Third Sunday after Pentecost
June 29, 2025
Luke 9:51-62

“When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). You see, Jesus is on the move. Like the millions of us that will go on vacation this summer. You make your reservations, your get the tickets, you set your faces on where you want go. Tourists are on the move. And there is joy in that, I’ve felt it. You leave your own familiar place and you experience something new. And part of the joy is that there is no pressure. No timelines. You can do whatever you want. You see stuff you never would see otherwise. Like the people wandering aimlessly along the beach. Tourists are on the move. 

But not like Jesus is.

There’s another set of people on the move. It’s the pilgrim. The pilgrim is also on the move. In the classic religious sense, pilgrims are people who leave their homes, leave the comfort of what they know, to strike out, to encounter God, to seek the holy. Pilgrims are on the move, as they have been all throughout holy scripture, but with the purpose of growing closer to God. The Lord God calls Abraham from his home to strike out, and to settle new land, and along the way, to make a new covenant with God. Same with the Israelites in the wilderness out of Egypt. They’re not wandering, really. They’re not tourists, casually taking their time. They have their minds set on the promised land, and along the way, they learn to rely on God. The pilgrim is intent, their movement has a purpose, a goal in mind. 

So “when the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” This is the mode in which to think about Jesus on the move. As a pilgrim. His face is set. He’s intent. His goal is clear, Jerusalem. That’s why it seems like things are bouncing off him. “Let the dead bury their own dead.” “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Jesus is on a righteous pilgrimage, and nothing is going to get in his way. 

And structurally, this is how the whole Gospel of Luke works. The first nine chapters, up to this moment, is like the basic introduction. Jesus is born, he starts his ministry, he calls his disciples. But this, this moment represents a shift. Jesus now will fulfill his call. To go to Jerusalem. So he starts his pilgrimage. He will go walking from town to town for the next nine chapters. Teaching, preaching, healing. But always, always with his face set on his purpose. This narrative arc will end on Palm Sunday, when Jesus rides triumphantly into Jerusalem. The end of his pilgrimage.

As a priest in the church, this is something I see that we all need to imitate. That I need to imitate. Because all too often in the spiritual life we are tourists. We dabble around. We might try saying a few prayers. We start reading a Bible for a time. We come and go to church, we might help out here and there. But the thing about a tourist is that they are only visiting. Their real home is somewhere else. You know what 61st Street is like on Sunday afternoon, with all those tourists heading back home. Not too different from the spiritual tourists. Who, after a time, feel like they’ve got to get back to whatever it was they were doing before.

But we are called to something else. To set our faces on Christ. To be singled-minded, to have clarity of purpose. So that in this life with Jesus, as people are calling to us from the sidelines, as they were calling to Jesus, we would not be distracted. That we would not be thrown off by temptations, by laziness. That our hearts and minds would be fixed on this life of faith. That is what it’s like to be a pilgrim. It’s an intention. To follow Christ day by day. To set your face upon on the living God. I pray that we would all commit ourselves to the life of the pilgrim.

And that we would do it together. You see, I’ve spent the last few weeks up at the School of Theology at Sewanee. I was with clergy from all over the country. And as we talked and shared, I heard something.  

The parishes out there thriving are the ones who know exactly what their mission is, they know who they are, and they are intentional in everything they do. The parishes out there that I see floundering, well, they’re acting like tourists. Doing a little bit of everything, but nothing in particular. I’m not talking about numbers, I’m talking about mission, about purpose.

So I’m coming back with a greater sense of clarity. Of purpose. I’ve come back with a keener insight and better language on how to make sure that this parish stays focused on our pilgrimage, that we would not become spiritual tourists. And for this next chapter in our parish life, I think there are two things especially we need to work on.

First, our new curate, Chase Kennemer, will start next Sunday. We all need to be focused on supporting him, helping to form him as a priest. Why? Not just because it’s good for us. But because some future church will benefit from his leadership when he goes off to be a rector. One day he can lead his own church, taking with him the best of what we have given him. That is a great gift that we can share with the rest of the church. Will he make mistakes? Yes. As I have done and will continue to do. But this should be part of our purpose as a congregation – training new clergy for the rest of the church.

And, as I count it, we have twenty-two youth at our church ready for confirmation class that we will start this fall. We are planning for the bishop to come, and to confirm them, some time late in 2026. We, as a parish, need to spend the next eighteen months focused on making sure that they are fully integrated in the life and worship of the church. That we welcome their questions, their struggles. And believe me, they are watching you. And if you are spiritual tourists, then they will become spiritual tourists. Drifting off to whatever else may be calling to them. But if we are focused pilgrims, then they will be focused pilgrims. All the data on this is very clear. Teenagers, when they graduate from high school, are more likely to stay in church if they have meaningful connections with five people in their congregation that are not their parents. That’s you. Sitting in the pews. It’s not someone else’s job, it’s not just for the priest and the youth minister. No matter your age, this is part of your job in this church. So that all these kids are surrounded by healthy, faithful, Christians. So that they can look around, and see you, and learn from you. This also means supporting those parents. I feel it. I know it. We’re exhausted. And the church can all too easily just be another thing for families to do, adding to the emotional burden. So if kids show up in their Sunday best, great. If they show up in whatever they rolled out of bed in, great. What I’m concerned about is how all of us, together, can pass on this heritage of faith that we have received. What matters is that we all set on minds on Christ.

In other words, what I want us all to focus on, is people. To raise up the young. To visit and care for the mature. To welcome the new. To learn from the experienced. The building all the other the nuts and bolts of church will take care of themselves, if we take care of each other. If we set on faces on Christ. “When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). I pray that we all set our faces on each other and that we would all be pilgrims for Christ. 

See also

Cavanaugh, William T. Migrations of the Holy: God, State, and the Political Meaning of the Church. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2011.