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I'm on your side. (Tears and fellowship)

25 February 2007                                                 

I’m on your side

“When you're weary, Feelin' small, When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all”. Human tears. Humans have tears, and they have friends to dry them. Usually. Sometimes there are no others to hear our cries or dry our tears. Sometimes we feel alone.

“I'm on your side, When times get rough, And friends just can't be found” says the Paul Simon song. But who is it that is on our side when there are no friends?  God will wipe away every tear from our eyes – in heaven, according to Revelation. But what about now?

The song promises a friend to the friendless. So they are not actually friendless. But who is this? Is the song offering an empty hope, or is it a seduction song? Who can come to our side when times are rough? Does God have a plan for this?

One of the difficulties of modern life, is that many of us feel times are rough all the time. We may not be in tears, but we may be stressed, over burdened, struggling with conflicts, difficult relations, and uncertain futures. We identify with the song because we often feel we need someone else to be a bridge over troubled waters for us.

For some people church is the bridge. At least they hope or think it is, or that it should be. But many people in church have little resource to be a bridge for others, even though church is where God’s plan is meant to work. Friendship, fellowship, love, is meant to be the feature of the life of God’s church.   

Church is fellowship. It is not essentially a ceremony, nor an entertainment. I think Jesus meant it be a fellowship of tear dryers. The reality is that there are not two classes in church – the givers and the receivers. It is just one group which has to both give and receive. The bridges are provided by each for the others.

“I’m on your side” could be a motto for a Christian. Because we Christians know that God himself wipes away our tears in the present, not only in the future. He comforts us in all our troubles. His Spirit floods our hearts with his love just at the time when things look most bleak. And we in turn, who know the comfort of the God of compassion and all comfort, can say to each other “I’m on your side”.

Dale

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