Strangers and pilgrims

Farewell sermon to the parish of St Margaret of Antioch, Iver Heath

Photo by Jorge Luis Ojeda Flota on Unsplash

THE EPISTLE. 1 S. Peter 2.11

DEARLY beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake; whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him, for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness; but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

THE GOSPEL. S. John 16. 16

JESUS said to his disciples, A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again a little while, and ye shall see me; and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again a little while and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in travail, hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

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Strangers and pilgrims: that is all we are in this world, and that only for a little while. Much of it is sorrow and anguish, travail against the weakness of the flesh and all those forces which war against the soul. Among those sorrows is the sorrow of departing; among those travails, the temptation to despair.

Strangers and pilgrims were Adam and Eve in their exile from Paradise; Noah, bounced across the deluge; Abraham and Sarah, sojourning far from Ur; Jacob and sons in Egypt; Moses in the desert; Joshua in hostile Canaan. All said farewell to homelands and to people. Forever, in most cases, for they died in foreign lands.

But their forever, Our Lord calls only a little while. He is talking about His own farewell, the end of His sojourn, referring to His glorious Ascension and return to His heavenly fatherland. But because He is the eternal Logos, the pre-existent Word who abides always with the Father, He is the measure of all things, and His farewell is the measure of our own. The comfort He gives to His friends and disciples is the comfort He gives us all at our many partings. For in the sight of heaven, in the eyes of angels, our forever is but the flicker of a lid.

All reality is shaped by the Cross. We creatures bound in time and space — with our beginnings and ends, births and deaths, friendships and estrangements, hails and farewells — are on the horizontal dimension. We are pilgrims from one point to another, making that line of movement, change, decay. We cannot help it. It dictates how we see our lives, the world, the Bible: as story with beginning and end.

But Our Lord came to awaken us to the truth that though we are in this world, we are not of it. We are only in it. Our short stretch on the horizontal line is not definitive. We are strangers to this world, and though our pilgrimage begins on its line, the destination lies elsewhere. It is in the vertical dimension. Time and space, the horizontal, are relative, with no objective independent existence of their own. The vertical dimension is unchanging and absolute. It is revealed in the Father of Lights in whom there is no shadow of turning, and in the perfect image of the invisible God, His Son and Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Word descends from the Father to Bethlehem and ascends from Mount Olivet, events in time and space, but echoes of timeless truth.

For at the intersection, the cross-point between the horizontal world of change and sorrow and farewell, and the vertical world of perpetual joy and greeting, is the Crucified One. He is the meeting point between heaven and earth, between the little while and eternity.

When in time He reigned from the Cross, the sun was eclipsed, and those who knew were taken back in time to Moses’ sojourn of forty years and the pillar of light that led him, and saw in Him the eternal light, the Light of the World, the Word of Light whose first word beyond time was Let there be light: the precondition of all light, outshining even the sun.

When in time He gave His Body as food, those who knew were taken back in time to the Manna in the desert, and saw in Him the eternal Bread of Angels and Bread of Life, the ordering Word which sustains all Creation.

When in time His spear-pierced side sprung forth blood and water, those who knew were taken back in time to the Passover lamb and the water from the rock struck by Moses’ rod, and saw in Him the gifts which lead not to some patch of promised earth but to our eternal home.

Home. No more pilgrimage. No more sorrow. No more strangers.

For, the Lord says, I call you friends. And that, my brothers and sisters, is what we are. In a little while, the space of just a year, that is what we have become. Friends: friends in Christ, who is eternal. And that is why I can say with Him, why I can fit my passing words to the eternal Word, that though there will be tears at our parting, and maybe some anguish about what is to come, again a little while, and I will see you again.

Even if that little while is many years, even if it is separated by the false forever of death, our friendship in Christ, with one another and all those we love in earth and heaven, is eternal. And I know that when I celebrate the Holy Mysteries thousands of miles away, a stranger and pilgrim in a foreign land, I will do so with you, my friends, in one bread, one cup, and the fellowship of our Lord and all His saints above and below, on the horizontal and the vertical limbs of this Cross-shaped world. And I know that the joy you have given me this little while, no man taketh from me.