“Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel
“This hill, though high, I covet to ascend;
The difficulty will not me offend.
For I perceive the way to life lies here.
Come, pluck up, heart; let's neither faint nor fear.
Better, though difficult, the right way to go,
Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe.”
― John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress
I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.”
— Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Abroad
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Well, we’ve come to the end of our Messiah’s Mixtape Series. While I love starting a new thing, I’m learning not to rush on to the next event without reflecting carefully on what’s passed. Mostly Allie has taught me this discipline, which has an element of healthy grieving to it. Maybe that’s why we don’t stop to process our experiences often enough: because it feels too much like a death. But I can’t begin to tell you what a blessing it is to grieve as those who have hope. It’s a kind of gratitude to look back and remember all the providence of God, and I have so loved this provision.
We began our summer in the Psalms by looking at Mary’s Magnificat, wondering at the womb that nourished our Messiah with the songs of Israel. Then, we dug into those Psalms and considered Jesus from so many angles: One who is not only God, but is also truly human. Alongside us He desires, and mourns, and suffers, and longs, and hopes. And He does so within and on behalf of a people, a family, made out of love. I’m honestly so glad we had Will to preach three of those Psalms. His keen perspective and pastoral kindness are a daily gift to me personally and I love that we got to share that part of him with you, too. If you missed any of those, they’re all archived on our website on the “our worship” page, under the “about us” tab.
For the past few weeks, we’ve been wrapping up and hinting ahead to the next series by looking at the Messianic Psalm of Ascension. This final week in Psalm 68 zooms out on the covenant community and sees them joyfully ascending Zion behind their conquering Messiah. What we don’t see (and what the first readers of this Psalm would have known) is the backstory to this part of the Psalm. It’s 2 Samuel chapter 6, where King David undertakes to establish the permanent Temple. All the fanfare and celebration are still there, but we also get two tragic incidents that so haunt the memory of Israel as to sometimes hinder her upward progress. They’re a window into the kinds of things that can hinder our procession of pilgrims, too.
I hope you'll join us and be encouraged by the fact that the same grace that brought us safe thus far shall also lead us home.
- joshua
