"You are my friends," Jesus says. Not students, not disciples, not underlings but friends. It really is a pleasant image until you realize that Jesus says the same things to your enemies.

"I accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior" sure sounds great if you're forming a club but what Jesus says here is, "I accepted you." That is the making not of a club but of the church, holy and catholic.

The church gets closest to the kingdom when it realizes that we don't do the choosing, God does. Our friends aren't those who share the same interests or income but rather share the same savior. Jesus has all kinds of ways of guiding us into the kingdom and this is one of the most fulfilling...to realize that abiding with Jesus means abiding with all of his friends as well.

"Love is not a feeling," someone once said, "It is a policy." Love is a way of life. If we really desire the abiding presence of Jesus then we must abide all the consequences of that presence as well. It means there will be deep joy in our lives but it also means that this joy will emerge only as we lay down our lives for others. It means there will be the recognition that Jesus is truly our friend but it also means that we are called into friendship with others. It means that life will be abundant and rich but it also means that this abundance will come only as we empty ourselves and this richness will be ours only as we become poorer.

To be a friend of Jesus is to live in this paradox. It is to walk with the reality that following Jesus will mean going places we never thought we wanted to go. It is to discover the deep peace that can be ours when we are truly willing to have the disturbing presence of Jesus abiding amongst us.