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FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF JESUS

EVERYONE IS FOLLOWING SOMEONE. Take my son Peter for example. Lately, he has been in the habit of stepping into my wingtips and announcing to the rest of the family, “I’m David.” He will holler “Meg!” to Mary Cate across the house—she is Meg in this arrangement—“I go to church, Meg!” And he shuffles off to “work” in his oversized shoes, following in his father’s footsteps.

That is a snapshot of the Christian life, because being a Christian is essentially about being a follower. In St. John’s Gospel alone, we find many texts about following:

• And [Jesus] found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” (1:43)

• “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (10:27)

• “If any one serves me, he must follow me.” (12:16)

• Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now; but you shall follow afterward.” (13:36)

This edition of the VOICE rings in the new year. With Advent, we are back at the top of our liturgical calendar, and we are again invited to follow Jesus through the seasons of the year, living our lives in his footsteps.

That’s the whole point of the Christian Year. We begin in Advent, as if waiting on a woman-with-child to deliver. We long for someone worth following. We connect with “the hopes and fears of all the years” described in our Advent readings as we anticipate the promise of Immanuel, God-with-us. In the season of Christmas, of course, we rejoice in the Messiah’s birth and the wonder of the Word become flesh, the God who comes to walk in our shoes. Then, in Epiphany we follow the stories in which the disciples discover more and more the enormity of who Jesus is, and in our following, we too grow in our amazement of Jesus’s identity and grace and power. The journey then continues through the cross of Lent, the resurrection of Easter, and the long green season of proclamation after Pentecost. The whole year is a journey with Jesus, following in his footsteps and growing up in his image and likeness.

As I write this, I am about to embark on a dream of mine. I am leading a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and with the rest of the pilgrims on this journey I am excited about walking where Jesus walked and seeing the Bible “come to life.” But it is important to point out that the Church has never viewed a trip to Palestine as a Christian requirement. In fact, you could say that it is supposed to work the other way round: Christ came to make the whole creation the Holy Land as his disciples learn to walk in his ways and follow him with their lives, no matter where they live. For the Christian, life itself is a pilgrimage, even in the most mundane circumstances: showing up on Sunday, the daily devotions that keep us following Christ faithfully, and then letting the Bible “come to life” in our lives as we serve in Jesus’ name and put his truth and love into practice.

More and more, it seems, I hear people expressing the sentiment, “I just don’t think I have to go to church to be a Christian.” Baloney. There is no such thing as a spiritual Lone Ranger. Christ came—he lived and died—to call together a people who, day in and day out, year in and year out, are together getting into his enormous shoes and helping one another to follow in his footsteps.

That’s the purpose of the Church year, now beginning again with Advent. Read through this VOICE. Look for opportunities to grow in Christ. And make this a year of following Jesus like no other.

Yours in the pilgrimage,