Pilgrimage: Mapping Out the Journey
June 9, 2024 Third Sunday of Pentecost
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Mark 16:1-8
“Pilgrimage: Mapping Out the Journey”
Douglas T. King
I have had reading glasses for about thirty-five years. But it has only been in the last couple of years that I have actually needed my glasses to read. These days if I am without my glasses at a dimly lit restaurant with a fancy script menu before me, I might just need to order one of the spoken specials. And now I have progressive lens glasses that my doctor says I can wear all the time or not but I am getting closer to needing to wear them all the time. It is remarkable how the world changes depending upon the lenses through which we view it.
Today’s text from Mark invites us to put on a new pair of glasses. It has been argued by many scholars that Mark’s entire Gospel is actually circular in nature. They have broken down how the first eight chapters mirror the final eight chapters. The analysis is all a bit too complex for me. But what is clear is that the ending of Mark drives us back to the beginning of Mark.
The women who visit the empty tomb are told that Jesus has arisen and that they should spread the word to his disciples “that he is going ahead of them to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” Jesus has returned to where his ministry began and we are called to do the same.
The literary argument is that we cannot begin to understand the story of Mark’s gospel, the story of Jesus’ life, until we learn of the resurrection. In other words, we need to put on our resurrection glasses to follow Jesus. We need to see everything Jesus does in his life in light of the resurrection.
Today is the second in our sermon series on pilgrimage. Last week we discussed why we take the journey. And today we are mapping out the journey. According to Mark, the journey begins at the empty tomb. Every step we take in our lives and on our spiritual journeys, we are invited to do so in response to the resurrection. As we heard in the text, the women at the tomb’s first response was to run in fear.
But the power of the resurrection could not be contained even by our mortal limitations. The resurrection reverberated throughout creation and continues to do so to this day. The resurrection transforms Jesus’ specific acts in a single time and place into a universal promise of healing and restoration that has a home in each of our lives and in all of creation.
With our resurrection glasses on, when we return to the start of Jesus’ story and he is baptized we see that baptism is a sign that we are all joined to Christ. We are all God’s beloved children. And in that baptism we are joined to Christ not solely in the celebration of life but as well in the promise of eternal life found in the resurrection. The God that defeats death adopts us mere mortals and invites us into immortality.
With our resurrection glasses on, when we see Jesus rebuke the unclean spirits in the suffering man, heal Simon’s mother-in-law, the leper, the paralytic, the man with the withered hand, and countless others, we see the promise for all of us to be transformed beyond every hurt and wound we carry. The God that defeats death has the power to bring healing to one and all, including each one of us.
With our resurrection glasses on, when we see Jesus repeatedly cross the boundary between Jewish and Gentile regions to bring healing, we see that all of the labels and otherness we cling to so dearly will be laid aside. The God that defeats death can surely overcome the divisions our human limitations have created.
With our resurrection glasses on, when we see Jesus feed the five thousand, we see that all will be fed. The God that defeats death has the power to sustain and nourish every last child of God.
With our resurrection glasses on, when we see Jesus teaching about the kingdom of heaven as a tiny seed and only open to little children, we see that God is present in the smallest of things to make the biggest changes the world has ever seen. The God that defeats death has the power to be at work through the most inconsequential actions to transform all that is or ever will be.
With our resurrection glasses on, when we see Jesus welcoming lepers, and tax collectors and sinners as beloved children of God, we see that there are no limits on who is welcomed in God’s kingdom. The God that defeats death will not be limited by who we may think is worthy or not to enter the kingdom.
So what does this mean for mapping out our pilgrimage journey? These resurrection glasses of ours are not solely for sightseeing. These glasses are showing us what we need to do if we wish to follow Jesus, if we wish to make a pilgrimage. As Jesus is baptized and claimed as a beloved child of God, so we are called to cherish and baptize every beloved child of God. As Jesus is healing those who need healing so we too are called to be agents of healing to those in need. As Jesus is continually crossing boundaries between Jews and Gentiles, so we too are called to cross the variety of boundaries that divide us into separate tribes of people. As Jesus is feeding the five thousand, so we too are called to feed all those who hunger. As Jesus welcomes those whom others have shunned, so we too are to do the same.
Our resurrection glasses illumine for us the universal and unstoppable nature of God’s transforming power spreading throughout the creation. And, in recognizing the ways in which God’s power is at work throughout creation, we see that we are called to join in the unfolding of the divine’s loving plan.
In other words, if you are looking for Jesus you will find him by valuing others as precious children of God. If you are looking for Jesus, you will find him by walking beside those who are hurting and offer comfort. If you are looking for Jesus, you will find him by crossing the divisions that separate us. If you are looking for Jesus, you will find him by feeding those who hunger. If you are looking for Jesus, you will find him when you learn of how the smallest things can be the vehicle by which God makes the biggest changes. If you are looking for Jesus, you will find him when you welcome and accept those whom others have chosen to shun because they are believed to be unworthy.
