A Pilgrimage of Sort

(This is a Pastoral letter that was sent out to 120 or so people who are part of our Church Family but unable to connect to Church through Youtube/Facebook. We’ve been sending out letters like this fortnightly for over a year.)

Dearly Beloved

I went for a 13mile walk yesterday. No I didn’t think I could do it either. It was a guided pilgrimage following the trail of the Cuckmere Pilgrim Path (they have their own website). It started in Alfriston and then went round Berwick, Alciston, Selmeston (where we had a late breakfast, yes we started walking at 7.45am) and then past the reservoir to Arlington, to Wilmington for lunch and then up and over the Long Man before popping into the tiny church of Lullington. When we got home our cup of tea was more than essential it was positively sacramental!

We were a small group of local vicars who thought it would be good to catch up with each other, pray together, discuss the scriptures together, eat together. On the way we came across lots of others who were clearly doing a pilgrimage of sorts. One was aiming to get to Canterbury in 20 days time. For her this was a cathartic exercise as she saw a new chapter of her life unfolding and this needed to be done as a way of processing what had happened to her, and a way of opening herself up to be able to discern where God might be calling her to next. Some of our group prayed with her.

Each Church showed its own stories. I was struck by the phoenix window in Wilmington where a fire had destroyed the organ some twenty years earlier. The horror and sorrow of that moment and the years of sorting it out and now here the beauty and joy that had come through. It might have been Alciston where there is an ancient handle you can wind that will ring and handful of bells but I want to know was this done by someone clever or born out of the need to adjust to a changing context. I was pleased to see a number of Churches had simple electronic ways of giving!

Each Church was evidently loved, evidently steeped in prayer. Its my prayer that as people pop into the Flower festival here that they might also be moved by a thousand years of love and prayer.

As we walked we talked about what for you will be last week’s bible readings. There’s a horrible bit in the gospel reading where Jesus seems to encourage cutting off your own hand/foot/eye if that will help you not stumble in your faith. It seemed to me that the repulsiveness of this is deliberate. I don’t think I could do it. Even with the flames licking at a hand of mine, I think it would take extraordinary strength to lop off your own hand. I think Jesus is being deliberate. I think he’s provoking us to come back with “Is there any other way”? The alcoholic who is finally ready to admit there’s a problem seeks another way, seeks the support of others, and looks to a higher power. Perhaps Jesus is urging us to recognise that where we struggle and stumble along in our faith with our sin, that what we need more than an axe, is each other. The support and prayer and encouragement of each other and the peace and grace of Jesus.

The other bible reading we got nattering about was from the epistle of James where we’re given Elijah as an excellent role model for prayer. Afterall, he’s just a normal human who prayed for the rain to stop, and it did, and for it to start, and it did. I wonder if you do see Elijah as a normal human because he always seems to me to be a superhuman. But one of the pilgrims pointed out how Elijah wanted to give up, to run far away, to hide in a cave and never come out, better still to die. This helps me reconnect to Elijah. There’s lots of us who have worked hard and we’re tired and want to hide away in a cave for a while. Others of us have been required to hide in their caves. But now comes the gentle whisper of God, the still small voice of calm, that calls Elijah out of his cave, back into life, and back into the unfinished mission that God has for Elijah.

My prayer for you is that you might find yourself on a pilgrimage of sorts. A journey perhaps more spiritual than physical, but one that strives to walk closely with God, that struggles with sin and stumbling and yet chooses to cry out for help from another pilgrim, that seeks to journey with Jesus and may you find  your next cup of tea to be sacramental!

With love and prayer

James