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Following the example of Jesus

January 4, 2025

Exodus 3:1-12 |Hebrew 11:23-31 | John 14:6-14

As I read John 14:6-14, I couldn’t help but think of my dear friend, Lisa Johnson. My family came to East Greenwich in 1965, and Lisa’s family came two years later. (Oddly enough, before moving to East Greenwich, both of our families went to St. Andrew’s Episcopal church in Framingham, MA! Lisa and I were meant to be together.) Lisa joined the St. Luke’s junior choir in 1967 at the age of ten. Priscilla Ring, looking for someone to shepherd Lisa along, asked the choir members, “Who would like to be friends with the new girl?” I enthusiastically waved my hand and said, “I would!  I would!” The rest was history. The 55 year period I spent as Lisa’s bestie was a longer time period than I had with either of my parents. Jesus asks Philip incredulously if he knows him, after he has been with him for “such a long time.” Lisa and I shared such a long time, and I believe I knew her as well as anyone. Jesus went on to say, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father,” and then, “it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.” Jesus also instructs Philip to “believe on the evidence of the works themselves,” saying “whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing” so that the Father will be glorified.

Lisa and I grew up in the choirs, continuing through our high school years. Priscilla started a teen choir, which was all girls at first. Then Priscilla decided we needed some tenors and basses, so the guys in our youth group were able to join our choir, including the Catholic boyfriends of some of us!  Lisa’s ex-husband, and the father of her children, was in that choir. Lisa and I would sing so many of the hymns spontaneously in our conversations, and I’m remembering one in particular…”I sing a song of the saints of God…patient and brave and true.” And the hymn ended with this: “For the saints of God are just folk like me, and I mean to be one, too.” Jesus taught us how to be everyday saints, by following His examples. If we followed those, we could be saints of God, too, as the hymn proclaims. Lisa was as much of a servant of God as anyone I knew. She served St. Luke’s continuously, up to and including her role as Senior Warden, and beyond. So many stories have been shared with me about how Lisa served publicly, and to individuals, as Jesus was teaching His followers to do in this Bible passage. I remember talking with Lisa about Fred Rogers from “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood,” who used to say, “look for the helpers.” Lisa was a true helper…with her family, her friends, in her nursing role, and definitely through her church. She modeled what Jesus was teaching in this passage in the book of John. And, like Jesus, she is still alive amongst us today because of the body of work that was her life.  Her works spoke for themselves, and, to quote another hymn, she lived to show “they will know we are Christians by our love.” Anyone who knew her saw the Father in her.  Thanks be to God for this saint who lived amongst us, and gave us such an example to follow. “For the saints of God are just folk like me, and I mean to be one, too!”

Heidi Johnson