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“What a friend we have in Jesus . . .”
on listening to “the other”, friendliness, and how listening reorders power and relationships
If you were raised like me, in an evangelical church, these words, “What a friend we have in Jesus . . .” bring with them the sound of an old organ churning out this familiar hymn.
Or maybe you can hear the sound of that one church member whose swaying back and forth matched the swaying voice in which they sang. Yet they sang out of their lived experience of holding tight to this Jesus, like a friend on whom you can rely . . . who will held their sorrow, all of their sins and grief, all of their burdens.
Embedded in this Christian faith is a sneaky and shocking way that Jesus does become “friend” in addition to the more traditional language of “Lord and Savior”. “Lord and Savior” language fits more of the language of conquering, of power as we traditionally conceive it.
But this language of “friend”, this is a re-ordering of power. This is a Jesus who is with us, truly with us.
