Hebrew Scripture Reading—Psalm 84: 1-7
Lately, I have been feeling spiritually deprived. In the UCC, we don’t have any pilgrimage sites. Catholics have their shrines devoted to the Virgin Mary. Muslims have the hajj to Mecca. Jews have the Western Wall. Hindus have the banks of the Ganges. Buddhists have four sacred sites. But, we in the UCC have never really had anything. Realizing this tremendous deficit in our faith, this past week I appointed myself to a UCC committee of one with the express purpose of finding or constructing a UCC pilgrimage site.
My mind first dwelt upon some of our European roots in England and Germany, but then I thought the cost of airfare makes any sites there prohibitive. Next, I considered making Plymouth Rock our sacred destination. But what would we do there? The gates and security guards would prevent us from being able to rub it for good luck. Moreover, the UCC likes to blaze new trails, and going to Plymouth Rock is not exactly a novel idea with the million visitors they get each year. So, having exhausted the various historical landmarks available to us, I scoured the internet in search of holy places that are a bit more modern and original. I soon excitedly realized that my native land of central Illinois is home to the world’s largest cross. That’s right, in Effingham, Illinois, the self-proclaimed “Crossroads of America,” there is a gigantic white cross that is 198-feet tall and is made of 180 tons of steel. The First Baptist Church of Effingham spearheaded the raising of $1.1 million for the construction of this cross so that they could surpass a similar cross in Groom, Texas that is 190-feet tall. How’s that for good use of capital campaign money?! Unfortunately, there is talk of building an even larger cross in Nazareth to help drum up more tourism for Jesus’ hometown. I am not sure if we want to keep changing our pilgrimage site every time someone builds a bigger and better cross, especially if it means more airfare.
Ultimately, Google just seemed to lead me to a lot of dead ends: not a good thing for a pilgrimage. Get the pun, he, he. Thus, I decided to go back to the drawing board. It occurred to me that I was going about the project backwards. Instead of first trying to find a destination, I needed to first determine the purpose of the pilgrimage. Once I figured out why we were on a journey, then I would be able figure out where we needed to go. To brainstorm a good motive for a pilgrimage, I researched the pilgrimages of other religions. I was somewhat surprised to learn that many religions have similar motives. Some of the popular reasons include divine forgiveness, healing, or some other kind of miracle, but then there is also the simpler, but no less profound, desire for spiritual renewal and rejuvenation.
In discovering some of the similarities between pilgrimages from different faiths, I read an account of one person’s pilgrimage to Mecca that described views that sounded strikingly Christian in some ways. For example, the Hajj begins with a chant that reflects our common Abrahamic heritage: “Here I am, Lord, at your service, here I am.” The motives for going on the Hajj also sound familiar. While there is the officially stated purpose of fulfilling the fifth pillar of Islam by going to Mecca at least once in one’s life, there are also the more personal reasons. There is the young college student who wants to boost her faith and draw closer to God. There is the woman with the “checkered past” who compares the Hajj to a detox program as she seeks to have her sins wiped away and receive a “fresh start” in life. Then, there is the author of the account I read who at first was more of a skeptical journalist than a believer. Yet, by the end of her journey, she did not want to return home, and I felt a pang of my own spiritual longings as I read her reflection. She wrote:
“Alone in my room I stare at the mirror. I’m still not sure why we had to go around the Kaaba seven times, or the significance of reenacting Hagar’s search for water between the hills of Safa and Marwa. But I do feel different – more than the sum of my appearance, job, money, and education. I feel more centered and balanced, my backbone straighter. My inner space is larger and richer.”
Having read this, I found myself thinking, “Wow, I’d like to have a mansion-like inner space.” I am sure there are real differences between the pilgrimages of various religions. I don’t want to gloss over that or trivialize it. Still, I think there might be some underlying commonalities to pilgrimages that make the desire to embark on them seem almost universal. At their most basic level, pilgrimages are an expression of the aching heart, the longing heart. Some might long for healing, some might long for a clean slate, some might long for renewal, but all of us long for something. Pilgrimages allow a physical, tangible way to express and act upon that longing.
It might at first sound surprising that reading Cesar Chavez helped me to get a better grasp of this, but if you think about it, it makes sense. The desire for justice can be a longing of the heart, so it was that Chavez, a devout Catholic, viewed the marches of farm workers as pilgrimages. When the farm workers of Delano, California, marched roughly 300 miles to the state capital in Sacramento, Chavez captured part of what it is that makes marches and pilgrimages so powerful. He noted that a pilgrimage is an event you can anticipate. It has “a definite starting place and a definite goal,” and you can make measurable progress toward that goal with each step you take. Chavez also talked about how walking on a pilgrimage is a calm, peaceable activity. It helps clear the clutter in one’s mind. Furthermore, there is the character building of pilgrimages. There is the development of courage and strength. Then there is satisfaction of making a personal sacrifice for something you care deeply about.
Plus, pilgrimages that are done in groups additionally have a rewarding social aspect to them. There is the companionship of the other pilgrims as you sacrifice and journey together with a common purpose. There are also the people you meet along the way. Chavez loved discovering unexpected allies and kindred spirits as he marched. He loved the gestures of support he received. He recalled passing “a little shack in the back of a lot.” A husband and wife lived there with two teenage daughters. The daughters kept running back and forth to the marchers to give them drinks carrying “beautiful cups and a beautiful crystal bowl full of punch.”
We get a glimpse of a lot of the common aspects of pilgrimages in our scripture for today. Our scripture is a song about going on a pilgrimage to the festival of booths, a harvest festival in Jerusalem. The song describes the longing of those on the journey, how they long for a spiritual home. The singer laments how even the sparrow and the swallow have a home. Why not I? The singer then speaks of how happy are those who live in the house of God, the Temple on Mount Zion. The psalmist paints a picture of a community bursting forth in joyful song. The pilgrims sing praises to God for giving them sustenance and strength for their journey. And, what a journey it is. There is the once dry valley that is cloaked with rain and has springs spouting water left and right. Then, there is the hike up the mountain. The language of the original Hebrew evokes the image of the pilgrims moving from one rampart fortification to the next as they ascend. Our translation puts it another way: they moved from strength to strength.
I like this image of a merry band of pilgrims singing as they hike up a mountain to a grand and beautiful temple of worship. I can’t but help to see our own congregation on a similar pilgrimage. As we embark upon our rebuilding project, I have been having a reoccurring vision. In this vision, I see us hiking up the hill from Highway 99. There is Virginia and the choir leading the way. “Every round goes higher and higher,” we sing. Those of you who hiked up Beacon Rock can also understand why I see Bob Hettman up near the front helping to lead the way as our Moses with his walking stick. When we finally then get to the top, all of us come to a stop. There, our eyes behold before us this grand and magnificent house of worship. We may not have the world’s largest cross, but we probably have Clark County’s biggest Ark. I am sure that will appear in our capital campaign literature.
The image of a pilgrimage actually works on a number of different levels for our church today. This afternoon there is the literal walking that many of us will be doing on the crop walk. I am not sure if Karen will do any singing, but I am sure all of us will feel a sense of having a common cause, a united aching of our hearts for the poor and hungry of the world.
And, to think I thought UCC churches didn’t do pilgrimages. We need only recognize that pilgrimages are fundamentally of the heart. Our church has a pilgrim’s heart, each one of us has a pilgrim’s heart. We all have our aches, our longings, those places where we yearn to see springs of water burst forth. Thank God we do not have to be alone on our journey. We have each other. We have our songs. We have this spiritual home. Amen.