Wonder Voyage 2010 Summer Blog

The Rev. Jessica K Hitchcock’s Sermon-  Sunday July 18, 2010.  St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Bethesda Maryland- Based off their recent Wonder Voyage to Cape Breton.

Sarah laughed.  She overheard the conversation between her 99 year old husband and the three visitors many believe to be the Holy Trinity, and when they said she would have a son, she laughed.  What kind of laugh?  A giggle might have meant that she was truly bemused by this thought.  A chuckle may have meant that she was trying to laugh through the most painful gap in her life.  We don’t know.  We just know that she laughed to herself.  And still the visitors heard her.  And They asked “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”

Last Tuesday, the St Luke’s pilgrims arrived home safely.  Tired, itchy, smelly, and changed.  Our time in Nova Scotia changed us, changed us as individuals and changed us as a community.  Over the next many months, we will try to help you understand the incredible return that was received from the investment of your time and money and support and prayers, and I already know we will fall short.  We can tell you what we did and share pictures of what we saw, but all that happened in our hearts and souls – words will fail us.  Still – let me say on behalf of the group, thank you so much.

If the Lord and his entourage had arrived two weeks ago at St Luke’s and told us that we would have a remarkable journey, full of laughter and thoughtful conversations, packed with adventure, that we would jump from one amazing moment to another – each one of the St Luke’s pilgrims might have laughed.  Not one of us would have thought it was possible.  Just like Sarah, we would have pointed to the odds stacked against us. It wasn’t just that they were old.  All those years had been spent trying for a baby with no success.  The St Luke’s pilgrims would have thought about many Sunday morning gatherings spent in uncomfortable silence.  One pilgrim admitted she said to another as the our departure day approached: “This is going to be so awkward”.  Even the adults would have been skeptical about such a prophecy.  I think Amy, Jeff, and I all hoped and prayed that the trip would be better than our worst fears.  But remarkable? amazing? transformative?  Nah.

If we had been listening, we might have heard the Lord saying “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”.  My head may have been able to hear that and know the truth that with God all things are possible.  But somewhere deep down inside, a skeptical, fearful voice would have said “Uh, we don’t talk.  We just sit in silence until someone gets so uncomfortable that they blurt something out, and then we are plunged back into silence”.

Don’t get me wrong.  I am a believer in the power of a road trip, and I thought we would start the process of getting to know each other and that this might help us start building the connection and community we dreamed about.

If the Lord had told me I would have to regularly tell the kids to BE QUIET – GO TO BED – STOP TALKING,  I would have laughed.  If the Lord had told me that Amy would climb deep into a cave full of darkness, I would have laughed.  If the Lord had told me that Roxanne would jump from a cliff into freezing cold waters below- screaming the whole way – , I would have laughed.  If the Lord had told me that Nicholas would smile broadly has he picked every last bit of meat out of his lobster, I would have laughed.  If the Lord had told me that Ian would stand on the beach posing for pictures like he was bound for the cover of Cosmo, tossing his wig of seaweed from shoulder to shoulder, I would have laughed.  If the Lord had told me that Bobby would climb high in a waterfall or Matthew would find food for his soul in the words of a mik’mak elder, I would have laughed.  If the Lord had painted me a picture of Molly kayaking with a dog in her lap, I would have laughed.  If the Lord had said that Hope would laugh so hard and loudly that it will fill the farmhouse we were staying in completely, I would have laughed.  If the Lord had said, ‘you know that flying bald eagle Jeff wants to see? He won’t just see it once” – I would have laughed.

And yet the truth of the matter is that there is nothing too wonderful for the Lord.  Absolutely nothing.

We learned to look for the wonderful during our time in Nova Scotia.  We taught our eyes and hearts to keep an eye out for those sudden moments of overwhelming peace or quiet joy.  We began to recognize the times that God draws extra close.

That is what pilgrimage is for.  Pilgrimage is a time to get out of our stuck pattern of jumping from one thing to another, doing the task in front of us while planning and preparing for the task ahead.  Pilgrimage shows us what it is like to be in the moment.  It teaches us to be present. aware.  It helps us see all the many times God shows up in our lives.

Vacations can be pilgrimages.  I went through a time in my life that involved a great deal of couch surfing.  That was a pilgrimage.  Your daily walk around the neighborhood can be a pilgrimage.  I am not sure if pilgrimage can happen at Montgomery Mall, but still the voice of God playfully rings in my head “is anything to wonderful for the Lord”.  Stephanie is on a pilgrimage right now – her whole sabbatical is a special time, set aside to get in the habit of seeing God.  Because God is there in our day to day lives.  God is not just there when we are out of our daily routines.  Those times are important, but they are important because we see all that is out there if we just keep our eyes and hearts open to God showing up.

During our travels around Nova Scotia, it took us a while to get to wherever we were going.  We turned around a lot.  We asked for directions a lot.  Praise the Lord we were in the land of the friendliest people ever.  But the 20 minutes stops on the side of the road were usually my favorite part of the trip.

Last Sunday morning after we had gone to church, we were driving around in a steady drizzle, admiring the coast of cape breton, and we found a path off the road that was off the road that was off the main road, and the locals had told us we had to follow the path.  It was raining.  I was tired.  I asked “Can I just stay in the car?”.  I watched Amy Elsbree get out of her car, zip up her jacket and march over to my car.  She said “seriously? its a five minute walk.  Let’s see what is out there”.  She might as well have said “Is anything to wonderful for the Lord?” I begrudgingly put on my rain jacket, everyone piled out of the vans, and we walked.  Definitely for longer than 5 minutes.  And we ended up in my favorite place of the whole trip.  Totally different from anything I had ever seen in my life, a peninsula covered with giant rocks and green clover and moss, an old cemetery off in the distance, the ocean all around. I said “this is my favorite place of the trip”.  One of the kids said “you didn’t even want to come”.  I said “I know.  God works like that”.

