Road Trip!
Friends,
When was the last time you went on a road trip? To me, the idea of a road trip is that even though you may have a destination, the journey is just as much, if not more important and fun. Usually when someone shouts “Road Trip!” it often means your next step is to load up on junk food and drinks for a party on wheels.
Of course, this is our contemporary idea of what a trip is all about. In the past, however, journey stories have been more sagas involving trial and tribulation along the way. I’m thinking of stories such as Homer’s “The Odyssey,” Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales,” John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress,” Tolkien’s “Fellowship of the Ring” trilogy, just to name a few. Over the course of these journeys there were many challenges resulting in great wisdom and understanding of one kind or another for those who traveled.
In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus and his followers go on a road trip of sorts to Jerusalem. Luke the Evangelist says, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem,” (9:51). From this verse through the next ten chapters (over a third of the Gospel), Jesus will be on a road trip, teaching and healing all along the way, all done with an overtone of what awaits him at the end of his journey.
This Lent we will travel along with Jesus as he travels to Jerusalem. Our Worship Services will involve a theme of a spiritual journey highlighting Jesus encounters along his way. Inside the March newsletter (pages 5 and 6), you will find a daily devotional reading working your way through the ten chapters of Jesus’ journey as recorded in Luke. Each reading has a question or two to ponder as you read. These questions don’t necessarily have definitive answers, but are asked to spur your thinking.
Though many of us hardly traveled much, these last two years have been a journey of sorts, though some would describe it as more of a slog. Hopefully, we are nearing the end of this pandemic road trip and I hope and pray we have learned some useful lessons along the way. Some of these lessons might only dawn on us as we look back at this time in the rearview mirror. If that is the case for us, we will be in good company. The disciples only comprehended what Jesus was all about after he had “left” them. “Did not our hearts burn within us when he was talking to us on the road,” said the two disciples after the walk to Emmaus.
Let us then join this road trip, and not worry so much about what we are gleaning as we travel. It may just be that we have such an epiphany when the journey is complete.