Reflections: Being a Follower

Being a Follower

 

“We come to the table of the Lord
 as one body formed in your love.


When I was about 10 years old our neighbor was on a mission to save the “heathen children” of our neighborhood. I was one of those heathen children whose parents did not attend church. In the summer time we ate lunch at the home where we were playing, and we often ate outside at the picnic table. Each day we ate there we had to endure the “talk” about being saved in order to get to heaven. When I got older and met more and more Christians, I began to wonder if ‘being saved’ is the same thing as being a Christian. I have grown to believe that there is a big difference.  Being a Christian is about being a follower of Jesus not just a believer in Jesus the Christ.

Lots of folks have said to me that they don’t need to go to church in order to have a relationship with Jesus. They tell me Jesus can be worshipped on the golf course, in yoga class, or in the quiet of their backyard. All of this is certainly true. But while one can believe in Jesus without being at church, I don’t think you can follow Jesus without the church. The church helps you, upholds you and supports you when you cannot do it for yourself. The church is there for you and loves you when you feel you have nothing to give. I love my backyard and I have put in many hours there but the church challenges me in a way that my azaleas cannot. I need to be at that table with you each week because that is where I am challenged to be a follower.

We are social beings by nature. We cannot thrive without each other. Think of what we know about children raised in orphanages who were not touched or cuddled. They struggle their whole lives to form lasting attachments. The one form of punishment that prisoners dread most is solitary confinement. Being alone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for weeks, months or years is detrimental to our emotional health. But many folks still maintain that we should go it alone when it comes to faith.

So then, what does it mean to be a follower rather than a believer? It seems to me that we have gotten a bit twisted in our thinking about this. We believe that we can do nothing to aid or hinder our own salvation. We believe that Christ performed the one saving act in history, once and FOR ALL. So, if my personal salvation is already taken care of, then being saved is not an act I have a part in and therefore doesn’t define me as a Christian. If that is true, then what does define me? If being a Christian is a matter of my “status” (saved vs not) then is that all there is to it? Well, not in my mind. If we say that Jesus saves then we are talking about Jesus. If I say that I am a Christian then I am talking about myself. The truth for me is that I am a follower of the one who saves. Both are true statements but we cannot substitute one for another because only one of them requires action on my part. As a follower then, I am on the road with other followers. We care for and support each other, we challenge each other to keep going when we think we have nothing left. At least for me, going it alone is not an option because I would have given up long ago.

Many of you know that I am a “gym rat” and while the evidence of that is not always “visible” I am none-the-less committed to my own health in this way. Now, if it were up to me (the laziest person I know) when I get home from work, I would rather park my backside on the couch and not move until time to eat or sleep than to change clothes and go to the gym. If it were up to me, I rather sleep an extra hour than to get up early and go to the gym. But, I know that my trainer is there waiting for me and that he will be very disappointed in me if I don’t show up. While at the gym, if I were on my own, I would do 10 reps, feel a little tired and say “that’s good”! My trainer can always get 5 more from me! Even when I think I have nothing left, he can always get one more. Sometimes he has to assist me, but I always feel stronger and better after a workout with him, than one strictly on my own. In most ways church is like that for me as well. I alone have to make the decision to be here, but once I do, I am no longer alone, I can do more than I think and I feel better when I leave. So, you may come alone, but you won’t leave that way!

“We come to the table of the Lord
as one body formed in your love."