Running to Pentecost: Has it Really Been 50 Days Since Easter

Having preached on the theme of Ascension Sunday at Southminster Presbyterian Church, Beaverton, Oregon this past Sunday, it is hard for me to fathom that the trail continues onward toward Pentecost!?

What is impressive to me is how the holy/Holy Days truly become "markers" or "milestones" or points of reference, like we use for travel on the road. When visiting my home town of Portland, OR, I know where I am because of the significant monuments or known sites and sounds that steer me to where I want to go. I get totally lost when the monuments and markers of the known sites and streets move.

Having passed Ascension Sunday, I pick up my stuff, put it back in life's back-pack, and move on ahead to the next stopping point in the Christian life-long pilgrimage: Pentecost!

Bien camino!

Peace of the Pilgrim God,

Brett

A Torah that Took a Pilgrimage

Fascinating story in the New York Times this morning about a Torah that took a pilgrimage from Auschwitz to New Jersey:

"It is the story of a sexton in the synagogue in the Polish city of Oswiecim who buried most of the sacred scroll before the Germans stormed in and later renamed the city Auschwitz. It is the story of Jewish prisoners who sneaked the rest of it — four carefully chosen panels — into the concentration camp.

It is the story of a Polish Catholic priest to whom they entrusted the four panels before their deaths. It is the story of a Maryland rabbi who went looking for it with a metal detector. And it is the story of how a hunch by the rabbi’s 13-year-old son helped lead him to it."

While pilgrimages all have their own narratives, depending upon the pilgrim him- or herself, this is the story of a narrative in written form that was on a pilgrimage, dependent upon the people who helped guard and guide itself safely to its new home.

Read more by clicking here.
Bien Camino!

Shalom, Brett

Ascension Reflections

While Jesus' earthly pilgrimage was fairly "earth bound," give or take a transcendent moment on Mt. Tabor (Transfiguration and all), this all changed with his ascension into heaven. This is an unexpected twist to the story of resurrection glory, when the Pilgrim God ascends to take his place in the cosmic realm of God's love, in order that the Holy Spirit can descend unto those of us who were to follow the disciples of yore.

This story is simply a reminder that the Holy and the earthly are forever entwined in our living together, one with the other.

Bien camino!

pilgrim peace, Brett

Easter Blessings to my Orthodox Readers!

Today is Easter in the Orthodox Church tradition. My friend Risa Poniros--who is Greek Orthodox--has been a wonderful pilgrim who has taught me much about the Greek Orthodox tradition by first asking me, "Did you see 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding'? That's my family." And her family taught and teaches me much about the Greek Orthodox tradition.

On pilgrimage to the Middle East last year, the Greek Orthodox monks in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the monks at St. Catherine of the Sinai Monastery proved to be able pilgrim guides on an incredible journey.

Dear friends of the Orthodox tradition: Easter Blessings!

Bien Camino!

Pilgrim peace,

Brett

Dayenu & Passover

It is Passover, and my friend Jaqui from New Zealand reminded of it. Because she lives in NZ, she is ahead of the curve in all my opportunities to spread the news of a holiday.

Jaqui wrote to me about the song "Dayenu," which in all its verses goes through all the movement of the Hebrew people through the wilderness pilgrimage: being brought out of Egypt; judgment upon Egyptians; executed judgment upon the gods of Egypt; God split the Red Sea; walked the people through on dry land; provided for the needs of the Israelites; were given Shabbat; taken to Mt. Sinai; given Torah; given a land of milk and honey. It is a song of the Israelites' pilgrimage!

Da-da-ye-nu!

Bien camino!

Pilgrim peace,

Brett

"Teens on a Mission": Experiencing Life at Full Throttle in a Pilgrimage-Like Activity

In the washingtonpost.com, there was a fascinating article about young people who are not going to Europe for a vacation, but are drinking deeply from the well of life: living with people who just aren't like us, caught in this article, "Teens on a Mission":

When Bethesda high school student Jenna Kusek first saw where she'd be living for three weeks in Tanzania, she thought, "You've got to be kidding."

This hole in the ground is the toilet? A trickle of cold water from an elevated hose is the shower?

But Kusek soon gained a new perspective. The white stucco house she shared with other teen volunteers last summer was a mansion by local standards, and better than the concrete-block house they would spend their days building for a local teacher. A cold shower, she realized, was a luxury unavailable to the village kids. A year after the trip, tears come to her eyes when she talks about how guilty she began feeling about having access to any kind of shower.

"Compared to how people lived in the village, our housing was too good to be true," says Kusek, 18, a senior at Walt Whitman High School. "I knew before I went to Africa that I was blessed, but I had no idea how lucky I was. I can't believe now the things we once took for granted."

Kusek's experience is being repeated by an ever-growing number of American teens traveling all over the world, led by dozens of companies feeding an appetite not only for more-exotic travel, but for travel with a purpose."

What I appreciate about pilgrimage is that it is a kind of travel "with a purpose," and the "purpose" is spiritual in nature, as well as physical, intellectual, and emotional, growth and nurture.

"Lynn Cutler of National Geographic said the organization commissioned a study and found that teens who can afford travel want purpose and personal development."

The rest of the article covers the experience of other young people's whose lives are forever-changed through these travels-with-a-purpose.

Click here for more.

Bien camino!

Pilgrim peace!

Brett

Satyagraha: The Pilgrimage of Gandhi

I am a wee-bit smitten with Gandhi and the idea of Satyagraha, because of what it has to say about the pilgrimage that is life. Note the statue of Gandhi above, with his walking stick, doing exactly what Jesus himself asked of his disciples: take very little with you on your pilgrimage: simply take a walking stick, sandals, a little bit of clothing. There is no back pack; no water bottle, no hat even.

But it is Satyagraha--truth force--that has caught my imagination. Listening and being around many Episcopalians the last few days--which is phenomenal for this Presbyterian--along with the coming of the Pope (Benedict) to the US in the next few days--which has all of NYC abuzz--I've heard the word "pilgrimage" spoken by many, and blasted on the air waves. Pilgrimage is synonymous with "travel" as in "tourist" in which people take a "pilgrimage" to a place where "pilgrimages" have taken place, and plop down at the pilgrimage site, and believe that they are on pilgrimage, when they are simply being tourists. On these sorts of pilgrimage there is no physical exertion per se, or exertion of mind or spirit, though there is a sense of titillation of the senses.

Gandhi was on a pilgrimage of truth, spreading truth non-violently in the face of a violent world. Gathering others to walk in truth with him, all on a pilgrimage of truth, he changed the world for the better.

Time to start walking the walk...yes?

Bien camino!

Pilgrim peace, Brett