Sunday 5thJanuary 2014
Bible Reading: Genesis 12:1-9
There are many kinds of
travellers; tourists, commuters, migrant workers, yes and we could add, Nomads,
Gypsies, New Age travellers, Day trippers, Evacuees and Refugees.
A pilgrim has some
similarities with other kinds of travellers but there is an added significance
to the journeys they make. The dictionary definition is this: “A pilgrimage is a long journey with an exalted purpose and moral significance.”
Pilgrims and the making of pilgrimages are common in many religions .In the Old Testament pilgrims travelled to places where significant revelation or provision from God had happened. People went there to receive inspiration from what had happened there in the past but also hoping to receive new revelation or experience God’s presence and power.
Many religions including some sections of Christianity and Islam still see the making of pilgrimages as an important religious activity. But outside of faith communities many visit historic or cultural importance. Elvis Presley fans might refer to a visit to Graceland as a pilgrimage or communists, a visit to the birthplace of Karl Marx.
There is nothing wrong with making literal journeys to special “Christian” places if they help us draw closer to God. However the concept of being a Christian pilgrim is much wider than that. It has been said, “The Christian life is not so much a performance as a pilgrimage.”
Another definition of a pilgrim “a person regarded as journeying to a future life.”
Abraham may have done his own bit of visiting religious sites of interest in his time but the Bible telling of his life story reveals that his whole life was a journey of journey with an exalted purpose, moral significance and towards a new future.
1.
A Pilgrim lives life in
response to the call of God
If Abraham were to have a
coat of arms it would probably have both a tent and an altar on it. The tent
would represent the change of lifestyle he had from the settled city life he
had in Ur to the nomadic life he had in Canaan. The tent speaks of a willingness to respond to the call of God and go wherever he leads. Abraham left his own home by faith, all because God appeared to him and called him to go.
We do not all have to up and leave where we are or what we are doing and go to an unknown land in order to describe ourselves as a pilgrim. As a Christian, you are a pilgrim and by that mean we are people who step out in faith and trust in God.
Everywhere that he went, Abraham was tempted to stop and make those places his home. It is so very easy to get to a place in the Lord where we think that we are exactly where we need to be and we get complacent and you aren’t hearing the voice of the Lord anymore. But that’s not the life of a pilgrim.
We will always need to move on in terms of spiritual growth, knowledge of God, adapting our service, expanding our intercession for others. Being on the move with God going towards his future has to be better than any plans we have of our own. It is better to live in a tent than in a house built on sand. The alternative to a pilgrim life is not a settled life, it’s a stagnant life and that stinks!
2.
A pilgrim is aware of unseen
realities
Just as a tent if a
temporary structure so is life in this world. Abraham did that by responding to the call of
God and in faith set out for a future life of founding a nation in the very
visible environment of Canaan. Yet Hebrews
11 concludes that Abraham sensed he had a destiny far beyond that country. “By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; For he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and build is God.” (Hebrews 11:9-10)
Hebrews goes on to say about him and other great people of faith, “They were longing for a better country, a heavenly one.”
Hebrews 11:13 says “they admitted they were “aliens and strangers on earth” or as the AV puts it “strangers and pilgrims.
We are not tied
exclusively to this world. Food, clothing, care of families, health and the
necessities of life are to be sought after and provided for but not with
anxiety or stress as if these things were our chief source of happiness.
There
is a saying “The world is a bridge the wise man will pass over it but will not
build his house upon it.” We have temporary residence here on earth but our citizenship is in heaven. That is why when Christians die we say they have gone home.
3.
A Pilgrim makes
sacrifices
The
second thing Abraham might have on a coat of arms was an altar. Abraham built a
number of altars in his life but one in particular on Mount Moriah was made in
order to offer God his own son. Abram was prepared to give up his own son, Isaac because no sacrifice could be too great for God. Abraham’s call as a pilgrim was of greater importance to him, than even his position as a parent.
In actual fact God only required the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son and the principle that Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews did not require child sacrifice as was common in every other culture was laid down.
The altar speaks of sacrifice, but it also speaks of the place where God meets with his people. When Abraham came to the altar, God was there to meet him and provided the sacrifice for him; a foretaste of what God does for all of us through Jesus.
One of the hardest things we have to do as pilgrims is when we sense the call of God on our lives will adversely affect the lives of others. Jesus was called to go towards the cross, knowing what it might do to his mother Mary to watch him die in such a way. But he went ahead, trusting God for the joy that would be hers through his resurrection.
When it is tough to be a pilgrim, the important thing is to keep your eyes on the one who calls us to follow and on the ultimate, the “when all is said and done” things that will remain at the end of the day. We are not tramps, with nowhere in particular to go but pilgrims on a journey home.
4.
A Pilgrim represents God in
this world
A pilgrim will always keep
in mind to whom they are answerable and who they represent. We are called to be
his ambassadors in this world and serve him loyally. In I Peter 2 we read about God’s people being a people who live in the world but who are really citizens of a heavenly kingdom. In the light if this he asked, “What kind of people should we be?”
We are moving toward the heavenly city each day and Jesus is closer today and tomorrow even closer. In knowing that, there ought to be a difference in our lifestyle.
1 Peter 2:11 “Dear friends I urge you as aliens and strangers (or pilgrims in the AV) to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
It’s easy to say live good lives among the pagans but something we have to battle to do. The pilgrim is as Peter points out in war with sinful desires which war again the soul. The word “soul” refers to our inner person. The battle against sin is waged in the mind (1:13-14). If you can win the war against sin in your thought life, you will win in your behaviour. All sin starts in the mind and must be defeated there. Pauls advice is that we mus learn to take "every thought captive to the obedience of Christ2 (2 Cor.10:4).
We might be pilgrims but we must be dressed as soldiers, with our spiritual armour on at all times.
But Peter says that as pilgrims, we are to maintain a lifestyle of attractive deeds, even in the face of will result ultimately in glory to God which is the overall aim of the Christian life.
The
title Pilgrim helps us to remember the context of our life. Life has a goal and
it has a connection with the unseen realities of God’s purpose for our life and
heaven itself. It is not an easy way which is why we need to ask that God to
help us realise his presence along the way.
This is expressed beautifully in the song the Pilgrims prayer
Bind our hearts to thee we pray
Grant us Lord they steadfast purpose
Keep us on the pilgrim way
All our road is not in darkness
Walking, Lord where thou has trod
For the imprint of the footstep
Blossoms with the love of God
Lone may be our pilgrim journey
Stern the path before us set
But the glory of thy passing
Lingers by the wayside yet
So for the triumph of thy way we praise thee
Thou who has known temptation
Counted it joy our souls to ransom
Suffered and died for our salvation
Teach us the secret of thy strong enduring
On to the journey’s end
Bring us at last with songs to Zion
Where everlasting praises blend
Master by they toils inspire us
Walk with us earth’s road of pain
Let they Spirit flame within us,
Christ in us be formed again.
By Miriam Richards
God bless
Carol
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