Prayer for the Week 24 August 2024
Read Exodus 23:16 and Hebrews 11:8-16
Pilgrims on the Way
It is harvest-time on our farm, the barley has been cut and gathered and we are now in the middle of the wheat harvest.
Exodus 23:16
You are to celebrate the pilgrim-feast of Harvest, with the first fruits of your work in sowing the land, and the pilgrim-feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather the fruits of your work in from the land.
You probably, like me, love harvest festivals but I hadn’t thought of harvest as a pilgrim-feast before, until I read this verse.
I suggest you read the Hebrews reading now if you haven’t already. Abraham set out and obeyed God’s call, he became a pilgrim seeking the kingdom God had promised him, a better country, a heavenly one.
In my very early days of being a part of MWiB, I discovered pilgrimage through Jill Baker when I joined her and others on a pilgrimage to Lindisfarne. I was so taken with that experience six years later I signed up for the Scottish pilgrimage with Jill to the Isle of Whithorn and St Ninian’s cave.
Now in my own area we have the newly developed Northern Saints Trails (www.northernsaints.com). There are six in total, five routes lead to Durham Cathedral, and to date I have walked sections of four of them with friends from Darlington and Newcastle Districts. I even discovered on a recent pilgrimage when I reached Finchdale Priory that I was at the start of the Camino Ingles, the English section of the route to Santiago de Compostela. I promptly produced my Pilgrim’s Passport and had it stamped! Camino to Santiago de Compostela is on my bucket list, whether I ever get there is another story. However, when a group of us were visiting Porto in June for the European Area Seminar, during a sightseeing trip we discovered beneath our feet a brass scallop shell as we crossed the bridge over the Tamega river at Amarante.
Unbeknown to us we were on the Portuguese Atlantic route to Santiago de Compostela!
Just across the fields and the river Tees I can see the start of the ‘Way of Life’ at St Mary’s Parish Church, Gainford. The ‘Way of Life’, an evocative name. So, what do we think of when we consider pilgrimage? A journey to a sacred, holy place perhaps alone, or with other travellers. Abraham was the first pilgrim in the Bible leading a nomadic tribe towards the promised land. Might we think of ourselves as Christians, temporary dwellers, strangers and pilgrims on the earth, each striving to follow Jesus on the way to God’s heavenly kingdom?
We are God’s harvest, called to be his co-workers helping gather. We are pilgrims on a journey, and companions on the road; we are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.
The scallop shell is the symbol of pilgrimage and a symbol of unity, its radiating lines symbolizing the various routes we take as pilgrims, all of which converge at the same spiritual destination.
The scallop shell is also a symbol of baptism and re-birth, the transformation of each pilgrim as they travel along their Christian journey seeking to be more like Jesus. When we sing to God in heaven we shall find such harmony, born of all we’ve known together of Christ’s love and agony.
Please use this song from Singing the Faith Plus as your Prayer for the Week
God who sets us on a journey (website only)
God who sets us on a journey
to discover, dream and grow,
lead us as you led your people
in the desert long ago;
journey inward, journey outward,
stir the spirit, stretch the mind,
love for God and self and neighbour
marks the way that Christ defined.
Exploration brings new insights,
changes, choices we must face;
give us wisdom in deciding,
mindful always of your grace;
should we stumble, lose our bearings,
find it hard to know what’s right,
we regain our true direction
focused on the Jesus light.
End our longing for the old days,
grant the vision that we lack –
once we’ve started on this journey
there can be no turning back;
let us travel light, discarding
excess baggage from our past,
cherish only what’s essential,
choosing treasure that will last.
When we set up camp and settle
to avoid love’s risk and pain,
you disturb complacent comfort,
pull the tent pegs up again;
keep us travelling in the knowledge
you are always at our side;
give us courage for the journey,
Christ our goal and Christ our guide.
Words: Joy Dine (1937 – 2001) © Revd Mervyn Dine. Reproduced with permission; available for reproduction for the purposes of worship.
Metre: 87.87.D
Suggested tunes: “Hyfrydol” (StF 103) was Joy Dine’s preferred tune for this text. Also appropriate are “Blaenwern” (StF 503) and “Austria” (StF 301), both familiar to many congregations, However, for a tune that seems to better reflect the anticipation and energy of the journey, try “Jesus Calls Us” (StF 28) – sometimes known as “Lewis Folk Melody”
Debs Coggrave is Area Trustee for Darlington, Newcastle & Cumbria