Of course the journey will not always be easy. I am old enough, as are most of you, to remember how we used to plan for a vacation trip, pre-GPS. You would go down to the AAA office and a kind person would sit behind a desk and create a triptik for you. It would have one of those white plastic combs on the top and a series of maps inside of it. They would talk you through each page of your journey and mark the map as they went with a highlighter that would illuminate every curve and squiggle of the roads you would travel. They would point out places where there were often speed traps and wonderful sights to enjoy along the way. Sitting there in the AAA office you would have this vicarious thrill of how your vacation would unfold with all of the details neatly planned.
That is not what our pilgrimage of faith will look like. First of all there is no single path. My journey will be different from your journey, and different than the journey
of the person sitting in the pew in front of you. And none of our journeys come with a detailed highlighted map. As I worked through the testimony of Jesus’ life and ministry in the gospel of Mark it is clear that none of us can walk the same path that he did but we can seek the places where our paths can come alongside. And we should not be discouraged if we lose our way on the journey. The first reaction for those women at the empty tomb was not to journey to Galilee but to run in fear. Most of our pilgrimage routes will include many side steps off the path.
The Jewish scholar Avivah Zornberg writes of the journey taken by the freed Israelites as they made their way to the Promised Land. As we know their very circuitous journey took forty years. She suggests they needed the freedom to zigzag. “The road that is akuma (crooked…) threads through places of vision and faith and, adjacently, places of doubt and revision.” (Zornberg, p.204) In other words the missteps on our pilgrimage journey may serve just as important a function as our steps of faithfulness.
Regardless of the crookedness of our path, every step we take is done in the aftermath of the resurrection. In Jesus Christ’s life, death, resurrection all of creation is invited into transformation. All the world is the locus where we can find the divine in action and where we are invited to join in this transformation that is unfolding.
Last week we discussed the God-shaped hole within us and our need to undertake the journey of faithfulness. The good news is there is a way to seek to fill that hole. The map of this journey is to be found in the gospel we have received. As we week to value, feed, nourish, heal, and share the gospel with one who conquered death and is inviting us to join in that transforming victory.
Let’s put on our resurrection glasses and join the journey.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Zornberg, Avivah Gottlieb, The Particulars of Rapture, Doubleday, New York, 2001.
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Mark 16:1-8
“Pilgrimage: Mapping Out the Journey”
Douglas T. King
I have had reading glasses for about thirty-five years. But it has only been in the last couple of years that I have actually needed my glasses to read. These days if I am without my glasses at a dimly lit restaurant with a fancy script menu before me, I might just need to order one of the spoken specials. And now I have progressive lens glasses that my doctor says I can wear all the time or not but I am getting closer to needing to wear them all the time. It is remarkable how the world changes depending upon the lenses through which we view it.
Today’s text from Mark invites us to put on a new pair of glasses. It has been argued by many scholars that Mark’s entire Gospel is actually circular in nature. They have broken down how the first eight chapters mirror the final eight chapters. The analysis is all a bit too complex for me. But what is clear is that the ending of Mark drives us back to the beginning of Mark.
The women who visit the empty tomb are told that Jesus has arisen and that they should spread the word to his disciples “that he is going ahead of them to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” Jesus has returned to where his ministry began and we are called to do the same.
The literary argument is that we cannot begin to understand the story of Mark’s gospel, the story of Jesus’ life, until we learn of the resurrection. In other words, we need to put on our resurrection glasses to follow Jesus. We need to see everything Jesus does in his life in light of the resurrection.
Today is the second in our sermon series on pilgrimage. Last week we discussed why we take the journey. And today we are mapping out the journey. According to Mark, the journey begins at the empty tomb. Every step we take in our lives and on our spiritual journeys, we are invited to do so in response to the resurrection. As we heard in the text, the women at the tomb’s first response was to run in fear.
But the power of the resurrection could not be contained even by our mortal limitations. The resurrection reverberated throughout creation and continues to do so to this day. The resurrection transforms Jesus’ specific acts in a single time and place into a universal promise of healing and restoration that has a home in each of our lives and in all of creation.
With our resurrection glasses on, when we return to the start of Jesus’ story and he is baptized we see that baptism is a sign that we are all joined to Christ. We are all God’s beloved children. And in that baptism we are joined to Christ not solely in the celebration of life but as well in the promise of eternal life found in the resurrection. The God that defeats death adopts us mere mortals and invites us into immortality.
With our resurrection glasses on, when we see Jesus rebuke the unclean spirits in the suffering man, heal Simon’s mother-in-law, the leper, the paralytic, the man with the withered hand, and countless others, we see the promise for all of us to be transformed beyond every hurt and wound we carry. The God that defeats death has the power to bring healing to one and all, including each one of us.
