Genesis 28: 15-17

Marching in the Light of God: The Journey of Faith

Sunday March 7, 2010

Rev. Susan Cartmell

The Congregational Church of Needham

                Our theme for March is Spiritual Journeys. We chose this topic because ours is a church that likes to travel.  Two weeks ago twelve of you travelled to Santa Maria Tzeja, our partner village in Guatemala. Next week six of us will journey to the Holy Land for ten days.  Our Senior High is busy preparing for their annual mission trip - this year to Philadelphia. Last spring Shepherd's Staff toured in Florida, singing at 2 churches and serving homeless families and children. For my sabbatical three years ago I journeyed to the Holy Land and later visited churches in South Africa. We are a congregation where many of you travel for work and recreation. As a community we believe that we are all enriched by these journeys.  These expeditions expand our horizons, deepen the fellowship among us, and bring a worldview to the church and its mission.

Many Christians think of Lent - these 6 weeks before Easter - as a time of spiritual journey. Traditionally during Lent, people have tried to journey with Jesus by walking the Stations of the Cross, or walking on labyrinths in cathedrals or church gardens. Others have taken trips to help the poor, or pilgrimages to a special shrine.

These days spiritual journeys have grown increasingly popular. If you search online you will discover sites advertising pilgrimages to Lourdes, Rome, Fatima, Israel, Oberammergau, and Medjugorje. You can find everything from new age retreats in Sedona or the Way of the Cross in Jerusalem.

In the Bible one of the earliest stories of faith's awakening is the story a trip. Jacob met God on route.  Now Jacob was not a good man, really. No one could accuse him of being religious. But he was clever, bright and ambitious. His early life was shaped by the competition between his parents. His mother urged him to steal his brother's inheritance. When he had stolen much of the family wealth, he left home fearing his brother would kill him.  On his first night out of town he lay down on the ground to sleep. That night he dreamed he saw a ladder leading up to heaven with  angels were ascending and descending to where he lay. When he arose he sensed for the first time in his life that God was very near. That was the beginning of Jacob's real relationship with God.So, through this dream and subsequent encounters he discovered his life took on deeper purpose.

What can we learn from Jacob for our lives today? What can he tell us about how to find God in or make sense of the various journeys we are taking these days?

The Bible tells us that every journey has spiritual potential.  Our Bible is full of examples of people who deepen their faith through travel. Jacob was not seeking God. He was just running for his life. He was pulling off a scam, and hoping to get away with it. That first night he must have been startled. When he dreamed that the ladder was connecting him to God, and angels were bridging the gap between heaven and earth, he puzzled over the spiritual turn his trip had taken - "Surely God is in this place, and I did not know it."  He knew he had not earned God's favor. I don't think he had any idea that he was on a spiritual journey. He figured he had just stumbled into God's path.

Let's look at Abraham. When God called Abraham, he responded by packing up his tents and livestock and embarking on a long journey. But he did not know what lay ahead. He did not tell his wife, Sarah "Let's start a spiritual journey; it will be good for us." He simply got the idea that he should move. He does not really understand why he is going, or where this trip will take him. He cannot predict the future or see very far ahead. He just knows he has to go, and as they traveled they discovered that God is with them.

When our youth go on a mission trip, they go with a variety of motives. Some choose to go to help others. Some want to get away from home. Most choose this experience because they want to be with their friends. As we go along, we all have fun traveling together, eating together, working together. Those of us who chaperone these trips usually insist that we say a prayer each night to end the day. We put the prayer in the schedule because we know it will make a good impression some day in their lives. We hope to put faith's imprint on this experience. But then when things get hectic and we grow tired as the weeks goes on sometimes we forget to pray. Then if one of the kids misses the prayer and asks for it we realize that this trip has taken a spiritual turn we did not expect. We are all standing n holy ground.

Two weeks ago I told a story about a man who had a rocky marriage, and had left his home on the East Coast for a business trip. When he and his wife had argued over the years, they had always reconciled, but this time, they seemed done. On the trip to Salt Lake City, the man made a list of all the things he would have to do in order to separate. In his hotel, he went into the wrong ballroom and wandered into a talk on relationships. In that moment, he realized that what he thought was a business trip had turned into a spiritual journey. He knew that he was meant to be hearing this talk. He decided to stay. That was the turning point in his life. On a trip that was supposed to be for business, he realized he had encountered a spiritual detour, and he knew that detours like this don't come every day, so he took it. Surely God is in this place, and I did not know it, at first.  

It can happen on a camping trip that you are doing for the kids, but somehow nature's poetry draws you all to a deeper place. In the middle of sleeping bags and outdoor meals you realize that God is in this place and you did not expect it, really. It can happen when someone in our family gets sick You start searching for help. You go out with  fear and hope that you can find the answers.  You consult with doctors and therapists; you consider alternative medicine. Along these paths you find our patience tested. Sometimes these journeys become life-changing experiences.  You learn to listen to life in new ways, or we may even learn to pray. Slowly over time you see that God is in this place and you did not know it. 

These days the changes in our economy have propelled us into a new era.   Since the international economic recession in the fall of 2008, people have lost jobs and homes and pensions. Most of us have lost a certain sense of control.  Embedded in this big shift has been the opportunity to ask some spiritual questions about our materialism. We have the chance to ask:  How much stuff do we really need?  How important is money?  What do we value most? What is going to make us happy?   Probably none of us would have chosen this growth experience, but it has given us the opportunity to ask spiritual questions that may change our lives. Who knows? Maybe God is even in this place in time and we did not see it at first.

In an Easter sermon the Rev. Carl Scovel tells us his experience at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem. It is a massive grey stone building with many chapels, and passageways, built on the site thought to be Calvary. As he entered one small shrine lit by dozens of votive candles his eyes adjusted to the site of a small intense monk who asked, somewhat abruptly "You priest?"  Sensing this was not a moment for semantic distinctions, Scovel nodded. This little man took him by the arm and showed Scovel things in the shrine he never would have seen without a guide. Though the old monk was kind and clearly well-intentioned, he took Scovel's arm with such force that he was frightened of the fierceness to the man's hospitality. Then the old monk said - "Five o'clock, come back here, we drink tea. I show you more." Scovel admits that he felt trapped. Though he nodded as he left the shrine he knew he would be too busy that afternoon. There was something nerve-wracking about this invitation, and he suspected he could not control the journey this old man of faith would take him on. So he decided to be busy. {An Easter Faith: The Writings of Carl Scovel The Unitarian Universalist Christian, vol. 57, 2002 p. 33} 

Perhaps you have memories too of people you avoided, or questions you could not put to rest so you ignored them. Perhaps in the course of the journeys you took for work or pleasure, you found people or places where we came to a fork in the road. One path led to predictable places, while the other would surely propel you on a spiritual adventure you knew you would never forget. You had to decide whether you were too busy, or where this was a detour you could not pass up without real regret. Maybe you have a vague sense that your life is empty. Maybe like Jacob, it feels like you know what you are running from but you are not sure what you are running toward. Maybe you have come to church for your children and it is only starting to dawn on your that God is also interested in you.

 The good news that spiritual growth is a lot like love. It comes when you least expect it. In the different seasons of life, whether or not you are searching for God,God is searching for you.  Whether it comes in your dreams or your daydreams, God will send people or opportunities to stir your imagination, and call you to a deeper place. You will have the opportunity to go deeper, or to decide that you are too busy.  Jacob was running away when he had a dream that told him God was with him. His life was changed forever. He awoke to the realization that God was in that place and he did not know it. Who knows? Maybe you will awake to that realization too?