Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.) – Mark 9:5-6

Sunday morning I started teaching the second five-week session in my summer Sunday school series here at Howard Memorial Presbyterian Church in Tarboro.

The first five weeks featured “discipleship.” This second will focus more on the idea of “pilgrimage.”

My invitation is for us to begin to see ourselves as pilgrims along the way. Also to live as pilgrims – pilgrims making progress. As my resource I am using the book that was written with “Pilgrim in Progress” as the working title (the publisher, however, preferred the subtitle and the book became “The Unmaking of a Part-Time Christian“).

First, we talked about some distinctions between “pilgrim” and “disciple.” These points are not definitive so much as ideas that surfaced as I was teaching.

• Being a pilgrim is something we do; a disciple is who we are.
• The pilgrim’s frame of reference is seeking; the disciple’s is learning.
• Pilgrims are engaged on a journey of discovery whereas disciples follow The One they already discovered.
• While a pilgrimage is typically a chapter, discipleship is the whole life.

I love the posture of being a pilgrim exactly because a pilgrimage is a journey, and journeys are such a great vehicle for growth.

A Journey:

I am a Christian and being a disciple is the primary way that I relate to Jesus. But I also experience my faith from the posture of a pilgrim. And a pilgrimage, according to one simple definition, is a journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life.

Several participants shared experiences that fit the general idea. Then I talked about the transformational trip Rebekah and I took to the Holy Lands, my 10-weeks hiking the Appalachian Trail and the fact that even the manner in which I walk across the street to church Sunday morning can be framed as a pilgrimage.

Also – and I read a post aloud from this past September when my mother was dying (A Meadow, a Prayer and a Labyrinth…) – we talked about how a labyrinth can echo pilgrimage as a devotional discipline.

In a sense, this sojourn to Tarboro has been – is – a pilgrimage. Rebekah and I are disciples of Jesus who have been on a pilgrimage the last couple of years, a kind of spiritual quest.

A closing thought:

When Jesus took Peter, James and John to the Mount of Transfiguration, it was a pilgrimage “to a holy place.” When they arrived they had a transformational experience. If you remember, Peter suggested putting up tents and moving in. But the endpoint of pilgrimage is the last part of the definition, “returning to daily life…”

In other words, when we find something that is nourishing, wonderful, spiritual, transformational and inspirational, God has a purpose for us. And while the pilgrimage is often a solitary journey, the learning and the progress and the power and the encouragement that we find must play out in community.

The disciples had to return to daily life and there they found challenge and opportunity and difficulty and real people and real need; in other words, real life.

So here we are on our current pilgrimage, it’s an odyssey that started the day Rebekah retired three years ago. Sometimes, like Peter, I want to build our tent on the mountain. Always, Jesus is calling us back into community.

Still, I remain a pilgrim. – DEREK