With our resurrection glasses on, when we see Jesus repeatedly cross the boundary between Jewish and Gentile regions to bring healing, we see that all of the labels and otherness we cling to so dearly will be laid aside. The God that defeats death can surely overcome the divisions our human limitations have created.
With our resurrection glasses on, when we see Jesus feed the five thousand, we see that all will be fed. The God that defeats death has the power to sustain and nourish every last child of God.
With our resurrection glasses on, when we see Jesus teaching about the kingdom of heaven as a tiny seed and only open to little children, we see that God is present in the smallest of things to make the biggest changes the world has ever seen. The God that defeats death has the power to be at work through the most inconsequential actions to transform all that is or ever will be.
With our resurrection glasses on, when we see Jesus welcoming lepers, and tax collectors and sinners as beloved children of God, we see that there are no limits on who is welcomed in God’s kingdom. The God that defeats death will not be limited by who we may think is worthy or not to enter the kingdom.
So what does this mean for mapping out our pilgrimage journey? These resurrection glasses of ours are not solely for sightseeing. These glasses are showing us what we need to do if we wish to follow Jesus, if we wish to make a pilgrimage. As Jesus is baptized and claimed as a beloved child of God, so we are called to cherish and baptize every beloved child of God. As Jesus is healing those who need healing so we too are called to be agents of healing to those in need. As Jesus is continually crossing boundaries between Jews and Gentiles, so we too are called to cross the variety of boundaries that divide us into separate tribes of people. As Jesus is feeding the five thousand, so we too are called to feed all those who hunger. As Jesus welcomes those whom others have shunned, so we too are to do the same.
Our resurrection glasses illumine for us the universal and unstoppable nature of God’s transforming power spreading throughout the creation. And, in recognizing the ways in which God’s power is at work throughout creation, we see that we are called to join in the unfolding of the divine’s loving plan.
In other words, if you are looking for Jesus you will find him by valuing others as precious children of God. If you are looking for Jesus, you will find him by walking beside those who are hurting and offer comfort. If you are looking for Jesus, you will find him by crossing the divisions that separate us. If you are looking for Jesus, you will find him by feeding those who hunger. If you are looking for Jesus, you will find him when you learn of how the smallest things can be the vehicle by which God makes the biggest changes. If you are looking for Jesus, you will find him when you welcome and accept those whom others have chosen to shun because they are believed to be unworthy.
Of course the journey will not always be easy. I am old enough, as are most of you, to remember how we used to plan for a vacation trip, pre-GPS. You would go down to the AAA office and a kind person would sit behind a desk and create a triptik for you. It would have one of those white plastic combs on the top and a series of maps inside of it. They would talk you through each page of your journey and mark the map as they went with a highlighter that would illuminate every curve and squiggle of the roads you would travel. They would point out places where there were often speed traps and wonderful sights to enjoy along the way. Sitting there in the AAA office you would have this vicarious thrill of how your vacation would unfold with all of the details neatly planned.
That is not what our pilgrimage of faith will look like. First of all there is no single path. My journey will be different from your journey, and different than the journey
of the person sitting in the pew in front of you. And none of our journeys come with a detailed highlighted map. As I worked through the testimony of Jesus’ life and ministry in the gospel of Mark it is clear that none of us can walk the same path that he did but we can seek the places where our paths can come alongside. And we should not be discouraged if we lose our way on the journey. The first reaction for those women at the empty tomb was not to journey to Galilee but to run in fear. Most of our pilgrimage routes will include many side steps off the path.
The Jewish scholar Avivah Zornberg writes of the journey taken by the freed Israelites as they made their way to the Promised Land. As we know their very circuitous journey took forty years. She suggests they needed the freedom to zigzag. “The road that is akuma (crooked…) threads through places of vision and faith and, adjacently, places of doubt and revision.” (Zornberg, p.204) In other words the missteps on our pilgrimage journey may serve just as important a function as our steps of faithfulness.
Regardless of the crookedness of our path, every step we take is done in the aftermath of the resurrection. In Jesus Christ’s life, death, resurrection all of creation is invited into transformation. All the world is the locus where we can find the divine in action and where we are invited to join in this transformation that is unfolding.
Last week we discussed the God-shaped hole within us and our need to undertake the journey of faithfulness. The good news is there is a way to seek to fill that hole. The map of this journey is to be found in the gospel we have received. As we week to value, feed, nourish, heal, and share the gospel with one who conquered death and is inviting us to join in that transforming victory.
Let’s put on our resurrection glasses and join the journey.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Zornberg, Avivah Gottlieb, The Particulars of Rapture, Doubleday, New York, 2001.
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