeat, quirky, and definitely 20th century as Adams’ question appears to be, I think in some ways it’s the same question our gospel addresses. What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything? And how does our gospel address the question? Remember that Jesus is giving a dissertation, a long series of teachings following his washing of the disciples’ feet just before his arrest and crucifixion. It’s like he’s doing a last-minute cram course for his students, hoping they will remember his teachings when it comes to the final exam; or a series of death-bed instructions to his loved ones, praying that they will honor his wishes after he is gone. John’s Jesus knows he is on a collision course with Rome’s authority and temple leadership. And his answer to all of this isn’t to develop a flow-chart of power relationships; it isn’t to infiltrate Roman leadership or the temple priesthood with a series of political demands or spiritual programs; it isn’t to engage in guerilla warfare with the end of re-establishing the state of Israel. Instead, Jesus’ answer to political, temporal, and spiritual concerns is a commandment that his followers love one another in the same way that Jesus loves them. Jesus was onto something. Love is something we do, even more than something we feel, although the feelings are a blessing when they come. Fundamentally, though, love is a decision to work in the best interests of the other. And I believe that’s what the story in Genesis means when it says we are created in God’s image. God is love, and we are hardwired to love, to act in the best interests of the other. Several weeks ago, Jeffry sent me an article on ‘tweenbots.’ Tweenbots are the creation of New Yorker Kacie Kinzer. They are anthropomorphic, human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter.”[2] This 10-inch tall cardboard version of a squared-off R2D2 has a little flag attached to its back, with a destination displayed on the flag. The first time she used one, Kinzer set the Tweenbot down on the sidewalk on the perimeter of Washington Square Park. Its destination was to go from the northeast to the southwest corner of the park. And did I mention that these creations move at a constant speed, and can go only in one direction? It took 42 minutes, and the help of 29 people...but the Tweenbot’s safe arrival at its destination was the norm. Over the course of several months and numerous missions, the Tweenbots succeeded in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers. Every time; never once was a Tweenbot lost or even damaged.[2] I don’t want to romanticize this simple experiment or even push the illustration to extremes, but simply to point out that Jesus isn’t asking us to fly to the moon. He’s asking us to do something we have within us to do. Which, of course is easier said than done. After all, it’s pretty easy to point a 10-inch robot in the right direction and be on our way. But when norms and behaviors and histories and relationships, when the drama of our own personal lives and the dynamic of current events enter into the picture, loving one another as Jesus loves us becomes more challenging. But friends are called to give witness to the gospel in their deeds. Sometimes that witness takes unusual forms; many times it enlarges our own hearts and understandings.... Not long ago, Springcreek Church of Garland, Texas, ran a full-page ad in The Dallas Morning News. The headline read: “We Were Wrong,” followed by the copy: “We live in the land of plenty, denying ourselves nothing, while ignoring our neighbors who actually have nothing. We sat on the sidelines doing nothing while AIDS ravaged Africa.” That ad was just one result of a visit made by an individual pastor and some members of his church when they went to Katito–an AIDS-devastated region in central Kenya in 2006. That visit led members to sponsor more than 500 children in Katito to improve their nutrition, health, and education. The members also became more active locally in a high-crime, low-income neighborhood, helping elderly people and single moms, and cleaning up rubbish-strewn parks and alleyways.[3] The ad was the church’s apology for its previous failure to serve the poor, a public recognition that it had not taken to heart the one commandment Jesus gives his followers. It was a public recognition that the job of the church is to give witness to the gospel in its deeds, whether the friends we are called to love have just been given a pink slip, or are enduring treatment for cancer, or whether they live half a world away in a district whose name is foreign to our tongue. What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything? Doug Adams not withstanding, it isn’t 42. It’s more closely related to pointing a 10" robot in the right direction, a robot wearing a sign that says “Help me.” Or [more closely related] to the Beatles’ song, I Get by with a Little Help from My Friends....because every one of us needs a little help from our friends to stay pointed in the right direction. Jesus reminds us that the answer to life, the universe, and everything is to be a friend, to love one another. How fortunate we are to have a friend in Jesus. And because of him, the friends of this congregation. Keep up to good witness! *** [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker’s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy |