Pilgrimage to the Holy Land - May, 2006
Reflections, Insights, Conclusions
Alexander W. Evans
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land - May, 2006
Life-long Learning – Columbia Theological Seminary
Decatur, GA
July 2006
The May, 2006 Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, sponsored by Life-long Learning at Columbia Theological Seminary, and funded so generously by the CF Foundation, proved to be a most valuable and significant experience for my life, my faith, my sense of call and commitment to ministry, and my spiritual development. Moreover, the pilgrimage continues to be a rich blessing for my personal life, my pastoral work, and my general well-being. These reflections and insights will be organized under the major headings that shaped this pilgrimage experience for me.
Pilgrimage
Pilgrims are persons in motion, passing through territories not their own, seeking…completion or clarity; a goal to which only the spirit’s compass points the way. (Richard Niebuhr)
The idea of “pilgrimage” is certainly not new to me but it has never held the depth and significance that it now holds. With Dent Davis’ constant use and emphasis on this word, “pilgrimage” set the tone for the two week venture. It created an ethos for the experience. It gave a focus to each day. It helped to create community among our group. This “pilgrimage” to the Holy Land was much more than a trip, or a vacation, or an adventure. It was a spiritual, worshipful, reflective, informative, engaging, and motivating opportunity that continues to be at work in my life and ministry.
As others have phrased it, “pilgrimage” involves movement beyond the self and the routines of daily life into a different space. It is a journey of depth, a seeking and a discerning, with religious and spiritual overtones.
This pilgrimage came at a wonderful time for me –
- after twenty years of pastoral ministry, nine in my current setting
- immediately following an intense season in my congregation with a major capital campaign
- amidst the regular pressures of pastoral ministry which demand constant energy to strengthen the church for God’s work
- with a family that supports me but also worries that I work too hard, and might be exhausted from life and ministry’s demands.
And the pilgrimage gave me a sense of refreshment, renewal, and inspiration.
This pilgrimage took me to places that I had long heard about but never experienced, into places of Biblical history that are so much a part of my life and work, into a setting that is so crucial to current crises and cries for peace.
This pilgrimage offered a wonderful group of colleagues (22 other Presbyterian pastors), many with similar issues and challenges, with whom I could be in close community, could dialogue and discern, could listen and learn from, as we experienced together all aspects of this journey. The pilgrimage created new and meaningful friendships, offered rich worship and fellowship, and still encourages and blesses me in so many ways.
To The Holy Land This pilgrimage to the Holy Land had its own deep and rich components mostly because we were going to a region, to specific sites, to 3 the locations of the most important story for our lives – the Biblical story. I like how one of our fellow pilgrims expressed it – “we would see the things that Jesus saw” and it would not be as tourists, but as pilgrims seeking to have our own lives enriched, our own faith deepened, our own commitments engaged more deeply. The best result of that is a changed life and ministry, a new way of seeing, where all things are seen in the way Jesus might see them. We would be in the sights where Jesus walked, taught, lived, and where so many other Biblical events unfolded. How would I be so affected, changed? How would my life unfold as a result?
There is no doubt that my experience at so many places in the Holy Land will long affect in most positive ways the meaning and depth of the stories related to those places. To visit Caesarea Philippi is to think with new insights about that city and its impact on the Apostle Paul and others from the early church. To stand on Mt Carmel is to be truly inspired again about Elijah and his faithfulness and courage. To visit Meggido is to have a powerful sense of history, especially a history of violence and cruelty as generations have fought over that location for many millennia. To explore the region of the Galilee is to be filled with deep perspective on Jesus’ ministry. The boat trip on the Sea, the place of the Sermon on the Mount, the place of the feeding of the 5000, the time on the lakeshore, in Capernaum, on Mt Tabor connect me deeply to a life and a story that I have been preaching and teaching throughout my ministry. To go to the headwaters of the Jordan River, to reflect on baptism, and to feel the “living water” is to experience a quenching of thirst. To float in the Dead Sea is to feel intensely God’s sustaining grace. To walk around Masada, to breath the dry air of Qumran, to sense the barrenness of the southern desert, is to get a vibrant sense of our need for God. To visit the Elah Valley, and to pick up a 4 stone from that wadi where David defeated Goliath, is to be reminded of all that God can do against all odds. To walk down the Mt of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane, to wander the streets of Old Jerusalem, is to sense deeper connections to Jesus and his mission. To spend extended time in that great and complicated city is to sense the deep ties to history and to pray that God is still at work through all the confusion and complexities of life.
With every day on this pilgrimage, with every location, with all the history and theology and Biblical context, I gained so much that will strengthen my perspective, enrich my teaching and preaching, and give breadth to my ministry. This pilgrimage to the Holy Land remains most significant because those places, that setting, are so significant for preaching, teaching, and Christian ministry.
Since my return, each of my sermons has included insights and references to this experience, not to brag about where I have been, and not to wear out the congregation with what I have done, but to add insight and clarity and imagination. When I have apologized with “bear with me for another insight from my pilgrimage,” I have received only comments like “give us more of that,” or “it’s only helpful and stimulating,” or “keep it coming.” Never before have I had such a rich sense of the geography of that region and its impact on the whole story. Never before have I appreciated how the places contribute to the story and their meanings. Never have I been so inspired to preach and teach, especially from the passages whose locales we visited and that now have such vivid detail in my mind and heart. My passion for ministry has heightened. My commitment to serving and leading a congregation has been strengthened.
