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1 A Walking People Unity Sunday, May 29, Genesis 11: At one time, the whole Earth spoke the same language. It so happened that as they moved out of the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Sinar and settled down. They said to one another, Come, let s make bricks and fire them well. They used brick for stone and tar for mortar. Then they said, Come, let s build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches Heaven. Let s make ourselves famous so we won t be scattered here and there across the Earth. God came down to look over the city and the tower those people had built. God took one look and said, One people, one language; why, this is only a first step. No telling what they ll come up with next they ll stop at nothing! Come, we ll go down and garble their speech so they won t understand each other. Then God scattered them from there all over the world. And they had to quit building the city. Genesis 12: God told Abram: Leave your country, your family, and your father s home for a land that I will show you Abram kept moving, steadily making his way south to the Negev. Exodus 3: The Israelite cry for help has come to me and I ve seen for myself how cruelly they re being treated by the Egyptians. It s time for you to go back: I m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the People of Israel out of Egypt. Matthew 4: Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, Come with me. I ll make a new kind of fisher man out of you. I ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass. They didn t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed. Acts 2: When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them. ***************************************************************************

2 I came back from a walk a couple of weeks ago. I don t know why I went on this walk other than I was called to do it. People seemed perplexed by this walk of 179 miles from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, Spain (the Way of Saint James). St. James (the apostle) remains are in the cathedral in Santiago and pilgrims from the middle ages to now have traveled hundreds of miles to Santiago. I didn t really know why I was doing it while walking. I just got up every morning and for twelve days I walked. Lots of people asked me, How many were in your group? And I would respond, just my son and I. And it seemed strange to them, that there wasn t a tour group. So how do you know how to get there?, they would ask. And I would respond, you follow yellow arrows The truth is I didn t know what lay ahead of me. I didn t know there would be that many hills. I didn t know where the next potable fountain/spigot of water would be for pilgrims. I didn t know where the next yellow arrow would be or if I would miss it and be lost (I was a couple of times.) I didn t know if I would make it to the town we were staying the night at by siesta. If you didn t make it before siesta (3-5) you were not getting a dinner till 7:30 8:00. I didn t know if we would make it without injury. There was some tendonitis but we were able to overcome it with ice, ibuprofen and ace bandages. I didn t know what the weather would be. It was cold, it was hot, and it rained. I don t speak Portuguese language (ok Bom Dia and Obrigodo ) and very little Galician Spanish. I didn t know if they would understand my gluten intolerance. I didn t know if the places we would stay would be ok. I didn t know a lot! But still we went and we walked. No earth shattering moments, no life changing situations. But I began to quit dwelling on the past, I quit worrying about the future and I just was in the moment walking. I m sure that revelations about my pilgrimage will come to me the rest of my life. But, I know that I probably won t stop walking. Monday morning, after I returned, I left for my walk around the golf course 5.25 miles, because I missed it. My body missed it. My soul missed it. I think that God made us to be nomads pilgrims. Throughout the Bible, there are times when we long for a city, a ruler, a King, permanence in our life. And God allows us to have what we want. And we are miserable. And our loving God continues to call us out of our stationary, protective, familiar life and we balk. God scattered the people of Babel. God called

3 Abram and Sari (a childless old man and woman) out of their familiar land to a new land promising them descendants. God preferred to travel with the Israelite people in tents versus buildings. Jesus traveled the land of Judah, inviting others to join him. The Disciples had a hard time after Jesus death and found themselves going back to what they knew, only to have Jesus appear to them and encourage them to go Feed His Sheep. The disciples were in the upper room praying when the Holy Spirit came upon them and propelled them in the streets to speak the Good News to others in their own language. Paul was focused on punishing the disciples to have a blinding encounter with Jesus that eventually sent him on a mission throughout the Roman Empire, sharing the Good news to the non-jews. God doesn t like us staying with the familiar and that which we can control. God doesn t like us stuck. And though most of us haven t had these dramatic God encounters that move us out of ourselves, there are plenty of opportunities to start walking to move from our stationary self-controlled lives to a life of trust. And I want you to understand before we begin that this is not a pull yourself up by your own bootstraps sermon. It s hard to get out of the stuck places that are created from outside circumstances as well as our own making. It takes a God power in our lives that propels us out of these stuck places. But it is a partnership. We have to put one foot in front of the other and start walking. So, let us spend some time today, exploring what it means to become nomads and pilgrims in our spiritual life. First. Look around and take stock. If your life is pretty much what you thought you wanted, and you find yourself unhappy and trying to control everything around you; you may be in Babel. Stepping out requires trust and faith. The hardest thing for me to do while walking was not fixating on those darn yellow arrows. We took the Portuguese Coastal Route the first six days and then went inland to connect to the main Central Portuguese Route the last six days. We rarely saw more than 2 pilgrims a day the first half of our trip. In fact a couple of days, we saw no pilgrims. Arrows were less pronounced and we got lost twice. The first time, we were so lost that we gave up and headed down to the Ocean (always keep it on your left). This required us to walk through a back yard, along a railroad track, beside a vacant building, over a busy highway, and then to luckily discover a beach path that went for miles

