Coracle news

Men’s group: Desire and journey

Posted Saturday 14 April 2012

Desire and journey – competing imageries and theologies?

What do wilderness, the promised land, city and pilgrimage, symbols of conversion and the process of change, conjure up in and for you?

Wilderness

‐ ‘deserts of the Israelites and the early Christian hermits, or the sea of the Celtic wanderers.’
‐ ‘wandering, desiring, never totally arriving, of complete trust in God was central’
‐ ‘The spiritual temptations of settling down and becoming too fixed in our ways’
‐ ‘The theology of the Moses school’

 

Promised land

‐ The land of promise was the sign of the covenant between God and the people. Eventually Sion, Jerusalem, and especially the Temple, became associated in a special way with God’s presence.
‐ ‘The theology of the King David school’

City

‐ Contrast with wilderness? Yet Revelation 21: 1‐4: I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had disappeared, and so had the sea. Then I saw New Jerusalem, that holy city, coming down from God in heaven. It was like a bride dressed in her wedding gown and ready to meet her husband.

I heard a loud voice shout from the throne:

God's home is now with his people. He will live with them, and they will be his own. Yes, God will make his home among his people. He will wipe all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death, suffering, crying, or pain. These things of the past are gone forever.

‐ ‘the temptation to settle too readily and too fully’?

Pilgrimmage

‐ wandering exile
‐ Seeking the place of their resurrection
‐ The Celtic wanderers sought to root out all desires that were for less than all.

Questions

• What does entering wilderness, entering the promised land, or a city mean for you?
• Are there other equivalent, contemporary metaphors?
• Have you been on pilgrimage?