Our pilgrims from St. Luke parrish arrived safely to Nova Scotia. They have been looking forward to their time here to explore, and encounter God in this enchanted land. The first stop for them took them to highland country along the tartin coast. They are staying in Antigonish. This part of Nova Scotia is known as new Scotland because of Scotish immagrants who settled this rolling country side that dips into the sea.

Over the first three days we are hiking beautiful trails lined with wild flowers. And exploring the crystal cliffs. Today we visited a monastery to meet the sisters of Martha. We experienced their hospitality in keeping with the story of Martha in the Bible who always lavished hospitality upon Jesus when he came to visit. The sisters gave us a tour of the order, and we walked the labrinth on their grounds. Tomorrow we are off to visit the magnifecent Cabot Trail where we will be staying for the remainder of our trip.

After nine days our forty pilgrims from Christ Church Charlotte N.C. have discovered the beauty of Nova Scotia and experienced the power of community. They prayed together, they laughed together, and they found each other in new ways. The road we travel was not intended for us to travel alone. Getting away together can help us discover what has always been there for us, and what awaits us when we return from our journey, if we have eyes to see. When Gods people seek Him together, transformation occurs.

Sometimes the simple unassuming situations can become truly teachable moments. Each day our pilgrimage was filled with surprises. Away from the familiar you begin to see how God can sneak up on you and reveal truth in new ways. While enjoying some free time, a fabulous idea on a breezy afternoon turned out to be quite an adventure. After taking out a canoe at low tide, two of our Pilgrims, found themselves stuck in the mud, wading the canoe across the bog, rather than paddling. After a lot of laughs in the mud and the canoe finally in open water, God spoke as Olivia wrote. “In the end it hit me; and I know I’ve heard it a thousand times. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s really not the destination that’s important. Sometimes, half the fun (or in our case, all the fun) is in getting there. That’s life I guess. How we get there.” 

On pilgrimage you find perspective, you begin to focus less on the destination and more on how you get there. Our pilgrimage was filled with moments of wonder that became moments of discovery. Busy lives and agenda filled schedules have the power to rob us of those thin moments where the voice of God fills the space between hear and eternity.

Each evening they gathered together in various spaces. They met in a Teepee, around a fire, in a sweat lodge, and in the sacred space of historical St Paul’s Anglican Church in Halifax. They listened to each other as stories were shared and the teachable moments of the day where found. How we get there does matter. Along the Cabot trail and the urban streets of Halifax the pilgrims found it together. They discovered they should get there together more times than alone. They should get there with more laughter and extended hands than furrowed brows and anxious hearts. They found that in getting there the correct posture does matter.  Forty friends found a new posture together in Nova Scotia, and it only took nine days. A posture of prayer, a posture of togetherness, and that makes one bold. Bold to pray, bold to believe, and a boldness to pursue God. As these pilgrims return home to Charlotte they bring new perspective, a new posture, and a new boldness with God.

Over the last several days we have journeyed along the Cabot Trail, savoring the views past pines and rocky cliffs to the Atlantic, bald eagles soaring overhead, foxes trotting across the road, and moose surely lingering just beyond our sight. We’ve hiked along smooth rock shores onto the soft bed of the mossy forest floor, past babbling brooks, down a mountain stream to the ocean’s crashing waves. The beauty of God’s creation is everywhere.

Our pilgrims, who have traveled from Charlotte, NC, have not only engaged the beauty of creation, but also the native Mi’Kmaq people. We have worked together to build a wigwam, but one of the highlights was visiting the Indian reserve at Eskasoni to participate in a traditional sweat lodge ceremony. Two of our pilgrims,  Stuart and Robert, had this to say about their experience in the sweat lodge:

The sweat ceremony provided us with a small window into the mystical world of the Mi’Kmaq Tribe. A time-honored ritual central to the religious teachings of the native people, the sweat was an intensely spiritual experience that affected each member of our group. The scorching heat and pitch darkness within the tiny lodge created an atmosphere of focused prayer. Eyes shut tight, soaking with sweat, we forced our bodies through four long rounds of heat, each round devoted to a specific purpose. The voices of the Mi’Kmaq filled the lodge with prayer and song, lifting our humble requests up to the grandfathers. We prayed for three simple things: long life, health, and happiness. The ceremony ended, and after a drink of cool water, we emerged from the tiny space refreshed, uttering the mantra of the ritual as we crawled through the entrance, “All My Relations.”

Tomorrow we leave the masterpiece that is Cape Breton for Halifax, the friendly capitol of Nova Scotia.

As the plane circled for a landing I peered out the window to see the lush green forests of Nova Scotia pressed against the winding waterways that glisten like mirrors in the sun from high above. Our team of 40 pilgrims from Christ Church Charlotte North Carolina arrived to a beautiful sunny day and the start of their enchanted time of fun and spiritual growth.

Nova Scotia is, ‘More than you imagine’ You can drive the length of Nova Scotia in less than a day, and nowhere are you ever more than 30 minutes from the sandy beaches, vast tidal flats or rugged cliffs of the magnificent seacoast. In the coming days we will journey together towards the heart of God; seeing and feeling God’s presence around us in many different situations. This will be a time for each pilgrim to disengage with the familiar and examine the value of how we spend our lives. They will be asked to  examine what changes they may want to make as they reengage upon their return. This journey is a gift from God to each of us who set their heart on pilgrimage.