I met my friend Thom in seminary in Washington, DC in the early 1980s. We played basketball together, learned the Bible and theology together, supported each other in the challenging time that graduate school was. I was honored to be an usher in his wedding. And he is the person responsible for my fandom of Canadian singer/songwriter/guitarist Bruce Cockburn (pronounced "co-burn"). Thom had Cockburn's "Inner City Front" album (they were vinyl, with two sides, played on a record player in those days), and I listened to it and fell in love with it.
It became my "go-to" for writing papers (my best writing times were between 10 PM and 2 AM). I made a special trip to the "cool" record store in Georgetown to discover that Cockburn had already been recording since 1970, and had put out 10 albums before "Inner City Front" (no Internet in those days to easily find these things out--and he's now made 33 albums). I bought everything of his I could get my hands on. I began calling his record company in Toronto on the phone, and was on a first-name basis with the person who answered. She arranged tickets for me and some others to go to Welland, Ontario, in March 1984 to see him in concert (in a high school auditorium), and that included a visit with him backstage. (Funny story about how my brother Luke is even more of an extrovert than I am). Since then I have everything he's ever recorded, and have seen him in concert somewhere between 10 and 20 times, in Pittsburgh, New York City, Albany, NY, Washington, DC, Portland, ME . . Often I wait around to talk with him briefly (he is an extremely nice guy) and get an autograph. A personally autographed poster hangs in my study at the church.
You could say I follow Bruce Cockburn.
And yet, despite how nice a guy he is, and how many times I've shaken his hand and gotten a photo with him (one on my Facebook page) and gotten his autograph, I doubt that he could pick me out of a lineup. Me following Bruce Cockburn, although faithful on my part, is not a relationship, like our following Jesus is. Although Cockburn's music inspires me, challenges me (especially when I try to play it on my guitar--he is such a virtuoso there is no way I could even hope to play some of it), and encourages me to see the world in a different way (his lyrics are amazing takes on regular stuff, on how we engage one another, and how magical the world is), I am not able to converse with him every day, cry to him when I am sad, and be a comfort and support and companion to another person in the name of Bruce Cockburn. I may follow Bruce Cockburn, but there is no sense of mutuality, and I am not Bruce Cockburn's hands and feet and heart to those who need help.
What we can have with Jesus is mutual, and the more we nurture that, the more it happens. The more we seek to "follow more nearly" the more we are sustained in living out that following of the One whose love is the reason for our very breath. As Jesus said to "all of them" (not just the Disciples, and not just the religious leaders) in John 8: "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life."
John 1:35-46
35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God!’ 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ 39 He said to them, ‘Come and see.’ They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated Anointed). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter).
43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.’ 46 Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’
John 8:12
12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’
