Pilgrimage

A Sermon offered at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Lafayette
Offered by Rev. Hilary Landau Krivchenia
August 26, 2001

Dear friends. I offered my flask of water from Walden Pond in Massachusetts. I went there just two weeks ago – it was the first time I had visited Concord. I had planned it as a sort of Pilgrimage into the sources and roots of Unitarianism.

I’m sure that you know that Concord is the home of transcendentalism -- a movement that revolutionized Unitarianism. It was the Transcendentalists who took the Bible from its singular, privileged place and opened our doors to the world’s wisdom traditions. Transcendentalism took God off a heavenly throne and claimed, instead, that God was the working of natural law and the action of the human spirit. Late in the nineteenth century, Transcendentalists were instrumental in the development of humanism by resisting creeds and founding the Free Religious Association.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Bronson Alcott, all of Concord, were in the vanguard of a radical movement of thought that is now embodied by much of modern Unitarian Universalism with our dance of humanism, paganism, and the strong influence of eastern thought as well as more traditional influences. I wanted to feel the atmosphere of a place that could generate and nourish so much creative spirit. I wanted to stand in that place and be transformed by it. It was a pilgrimage.

Bruce Feiler, a secular Jew, wrote an engrossing book called Walking the Bible. Through conflict–torn country-sides, camping with Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike, he walked the pathways of the Hebrew Bible – seeking the deep meaning, the resonance beyond dogma – living in history and place. He wrote: "the power of pilgrimage is the willingness to place the spiritual lessons of the past over the political or other divisions of the present – the desire to connect to a place not for its food, art, or even beauty, but for its meaning."

I can tell you that in Concord the food was excellent, the influence of art was apparent, and beauty of all kinds was abundant. And everywhere the meaning of the place shone out. From the worn place in the hedge where Mr. Emerson and those after him would cut through to saunter to Walden Pond, to the UU church established Congregational, in 163(?), to the school of philosophy behind the Alcott’s house, to the interrelated graves at Sleepy hollow Cemetery. In this small town free spirits had nurtured the seeds of freedom – political, artistic, and spiritual. Rich meaning was everywhere and breathed into me at every turn. As I began up the marble walk to Mr. Emerson’s house I was stopped by the moment and looked ahead at the house and then -- I was swept by an awareness. Of all the feet – including the Emersons, the Alcotts, the Hawthornes, Henry Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, you perhaps, – and so many others – of all the people who had walked up that path on their way to visit that warm and welcoming home. I was a grateful pilgrim.

We are a planet of pilgrims. Sometimes we set out aimlessly for amusement – but very often we set out for transformation – that is pilgrimage. Every year millions of people undertake pilgrimage – to Rome, Mecca, around Mt. Kailas, across the El Camino, the Ganges, Jerusalem, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Auschwitz, the Louvre, Stratford on Avon, Stonehenge – one million people visit just Concord every year.

These places, among others you may be thinking of right now, carry a sacred meaning to the journeyer. The destination and the journey itself create a certain awareness – chosen and walked by the Pilgrim. Last November I spoke of Bronson Alcott’s passion for Pilgrim’s Progress – the idea of the awakened pilgrim mind made Alcott an impassioned educator. The process of the journey engages the whole self – mind and body. It brings things closer – close enough to touch. The journey is a way of waking up the whole self – becoming fully engaged – feeling meaning as well as reflecting on meaning. It is a means to awakening.

My pilgrimage to Concord was a journey I felt keenly – of joy and tears – like birth – the birth of awareness – on Emerson’s walk and at Thoreau’s grave where there was a cluster of pine cones, leaves, stones, shells – offerings from other pilgrims – on top of his modest headstone was one small flower. Being in those places – awoke in me so much and it seems to me that life is too short to be lived asleep – and the world needs each one of us – present – awakened.

A pilgrimage is a journey of awakening inwardly even as it is a journey of arriving outwardly. The distance covered is both great and small at the same time. The model of the labyrinth is an apt metaphor for this process – we used it a few weeks ago in a Sunday service. They are usually circles leading in – winding paths that draw us deep into the heart of a place – while we journey deep into our own hearts.

