God of pilgrims
From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
God of pilgrims 10 October 2010 The Revd Jenny Wilkens
- Psalm 144
- Acts 16:6-15
- John 15:12-27
http://wellingtoncathedral.org.nz/index.php/Sermons
It all depends how you see people! Our country's airwaves have been full this week of reaction to Paul Henry's puerile comments about just who is a Kiwi, and his pronunciation of foreign names, implicating both our Governor-General and the Indian chief government minister in Delhi.
Whatever we think of it, it's a reminder that how we see people comes across in our words, our deeds, our lives. Alison reminded the choristers and those gathered for our Pet Service yesterday that our pets don't worry about what we look like or what our name is, they still give us unconditional love, loyalty and affection. Oh, that we could learn from them!
Our Bible readings tonight brought home to me afresh how our perceptions of people colour our lives, including our worship and prayer lives.
The Psalmist, in Psalm 144, cries out to God (in our Prayer Book language) 'to deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth talketh of vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity' (v.7, 8, 11). Strange children - is that how we see other people, those we don't know, not only as strangers, but literally strange to us? And therefore people to be avoided and feared, rather than approached and learned about?
These sorts of sentiments are there too in the second half of our reading from John's gospel (15:18-25) which has typically stark Johannine language in its strong contrasts between hate and love, the church and the world. Jesus, speaking here just before his passion, explains to his disciples that whatever hatred and persecution they may experience in the future, Jesus will experience this first, and it will be because they are his followers, that they will receive the same treatment.
Yet they are not to despair, for Jesus' continuing presence will be with them in the person of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate called alongside us to testify to the truth of God's love.
And together with Christ being alongside us in the Spirit, there will also be the friendship of those whom Christ has called friends: 'I do not call you servants any longer…but I have called you friends' (John 15:15) Friends of Christ are then called to be friends with all whom Christ names friend, those known to us and those as yet unknown to us. To all, we are to express the love of God, which Christ has first shown us - amazingly even to the extent of laying down one's life for one's friends (v.13). Jesus will not ask of us what he has not been prepared to do himself, and we pray for the grace and courage to respond as Christ, should we be called to do so.
The living out of those words of John's gospel struck me afresh as we in the pilgrimage group were walking in the footsteps of St Paul through Greece, and hearing day by day from the Acts accounts of Paul's travels. I chose to include a reading tonight from the Acts of the Apostles as an example of how we would come to a place and then read the appropriate passage from Acts, or from an epistle written to the church of that place by Paul.
So we journeyed in the north of Greece to the small port town of Neapolis, now called Kavalla, where Paul, and his companions Silas and the young Timothy, landed and so set foot on what we now call mainland Europe. We saw there a wonderful mosaic shrine, depicting the man from Macedonia appearing to Paul and saying, Come over and help us, and then in the second scene, Paul hopping off the boat from a tranquil Aegean Sea and onto the shore of Europe. It was great to see these shrines outside in the open, and while there was a fair bit of graffiti around, there was certainly none on these beautiful al fresco works of art.
We journeyed that day to one of the most beautiful settings of our pilgrimage, a shady river bank thought to be the site just outside ancient Philippi where Paul sought a place of prayer, expecting a synagogue of Jewish men, and found instead a gathering of women, including the God-fearing Lydia, a wealthy merchant and dealer in purple. It was so refreshing to sit on the bank above the stream, to enjoy the shade out of the fierce heat, and to hear Acts 16 read as we heard tonight, recounting how the Lord opened Lydia's heart to listen eagerly to Paul's words and to come for baptism with her household, presumably in that same flowing stream of living water, springing up to eternal life.
One of the realities of pilgrimage and travel which we all know is that we do it alongside plenty of other people with the same goal, and it's no good grizzling about 'tourists!' when we realise that that is what we are as well! So even here there were others sharing the waters of Lydia's stream with us.
But fortunately Frank had been tempted by a little vial of scented olive oil at the tourist shop there, and we were able to experience another symbol of baptism, which I think I found even more powerful than the water. Each of us was anointed with oil in remembrance of our signing with the cross in baptism, anointed with the famous olive oil of Greece, a fragrant and tangible memory of our visit.
At this site of Lydia's stream, a small octagonal baptistery has been built, complete with font for baptisms. It also had very beautiful stained glass windows, mosaics and paintings. I think what impressed me was the number of Paul's companions depicted on the walls. Yes, there were Paul and Lydia, but there were also Silas, Timothy and Luke, and a few other women whose Greek capitals eluded my translation!
I wonder if you noticed in our reading from Acts 16 that halfway through, the pronouns change from 'they' to 'we'. This is the first of what we call the 'we'-passages in Acts, where the author of the Acts, generally thought to be Luke, seems to join in the adventure, and the narrative races along with greater immediacy. We think that Luke came from this part of the world, and joined Paul here, and we know from other references, that Luke indeed accompanied Paul on some of his journeys and was a valued travel companion, not least for his medical and journalistic skills!
I have an abiding memory of that octagonal chapel with Paul and Lydia's companions all around the walls, and appreciated afresh how much it must have meant to Paul to have these companions in ministry, and to be able not only to give to them but also to receive from them. I love the way Lydia immediately offered hospitality to Paul's team 'and she prevailed upon us' - no chance of heading off for a 5 star hotel in Philippi! But I bet she gave them 5 star hospitality, and so began her ministry.
On reflection, I wonder if my fondness for that day in Philippi is not also because by then we pilgrims had been on the road together for nearly three weeks. In fact not only on the road - we had crossed the world together, sharing the compact conditions of economy class air travel, we'd found our way round cities and train stations, we'd chatted and fallen asleep alongside each other in buses, we'd cruised our way round the Greek islands (someone has to do it!), we'd sympathised with those who picked up German colds and those whose tummies didn't always cope too well with Greek food. We'd shared the joys of Greek toilets and the copious 'coffee in, coffee out' stops along the way.
Strangers had become friends, companions - literally those with whom we broke bread. And we broke bread together countless times in hotels and cafes, roadside restaurants. We broke bread together in eucharist in memorable places from a hotel restaurant to the ruins of ancient Corinth, we shared in the blessed bread of the Orthodox church in Thessaloniki. We heard again the connection between eucharist and the Greek word 'eucharisto' we used innumerable times a day to say 'thank you'.
The hymn on your insert sheet which we shall sing shortly, is called God of Pilgrims, by Jocelyn Marshall. We are reminded in its words that God's people have always been a pilgrim people, and we know from our readings of the Old Testament that the pilgrimage of God's people through the ages has never been some romanticized rosy-hued holiday brochure.
We know from our travels, just as we know from the realities of our lives as people in families, in relationships, in church families, that life together as a pilgrim people involves lots of blisters, lots of waiting for people who are late, lots of give and take, lots of 'sorry's but also lots of laughs, of surprises, of moments of wonder and awe and love. Lots of courage and self-sacrifice and caring, lots of the stuff that makes for memories and makes for growth in love, in faith and in God.
So as we gather tonight as pilgrims reunited, but also all of us as fellow pilgrims together on the journey of faith, may we constantly be on the look out for those strangers whom Christ wants to yet make our friends. May we see with the eyes of Christ, with eyes of love, and look and see again! Amen.
