The Patronal Festival of St Ninian's Cathedral, Perth

Far away in the tropical waters of the Caribbean, two prawns were swimming around in the sea. They had been best friends all their lives and were inseparable. One was called Justin and the other called Christian.

It was a dangerous existence for both of them as prawns were constantly being harassed and threatened by sharks that patrolled the area. Finally, one day during a tropical storm, Justin said to Christian, “I’m bored and frustrated at being a prawn, I wish I was a shark and then I wouldn’t have any worries about being eaten...”

As Justin had his mind firmly on becoming a predator, a flash of lightning hits the water and lo and behold, Justin turns into a shark. Horrified, Christian immediately swims away, afraid of being eaten by his old friend.

Time went on, and Justin found himself becoming bored and lonely as a shark. All his old friends simply swam away whenever he came close to them, none faster than his old pal. Justin hardly realized that his new menacing appearance was the cause of his sad plight.

During the next tropical storm, Justin figures that the same lightning force could change him back into a prawn. Lightning never strikes twice except in stories like these, but while he was thinking of being a prawn again, a flash of lightning strikes the water next to Justin and lo and behold, he turns back into a prawn. With tears of joy in his tiny little eyes Justin swims back to his friends and buys them all a cocktail.

Looking around the gathering at the reef, he looks for his old pal. “Where’s Christian?” he asked. “He’s at home, distraught that his best friend changed sides to the enemy and became a shark” came the reply.

Eager to put things right again and end the mutual pain and torture, he sets off to Christian’s house. As he opens the coral gate, the memories come flooding back. He bangs on the door and shouts “It’s me, Justin, your old friend. Come out and see me again!”

Christian replies, “No way man. You’ll eat me. You’re a shark; the enemy. I will not be tricked.” Justin cries back, “No I’m not. That was the old me. I’ve changed .... I’m a prawn again Christian!!”

Friendship, how we live and love our friends, is a vital part of our emotional well-being. Few things can cut deeper than a friend who hurts us or betrays us, or drops out of our lives. Likewise few things build us up more than a friend who remains loyal in a crisis, who sticks by us when the world seems to be overwhelming and nothing humbles us more than a friend who will risk life and limb to help, save or protect us. We trust friends with our innermost thoughts, we look to friends for understanding and compassion when we do something for which we are ashamed, we look to friends to celebrate the happy times, to remember our important anniversaries, to be with us through sad times and to laugh at our unfunny jokes.

I have a confession to make to you, my friends. It is something that is a deep passion within me, one that I have never quite controlled. I am a film addict. There, it is said, and I look to you for compassion.

Films regularly portray an ideal, but they can often reflect the reality of situations that happen in real life daily. One such film, The Guardian, depicts the heroic and sacrificial efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard. Legendary rescue-swimmer Ben Randall trains a group of recruits — particularly a high school swim champion with a troubled past — to save those lost and perishing at sea. In one particular scene, Ben and Jake have just completed a rescue in the Bering Sea, Alaska. A fierce storm rages, and tremendous waves crash violently below them. Both men are attached to a single cable lifting them to a helicopter. Suddenly, the cable begins to snap. Ben takes a moment to assess the situation. He grabs at the cable in order to detach from it and, he hopes, save Jake’s life. Jake asks, “What are you doing? Don’t even think about it!” Ben tells him, “It’s not gonna hold us both.” “Yes it will! Don’t! It’ll hold!” Ben detaches himself from the cable and falls. Jake lunges out and grabs his hand. He holds on with all his strength, groaning loudly. “I won’t let go!” “I know,” says Ben. He removes a wrist flap from the gloved hand Jake is holding and falls into the sea.

It is the real life sacrifices, of real people, in real situations, that reveals something of the sense of love that Jesus is trying to help us engage with in our Gospel for this evening. It is not a cosy, romantic lovey-dovey love: it is a real, deep, sacrificial love that goes beyond the superficial and seeks the well-being of another. Jesus is clear that the love he has for his disciples is all-embracing, is sacrificial, potent, true. It is a love that treats every one as an equal, without fear nor favour, but an equal that is also brother or sister, close companion, friend.

In John 15:12-17 we are looking at the words Jesus spoke to his disciples as they left the Upper Room and made their way across the Kidron valley and through the hillside vineyards into the shadows of Gethsemene’s garden. It stands at the very heart of the passage known as the Farewell Discourse and speaks pointedly of love, the distinguishing mark of the community that continues to exist in the world in Jesus’ name. At the outset of the discourse, upon announcing his imminent departure, Jesus introduces a “new commandment”: “just as I have loved you, you also should love one another”. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples”, he said, “if you have love for one another” (13:34-35). In John 15:12-17, the theme of love is resumed and receives its most extensive development in the Fourth Gospel.

At this point of the Gospel, John focuses the love commandment on the community of disciples. While the other gospels exhort disciples to love their neighbours and even their enemies (cf Mark 12:28-34; Matt 22:34-40; Luke 10:25-28; and Matt 5:43-48; Luke 6:27-36), John speaks here of in-house love, calling Christians to “love one another”. It is an urgent call to the Christian community already fracturing into factions. We will be known by our Love for one another. How often do we hear that Christians can’t even love one another, that we won’t share, that we can’t work together. Yet here is Jesus telling us that this is exactly what we are called to: to be one body. Gail R. O’Day warns that “the history of the church and of individual communities of faith suggests that to love one another may be the most difficult thing Jesus could have asked. There are many circumstances in which it is easier to love one’s enemies than it is to love those with whom one lives”. It is a high demand, costly and sacrificial but one that for Christ’s sake and for our own we must attempt and keep trying.

St Ninian was well aware of the cost of love. In his biography by Aelred of Rievaux, the protégé of David I, Aelred describes a very modern scene. A priest accused of abusing his authority and making a young woman pregnant. I quote: “the good were scandalized, the wicked elated, the common people laughed, and the sacred order was scoffed at; the presbyter, whose fame was injured, was saddened. But the innocence of the priest by the revelation of the Spirit was not hidden from the bishop beloved by God. He bore, however, with impatience the scandal to the Church and the injury to holy religion. Ninian shielded the priest despite the injury it caused him and by being true revealed the truth that a local ne’er-do-well was the father and the priest innocent”.

Love can cost in many ways but the love of Jesus will bear all things and in this love and by our own practice of it we will build up the broken, the wronged, the outcast, we will reveal the value of all people in the eyes of God.

It is my hope that the future will bring St. John’s and the Cathedral closer, as partners, recognising ourselves as brothers and sisters in our work to bring the Good News to Perth and beyond. We have distinctive approaches to witnessing our faith but we have more importantly a common bond in our friend Jesus who loves us and hopes for our fraternity. We are called to follow his command to Love one another as he loved us and to bear the fruit of that love in bringing to Jesus new friends to walk with him on his way.

Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing that we do your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord”.  (Prayer of Ignatius Loyola)