I guess that’s why there are so many destinations for pilgrimages – there are so many seeking hearts. And why should we be confined by simple accepted destinations? Henry Thoreau said that "divine energy is everywhere" and Herman Melville said that "True places never appear on maps." If the world as a whole is sacred – and I believe it is – all places are holy places and any destination is simply a point of focus – although often a powerful one. Places have voices – sometimes eloquent. The place and our focus evokes -- calls forth meaning. And what it calls forth is largely a matter of intention. You could visit a site that is sacred to one person and have it be simply an interesting location to another. Or simply of lesser importance -- Although I visited the Alcott’s house I did not have time to go to the home of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sophia Peabody. Or a place can be a point of wonder to one group and horror to another. The meaning is, to some great degree a matter of intention. Not only does the pilgrim choose the destination but the deep reason for the journey. Like all of life, the experience only goes as deep as one lets it. Certainly, the vast majority of journeys are undertaken in a superficial manner. Thoreau voiced his despair at this when he wrote: "Our expeditions are but tours, and come round again at evening to the old hearth-side from which we set out." But a pilgrimage is an intentional journey far away from habit within and without. The Buddhists call this quality – mindfulness – living and moving with intention and awareness. The terrain we cover in mindful reality – not on maps but in -- reality – is the terrain of the mind – the landscape of the heart – the domain of the spirit. It all depends upon the level of intention. Out for a stroll or journeying for depth and meaning. Philip Cousineau defines a pilgrimage as a "transformative journey to a sacred center." The intention is transformation. The outward destination transforms the interior – the sacred center – of the pilgrim. Place does matter. Like the rings of a labyrinth -- intention draws awareness deep into the center, the heart of experience. Place calls our awareness deep.

Today we have gathered and poured out the waters that we gathered from our many journeys of the summer. Yet, in fact, we are always leaving and returning to this place – from year to year – from week to week – from meeting to meeting. We are drawn here for some of the same reasons pilgrims go a-sauntering – on the search for meaning. Cousineau asks – "what if we are longing for something else – neither diversion nor distraction, escape or mere entertainment? What if we have finally wearied of the paladins of progress who promise worry free travel, and long for a form of travel that responds to a genuine cry of the heart, a touch of the sacred?" I answer him: We come here. For a journey that takes us inward toward meaning and may lead us outward in service. A journey that can be as profound as our intentions. Even here the depth of our experience depends entirely upon the intention we bring to it. We will awaken only as we intend to awaken. But there’s a twist – of course -- here the pilgrimage isn’t one taken alone but one taken as a community – the word covenant co-venant – as I have said before means to walk together. Covenant. We have a particularly American history of rugged individualism and solitary paths. Yet, no one of us here has chosen an exclusively solitary way to engage in the search for, the encounter with meaning. We’re here together.

It makes the path more complicated, for sure but, as Cousineau says, "a journey without challenge has no meaning" so we come here– where there are numerous twists in our labyrinth – many quests and many stories. Ripe with challenge. Still, overall, there is one central path – Paolo Friere said we make the road by walking. So, yes, however many side roads -- we make the path by walking and there is a history that we share and cherish – a history by which we will be measured by future generations and by a future that we build together. A pilgrimage toward meaning through expanding insight, service, and community. In our shared journey, we deepen one another’s intention –we make possible that path which would be impossible alone. It is a new path because we have taken it together and change it with one another. We, in part, awaken one another.

This seems fitting for Unitarian Universalists – it was Emerson who said that revelation is not sealed – that the final pages of the books of wisdom and experience will never be written. New revelations – new paths -- unfold in every life and that the sacred journey is the path of everyman -- of everywoman. Each one of you. We gather in service of that idea. So yes, this collective walk is a challenge – but that is our walking trail of spiritual fitness. It’s not ours alone but belongs to the past and to the future. Thoreau said – "we are but faint-hearted crusaders, even the walkers, nowadays, who undertake no persevering, never-ending enterprises."

But here we are in, joy and reunion: building, inventing, creating, serving, celebrating -- and this is a persevering and never ending enterprise -- in this place we will nurture the explorations of children, we will cultivate the leadership of all members, we awaken new thinking and new spirit, we will each write a new page in the book of meaning every day. We speak as committed voice of liberal religion and free thought. We make our own, new path -- amid trails of perennial dogma. Today we celebrate our being together – We take time to be more mindful of our church community. More aware – that we have come together out of keen human hope and aspiration -- persevering and never ending. We bring our intentions with us and pour them deep. We are living water to one another. We are Source and River.

When Thich Nhat Hanh teaches the art of walking meditation he teaches the art of that journey which is deep, infinite, and immediate. He says, "I can take each step asking myself – have I arrived and then in the next step answering – yes, I have arrived, I am home. Have I arrived? Yes, I am home. I have arrived, I am home." Home into this present moment, home into our hearts…

Today as every day that we gather, we bring our pilgrimage here -- we bring our independent searches, our profound yearnings, our sense of direction – our compasses and our hope. Heirs of the path walked to Mr. Emerson’s house – heirs of a strong history of meaning making and fresh pilgrimage we come here. And find – beloved community – year round we have our separate journeys – our going away and our returning. Perhaps you are here for the first time today – seeking a place where your reason is as welcome as your sense of awe at life -- or a place where your insight is as welcome as any ancient wisdom. Whether you are long on your path or brand new, whether you are clear on your way or sometimes cloudy. Whether you brought water back here or not – whether you shared words or not. Whether you are new today seeking a community of free thinkers – or whether you have come here for the last thirty or more years… The pilgrimage is in every step -- You have arrived. You are home.