This coming Sunday I plan to preach about the theme of friendship.
First of all, it is amazing how much the Bible says about friendship. Here are just a few verses:
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity (Proverbs 17:7)
“But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend… (Isaiah 41:8).
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:13-15).
As I think about friendship I am also thinking about Facebook. Through this social medium it is quite possible these days to have hundreds and thousands of “friends.”
As I think about Facebook it seems to me that this kind of technology serves as evidence for the existence of God. I would argue that in the following ways:
1. Facebook reveals the longing of the human heart for community, connection and friendship. This longing is not random but rather part of the design of human beings.
2. Facebook points us to a Designer behind the human design: one who creates humans with a longing for community.
3. Facebook also points us to something about this Designer: that He himself is a communal being–Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
That seems a little simple to me, but I like it.