Clothesline #2

Greetings to all on 10 FEB 2006

Word for the Day - The Four Loves [1]
Affection - storge (Greek words)
Friendship - phileo
Erotic - eros
Charity - agape (KJV uses charity rather than love)

Quote for the Day
Hence, there is opportunity to comply with the apostolic injunction that the elder should teach the younger and that Christians should edify each other. How different from this primitive state of the church ... is the imbecile condition of perpetual and hopeless pupilage in which congregations wait for the weekly explication of some fragment of Scripture called a “text.” No member presumes to edify himself or others by his own researches. No one ventures to trust himself to the Word of God or to advance a single step in scriptural knowledge, lest he should ignorantly miss the path prescribed by church authority and become entangled in the snare of error! [2]

Website for the Day
http://www.wadehodges.com
Look to the right for Favorite Posts and check out the one called An Emerging Church of Christ. Wade is a minister for the Garnett Road COC in Tulsa.

Thought for the Day
Do you remember the song, I Am A Rock, by Simon & Garfunkel? What a dangerous credo that was! And yet, I bought into that idea as a teenager. Now I realize that good friends are critical to my well-being. At the close of the letter to the Romans, Paul sends greetings and commendations to 27 friends. Another eight people are named in the second half of the chapter. Some were co-workers either literally by his side or laboring elsewhere. Some were personal friends or relatives [v.7,11 NRSV], some were known only by letters from other cities.

Reflecting on this chapter, I was reminded of the importance of friendships. Paul apparently had several close friends who helped to sustain him in what must have been a very lonely lifestyle. No mention is made of a wife or children; we know he was not married while an apostle. [1COR 9.5] Paul had an assembled family instead of a natural family. [3]

I grew up in a small church with a close group of friends, who were especially important to me as an only child. We had no organized youth group but did many activities together; some of which never would have been approved today. Like the time we created a skit about a bank robbery gone sour and then video-taped it - in the church building! And, yes, we used a real pistol with blanks in it. One actor did suffer minor powder burns.

But I digress; the point is that we developed strong relationships across a wide age range ( 12-20 for the skit). In 2004 we had our first youth group reunion in Montgomery AL. It was the first time in 30 years that some of us had seen each other. Most of the core group were present with an age range of about 45-55, not including a few parents and children. Several of us keep in touch by e-mail and serve as a source of mutual strength and encouragement. It’s amazing to me is that so many of us have continued to grow as we have traveled similar paths along our spiritual journey even though our communication was minimal for over 20 years.

In his mourning over the death of Jonathan, David said, “very pleasant have you been to me; your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.” [2SAM 1.26] Solomon observed that, “There are friends who pretend to be friends, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” [PRO 18.24] Jesus put is this way, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” [JOH 15.13]

Who among us could write a close to a letter that was lengthy enough to deserve being called a chapter? While not suggesting that we should be able to replicate Paul; I would suggest that if the number of an individual’s close friends matches up with the binary code (0 or 1) then perhaps she would do well to expand on that. Out of the twelve, Jesus had three close friends (Peter, James and John) and only one “closest” friend. And isn’t that how we function also? Most of us have many superficial acquaintances, several good friends but only one or two true confidantes. Isolation occurs when we have no one that we allow into our innermost circle. The results are often loneliness, illness, and unchecked thinking. Paul Simon had it all wrong.

There’s an old saying that in order to have a friend you must be a friend. Another maxim is that you should eat a barrel of salt with a man before you call him a friend. Now that might be a little extreme, but time spent together is certainly a necessity in developing a friendship. That time might be spent over a meal, in recreation or in working on a project. And therein lies the catch - time - that intangible measure of our life. I would challenge each of us in this new year to give time for cultivating new relationships as well as nourishing our old friends.

May God Bless
Mike Toole
clw, ed.

1. From C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves, Joy Lewis, 1960

2. Robert Richardson, Principles Of The Reformation, Carson Reed, ed. New Leaf Books, Siloam Springs AR, 2002, p.37-38
Note: the use of sarcasm was common in the writing of that day (mid-1800’s).

3. Paul almost certainly had been married or else he would never have risen to prominence among his Pharisee peers. Also, according to Richard Rogers, there was no Hebrew word for bachelor - if you were a Jewish male then you were married.