Rev'd Dr Phill Brown is Rector of Burghill Benefice. Here he talks about friendship.
The ideals of friendship go back a long way and have always been seen as the summit of resting love. We hear a lot of talk about agape within the Church, but within classical thought and within early Christianity, friendship was seen as the result of agape, what love achieves, uniting two distinct people into one. The great Cicero once said, ‘all that I can do is to urge you to put friendship before all things human’. St Augustine of Hippo, an admirer of Cicero’s, used this classical appreciation to furnish his theology of Christ, that in finding Christ one finds a true friend. As an example of friendship and exhorting his congregation to do likewise, he employs the figure of John the Baptist. For Augustine, John is simply, the Amicus Sponsi, ‘the friend of the bridegroom’. John is a figure that points away from himself and directs other towards Christ. For Christ is the one who unites both God and humanity within Himself, and it is with Him alone we become the friends of God. Augustine writes, ‘a servant who acknowledged his Lord like that, and so from being a servant deservedly became a friend’.
So what am I saying to you? Well, love is precious, and friendship is rare. In a world of inconsistency and dislocation, Christ stretches forth his hands to us in friendship, the love of God realised in human flesh. I love the statue of Christ overlooking Rio de Janeiro, Christ the Redeemer, who holds his arms outstretched to the world. Remember, Jesus isn’t looking for staff, He is looking for companions, friends.
[Ed: Rev'd Phill is pictured here with friend and colleague Rev'd Mandy Welch, PTO at this year's Chrism Mass at Hereford Cathedral]
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