Pilgrimages, Mountaintop Moments, and the Feast of the Transfiguration

St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

This past week I returned from England where I was helping lead our youth pilgrimage. We had a wonderful time. We visited London and Canterbury and York and other small towns nearby. It was a wonderful pilgrimage.

What is a pilgrimage? Scholars who study pilgrimages say the word is hard to define. There are definitions that cover different aspects, but every definition leaves something out. The scholars say pilgrimage is a rather slippery term. But for today’s purposes, let’s define pilgrimage as a physical journey one takes to a place with the goal, the intention of some sort of spiritual deepening, growth in faith, encounter with the divine, seeking God.

That’s what we did. We were seeking God on this pilgrimage, trying to grow our faith. We were seeking God in churches. We visited lots of wonderful churches like Canterbury Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, York Minster, Bolton Abbey, and the Church of St. Mary and St. Eanswythe. Have you heard of St. Eanswythe? She is an obscure saint that I had not heard of either.

We were also seeking God in nature. We had wonderful times outdoors trying to listen to the heartbeat of Christ in creation. We were also seeking God in each other, so we spent a lot of time in intentional conversation trying to grow in faith, trying to see the presence of God with us. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience.

On our second day in England, which was two Sundays ago, we wanted to go to church. But we didn’t want to go to one of the famous, touristy kind of church. We had already had Evensong at Westminster, which was wonderful. We knew we were going to have the next Sunday at York Minster, so we wanted to go to a parish church with good, friendly people like St. Mary’s. We found such a place, St. James Piccadilly, and went to church there. As it happened, it was the Sunday closest to the Feast of St. James, so the Church of St. James was celebrating the Feast of St. James, just like St. Mary’s will celebrate the Feast of St. Mary’s next Sunday. We did not expect this, but it was a wonderful treat. They had a special lunch afterwards that they invited us to, and it was delicious.

One of the things we learned during the service is that St. James is understood to be the Patron Saint of Pilgrims. So the whole service was sprinkled with images and language about pilgrimage, which was perfect for us pilgrims on our pilgrimage.

A funny thing happened after that. St. James kept showing up, every day. The next day we went to Evensong at Canterbury Cathedral, and who was in the Gospel but St. James. The next day we were in some small town in southern England and we saw a sign with directions to St. James Hospital. In small ways, St. James kept showing up.

On our second to last full day we were in York. It was late afternoon and we were at the ruins of St. Mary’s Abbey. We had about an hour to explore, to reflect, to be quiet. As I was exploring the ruins, I stumbled upon a church next door called St. Olaf’s. It was a little surprising to find a St. Olaf in England since we think of him as associated with Norway, but I went in. The organist was practicing, which was beautiful, and I slipped into the side chapel to pray. As I was praying, I looked up at the altar, and there behind the altar was a lovely stained glass window that had Jesus in the middle. There was a figure next to him with a tablet, which I knew was Moses, and the other figure must have been Elijah. So this was representing the Transfiguration. If it is the Transfiguration, then the three other people depicted were Peter, John, and James, just as we heard in today’s Gospel. St. James showed up again.

As I was sitting there reflecting on this, I thought about James and pilgrimage and the Transfiguration, and had the realization that the story of the Transfiguration is a story of pilgrimage. Jesus took Peter, John, and James on a pilgrimage. It was a physical journey with a spiritual meaning, a spiritual goal in which they encountered the Holy. They encountered God up there on the mountain. They had this glorious moment in which they saw Jesus transfigured before them, bright shining light, the presence of their forebearers in faith, a cloud, a voice “this is my beloved Son”. It was a wonderful mountaintop experience. They were seeking God and they found God up there on this pilgrimage. And they did something which I think is the most human thing possible. They wanted to stay there. They wanted to bask in the glory of that light shining on them. They wanted to dwell in this moment in which everything seemed so clear and made sense to them. They wanted to stay in the holiness of the presence of God.

So they asked, can we build three dwelling places for the three of you so you can stay here and we can all enjoy this? But Jesus won’t let them. Jesus will not let them bask in that moment. Because the point of those mountaintop experiences, the point of the pilgrimage is not to go find a new place to dwell. It is to go and then come home. Most of life is not lived in those mountaintop moments. Most of life is not lived in glorious pilgrimages in England. Life is lived in the valley. Live is lived here, at home. We go on these pilgrimages not to find a new place, but to have an experience or encounter that we bring back with us, to nourish us while we are here. We go up the mountain so that we can find the light and then shine that light in the valley as we keep walking forward in life, in faith. We go so that we can be nourished and then have sustenance that we need when we are here.

On our pilgrimage we tried to tune our senses to recognize God’s presence in that moment, so that when we come back our senses are more attuned to recognize the ways that God is just as present in our day to day life. We don’t go into those moments so that we can stay there. We go to find something so that we can come back and do the work that God has called us to do in this life.

So, my friends, I encourage you to take some time this week to think about those moments you have had in which you have seen the presence of God a little more clearly. Perhaps it happened while you were on a pilgrimage, or perhaps a trip that was not intended to be a pilgrimage but it became one. Perhaps it was when you were at home, maybe you didn’t go anywhere, yet still found God. Try to take some time to think about those moments, not longing to go back there, not hoping or wishing you could always bask in such a moment, but to try and bring those moments forward.

There is a detail in the Gospel that says they didn’t tell anybody about the experience. They kept it to themselves. I think it is because they had to process it for a long time. Our Epistle today comes from Second Peter. At some point, Peter did finally share what happened up there on the mountain. But he needed a long time to think and reflect on it.

This was not the only mountaintop experience Peter had. Just a few weeks later, Jesus took him up another mountain. Peter, John, and James went with Jesus up the Mount of Olives. This time not to see glory in a transfiguration, but to see Jesus suffer in the garden, to see his weeping, his tears, his agony. I can only imagine they took these two experiences on a mountain and spent the rest of their lives thinking about what God was trying to tell them in those two moments.

I encourage you to think about all of those mountaintops or pilgrimages or holy, profound experiences you have had in your life, and think about what it is God is trying to tell you. How God is trying to transform, maybe even transfigure you in your life. How it is that God has provided a light to shine on the path, no matter how dark or rocky it might be. Take the time to reflect on this, and then move forward in faith.

AMEN