The 17th Sunday after Pentecost-The Rev Melanie Lemburg

 17^th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 20B

September 19, 2021

        This past week, Rev Aimee and I began a series on pilgrimage with our high school aged parishioners for Christian formation.  Our class will focus on both spiritual journeys and will culminate in physical journey of pilgrimage on a route still to be determined by the young people.  Along the way, we will learn about ourselves, about spirituality and the spiritual life, and about society—the world around us.  As a part of this beginning, I shared this with the group: 

“Pilgrimage entails a search for the sacred.  It is all about exploration—of both exterior and interior places.   There are three basic types of pilgrimage: ‘First, outward bound journeys go ‘to the frontier in a kind of metaphorical sense.  Second, homeward-bound journeys are ‘somehow back to where we started, where our major stories are acted out.’ These are journeys of return.  Finally in wandering or …pilgrimage [of moving from place to place], ‘the point is not so much one’s destination at all, but the journey itself, the discipline of being on the road.’[i]

Each of us is already on a journey as a part of just being alive.  Take a moment and think about which of these types of pilgrimages resonates most with where you are in your journey right now?  Are you more outward bound, homeward bound, or wandering?”[ii]

Interestingly enough, our gospel reading for today lands us squarely in the center of a “pilgrimage section” of Mark’s gospel.  In previous and subsequent chapters of Mark, Jesus and his disciples are traveling on the road to Jerusalem.  They start off in the Northern part of the country and make their way, in a sort of wandering way, down to Jerusalem.  Jesus uses this time on the road with his disciples to try to teach them about discipleship and what that means and also to try to prepare them for his coming death.  It is a difficult journey both physically and spiritually for the disciples (and probably for Jesus, too, as the disciples repeatedly miss the point of what Jesus is trying to teach).  One week, in almost the same breath, Peter proclaims Jesus as the Messiah and rebukes him when he learns Jesus must die.  The next week, Jesus tries to teach about faith versus fear, and how our fear can cripple us in our discipleship, and immediately after, the disciples begin arguing about which among them is the greatest.  They are confused, and they are tired, and they find themselves following a difficult way through uncharted territory. And we can certainly resonate with them, these days, but these gospels are important reminders to us that discipleship isn’t necessarily learned while we are sitting in the pews of church; rather, discipleship is learned on the way as we follow Jesus through the meanderings and challenges of the journey through our everyday lives. 

This week, I read one of the daily meditations of Franciscan priest Richard Rohr where he was quoting Ilia Delio who is a Franciscan nun who specializes in writing about the intersection of science and religion.  (She’s absolutely brilliant.)  Here is what Rohr quoted of Delio.  (Hint, it’s all about pilgrimage and the spiritual journey that makes up each of our lives):  “Everything that exists speaks of God, reflects that love energy of God. But God is more than anything that exists. God is always the more of our lives. We can’t contain God. If we try to control God, that’s not God; God always spills over our lives. So, God is our future. If we’re longing for something we desire, it’s that spilled-over love of our lives that’s pulling us onward, that’s luring us into something new. But we don’t trust this God [of implanted desire] often. We were pretty sure that God’s there, [and] we're here, and we just need to keep [on] the straight and narrow path. . . .”

She continues, “What Francis [of Assisi] recognized is God is in every direction. That you might arrive, you might not arrive. You might arrive late; you might arrive early. It’s not the arrival that counts. It’s God! It's not the direction that counts. It's just being there, trusting that you will be going where God wants you. In other words, God is with us. Every step of the way is God-empowered love energy. But we tend to break down and start controlling things: ‘If I go this way, I'm going to get lost. Well, what if it's wrong? What will happen to me?’ Well, what will happen to you? Something will happen. But guess what? Something’s going to happen whether or not you go; that’s the whole point of life. So, it’s all about love.” 

She concludes, “So, it’s not like we’ve got this, ‘Here’s God; here’s us. God’s just waiting till we get our act together and then we’ll all be well.’ That’s a boring God; that's not even God. God is alive. God is love. Love is pulling us on to do new things and we need to trust the power of God in our lives to do new things. . . . We need to unwire ourselves to recognize that the God of Jesus Christ is, you might say, the power beneath our feet, the depth of the beauty of everything that exists, and the future into which we are moving. . . ”[iii]

Your invitation this week is to think about what sort of pilgrimage you are being called to right now:  an outward bound adventure where you will explore new places and encounter new people, a home-coming to revisit aspects of your life or your past, or a wandering where the journey matters more than the destination.  What new understanding of discipleship is Jesus inviting you into on this journey?  How and where are you being called to trust the power of God to do new things in your life or in your world? 

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[i] Thurston, Bonnie B.  The Spiritual Landscape of Mark.  Liturgical Press:  Collegeville, 2008, p 34.

[ii] Lemburg, Melanie.  Pilgrimage Formation Session 1.  St. Thomas IOH, September 14, 2021

[iii] From Center for Action and Contemplation’s daily email for September 16, 2021: https://cac.org/love-is-all-there-is-2021-09-16/  (The quote is from Ilia Delio, CONSPIRE 2014: A Benevolent Universe, session 9. Center for Action and Contemplation: 2014.)