Of Faith and Facebook

Yeah, I think I’m the last one on earth yet to join Facebook. All my friends have, everyone in the office. And they have all these friends. I thought I had friends, but alas, the cyber-truth of the matter is that I am virtually friendless without Facebook. K has recently joined and she has all these friends; she now knows when her niece in Greenville South Carolina purchases her vente from Starbucks. “Got my Starbucks…good to go,” she chronicles. LOL I think. I was being recruited to join by one of the staff here, and I asked what if I joined and asked to be someone’s friend and was rejected. “I couldn’t bear that!” I said. “Oh they’ll let you be their friend,” she said with blithe confidence. My sons said K could be their friend, but warned her not to befriend their friends. What’s that about?

In spite of Facebook being yet one more cultural and technological manifestation of our obsessive compulsive disposition, there is undeniably a palpable sense of community there amid the digital ether. K located and is in communication with a relative whom she hasn’t seen since she was a child…she lives in California and is an Episcopalian…We’re going to look her up when we are in California for the Episcopal General Convention…who knew? Our daughter has reconnected with high school friends. People in the know tell me there is even an All Saints group of friends in cyber space. OMG!

The life of faith at its heart is a life of befriending, the art of loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. The life of faith at its essence is, not an intellectual assent to a creed or a system of belief, but the artful practice of loving our neighbor, befriending the lonely and lost as we experience the joy of lively and imaginative community. We are so much stronger together; and it is God, Godself who inhabits every act of befriending. God thrives in community; and grieves for the friendless left out. To be befriended is to be granted dignity…dignity, the outward and visible sign of a God who loves only. Dignity the face of salvation. In all of our sacred befriending may we see God face to face….and amid friendship, know love come to light.

So, I’m asking ahead of time. If I dare to join Facebook, will you be my friend. Please.