"Pilgrim Journey" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday July 7 & 14 (Flower Services)
Scripture:  Psalm 130:1-6

Note:  Every summer, we gather weekly for Church Family Movie Nights; and this year we are linking our Sunday morning worship to the movie we watched the previous Tuesday. This week’s reflection is tied to the movie The Way. You can read a summary of this movie by clicking here, or watch the trailer by clicking here.



Why are you here?  Why are you here?

 

The movie, The Way, is set on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, an ancient pilgrimage route in Europe that pilgrims have walked for over a thousand years.  Even today, you can travel to Spain, to France, or to Portugal and join one of the many trails leading to the church of St. James, Sant Iago, dedicated to James, the brother of Jesus.  Throughout the movie, as different pilgrims encounter each other, the question is heard, why are you here?  Why have you left your home to travel hundreds of miles on foot? Why are you here?

 

People walk the Camino for many different reasons – there are maybe as many reasons as there are people who walk it.  In the movie, there are four main characters walking together and they each have their own reasons – one is walking carrying the ashes of his son who died on the Camino; one is walking to lose weight; one is walking to quit smoking; and one is walking to overcome writer’s block.

 

At least that is what they say, and that is what they appear to be doing on the surface.  But as the film unfolds, there are deeper meanings, deeper purposes to the walk that arise for each one of them.  Walking the Camino is a spiritual quest for each of them, even if they might use different words to describe that experience..

 

Several years ago, just after I graduated from AST, I took on a Research Assistant position and I spent a month researching pilgrimages, particularly the theological side of pilgrimages, working for one of my professors who was writing a book. For a month, every day I dove into the literature about pilgrimage to learn what researchers and authors were thinking about and writing about and what questions they were asking; and much of what I learned from them resonates with me when I watch The Way.

 

Researchers disagree about which is more important – the journey or the destination?  Is it all about where you are going, or how you get there?  And how much hardship does there have to be in order for the journey to be considered a pilgrimage?  Is it still a pilgrimage if you travel to your destination in an air conditioned coach, or do you need the experience of walking the trail in order for the destination to have meaning?

 

There is also interesting discussion about the line between pilgrim and tourist.  When does a tourist become a pilgrim; and when does a pilgrim become a tourist?

 

Most researchers agree that a pilgrimage experience can transform your life that follows the pilgrimage, but there is disagreement on how important the intention is.  Do you need to enter the pilgrimage with the intention that this is going to be life-changing, or does the transformation sneak up on you as you journey?

 

And finally there is the thread of pilgrimage as a metaphor.  If you take a pilgrimage and scale it down, you end up with a labyrinth; and if you take a pilgrimage and scale it up, you end up with life.  Life is a journey, life is a pilgrimage, and many of the teachings about pilgrimage can also apply to life.

 

In life, which is more important, the journey or the destination?

 

Are you a tourist as you move through this world, experiencing things so that you can have the memories of them to reflect back on; or are you a pilgrim, allowing the people you encounter and the things that you experience to shape and form and transform you?

 

Who are your companions on your Camino through life?  Who is traveling with you for part or for all of the journey?  How are you helping each other along the trail?

 

And finally, that question that I started with – why are you here?  Why are you on the journey that you are on?

 

I wish that I could stand up here and tell you that I’ve got the meaning of life figured out, and that I can share some great wisdom with you.  But I truly think that this is part of the pilgrim journey for each one of us.  And just like the characters in the film came to realize that maybe their stated purpose for walking the trail was hiding a deeper purpose, I think that the same is true for our pilgrimage through life.  As we go along, as our experiences of life deepen, we discover more meanings to this journey.  New depths of purpose and of experience are revealed.

 

Today, at our Flower Service, we are remembering those who have completed their pilgrimage through life.  They have arrived at the metaphorical cathedral that marks the end of their pilgrimage.  They now know the meaning of both the journey and the destination.  And for those of us who are still on the road – we continue to learn from and appreciate the journey, even as we anticipate the destination.

 

Out of all of the films that we are going to be watching and discussing this summer, The Way is probably the most explicitly spiritual film that we are going to watch; and yet I actually found it the hardest of all of the films to pair with scripture.  I ended up choosing Psalm 130, even though there were a couple of other Psalms that might have fit as well.

 

Psalm 130, to me, is a prayer of longing.  “Out of the depths, I cry to you.”  “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits; and in God’s word I trust.” “More than those who watch for the morning, I wait for the Lord.”  As we travel our pilgrimage through life, I think that it is maybe this longing that allows us to deepen our understanding of why we are on the journey that we are on.  And every so often, a layer peels back, and a deeper meaning is revealed.

 

If I had to answer that question, “Why are you here?” at this moment in my life, I would probably answer that I am here because of love.  I am here to learn how to let myself be loved more deeply, by God and by the people in my life; and I am here to learn how to love more deeply, by God and by the people in my life.  But this answer is likely to change when another layer gets peeled away as my journey continues.

 

And so I ask you, one more time – why are you here?  Why are you here on this pilgrimage that you are on?

 

 

The Bouquet of Memories that we built this

year at Long Reach United Church