“Life’s choices”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Sunday, August 25, 2024 Psalm 84 (Forward, p. 27) CEV p. 607
A young lad, curious about a particular church and its furnishings, asked his father about a war memorial set upon one of its walls. The father replied, “Son, that plaque commemorates the lives of those who died in the services”. The boy then asked earnestly, ‘So Dad, in which of the services, the early morning one or the later one?” Nicky Gumbel tells that story as a way of stating the obvious, namely that not everyone is enamored with going to church.
That notion is in stark contrast to the sentiments found in today’s psalm. Here the psalmist longs to be in the Temple, pins for it and deeply desires to be back there. In fact, he’d like to actually serve God there and live there. And he speaks of those who make a pilgrimage to visit there being refreshed along the way. However, there is more to this longing than a mere desire to be in this particular place. He is talking about those who trust God for protection and depend upon Him for their strength. And furthermore, when he says, “One day in your temple is better than a thousand anywhere else. I would rather serve in your house than live in the homes of the wicked” (verse 10), he is setting up a contrast, a contrast between the things of God and the things of a world that does not know or serve God. To him, serving God, being with Him, pursuing His ways, is the much better choice. And so too, should it be for us.
Forward notes: “Happy are the people whose strength is in you! whose hearts are set on the pilgrims’ way” (verse 4).
“During Holy Week in northern New Mexico, thousands of pilgrims make their way to a small mountain town off the High Road to Taos called Chimayó. Many walk the 60 miles from Albuquerque over several days. “Some pilgrims are carried, others pushed in wheelchairs, all headed to El Santuario de Chimay, an important site for spiritual healing, first inhabited by the Pueblo Indians and later the Spanish. Modern pilgrims carry crosses and mementos of loved ones who cannot make the journey. There are healing services in the sanctuary, and in an adjoining space, photos and testimonials of people who received healing cover the walls.
“On my first visit to Chimayó, I gathered the soil from a sacred space in the sanctuary to bring as a token of healing to my sister. She was losing her battle with cancer. Although her journey ended, mine continues. I am strengthened by the faith of other pilgrims and happy in the knowledge we are headed in the same direction.”
Moving Forward: “How might a pilgrimage strengthen you?”