4 before we discovered a boardwalk that we followed until we could see Ancora (a city we were to go through) ahead. At least we hoped it was Ancora. But to get there, the boardwalk stopped and we had to hike down and up some large sand dunes in our hiking shoes and poles. The wind was strong and I got a sand facial. But in Ancora we found a yellow arrow and were able to get back on track. In your life and mine we have situations that make us stuck. For Israelite people it was Egypt. Even when God unstuck them, they wanted to return to the familiar of the slavery versus trust that God had something better for them. You will never know the joy of trusting God if you don t make that first step, risk becoming lost and discovering that God will guide you in ways that you never expected. The Machado poem states wanderer, there is no way, the road is made by walking, Just when I would fear there wouldn t be another arrow, someone would yell at us or a gentleman would see our perplexed looks and point to the way. Or we would just keep going and there would be the arrow in the bottom corner of a building. We just had to keep trusting that we would find it by walking forward. Your future outcome when you step out in faith is an unknown. But God of grace and love is a known. You focus on Jesus and God s promises. The book of Hebrews reminds us of this. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed that exhilarating finish in and with God Hebrews 12:2 (The Message) Second. Learn to be ok with uncomfortable. I have a poem called the Guest House from Remi in my office on that I look at often. This being human is a guest house Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they are a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture,

5 still treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond It s hard for me to welcome and address the hard things in life. There is the discipline of welcoming prayer that instructs how to embrace the uncomfortable and let it go and trust God. The instructions are these: Focus, feel and sink into what you are experiencing this moment in your body. Welcome what you are experiencing this moment in your body as an opportunity to consent to the Divine Indwelling. Let go by repeating the following sentences: I let go of the desire for security, affection, control. I let go of the desire to change what I am experiencing. ( Ok, it rains. We walk. It is hot and there are very large hills. We walk slower. I have to give my son credit. His Achilles heals become very inflamed. He just iced, wrapped them and kept going. You learn the body is much more resilient than you think. You don t get much pity from pilgrims everyone has their own aches, pains, blisters. That s part of the journey. That s what helps you become strong. The Israelite people didn t like wandering in the desert. They didn t like eating mana and quail every day. They learned how to be uncomfortable for a whole generation until they were able to move forward into the promise land. God is able to work healing in our lives when we trust enough to expose our vulnerabilities and then let go of our need to control. So what do you need to be uncomfortable with? What emotions and experiences do you bury down deep so you don t have to address them or let them go; jealousy, fear, abandonment, insecurity, anger - these all stay there messing with your life. Yet if you are willing to acknowledge them and trust God with them, you might be able to let them go if you want to Again, it took the Israelite people a whole generation to let go. The longer you hold on to it, the longer it takes to receive healing to get to the Promise land.

6 Third. It s the journey, not the destination. Getting to Santiago was a validation for me of the twelve day walk the 179 miles. Throughout the ages, for many people, Santiago was where they received penitence for their sins or crimes after walking the pilgrimage. Even today it is possible through different programs to receive pardon for a minor crime. The Oikoten program (started in 1982) gives troubled teenagers or juvenile delinquents an opportunity to prove that they can be released by the juvenile court and integrated into normal society. These young people have to sign a contract: 1. to walk every inch by foot; 2. to respect the law; 3. to leave behind personal stereo and GSM (cell phone like devices); and 4. to avoid behavior that endangers the hike. Arriving at Santiago is not what changes them. It is the journey of 2469 kilometers (they travel from Belgium) with a volunteer adult; the trusting of others, the inward journey that begins in their heads with all that time to do nothing but walk, the accomplishment of something that was outside their normal lives, the exhilaration of having a purpose beyond their immediate desires. I don t know the particulars, but I can guess why they become changed individuals. Unfortunately after 30 years, the funding by the Belgium government is being drastically cut requiring shorter walks and fewer participants. ( God knew that the desert journey was where the Israelite people would become a people of God. It was by leaving his land that Abraham and Sarah learned to trust that God would provide as promised and his descendants would worship God. We want our pain and uncomfortableness to end quickly. We want the promise land now! We are so tired of walking. But it is through the journey that God is shaping us to be a strong faithful follower. I walked Roman Road XIX. It hurt a lot of the way. Those granite cobblestone roads are not comfortable. But the apostle James walked the roads of Spain to share the good news of Jesus grace and forgiveness. He was the first to be shipped back to Jerusalem and martyred. Paul walked hundreds of miles of those roads to share the Good News to the Gentiles. He traveled on ships even being shipwrecked. He was jailed numerous times and eventually killed. And I complained about my feet hurting and they didn t even have blisters. The journey is where we come in contact with God in the present. Not in the past of what was or

7 in the worry of the future of what could be. Fourth. We become disciples on the road. Jesus told the disciples Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I ll be with you as you do this, day after day, after day, right up to the end of the age. Matthew 28: The Great Commission is an action. The scripture interpretation is while on the road you are to make disciples. This pilgrimage is not only our journey but a ministry or journeying with others. While we are being changed, God is using us to change others. One regret that I have is that I did not stay in Pilgrim Albergues. Albergues are hostels that are designed just for pilgrims. Pilgrim stay together and share meals, washing clothes, and sleep in common rooms. Ok, it has the downside of bedbugs, snoring, hard mattresses and no privacy. But, there is a comradery that is established in these Albergues. We had fleeting opportunities where we met others and had conversations, but we missed out, by not having the larger community experiences. The church is called to be a community together in this journey. We invite others to share the journey with us and we all are changed. While walking your path, you might look around you and consider who is also on the same journey as you. Invite them to share their journey with you and then you share the good news of God s grace and healing. This can all seem overwhelming if we don t remember that God has always been there for God s people God is the one that led the people of Israel. By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. (Exodus: 13:20-22 NIV) Whether it was day or night, God was there for them, guiding them. God is there for you. We step out on faith together, because we follow an awesome caring God, who wants the best for us. God wants us to trust and to go forward. Being stuck may make us comfortable, but it rarely leaves us happy. God wants a pilgrim life for you. Take that first step and then the next and then the next and soon you will be on a life healing journey. And there won t be any going back. God for those of us today who are stuck. unhappy send us outside ourselves help us let go of the emotional baggage that keeps us stationary and provide guides and pilgrims

8 on our journey that can support us and keep us accountable. Help us to keep you in our sight and as we heal, let us become guides for others. Amen.