Jeremiah's New Covenant

The idea of Jesus being the Pilgrim God came into sharp focus this past week in the Old Testament/Hebrew Scripture reading of Jeremiah 31, where Jeremiah speaks of the New Covenant amid the debris and wreckage left from the Old Covenant.

Jesus is the embodiment of the New Covenant.

Jesus is the Pilgrim God, who walks among us even today.

Buen camino!

B

Iona Pilgrimage

Maybe because it is raining today I've had Iona and Scotland on my mind.

Having been to Iona but as a tourist, and having been to Lindisfarne, England--one of the places where pilgrims like Cuthbert and Aidan dwelled, sent to this remote location by their brothers as pilgrim-missionaries from the isle of Iona--I've inquired about doing a pilgrimage there for 6 nights, 7 days.

This is a unique way of seeing who is reading this blog: would anyone be interested in going on pilgrimage to Iona in September for an entire week?

Buen camino!

Peace, Brett

Toward Easter: Looking Up Matters

I am more aware of the pull of the holy days to Easter.

The idea of the snake on the top of the stick, and Jesus upon the cross, was a symmetry that boggles the imagination.

We are in the midst of creating a crucifix for our Church, to be carried for Easter Sunday as we hold worship out at the Columbarium of the Church. As I told the friend making the cross: we needed something to look up to as we worship the risen Christ on Easter morning.

I look up and forward on pilgrimage nowadays.

It makes all the world of difference.

Buen camino!

Peace,

B

Rick Steves! Tourist Vs. Traveler

On Salon.com, there is an interesting interview with that travel-guru, Rick Steves, in which he has a wonderful response to the interviewer in re: to travel vs. tourism, citing Don DeLillo's work, "The Names":

I always remember this line from it: "Tourism is the march of stupidity."

That's a great line. And that's my challenge. I write somewhere in one of my books that my kind of travel fits the industry like a snowshoe in Mazatlán. That's our challenge: to offer Americans, who are thoughtful and curious, a way to be thoughtful in their travels.

Rick Steves' way of understanding "travel" is not too far from how many people I know understand "pilgrimage."

Click here for more of this interesting interview.

Buen camino!

B

Change on Website

Hi!

Wanted to point out some of the changes on the website:

1. There are new images from my latest pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Jaqui Tutt took these photos. Wonderful two pages in the "Gallery" section;

2. Postponing the pilgrimage to Israel in April. The violence scares the people in the States. Hope to do another one soon.

Buen camino!

Peace,

Brett

Feeling the Pull

We're beyond "half way there" to our Jerusalem moment as a church, and I've felt the pull of Jerusalem since Sunday, the third Sunday of Lent. I looked at the calendar of events, and the plotting and planning that has to go into the next few weeks to make our Holy Week meaningful and Easter a true celebration of new life.

It is interesting to see a church in "pilgrim-mode."

Buen camino!

Peace,

Brett

The Bracelet!

It was interesting: I was walking into the Chapel Hill, NC Lowe's Hardware when what should I notice but a young man walking out of the store with the bracelet from Santiago de Compostela. It was fun! Novel! Unique! I couldn't help but notice it.

Memories of Santiago came flooding over me.

Buen camino!

Peace, Brett

Sent into the Wilderness: Jesus' Pilgrimage as an Adult Begins in Earnest

I am reflecting upon the sermon I preached today, based on Mark 1:9-15, where Jesus is sent into the wilderness "by the Spirit."

I was struck by that line, "By the Spirit."

For several years I've felt like I was in the wilderness and need to remember that I was "sent by the Spirit" into this wilderness.

On the pilgrimage of life, there are periods that are long stretches of desert.

But I have hope tonight because the desert is a place of  re-learning, again, once more, what it is to be a follower of the Pilgrim God.

Ah! the good news, of course, is that Jesus is surrounded by angels and the wild beasts, created by none other than God!

Buen camino!

Peace!

B