Mtr Mary Trainor

Turn your eyes upon Jesus…*

Dear friend,

In the ever-fluxing world of language, I’ve highlighted the word “influencer” as a contemporary way of thinking about Jesus. Nowadays, an “influencer” is a go-to person for advice about a particular niche of interest. A fashion influencer, an art influencer, and so on. If you feel this trivializes Jesus, please know that is not my intent.

During Jesus’ lifetime, he was definitely an influencer in that he proclaimed a niche message as a Jew among Jews, yet as one who proclaimed love as God’s intention toward all. 

Look full in his wonderful face...

Today’s Epistle reading from First John reflects the powerful influence of Jesus’ message upon the beloved apostle, with its talk about “love” as the essential ingredient of our walk with God in Christ. Here’s a sample: “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” Love. It’s all about love. Tending to others’ needs through the paradigm of love. Helping. Assisting. Feeding. Giving water. Visiting. None of it’s a new idea. And yet we struggle with our human natures against the command to love.

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim…

Each of us is an influencer in the lives of others. Some of us have influencers who we seek out, or remember, when we are moved to seek guidance. Throughout much of my adult life, my major influencer was a woman named Martha. She was one of those “true north” people who, in my eyes, always recognized the “right” thing to do.

Martha was a Christian, but she was so much more than the label can sometimes imply. She was “of Christ,” capable of listening to a heated, complex, and thorny issue in which I had become ensnared, to which she would say something like, “Well, where is love? What’s the loving thing? Start there and then figure it out. You know this as well as I do.” Her responses were not long diatribes, but often questions, pithy and to the point. With this wise counsel I found my way.

In the light of his glory and grace.

As decades went by, Jesus became so much more than an influencer of one group of people. Now, as millions around the globe purport to follow him, he can scarcely be called an influencer any more, working only with a niche population. His influence has now reached beyond his immediate, worldly context. His message has been embraced by rich and poor, male or female, old and young, all races and cultures, all nations. These are among the people who follow Jesus. He taught us how to place love as our guiding principle, providing direction. In this way, loving God and one another, we are not rudderless, but guided by God with us, Emmanuel to the end of the ages.

Mtr Mary

* “Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus.” Lyrics by Helen H. Lemmel