Perhaps you’ve heard someone describe themself as a “Friend of Bill”? That doesn’t mean they’re literally a friend of a person named Bill, they’re not in a relationship. It means that the person is a following the 12 Step program that Bill W had a part in creating. It means that the person is working on overcoming their addiction and trying maintain their sobriety. It’s not a relationship as much as it’s a commitment to a way of living.

What does it mean to be a Friend of Dorothy? Well, according to the site, Pride.com, it stems from The Wizard of Oz books:

Upon first publication, the Oz books were a sensation of their own inspiring musicals, plays, and movies even before the 1939 MGM epic. They were a blockbuster sensation before blockbusters were a thing. And they were really queer. The books are full of strong woman in close relationships with each other, gender bending princes, and more. In 1906’s Road to Oz, Polychrome (literally the Rainbow’s daughter, although that’s pure coincidence as the LGBT rainbow flag as we know it was debuted in the ’70s) tells Dorothy “You have some queer friends, Dorothy.” And our plucky young heroine replies, “The queerness doesn’t matter, so long as they’re friends!”

In both cases, being a Friend means identifying with others and doing something rather than being in friendship with another person in the way we normally think about it.

Jesus tells us that if we want to be a Friend of Jesus, we must do what he expects of us, what he commands of us; to love our neighbor as ourself. That’s the main idea of the sermon this week and what doing that might mean for us.

You can find the sermon at this link.