Follow me!

I had a possibility to attend at a mass here in our summer-parish and the vicar thought that I could have the word that Sunday, 31st July. So I talked about Luke 9:51-62. I am happy about this and this what I said. I have translated the text from swedish to english, so sorry for the mistakes it may hold. Have a great weekend, Niina

When I was a kid, and celebrated the summers with my grandparents in Finland, I was the person who spent time with grandfather often. Everywhere he went, I was there with him. I wanted to know where he was and what he could. Sometimes I jumped in his footsteps along the gravel road down to the lake and sometimes I held his hand, walked side by side and looked up to him see what he saw.

I followed.

Today's theme is imitation. In the Gospel Jesus feels like a rough guide who asks, if you want to follow him, you to leave everything behind. He who wanted to bury his father and he wanted to say goodbye to them at home, were told that they would not bother with it, just follow Jesus. Without no return.

But did Jesus mean what he said - may not, as follower of Jesus, they bury their relatives or to say goodbye to their loved ones before following? And what does it mean to follow Jesus? I think at the time of Jesus, it was important to have the duty to bury a relative, it was important to study the law and to participate in temple worship and the Passover, but what was God's kingdom was more important. Thought a lot about this and I think it is about the trust, to put ones life in God's hands and rely on God's love and wisdom.

And imitation is in itself an act, a verb - We follow the master, but we do not always know where we are heading and it can be both dark and cold. In Jesus' time it was more to literally follow him when he went from village to village, town to town. They shared his condition and earned him the way they could. I think that those who followed Jesus, then, believed in what they did and did what they believed in.

Living in the Imitation of Christ is not easy. It is difficult, the hardships rich and dirty. The idea is that one should go near his master, so that the dust from his sandals, would be splashing up on you. But we know who we follow, Jesus - Light of the world. And whoever follows him will not walk in darkness but have the light of life. It is not about a lamp, a bright light that we can turn off or turn on but a mild light, a flame that we should care about. And Jesus has no demands on us. Being a Christian does not mean a list of "must do or be", because he loves each of us as we are. We provide just what we have.

It feels good.

We are all called to be followers of Jesus. It's about finding one's life, to see the possibilities, daring to dream and to have visions. For life is beautiful. It's about believing in yourself, believing in what we do and do what we believe. To take life seriously, not to let anything have power over us and not to forget what is valuable. And to see fellow human beings! See his/her inner flame and see your inner flame and we should do what we can to keep the flame, the candle burning. I think Jesus wants with our lives.

So feel safe, take God at hand and take another human being in his hand, like I took the grandfather in his hand and follow Jesus - together. For you and me, whatever we do in our lives, are called by God to a life as a follower of Jesus.

It is to be a Christian.

Amen.