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Easter Message The Goal of the Pilgrim

A sermon by Pastor Darrell Reeck, Ph.D.

Easter Sunday April 11, 2004

"I have seen the Lord." --Mary of Magdalene, John 20: 18

Prayer for Enlightenment

Every religious pilgrim has to reach a goal. Otherwise, there's no pilgrimage.

"In the east the sky lightened, marking the caravan's 40th morning, now in a landscape shaped by volcanic upheavals. As the sun rose, so did the temperature. Camels gurgled, brayed, balked and strode on, as tired as the pilgrims riding them and the hardy ones on foot, all stolidly going on at the insistent command of the caravan leaders.

"It was a sharp-eyed camel boy at the head of the column who first spotted the tiny smudge on the horizon, appearing, then disappearing in the shimmering light. Pushing toward it, the caravan moved onto the floor of a small valley, then forced its way up a steep ridge and stopped. Everyone looked, their gazes awash with emotion born of a lifetime of faith and months, even years, of travel. In the valley of Abraham not far off, its whitewashed houses glistening in a little island of green, was the realization of the pilgrims' extraordinary exertions: Makkah, the City of God." (Credit: Saudi Aramco World, Jan-Feb 2004, p. 2.)

Yes, every religious pilgrim has an end in sight.

I well remember climbing to the peak of Mt. Moses in the Sinai Peninsula, the high point in a huge land mass of bone dry rocky peaks. At the top of the Mountain where Moses met God and received the Ten Commandments I found Jewish pilgrims, Muslims pilgrims and Christian pilgrims, all sharing the summit and carrying out their rituals and meditations.

Why can't the boundaries between religions be as harmonious as the pilgrims of three religions at the peak of Mt. Moses?

There, at the top of Mt. Moses, as the blazing sun rose over the horizon of the Gulf of Aqaba, I erected my own stone pillar as a memory of my pilgrimage, and I hope it's still there.

Every pilgrim has her or his goal-some important sacred space that's hard to reach but that's worth the toil and risk.

When that space is reached, an inner transformation takes place: new peace, new certainty, new life. That's the value that the pilgrim realizes at the goal. The true pilgrim then returns to her or his community, gifted with power and giving blessing to all.

On our Holy Week pilgrimage, we've passed through main events of Christian faith:

After the death of their leader, the disciples had not scattered like a flock of disturbed quail. Instead, they were in hiding, no doubt fearing for their lives. What had happened to him could also happen to them. Dispirited disciples would never found a new faith.

But they knew their ritual obligations.

Mary Magdalene and a few followers crept out of hiding and groped their way to the tomb, in the darkness of the predawn, to carry out the final rituals of burial.

Mary ran ahead, and, look! the stone was rolled away!

Uh oh! Uh oh! "They've stolen the body."

The empty tomb is not the goal of the pilgrim. We're not at the goal yet.

But then Mary saw Jesus. She conversed with Jesus. She received a certainty that Jesus was alive.

Please don't ask me to give an explanation of how this could have happened, scientifically.

Please don't ask me to explain the timing.

All I know is that we've arrived at the ultimate goal of every Christian pilgrim: the certainty that Jesus rose from the dead.

For us, a physical journey to the Risen Lord is impossible.
For us, the pilgrimage is an inner journey.
The goal of the pilgrimage is an inner certainty.
But it's a very real, ultimately valid journey.

The certainty is not the type that results from calculation. It can only flow from grace.

"Would taking a physical pilgrimage help my inner journey?"
Absolutely. It could, indeed.
But no matter how wonderful the physical pilgrimage, it can only be an aid to the inner pilgrimage, the journey of faith, to the core of one's spiritual being, where one is alone with God.

That's what we mean by "spirituality."

"Be more specific: how can I take the inner journey?"
End your Holy Week pilgrimage by accompanying Mary to the tomb in your inner garden of Gethsemane.

With Mary, find the door to death dessication rolled away.
Listen to the Master ask, "Whom do you seek?"
Listen to him call your name.
Turn to him and say, Teacher, Saviour.

You've reached the goal of the pilgrim.

Alleluia, Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia.

Amen.

 

Copyright by Darrell Reeck, 2004. All rights reserved.
Feedback invited at dreeck@msn.com

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