A friend asked if I would review an article for him before it was published. I agreed, but his draft didn’t show up in my email until midnight. It came with a note that it was due for printing first thing in the morning. The request struck me as similar to a parable Jesus told about a friend knocking at another friend’s door in the middle of the night, asking for bread for another friend who arrived at midnight and was hungry. Of course that parable is about prayer, but the irony of me receiving a request from a friend to review an article (that arrived at midnight, no less) caused me to laugh at the parallel. How could I not take time for my friend’s request?
If this knock on my door, late at night had come from someone I didn’t know, I would have had legitimate excuses to say no. Yet, because it was from a friend, I read the article, shared my comments, and didn’t grumble (too much) because it was for a friend. Had I not helped because it came so late, I am certain he would have understood, but what kind of friend would I be if unwilling to help just because it was inconvenient? Anyone can be a friend, but it takes an even greater responsibility for people of faith as we the servant love of Jesus paints our own efforts at friendship with more intense colors. His loving extends far beyond what human friendship expects. When a dying thief asked Jesus, at a most inconvenient time, if he would remember him when he died, Jesus’ reply was a powerful “yes indeed!” Even though even the best of us don’t always treat God as our friend, his powerful love treats each and all as the best of friends. Those are awfully big shoes to fill, but loving as we have been loved is what friends of God are called on to do.
Another of Jesus’ stories was about a foreigner who stopped for a wounded traveler he had never met. Two religious leaders had already refused because it was just too inconvenient. It was even possible the wounded man was a relative or neighbor as hew as from their region of the country. But it was an outsider who alone took time to care for a wounded stranger. Jesus ended the parable with a question, asking who treated the stranger as if he were a friend! For people of faith, Jesus never wants us to forget that faith is about surrendering in servant love to each other, whether or not it is convenient or we have ever been friends. Being a disciple of Jesus is asking a lot. But as we remember how God treats us, we have more than an insight of how we might live in response. We knock in prayer, at any hour, confident God will treat us as friends. Such faith is our example when it is our doorbell that begs to be answered, even at the midnight hour. We are not groundhogs used to hiding in the darkness, but friends of God who are called to live in the light!