Contemporary Complexities
For as long as I can remember, the political unrest and confusing circumstances of the Holy Land have challenged me. From a far-off perspective, without an experience of the people, the geography and its complex history, it is hard to understand and appreciate the current problems and prospects of this region. There are Jews and Muslims and Christians. There are Arabs and Israelis. There are shifting boundaries and borders. There are races and political parties and various perspectives. There are armies and factions, official rules and unofficial understandings. There are successes and possibilities, prejudices and hatreds.
This pilgrimage for me provided a constant conversation and keen insights into these complexities. Throughout each day our group talked informally, struggling to understand and make sense of these issues. We had firsthand encounters with people long involved in these issues. Our guide, Jacob, and our driver, Ofer, both seemingly very patriotic Israelis, continually represented one main view: that Israel is constantly under siege and must protect herself, that her history of persecution and pain cannot be repeated. Others whom we encountered inspired other perspectives and views: our waiter in the Scots Hotel named Osama, our guide in Bethlehem, a shop-keeper in Jerusalem, and others. Those folk remind us of the oppression and injustice and heartache that confront them each day.
When we visited Bethlehem, and walked through “the Wall” into the West Bank, the sadness of this desperate conflict emerged. On the wall from the West Bank side, slogans scream of the injustice of that wall, remind about “Apartheid”, and affirm that “walls breed fear and violence; bridges build respect and hope.” There was also a marked difference in the economic prosperity on each side of the wall. There is much less joy and 6 hope among the people of Palestine. They feel stifled and appear beaten down. To experience this, to ponder and reflect with the pilgrimage group about this, to struggle with the complexities, gives me significant insight and perspective. I can talk to one of my Jewish friends with more understanding and empathy. I can strive to lead my church on this subject so much more aware of the deep complexities and problems. These are issues of religion and race, history and heartache, politics and economics, prejudices and hatred. We need, as God’s people, to keep praying and working hard for peace and possibility there.
Community, Friends, and Fellowship
Pilgrimage is intentional, mysterious, sometimes incidental movement toward the deepest parts of our lives, those misty recesses of our soul where the veil is thin and the spirit is all too often present. (from Dent Davis’ slide presentation)
Life in ministry can be lonely. I have been blessed through the years with a supportive family and some very good friends who help to sustain me and encourage me. Some of my best friends are Presbyterian ministers with whom I am in regular and enjoyable contact. Nevertheless, one of the rich blessings of the pilgrimage continues to be the sense of community, the sincere friendships and collegiality that I discovered on the pilgrimage. It was without a doubt within those friendships that the spirit of God was significantly present.
Prior to the pilgrimage, I knew only one person on the pilgrimage. Following the pilgrimage, I feel like I have many new good friends and colleagues with whom to stay in touch, to share the journey of ministry. These relationships resulted from the intentional worship, fellowship, meals, and sincere sharing that characterized the pilgrimage. There was never a sense of competition, which can flavor many ministerial relationships; there was genuine camaraderie. There was no history with anyone, only an openness and seeming commitment to grow together, to encourage one another in the pilgrimage, to understand and appreciate the places and people. There was authenticity and vulnerability in the sharing. We were able, as pilgrims, to be real, focused, and relational, without the myriad duties of life and ministry. Hence, a genuine sense of community – koinonia- shaped the pilgrimage.
And this sense of care and connectedness among the group is already manifesting itself in new ways. Several of us are working on another grant that might strengthen our ties to each other and continue to encourage us in faith, fellowship, and ministry. All of this affirms the extreme importance of relationships in all of life. The pilgrimage experience increased the number and depth of relationships that shape and sustain my life.
One of the important pieces of the pilgrimage experience was the follow-up retreat several weeks after our return from the Holy Land. Those days together, with spouses invited too, allowed us to connect again as pilgrims, as friends; and it cemented the friendships and relationships of the pilgrimage. The presence and participation of my wife in that retreat allowed her to know and connect with my new friends, and even feel a part of that experience and those relationships.
Conclusions
Travel brings a special kind of wisdom …if one is open to it. (Huston Smith)
It is no exaggeration to say that my pilgrimage to the Holy Land has given me new insights and perspectives, and new enthusiasm for life and ministry.
I feel that I can be a better preacher. I have a more vivid sense of that Holy Land and its people, its history and its past and present complexities. This has already manifested itself in many sermons, and will continue to do so.
I feel that I can be a better teacher. While I have already shown pictures and helped my congregation appreciate the great value of this trip for me, I look forward in the months and years ahead to sharing my experience and understandings, my questions and my uncertainties from this pilgrimage. I will undoubtedly draw upon the experience in teaching moments for many years.
I feel that it will make me a better leader and pastor. The authenticity of the group, the encouragement from others on the pilgrimage, the inspiration from the people and the places, the challenges and crises of the Holy Land, all have increased my sensitivity, my sense of call. I want to continue to grow and become the best that I can be, using my gifts in God’s church with effectiveness and compassion and care. The pilgrimage stimulates me greatly in that passion.
Karl Barth says that “gratitude is the most mature emotion.” Gratitude is exactly what I feel – deeply and sincerely - for the privilege and honor of a wonderful pilgrimage to the Holy Land. My intent is to live out that gratitude in gracious and faithful service as an effective pastor, striving to do God’s work through God’s church – the PCUSA.