Good morning…
With little time to catch his breath, my husband Steve sent out his chaplain’s devotional for the Lovett School community first thing Monday morning. His reflection continues to bring to life God’s invitation to participate in the peacemaking plans our Creator is orchestrating, inside and among us.
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Chaplain Devotional for 3/13/23 by Rev. Steve Allen, based on John 4:5-42
I spent the past 10 days in Israel. It’s a fascinating place. In addition to the amazing biblical and historical sites, the land is teeming with people from all over the world. People come from the four corners of the earth yearning to see and experience God. That’s what pilgrims do. They leave the comfort of their homes, step outside the habitual rhythms of their daily lives and hope to connect with God in a meaningful and transformative way.
Today’s story tells of just such a pilgrimage. It’s an encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman in John chapter 4. Their discussion is interesting enough, but it’s what happens afterwards that intrigues me. The Samaritan woman is so taken by the encounter that she returns to her hometown and issues an invitation to the people there. She begs the people to “come and see” John 4:29; to come on a pilgrimage to see a man who changed her life. And so, they went and saw for themselves. In the end, the people were so transformed upon meeting Jesus, they said “it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves…” (John 4:42).
For most of our lives we go to church (or chapel) and we listen to someone tell us about God. We are relatively passive learners when it comes to how we do faith. And yet, what this story suggests is that faith is meant to be a full-bodied, participatory experience. We are all meant to “come and see”. People sometimes say to me, “You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.” That’s true, but if there’s one thing I learned watching pilgrims in Israel this past week, it’s that we stand a far better chance of encountering God’s transformative power when we “come and see” for ourselves; when we get involved in the process of a living faith, not just a listening faith.
The options for pilgrimage are endless. There’s going to Israel, of course, but there are other ways we can “come and see” without getting on a plane; there’s participating in a Bible study, reading a daily devotional, having a regular practice of prayer and meditation, spending attentive time in nature, or forming a small group with others who are seeking after God. There are so many ways for us to get off the sidelines and begin a pilgrimage of our own. This week I invite you to look for a way to “come and see” in order to discover, or perhaps rediscover, the transformative power of God in your life.
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In the airport, I realized I had misquoted Steve’s statement in an earlier blog post: “A pilgrimage is an outward journey toward an inward healing.” The correct word is destination. “A pilgrimage is an outward journey toward an inward destination.” For some the destination may be holistic healing, for others it may be a deeper, more integrated understanding, for still others the destination may be a settled oneness with God, living at home in one’s skin as God is at home within us.
Whatever our destination, it requires an intentional pilgrimage to travel from outside in, from surface to center. I am reminded of a Sioux Indian saying: The longest journey you will make in your life is from your head to your heart. It is especially true in transforming belief about God in our head into a full-bodied excitement of loving God in our heart.
Steve is right. The options for pilgrimage are endless, as endless as the moments which make up each day. In what ways might you personally “come and see for yourself” today, perhaps rediscovering the transformative power of God in your one-of-a-kind life?
…Sue…
P.S. We are beginning to form Steve’s Israel 2024 small group, which will travel to the Holy Land from Thursday, February 29th through Sunday, March 10th. Might God be inviting you to “come and see” Israel for yourself? Connection to this trip spreads by word of mouth and is limited to thirty adults each year over the spring break week. If you are interested in receiving information about this life-changing learning experience led by Steve and our Jewish guide Boaz, please reply to this email and I will put you on our email list. Steve will be sending out 2024 trip details to those interested this week.
