At a holy site outside of Mecca, Muslim pilgrims stampede toward a series of pillars at which they hurl stones, as a symbolic purging of sin. In 7 of the past 17 years, people have died in the mob. This week, it is reported that over 300 were killed in the scene. What a tragic outcome of peoples’ desperate religious ---and impossible--- attempts to approach the holiness of God. It seems that these pilgrimages always end in violence and death. Despite attempts by authorities to encourage order, chaos ensues and people die. Do not take this as a jab at Islam. I mean no disrespect toward people’s beliefs. I do, however, contrast these religious efforts with our own faith perspective in this season of Epiphany.
Sometimes I think American Christian apathy, lukewarm-ness, is worse than the passionate stampede. Its either that or we tend to get hot about foolish matters and end up beating each other up anyway. How many times have people stomped off from a congregation over this issue or that?
I, for one, am grateful everyday, that the only deadly journey that is pat of our faith, was the journey of Christ Jesus to the cross. He allowed the world to hurl their sins at him.
In Epiphany, we are hearing gospel stories about discipleship. What we discover there is that for us, the only one whose religion matters, is Jesus. His passionate mission to die for us is a gift to the world. Discipleship acknowledges this gift. We point beyond ourselves and our own religious practices, beyond our institutional habits and rituals. We point to the one whose coming makes us whole and holy. We share His journey from life to death to resurrection. We share His ministry as His people. But we needn’t sacrifice ourselves for the sake of attaining what was already bought for us.