“My treasures have been….” This is an exercise that the group does (last Thursday) in our last session. “I am thankful for the cleaning team (some giggles around the room, and supportive hmms), and for the worship (some ahhhs from the others) and the international-ness of this week (I have loved the daily Lord’s Prayer spoken in so many languages that I have struggled to keep my place!). It’s been a fabulous week but this isn’t the sort of week where you go home and say ‘Well that was nice’. It should be the sort of week that leaves you feeling tired. A good sort of tired. That sort of tired that says ‘I’ve been close to God!’
Coming back from Jerusalem, it had been an adventure, I was pumped with excitement and wonder – there was where the Disciples trod, here was where Jeremiah preached, David had his palace there, and here are Nehemiah’s walls. Wonderful.
This Iona trip has been wonderful but a different sort. Quiet. Prayerful. Contemplative. Tiring. A space to allow the weights to lift off and the aches to smooth.
Getting on the ferry I realise that I haven’t looked at the News for a week. But sitting on the floor of the packed train from Oban to Glasgow, I borrow a postman’s Sun and see their take on the global and personal pain that leave so many crying for justice and mercy. On the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh we grab the last two seats and find ourselves sitting opposite two ladies heading for a girls-day-out of treats. They’re onto their second can of rum and coke and share deeply of their lives, the different reasons for their different divorces, the employment struggles, and how one of them prays, when she walks the dog, to the Man Upstairs and it gives her peace and joy. We tell her we’ve just come from Iona and they both say ‘Ah’ like they know exactly what I mean without saying more. There’s a poster on the train saying “Try Praying” it links to a website (trypraying.org )
Whilst most of us pilgrims had dispersed, we met up with two, Laura and Eva, who got a later train to Glasgow and together found some pizza. The peculiar intimacy that comes from strangers being together, worshipping, cleaning, helping each other over boggy turf, has continued. Usually I find that it disperses as quickly as the people do but with these two we find ourselves in a deeper conversation about life and hopes. I hope that these are friends to keep. We eat ice cream on the plaza outside Glasgow Queen Street station watching a couple of teenagers playing keepy-uppy and how they continually include all sorts of people passing by who chip the ball back at them, join in for a couple of minutes and move on. Its an endearing reminder, despite the fears of the daily newspaper, of the goodness of people.
As I sit on the train from Edinburgh to London, I have a peak at Sunday’s Gospel reading with the key phrase: “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt 11.28). And I think that that is what we have been doing, so now the question is how to keep at it. Facebook throws an unusually helpful quote at me, this one from Bonhoeffer – “The person who is in love with their vision of community will destroy community, but the person who loves the people around them will create community everywhere they go”.
We are in a rush to try to catch the train from St Pancras to Brighton, so as the train pulls in we gather our stuff and wait by the door ready for the dash. In front of us is a scottish couple come to London for the first time. They’re nervous about the Underground. We share our nerves. They say “We’ll pray for you” and the doors open and we start running.
(Photo is of me outside Iona Abbey with ancient Celtic cross)