Trinity 11 Year A – Genesis 12:1-9; Luke 24:13-35

Why are you here?

What’s made you want to walk the Camino?

It was with questions like these that many conversations started or developed as you walked alongside others on the Camino.

For Brett, an American ex-serviceman, who I shared many a hotel with for about 10 days, two solo travellers, often conversing over breakfast, it was all about the physical challenge. He was walking the camino to prove to himself that he could still do it, and it was all about completing each day as quickly as possible.

I would often leave the hotel an hour or so before him, only to be overtaken, and find him relaxing in our next town, having already settled into the hotel and eaten a meal.

When he saw me scrolling through photos, he said he hadn’t taken a single one, and as for scenic detours, he just wasn’t interested.

For Brett, this was about the physical challenge.

And then there were my four New Zealand friends, I never did find out their names, but we began our journey together, and spent the first couple of weeks seeing each other most mornings over breakfast, and then about 30 minutes into my daily walk, when I would over take them, with a cheery Buen Camino, and one of them would simply say 29kms, or 31kms, or 25kms … the amount of kms we would be walking that day.

Slowly the conversations began to get a bit deeper, a little less about how far we had to walk, and onto football, something you probably all realise I know very little about, but my New Zealand friend was passionate about it, they also had to endure my ever optimistic outlook when caught in rain all day, and we were sheltering from it in a bar, and I assured them, I could still hear the birds singing and so the rain was surely about to stop, they didn’t believe me … and as it turned out they may have had a point.

Eventually, whilst walking with them one day, the question arose, why were they here, the answer, these four friends had been drinking together, and having drunk perhaps rather too much, one of them said, they had always wanted to walk the camino, and the others all said, well why not … and so here they were, nothing spiritual they assured me, just the result of one to many drinks.

Or what about Renee, I spent a lot of time with Renee and Karie just before meeting up with Geraint in Sarria. We again would find ourselves in the same hotel night after night, and would get chatting over meals together.

Renee was walking her second Camino having walked the Camino Portuguese several years earlier, Karie had always said, if she went again, she would love to go with her, so here they both were.

Renee, was walking to process lots of things that were happening in her life, her brother, has just been diagnosed with tongue cancer, something he has likely had for sometime, but hadn’t wanted to get it checked out, and has declined all treatment since. They were both adopted at a young age, her brother has never married and so Renee feels a deep sense of responsibility in looking after her brother, and was walking to help her process what is happening, in order, she hoped that when she went back she would be in a better place to support him. She claimed she had no faith, but got a lot comfort from attending the pilgrim masses alongside Karey who is a Christian.

I could go on, as conversations opened up, it was clear that everyone on the journey had their own reasons for being there.

In our bible readings today, we encounter different people on different journeys.

Firstly we come across Abram.

Abram is told by the Lord ‘Leave your country, your people and your fathers household and go to the land I will show you.’ I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’

And so Abram does exactly what the Lord tells him to do, he goes. He doesn’t appear to ask questions, he just goes, so when asked the question … why are you here, I guess the answer would be, because the Lord told me to go.

In our gospel reading, it is not clear why these two disciples were making the journey, but we can get a real sense of the emotional state as they walk, they were downcast … after all they had witnessed in Jerusalem, with Jesus begin crucified and then the confusing witness of the women and the empty tomb.

They were completely lost in their thoughts, and so perhaps this walk was just the journey back home, an opportunity to get back to the familiar and away from all this confusion.

This morning, we start a mini pilgrimage through this series of three united services, a mini journey across the parishes. But I want to encourage us all this morning, to think about where we are on the journey.

What brought you to church this morning, what drove you to come along?

But looking further back, how did you start on your journey of faith, what were you feeling? What drove you to find out more about Jesus?

How is it going? Has anything changed for you?

I am sure many things have.

So why was I on the Camino … on one level, because it was something I had always wanted to do, from the first time I watched a film about it one night whilst at theological college.

I cannot find the film I saw, I have no idea what it was called, but it was an old black and white film, and alarmingly lots of people died on the Camino, especially crossing the Pyrenees, but the film did seem to be showing them crossing in the depths of winter.

Having seen the film, I thought, well why not … I want to do that … but realistically never thought I would get the opportunity.

But on another level, there were other reasons too, and part of it was a need to disconnect, in order that I might re-connect with God in a new and deeper way.

For me, that meant spending my days just walking, removing me completely away from my normal chaotic routines, my normal busyness and giving me just one objective each day, to walk from A to B … and maybe find food and companionship along the way 😊 In order that I might re-connect in a new and deeper way with God, not that I had lost connection, but that in the busyness of life and ministry I needed to remove some of the clutter that was getting in the way, so that I might hear God more clearly once again.

Today as we consider these first steps of the journey, the basic question, why are we here, I recognise that we may like all my fellow travellers on the Camino, or Abram or the two travellers on the road from Emmaus have a huge range of answers.

What might it mean for each of us today, to in some way disconnect in order to re-connect on a deeper level with God once more.

What does that mean for us on an individual level, but what does it also mean for us as a group of churches.

And so I invite you to take the card in your service sheet home with you, to look at the questions on it and reflect in your quiet time each day this week, on what is your hearts desire as we begin this mini journey together.

Let’s pray

Lord Jesus Christ, you have called us all to follow you, as we continue our journey of faith, renew our vision, refresh us for the journey ahead, may we be faithful to you, in all we do. In Jesus name we pray. Amen