Our Pilgrimage of Lent
A Sermon by Seminarian Paddy Cavanaugh on the Last Sunday after Epiphany (A), February 19, 2023.
Exodus 24:12-18 (Moses receives law on Sinai); 2 Peter 1:16-21 (Prophetic Majesty of Christ on mountain); Matthew 17:1-9 (Transfiguration)
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, amen.
About ten years ago I went on a pilgrimage to the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in Spain. It is a centuries old pilgrimage known as the Camino, or the Way, to visit the relics of the Apostle James, who is featured in our Gospel today. You may have heard of it. Now I’ll be the first to tell you that I am not much of a hiker or outdoorsman, unless that outdoors is in a chair on the beach. But fortunately, there are plentiful guides for the underprepared and overenthusiastic pilgrim, like me. They tell you exactly what to pack, which hostels have wifi, and which cafes have the best wine. There may also be a list of a few churches to visit along the way.
However, there’s one piece of advice all of these guides will give you, and that’s to pack less than you think you will need in your backpack because the average daily walking distance is about twelve miles. Now, my average walking distance up unto this point was a few blocks from my house to the city bus stop, but this did not impede me from ignoring this advice and proceeding to pack as much as I could. I found that I possessed the incredible ability of making a justification for every sundry item, no matter how absurd and unnecessary it was. I needed a portable hammock because how lovely would it be to take an outdoor siesta in the fields of Galicia? I needed a few books, or more than a few books, because what if I ended up in one of the hostels that didn’t have wifi? Most ridiculous of all, I needed a pair of penny loafers in addition to my hiking boots, in case I made friends who wanted to go out for wine at one of those cafes.
I’m going to pause this story about my pilgrimage of folly because I would like to talk about today’s lessons, but I promise to pick it up momentarily. This is the last Sunday of Epiphany before we enter into the season of Lent. If the season of Epiphany is about our first encounter with the living God, Jesus Christ, then Lent is about how that encounter brings about Christlike changes in our life in the forty days of penitence, prayer, and fasting leading up to Holy Week and Easter. Today’s lessons are intentionally curated to help prepare for the pilgrimage of Lent, which is likened to climbing a mountain in order to catch a glimpse of something that will leave us utterly transformed.
In the reading from Exodus, Moses, follows God’s command to “come up the mountain and wait” for forty days and forty nights until God gives him the ten commandments of the law on stone tablets (Ex. 24:12). In the Gospel, a parallel event happens, but this time it’s the disciples James and Peter who make the slow trek up the mountaintop where they encounter, again, Moses, with the prophet Elijah, and they’re flanking Jesus who has been gloriously transfigured so that “his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white” (Matt. 17:2). Jesus is shining upon them like the noonday sun. What’s going on here?
First, there is a clear parallel being drawn between what the pilgrims encounter in each of their mountaintop experiences. The pilgrim Moses encounters God as he receives the law, which is the way for God’s chosen community to stay in right relationship with Him and one another.
What the pilgrims James and Peter encounter is a new vision of Jesus. Up until this point the disciples didn’t have a clear idea of who Jesus was exactly, and here, they finally see him for who he really is. They see Jesus not simply as a good moral teacher among many, but as the Son of God. Jesus is then, as he is now, God’s only begotten son who is the dazzling savior of the world. And as the Son of God, scripture tells us that Jesus came not to replace the law that God gave Moses, but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). What the disciples encounter on their mountaintop sojourn is Jesus being revealed as the fulfilment of the law, the very embodiment of love.
And what is the purpose of the law that is fulfilled in Jesus Christ? It’s both a trail marker to keep us steadfastly on the path of love and Jesus is our rescuer who braves through the wilderness to save us when we get caught in the thickets of sin and disobedience to love.
And the disciples James and Peter get so excited when they see Jesus transformed in this new way, that they to build dwellings so they can stay there in this moment forever – they want to hang hammocks! But Jesus says to them to “get up and do not be afraid” (Matt. 5:7). The disciples must continue on the journey down the mountain, themselves transfigured and transformed by what they have just seen. Jesus is clear that he does not want them to busy themselves with well-intentioned distractions, but to focus instead on the transfiguration that has occurred and is now occurring within them.
You see, what Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountaintop helped the apostles to see and be transformed by was not necessarily something wholly new, but a new depth and dimension of God’s unchanging love. The law, which is the guidebook that God gave the Israelites to help them follow the path of love, is now revealed in the flesh. In addition to a guidebook, God sends a living, breathing guide to help us better navigate the path together. Our guide Jesus is here show us the things that are essential and the things which we can set down. And this is the purpose of our pilgrimage of prayer, penance, and fasting during Lent – to remove the things that are unnecessary to our journey and to follow our living guide, Christ Jesus, who wants to transform you more into the image of love for God and neighbor. More into the image of Christ.
Now back to the story of the foolish pilgrim, Paddy, with his hammock, books, and penny loafers. How many of these things do you think made it to the town of Santiago? Not a single one. That hammock is being enjoyed by a young Italian boy. Those books are sitting on a shelf in a hostel common room, and those penny loafers are hopefully being worn by a Spaniard who is drinking wine in a cafe somewhere. After a few excruciating days of a straining back and blistering feet, I realized that these worldly indulgences that I thought would bring me comfort; would help to enhance my experience along the journey, were in fact doing just the opposite. The fleeting pleasure they brought was not worth the burden of carrying them.
And perhaps most of all, they were distracting me from the real purpose of my journey, which was a pilgrimage, after all, not a holiday. Holidays are about leisure and recreation, which is very important, but the rest that holidays provide typically fades once they end. Pilgrimage, on the other hand, is about climbing the mountaintop to experience transformation, and transformation is enduring.
My question for you all before we set off on our pilgrimage to the mountaintop this Lent, is what can you take out of your backpack? What things, habits, or thoughts that feel essential are actually burdening you on the pilgrimage of love?
What’s getting in the way of your ability to see and seek the transfiguring presence of Jesus – and to be transformed by it? Friends, I invite you to take those things out of your backpack and leave them at the altar as you come up to receive Holy Communion today. It may be difficult to part with these things at first, but I promise you from my own experience, that the lightness you will feel afterward is worth far more than that which you left. It’s a lightness that is bright, brilliant, and transforming. It’s the transfiguring light of Christ.
Amen.