Pilgrimage
7 January 2024
Rev Miak Siew
As David shared as we started today’s service – today, we have a sombre mood. I want to take some of the time to share a little – I see many newcomers today – and many people who have not been here long enough to get to know Molly before she came less often as she fought with cancer.
Allow us to remember her today… and I hope that through this you would also be touched by how we are connected with each other.
The call to worship surprised me this morning – those of you not involved – we rotate liturgies every Sunday. This morning is the call to worship based on Psalm 23.
Yesterday afternoon, as Molly was breathing her last breaths, Kyn was by her side. But Kyn shared she didn’t know what to do, and she just read Psalm 23 – the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. The lord makes me lie down in green pastures, and leads me beside the still waters.
So this morning I was reminded once again how God is our shepherd, ever present with us – goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives.
(FYI those who may be present with someone who is ill, or dying – Psalm 23 is a good go-to Psalm)
Moment of silence for Molly – those of you who knew her, I want to invite you to call to mind one memory of her.
My memory – –
She has gone home to be with God, free from pain and illness at last. “God our creator, dismiss your servant Molly in peace, according to your word.”
Molly’s journey on this earth has ended, but ours continue. We begin this year in the season of Epiphany. Yesterday was Epiphany – while in Singapore, many of us would go what’s epiphany, it is a major feast day in Europe. It comes after the 12 days of Christmas and commemorates the visit of Magi to pay homage to the baby Jesus.
Last week, I gave you all a break from answering questions on Menti. Today, I would like you all to participate in Menti –
Let’s pray.
Today, I want to talk about the journey the wise ones made, following that star that guided them to Bethlehem.
I see their journey as a pilgrimage –
What’s the difference between a holiday trip and a pilgrimage?
Intention is one – a pilgrimage is not just to relax, unwind, have fun – but a journey seeking and searching.
Wikipedia helpfully defined as “a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life.”
I went on a pilgrimage to Iona – yes it was a retreat, but it was also to seek something / transformation, and then return back to “daily life.”
Iona had always been a place of pilgrimage since St Columba founded the abbey on Iona.
Iona is beautiful – and the sunrises were wonderful to behold. But I think there were many sunrises at many different places I have been that were just as amazing.
The thing about that draws people to Iona is not that it was so spectacular view or is so astonishingly beautiful (or in today’s lingo instagramable) that people go there. It is a place people go seeking or in search of something – new or expanded meanings about themselves. For me, it was search for renewal.
Getting there wasn’t easy. And I think that’s one difference between holiday trips and pilgrimages – there is something about the effort involved. I had to fly to London, take a train up to Glasgow, spend a night there, and then take the morning train to Oban, then take the ferry to the Isle of Mull, then transfer to a bus (that only runs twice a day in winter) and then take another ferry to the Isle of Iona.
From Glasgow to Iona, I took the 8:21 train and I only arrived 10 hours later on the Isle of Iona. Throughout that journey too, I had time to reflect, think, and prepare as I got closer and closer to my destination. There are many unknowns – will I find what I am looking for? Who would I meet along the way? What will happen along the way.
Isn’t that very similar to our lives?
Pauline shared before that pilgrimages are journeys both external and internal.
And while we are not going to take an external journey together, I want to invite you, to take an intentional internal journey this year as a faith community.
In our annual church pulse survey, we see responses saying “I am not growing spiritually.” Unfortunately, our survey is anonymous, and we can’t follow up and ask what someone means when they say they are not growing spiritually, and we can’t follow up to help them grow spiritually.
<M> Did you grow spiritually in 2023?
<M> Do you want to grow spiritually in 2024?
It may sound like a silly question – but I ask it, just like Jesus asked the man by the pool of Bethesda who had been invalid for 38 years “Do you want to be made well?”
What did Jesus say to this man? “Get up, take up your mat and walk.”
Our spiritual growth requires us to “get up, take up our mats and walk.”
“Get up, take up our mats and walk” means that we recognise our part in our transformation, our part in our healing journey. Spiritual growth doesn’t come about when we sit and wait for something to happen.
A pilgrimage isn’t like a tour where you hop onto the tour bus and let the tour guide bring you to your next destination.
Spiritual growth cannot come if you only come to church on Sunday. It is just like going to the gym and expect to become physically fit without lifting weights.
We are developing programs this year to get us on this pilgrimage. If you want to grow spiritually, we invite you to participate in them. During the season of Lent will be our first series.
When Jesus asked the man by the pool of Bethesda “Do you want to be made well” what was the man’s answer?
“I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” John 5:7
It is very common for us to give reasons why we cannot do something. It took me a while before I got started on pilates even though I knew that it would help my back pain. Too expensive, no time, etc. Well.
It also took me this trip to realise that I need to take time to nurture my own spiritual growth, take better care of myself so I do not burn out so that I can nurture others.
“Do you want to be made well?”
“But there is so much things that need taking care of here! What would happen if I am not around?”
“Do you want to be made well?”
“But what will happen with Molly?”
“Do you want to be made well?”
And I realised I needed to have faith. And to get up, take up my mat and walk.
And I believe it is the same for you –
You may have answered “Yes” to wanting to grow spiritually, but you may also say “I need to focus on work, my career, my family, my relationship, I have no time.”
Then, while you want to grow spiritually, that is prioritised lower than these other things.
I do believe that there are times we may need to focus on some other things, we may choose to focus on other things – but that needs to be an intentional decision. And we own that decision. And when we look back on 2024, we know why we did not grow spiritually. Because we did not prioritise this, and it is an intentional decision, rather than arriving at the end of the year and not even know why we did not grow spiritually, or come up with excuses why we did not grow.
Do you want to grow spiritually in 2024?
If you say yes, then this is what is required of you –
Willingness
Commitment
Vulnerability
Curiosity / Open-mind
So today I want to start of this pilgrimage with a ritual that I adapted from my retreat.
On the first day of the retreat on Iona, we made a pilgrimage to Columba’s bay, where St Columba, the founder of Iona Abbey, was believed to have landed on the isle in 563 CE.
The bay is filled with pebbles… and here, the facilitator of the retreat invited us to pick up 2 pebbles. One is for something we want to let go of, something we want to leave behind.
The other is for something we want to carry with us.
It is not easy to replicate that experience – I mean we have hiked for about 1.5 hours through the wind and the drizzle… but I think if we ground ourselves, we can still get something out of this.
<practice>
What do you want to let go of, something to leave behind?
What do you want to carry with you ?
I hope that as we embark on a year of intentional nurturing of ourselves this year – I hope at the end of this year, you can look back and say – I feel that I have grown and I have transformed.
More than two thousand years ago, many people saw the star overhead. And out of the many, it was just a few who made the journey to Bethlehem. And we call them the wise ones.
May we be the wise ones who make that journey that God has invited us to be on as well.
