Abraham: Pilgrim of Faith

The Lord said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's 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."

So Abram left, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him.  Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.  He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. (Genesis 12:1-5 NIV)

The word "pilgrimage" stems from the Latin word peregrinus which means "resident alien" or "foreigner." It can also mean "to wander over a great distance" (Jones, 151). If I think about pilgrimage in the Bible, the first name that comes to mind is Abraham.  His pilgrimage was unusual from a modern point of view.  Most holy places hadn't been invented yet.  He lived in an age before most of the world's major religions were founded (in fact, he was the founder of Judaism).  There were really no major shrines to visit or saints to venerate.  Also, he hardly packed light: he brought along absolutely everything he owned and his entire family. He did this because, unlike the modern pilgrim, he had no intention of returning from his destination.

So why did Abraham choose to leave everything that was familiar to become a pilgrim in a foreign land?  The Bible says it is because God spoke to him, both calling him away from his home and giving him a promise.  The promise was for land, for protection, and for an everlasting legacy.  All that God required from Abraham was a little faith.  Abraham had to believe that if he did leave and follow the pilgrim way that God was going to come through on His promise.

Hebrews 11:1 says "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see."  Boers defines pilgrimage as "faith-motivated travel" (22).  Taylor describes the pilgrim as "one who travels hopefully" (11).  Faith is an essential element of pilgrimage.  Without this expectation of the divine, pilgrimage becomes little more than travelling to see the sights.  Faith is what takes a pilgrim's attention off of the destination and puts it on the journey.  Faith draws the pilgrim to be aware at every moment and place for the ways that God is revealing Himself.  Hebrews 11:6 says "and without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

Stepping out in faith had a cost though. Abraham had to leave everything that was safe and comfortable about his home in Haran. At 75 years old, he had to travel thousands of miles to a land where he would be known only as a foreigner. In a previous entry I talked about the risk associated with pilgrimage, and Abraham was not an exception to this rule. Being a pilgrim required of Abraham a sacrifice: a sacrifice of time, of safety, of comfort, of identity and of control.  Abraham was no longer the one dictating his life; by choosing the life of the pilgrim he surrendered control to God.

Abraham seemed to have a really good sense of what made a sacred place. In an era where there were no shrines, Abraham set up his own:

"The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he [Abram] built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.  There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord." (Genesis 12:7-8)

Any place where Abraham sought or had a profound experience of God, he set up a shrine, an altar.  The pilgrimage was not for him just about the destination, but he was constantly paying attention for where he experienced God in the journey.  Sometimes when we travel we forget that every moment and every place has the potential to be holy.  We get so caught up our expectation what we will experience at our goal, that we do not recognize or mark the places along the way that are equally holy in character.  It is not popularity that makes a place holy - only the presence of God can do that.

Throughout the rest of his life Abraham was a wanderer.  In fact, Charles Foster argues that wandering was what made Abraham the person that he was (48).  Because there was nothing else constant in his life, Abraham had to cling to his faith in God.  He was a resident alien: the world was not his home.

"By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.  By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents... For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." (Hebrews 11:8-10)