Reading for Preaching
The Four Loves
In terrific friendship some elements of respect and admiration “blossom into an appreciative love of a singularly robust and well-informed kind. . . in a perfect friendship this appreciative love is, I think, often so great and so firmly based that each member of the circle feels, in his secret heart. humbled before all the...
The Four Loves
Friends have a common interest. They are side by side in addressing it. But “those pathetic people who simply ‘want friends’ can never make any. The very condition of having friends is that we should want something else besides friends. Where the truthful answer to the question Do you see the same truth? would be...
Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life
This excerpt is quoted in Seeds of Hope: An Henri Nouwen Reader, ed. Robert Durback (Bantam, 1989), p. 129: “When we ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain...
Bright Orange for the Shroud
“He was an acquaintance rather than a friend. The dividing line is communication, I think. A friend is someone to whom you can say any jackass thing that enters your mind. With an acquaintance, you are forever aware of their slightly unreal image of you, and to keep them content, you edit yourself to fit....
Band of Brothers
Ambrose tells the story of E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, in Europe in WWII, from Normandy till they captured Hitler’s perch in Berchtesgaden. The men of “Easy Company,” as is common in wartime fighting units, became extremely close to one another. They had trained and drilled together. They had suffered together. They became “closer...
Additional content related to Friends
John 15:9-17
A couple of weeks ago Jesus compared being the Good Shepherd with how a hired hand works: the Good Shepherd is committed to the core, the hired hand high tails it when trouble comes. Now, in the second half of his discourse on being the True Vine, Jesus describes his disciples as friends rather than…
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
There’s no getting around it: this is a very curious story. It’s also a story with some good old-fashioned suspense, a bit of intrigue, and some humor. The writer tips off us readers right from the get-go of verse 1 to say that Elijah was departing via a whirlwind. The way the writer just drops…
Preaching Connection: Friends