St. Paul’s Church in
Bergen, Jersey City NJ
January 18, 2015
Year B: The Second
Sunday after the Epiphany
1 Samuel 3:1-20
Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
John 1:43-51
The Pilgrimage Road is a Two-Way Street
Have
you ever gone on a pilgrimage?
People
have been going on pilgrimages probably forever, journeying sometimes great
distances alone or with others to visit places where the boundary between the
human and the divine seems to be especially thin.
In
school, some of you probably read The
Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer’s late 14th Century account
of pilgrims making their way through England to Canterbury Cathedral to visit
the site where Thomas Becket was martyred.
Today,
Christian pilgrims still trek to Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal where
the Virgin Mary was reported to have appeared in modern times.
Each
year lots of Christians go to Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago, an arduous
journey to the grave of St. James the Apostle.
It’s
not just Christians who make pilgrimages.
Maybe
the most famous pilgrimage is the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that every
Muslim is expected to make at least once in his or her life. Nowadays about two
million people make the trip each year.
And
then there are non-religious pilgrimages to places like Graceland, the home of
Elvis Presley.
I’ve
gone on a couple of pilgrimages myself, including a couple of trips with some
of the youth from my previous parish, Grace Madison.
One
year we drove to Canada where we visited churches in Montreal and Quebec City.
We took a ride north-east from Quebec to a famous pilgrimage site, St. Anne de
Beaupre, a shrine where crutches and wheelchairs hang on the walls, left behind
by pilgrims who were apparently cured of their ailments at the sacred site.
And
then another pilgrimage was my favorite: we flew to San Francisco and then
drove down the Pacific coast visiting mission churches founded by the Spanish in
the 18th and 19th Centuries.
I
remember sitting in one of those mission churches with our Grace Church kids,
typical American suburban teenagers who were taking in the history and the
beauty or, more likely, texting each other or their friends back home when we
heard a shuffling noise coming from behind us.
We
all looked and saw a very old woman making her way up the center aisle on her
knees, clutching her rosary, making her own slow, prayerful pilgrimage to the
altar.
It
was a powerful and moving moment.
It
seems that pilgrimages today are more popular than ever.
A
couple of months ago there was an article in The New York Times about the booming popularity of pilgrimages.
About one-third of all tourists are pilgrims!
Obviously
this pilgrimage boom can be partly explained by the fact that today it’s easier
and cheaper than ever to travel great distances.
But
the author of the article offered some deeper, less obvious reasons, too.
We
all know that people’s religious identity isn’t as fixed as it used to be. Lots
of people switch their faiths – about half of all Americans do - or decide that
they’re “spiritual but not religious.”
As
the author notes, “Everyone is on a journey.”
The
author interviewed Brian Kwan, a young photographer from Colorado Springs, who
hiked the challenging 40-mile long Jesus trail from Nazareth to the Sea of
Galilee.
Reflecting
on his pilgrimage experience, Kwan said, “The moment you stop questioning is
the moment you stop growing. You’re either walking in the direction of God or
you’re walking away.”
I
really like that image of life as a pilgrimage towards God.
“You’re
either walking in the direction of God or you’re walking away.”
However…
We’re
not the only ones on a journey.
The
pilgrimage road is a two-way street.
In
a real way God is on a pilgrimage, too.
God
is on a pilgrimage to us.
In
the words of today’s psalm, God is searching us - calling out to us, inviting
us to be disciples, challenging us to be part of the great work of building the
kingdom of God right here and now.
The
pilgrimage road is a two-way street.
God
is on a pilgrimage to us.
In
today’s Old Testament lesson we heard the story of God literally calling out to
the boy Samuel, “Samuel! Samuel!” calling him to begin his work as a great
prophet of Israel.
God
is on a pilgrimage to us.
In
today’s gospel lesson we hear Jesus on a kind of pilgrimage when he decides to
go to Galilee and begins calling his disciples.
Notice
that Philip is not on a pilgrimage. He’s not seeking. Actually, we’re not told
what he’s doing – probably just minding his own business.
We’re
told that Jesus “found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’”
And
just like the fishing brothers Simon and Andrew and James and John, when he
hears the call, Philip seems to immediately drop what he’s doing to follow
Jesus.
But,
first Philip goes to tell Nathanael who is skeptical but does journey toward
Jesus – makes a little pilgrimage to Jesus - and also becomes a disciple.
We
are on a pilgrimage to God.
And
God is on a pilgrimage to us.
This
weekend we are remembering and honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.
By
now, King has become an almost legendary figure so it’s easy to forget his
beginnings in the civil rights movement.
In
1955 when Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her seat on a bus, in
Montgomery, Alabama, King was 26 years old. He had previously planned to be an
academic somewhere in the North where he and his young family would have had
greater freedom. Instead he chose to take a Southern pulpit. When the bus
boycott began, King had been pastor of the Dextor Avenue Baptist Church in
Montgomery for only one year.
The
young, brainy pastor was an unlikely choice to lead this dangerous boycott.
But,
God was on a pilgrimage to Martin King, meeting him while he was minding his
own business in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, calling Martin to be an even greater,
bolder, radically faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.
You
know the rest of the story.
It’s
beautiful to think of our lives as a pilgrimage to God.
Fortunately,
going on a pilgrimage doesn’t require traveling vast distances.
In
a way, just like that old woman I saw in California, we make a little
pilgrimage to God each time we come here, each time we make our way up the
aisle to find Jesus in the bread and the wine.
However…we’re
not the only ones on a journey.
The
pilgrimage road is a two-way street.
God
is on a pilgrimage to us.
God
is searching us - calling out to us, inviting us to be disciples, challenging
us – just like God called, invited and challenged Samuel, Philip, Nathanael,
and Martin Luther King - to be part of the great work of building the kingdom
of God right here and now.
The
pilgrimage road is a two-way street.
We’re
on a pilgrimage to God.
And,
God is on a pilgrimage to us.
Amen.
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