Walking the Way

Monday, April 1
Since last week, our "little church" has drawn a labyrinth on the front lawn, and installed a rustic cross at its center. The community is invited with signs and FB posts to "Follow the Way."

Some enterprising and creative parishioners used white chalk to mark out the pathway in the traditional labyrinth design. Today I decided to multi-task again. I walked the labyrinth and then walked the parking lot all while reading from a 4th century pilgrimage narrative by the woman Egeria, whom we have decided to bring along into our Holy Week worship design! (Shout out to the creative juices flowing at last Thursday's worship team meeting.) This pilgrimage thing has amazing resonances. In the 4th century, pilgrims were already well-practiced in making trips all over the Middle East to see the sites of stories they had read in scripture. Particularly in Jerusalem, pilgrims from all over the world were beginning to mark out holy spaces and events for the events of the last days of Jesus. These journeys deepened each person's faith and made the physical sites more and more holy as generations of Christians found there way into "The Way."
There is sacred space all around us.  Even in the small plot of land that this church occupies there are memories and stories that people tell. The first person whose ashes were interred on the property was the person most remember as being instrumental to guiding the construction of the building. That interment led to the creation of a memorial garden, where more ashes sanctify the spot next to the sanctuary. People still gather there on some Sundays to remember the saints.
We keep walking so that we keep remembering.