October 30, 2022 St. Andrew Church Rev. Anne McAnelly
First Lesson: Exodus 34:21-24
21 “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in plowing time and in harvest time you shall rest. 22 You shall observe the Festival of Weeks, the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year. 23 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. 24 For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.
Second Lesson: Luke 2:41-52
41 Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. 43 When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents were unaware of this. 44 Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously looking for you.” 49 He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he said to them. 51 Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them, and his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favor.
Close your eyes, breathe in deeply. Now, take a moment to recall your last great traveling adventure. Or maybe that trip of a lifetime that you took many moons ago. Now whether you explored the Galapagos Islands, or Manchu Picchu; the Great Wall or the Wailing Wall do you have a place in mind? If several are presenting themselves, simply choose one. Can you see it? Were you in a group or traveling with a companion? Imagine the landscape and sunsets, the exotic smells and the varying temperature, the native tastes and culture. Breathe it all in. With the benefit of hindsight, did that trip teach you something about the world or yourself? Did it change you? Did you sense God’s presence or grandeur? I would love to hear where you went as we say good morning after worship.
I start here because as you know I will be heading to the Holy Lands on Tuesday. My group has been preparing for months, reading books, listening to world leaders, being commissioned by the Stated Clerk of the PCUSA, J Herbert Nelson, and the head of the Peacemaking portion of the national church. Did you know that PCUSA has a representative at the United Nations who advises on world issues to the Security Council and helps shape our response to global concerns. She came to talk with us on Zoom. The Mission Coworker in Bethlehem will be in my small group. A friend, after listening to my preparations, encouraged me to watch the Paul Newman film Exodus to get a taste for the politics. If you would like to follow me on the trip the Facebook group and blog information is printed in the bulletin. These will be produced by the group, sharing our explorations through pictures and words.
We have all traveled, seen different parts of the world, but I must admit most of my traveling has been as a tourist, not as a pilgrim. You might ask what is the difference? Rodney Aist in Jerusalem Bound, How to be a Pilgrim in the Holy Land, distinguished between a tourist and pilgrim in this way. “On vacation, one goes to get away from life; on a pilgrimage, one confronts life’s most important questions. Tourists change their environment; pilgrims let the environment change them (p. 177). So, I have been thinking a lot about being a pilgrim. First, I must note our first introduction to the word, Pilgrims at Thanksgiving, with the hat and turkey. But then I realized they truly were pilgrims in the spiritual sense. They were in search of God in this new land. Yet pilgrimage to the Holy Land writes Aist, “is incarnational, autobiographical, and corporate. (Meaning embodied spirituality, sensuous theology, and incarnational journey) It is a comprehensive expression of the Christian faith” (14).
Scripture is filled with pilgrimage. The preeminent pilgrimage was the exodus story of the Israelites fleeing Pharaoh, following God and Moses on a 40-year journey to arrive in the place of God’s choosing, the Promised Land. Struggles, hopes, idols, manna, and pillars of fire were all part of their journey, their pilgrimage. Our first lesson today was taken from the second time God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, the conclusion of their pilgrimage. They had arrived, they were renewing their covenant with God and God asks that the men appear before the Lord three times a year, during the festivals. God asks them to make a pilgrimage to the tabernacle they were about to build. To take annual pilgrimages.
Jesus also made pilgrimages. He joined with his family on an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the festival of Passover. On this pilgrimage, we first see Jesus’ acumen for understanding scripture, his feeling at home in his Father’s house, and his parents’ amazement of their first-born child. At the age of twelve, Jesus is making pilgrimage. Following his pilgrimage, he increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor. I would argue that is not only Jesus’ maturing, it is Jesus reflecting on his journey to be in his Father’s house, his pilgrimage. He was changed by his experience. Jesus’ long journey to Jerusalem, prior to his crucifixion, was another pilgrimage. Even the Magi traveling in search of Christ’s presence; pilgrimage.
Here are three concepts about pilgrimage I would like to share: the Fifth Gospel, Living Stones and the Third Eye of the Pilgrim. I hope they will set the tone for the stories I will bring back so we can all benefit from this rich theological experience.
I went to the Holy Lands in my twenties as a tourist. I remember being skeptical when my guide showed us a hillside telling us it was where Jesus gave the Sermon on Mount. My judgmental mind hindered my ability to sense God’s presence in that place. Now I have learned not to be so critical but to be open to what is called the Fifth Gospel. The Fifth Gospel is the land, experiencing the place where Jesus walked. It describes our encounter with the land and the clarity that it provides for understanding Scripture and the life of Jesus. Engaging in the Fifth Gospel means holding our experience of place right alongside the other four gospels. Ernest Renan coined the term writing, “I had before my eyes a fifth Gospel, torn but still legible, and …in place of an abstract being… I saw living and moving and admirable human figure” (Aist, p. 167). The Fifth Gospel invites us to welcome the power of place in our embodied understanding, our incarnational understanding, of Jesus.
Within the Fifth Gospel, the land, we find living stones. Living stones refer to the people who dwell in the Holy Lands each with their own history, culture and understanding of the spiritual journey. So meeting with the students in the school in Bethlehem, or a church leader in Jerusalem or Muslim woman in a Hijab, together offer a mosaic of understanding. Living Stones include Israelis, Palestinians, Bedouins, Jews, Christians, and Muslim. Encountering the living stones is what will bring transformation and understanding.
Finally, the Third Eye of the Pilgrim refers to how pilgrims see the world differently. Attentive to God working in the world, they are acute observers of the human condition, discerning the needs of others and responding with compassion (Aist, p. 176). By visiting a refugee camp in Palestine attuned to the decades long struggle between Israel and Palestine, the third eye helps to seek greater understanding and peace in the region.
These concepts are specific to a Holy Land pilgrimage. But you can have a pilgrimage to other places as well. You can see the needs around you with a Third eye full of compassion. You can be transformed by God’s presence in the majesty of creation. You can seek Christ’s presence within this community and beyond. I pray you will seek to be a pilgrim in your own life.
On my pilgrimage, we will be engaging other, crossing boundaries, listening to Jewish, Muslim, and Christian stories in the hopes of being transformed by our shared experience and our search for Christ’s presence in the people and the land. We will worship and discuss, learn and see. I will be leading worship in Bethlehem for our group. I am excited about how this pilgrimage will change me and transform my ministry and I want to thank you for this grand opportunity and for funding this adventure. I am extremely grateful!
In 1867 Mark Twain took a pilgrimage to the Holy Lands. On his last days he wrote, “The sights are too many. They swarm about you at every step; no single foot of ground in all of Jerusalem…seems to be without a stirring and important history of its own.” Later he reflects, “We do not think, in the holy place, we think in bed, afterwards, when the glare and the noise and the confusion are gone, and in the fancy we revisit alone the solemn monuments of the past and summon the phantom pageants of an age that has passed away.”
I can’t wait to return from pilgrimage to share with you all that I have gleaned and learned. You can tell me if God has transformed me by this experience. Thank you in advance for your prayers. Amen.
