A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

Originally published in the Sunday bulletin of the Anglican Church of the Holy Trinity, 7^th Sunday after the Epiphany, 2019.  

Eugene Peterson’s book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, explores our understanding of the Christian life as a pilgrimage.  The Christian pilgrimage is the Holy Spirit placing our feet on the path that leads to the Father, a journey made possible through the person and work of Christ who has opened the door to heaven for us and the Holy Spirit of Christ who walks the journey with us.  Jesus tells us that He will show us the way; in fact, He tells us that He is the Way; that is, the path back home to the Father.  In John 14:5-6, Thomas says to Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where you are going.  How can we know the way?”  Jesus says to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  So central was this reality to the early Christians that they were called "The People of the Way” (Acts 9:2, Acts 24:14). 

Our traditional worship space through the ages has reflected this idea of being a people on the way to the Father.  As we enter the church, the first thing we encounter is the Baptismal Font.  It is here that we are born again by water and the Spirit into the Family of God, dying to the world back outside the door through which we came, and being born anew as children of the Kingdom of God.  The center isle of the nave is our path from the font to the throne room of God, symbolized by the Altar and Cross at the front of the church.  Our journey up the isle is supported by our church family on either side, by the Word of God read and preached from the podium, and the Lord’s Table from which we receive strength and nourishment for the journey.  The Lord’s Table also reminds us that we do indeed have a place at the great banquet feast of the Lamb at the end of our pilgrimage.

Pilgrimage suggest movement.  The Christian pilgrimage is pressing forward with obedience and perseverance into the Christian life, always focused in the same direction.  Paul expresses this in his letters: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12);” and “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).” The author of Hebrews also writes, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1).

Growing in the knowledge, love and service of our Lord is not optional for the Christian pilgrim.  It is neither easy nor is it, at times, politically correct, but it always requires a “Long Obedience in the Same Direction.” 

Soli Deo Gloria, Father Rob