Source
of all that is holy and pure, show us our journey. Prepare our hearts and open our spirit. Let us travel inward to learn more and more
of you. Amen
It’s late summer—time for all those
last minute trips. And we go all kinds
of places—most of us are looking for someplace cooler right about now. Sometimes our trips are special and sometimes
they are just to get away. Many of you
know that after years of negative attitudes about camping, I have recently
discovered that I love it. There is one
part I don’t like quite as much and that is the preparation. But any trip requires just that and so today
I want to talk about our spiritual journeys that we take throughout our
lives.
You may well know someone who has made a pilgrimage to
somewhere. Occasionally, we may say that
we make a pilgrimage to our place of birth or the country of our ancestors;
and, that is certainly one type of pilgrimage.
But, there is a second, more ancient kind of pilgrimage and that is a
pilgrimage to a sacred or historically important religious site. In the Christian tradition, Catholics have,
up until recently, emphasized the importance of religious pilgrimages. Now, however, a good many from the Protestant
tradition have also begun to speak of making a specific pilgrimage. Whatever your background, whether you come
from either one of those, or another or none, it’s probably helpful to review
the nature of pilgrimages before we talk about what we will pack for our
pilgrimage.
First, a spiritual pilgrimage implies
that you are taking a journey to a holy place.
This is more than a trip as a tourist to the Holy Land or to a famous
cathedral. When we are tourists, we go
to see what we can see, take as many pictures as we can, post as many of those
on Facebook as is possible, and return home to tell others of all that we have
seen and heard. We may, in fact, be
significantly be touched and moved by things we saw along the way, but seeking
out those holy places was not our primary motivation for going. A pilgrim, on the other hand, is motivated
almost solely, by the desire to meet God in a certain place. A pilgrimage is usually planned as a time of
self-discovery and is almost always carefully planned.
Secondly, a spiritual pilgrimage
implies a spiritual change or transformation in the heart and life of the
pilgrim. If you experience your
spiritual life and have the same amount of self-awareness when you return as
when you left, something went awry in your pilgrimage. Because spiritual transformation is so often
a part of spiritual pilgrimage, pilgrimage is considered a practice of
spiritual formation. However, since
specific spiritual practices do not possess some sort of universal appeal, not
everyone will feel called to undertake a spiritual pilgrimage. Those who do, however, will experience great
change in their lives.
In the third place, spiritual
pilgrimage is not supposed to be easy.
This does not always mean that the pilgrimage is physically difficult;
but, it often is. It may be
psychologically difficult, pushing the pilgrim to explore things about
themselves they would not ordinarily choose to explore. Sometimes, pilgrimage requires great
financial hardship. It may, perhaps, be
spiritually challenging, leading the pilgrim to explore new concepts about the
Divine; or, perhaps, to be in silence on the pilgrimage. Whatever the hardship, the pilgrim welcomes
them as an integral part of the pilgrimage.
Finally, spiritual pilgrimage takes us
away from our usual life. Our routine is
completely disrupted and we are thrown into an unknown schedule. The composition of our days is radically
altered. Pilgrimages often take people
to new countries with new languages and cultures. We become more aware of our day to day
surroundings because we need to in order to continue on the pilgrimage. Paying attention to our surroundings
increases the possibility that we will pay attention to God. Pilgrims leave the usual behind and seek to
experience God in the midst of a completely new environment.
A pilgrimage is, first and foremost, a
journey—a very special journey, I’ll admit, but a journey, nonetheless. Judaism is one of the first religions to talk
about journeys. Our brief scripture
today from the Old Testament comes from the blessing that God gave Abraham as
he left his home, his country and family.
But the reward was great. God
told Abraham that in return for his journey he would become a great nation,
blessed, famous, and a blessing to many.
God gives Abraham authority and says that he will determine who God
blesses and who God curses. God tells
Abraham that all of the families of the earth will be blessed through him—all
because he took a very special trip. We
know that thus begins the travels of a great journeying religion, a religion
whose people would journey for hundreds of years until the State of Israel was
founded in the last Century.
The life of Jesus is, of course,
filled with journey after journey. He is
even born while his parents are in the midst of their journey to Bethlehem and
back to Nazareth. We have the story of
Mary and Joseph taking Jesus to the Temple where he is blessed by Anna and
Simeon. And then they go home. We don’t hear about Jesus’ life until another
journey brings his family to Jerusalem and he is left behind where he is found
two days later amazing the rabbis in the Temple. John the Baptizer wandered the country-side
preaching and telling of the one to come.
Even the language about him is related to journey—‘prepare the way of
the Lord’. Finally, we see Jesus journey
to John to be baptized and immediately he is led on a 40-day journey into the
wilderness to be tested and proved.
Throughout his ministry, Jesus travelled. His parables are full of the travelling theme
and we come to know that it was through journeying that Jesus met and touched
so many people. Jesus called others to
journey with him. Of course, there were
the Twelve; but, there were others like the ones in our Gospel reading today
who missed their pilgrimage because of their many excuses.
But what of us? Are we called to make a pilgrimage? Perhaps, but I would like to briefly talk
about another pilgrimage—an inner pilgrimage to the holy spark of the heart of
God. I want to return to our earlier
four points about pilgrimage and see if they pertain to an inner
pilgrimage. First, the pilgrimage is to
a holy place. As we journey inside over
time, in retreat, or during a crisis—the proverbial dark night of the soul—we
seek the holiest of places—the place where we can experience the infusing of
every part of ourselves with God’s spirit.
Yes, God and I are one, but I may not always be able to bring that to
consciousness or feel the implication of such knowledge. But, when I journey to where I am able to
have it known in my heart of hearts, it usually requires many of the same steps
as an outward journey. This journey
inside shares the planning and seeking of spiritual discovery with its sister
pilgrimage—the physical, outer one.
Secondly, an inner pilgrimage also
implies that a transformation will take place in the heart and life of the
pilgrim. After the discovery of the
understanding of the divine nature or our own spirits, we, simply will never be
the same. Even, if, somewhere down the
road, we suppress the transformation of this pilgrimage, one can never alter
the inner transformation of the soul when it has found and focused on its
connection to the Divine. The third
characteristic is probably the easiest to understand. The pilgrimage is not supposed to be
easy. The inner journey is, simply, not
easy. We must uncover and disempower all
those things which tell us that this pilgrimage won’t be worth it; that it
won’t make any difference in the way we feel about ourselves or our lives; and,
that the cost is too great. We must
undertake it anyway if we value the deepening of our lives in and with
God. Finally, a spiritual pilgrimage
breaks us out of our routine. It simply
can’t be done in the regular course of things.
It requires time and patience, willingness and courage, love for
yourself and for other pilgrims.
So, what are you packing? What will you take along with you on this
inner journey should you choose to undertake it? Will you take your sense of unworthiness and
trust that God will show you your worth along the way? Will you take pictures of those you can’t or
won’t forgive and trust that the inner light will shine so brightly that you
will discover that nothing is more important than living in love with one another? Or, perhaps, you will take all your memories
of past failures—other times you sought God and got lost along the way. It might be that you will take your feelings
of powerlessness and allow God to fill you with power as you journey into your
deepest self. There is the chance that
you will take your anger at God for the losses of your lives and allow the
healing balm of inner peace surround your heart with the knowledge that God
hurts as you hurt. Questions, fear,
doubts—all good things to pack; but, also pack hope, longing, and the
willingness to go. And, most of all, go
in peace. Amen and amen. Namaste.
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