Exodus 13: 17-21
Ann Tyler wrote a book called The Accidental Tourist. It is a story about a man who has made a successful career of writing travel books for people who hate travel. His audience is primarily businessmen, for whom travel is a necessary evil in their lives. The books presume that the reader hates leaving the comforts of home just as much as the author does. So he fills the pages with tips on where to find Kentucky Fried Chicken in Stockholm, Taco Bell in Mexico City, and other absurdities. He writes travel guides that let travelers pretend they never left home.
The character, Macon Leary, is quirky and endearing, sort of typical for Ann Tyler’s stories. To say that he is set in his routines is an understatement. He is a man of systems, which he has devised to guard against anything unfamiliar happening to him. He has been living in the same Baltimore neighborhood his entire life; merely venturing into other areas of the city are unnerving to him.
It’s funny that he has found his niche in travel writing. But, of course, it makes for a good story.
One of the most popular real-life travel writers in America is Rick Steves. His Paris guidebook never left my hand during my visit to that city. He guided me through the most famous museums, showing me how to avoid the long lines, and into the most charming, off the beaten path, streets. My trip would have been so much different without his guidance.
You may know him from his TV travel shows on PBS as well. He has a wonderful midwestern accent, folksy style, and a quirky sense of humor that comes across so well.
What you might not know about him is that he is a devout Lutheran. He has spoken often about his faith and how it informs his experience of the world as well as how his experiences in the world inform his faith. For Rick Steves, traveling is an act of spirituality.
That may sound strange. We are accustomed to thinking of travel as having many benefits. It can be restful, getting us away from the daily grind. It can be educational, allowing us to learn about different cultures and lands. It can be profitable, as it was for the businessmen Macon Leary was writing for. Travel can be just fun – as it is for the millions of people who travel every year to Disney World, Broadway shows, Las Vegas casinos, or the Ocean City beach. But is travel something spiritual?
The business of moving from one place to another actually takes up a lot of space in the scriptures. Much of the biblical story takes place on the road. Or in the water. Or, as in the scripture today, in the wilderness. And all these travels we read of in the Bible – were they just necessary evils, like they were for Macon? Or is the journey a part of God’s plan?
The more time you spend with the story of the Exodus, the more you realize that the journey itself was as important as the destination. Maybe even more important.
The people of Israel did not imagine they would be journeying anywhere, anytime. They were stuck in Egypt. They were enslaved by Egyptian rulers and forced into hard labor, building monuments to glorify Pharaoh. The Exodus story tells us they had fallen into this situation sometime after Joseph died, when the rulers of Egypt forgot all that Joseph and the Lord had done for them. And they were consumed by fear of the Israelites, so they did what fearful people often do: they brutalized them.
This went on for hundreds of years, until God lifted up for them a leader – Moses. Moses led them out of Egypt and through the wilderness, toward the land that God promised to them.
The journey was long. Forty years they spent in the wilderness, leaving us to scratch our heads, wondering why. Did the lose their way? Were they having trouble deciding which way to go? What was the reason it took so long?
And the answer I come to again and again is this: it wasn’t about the destination. It was all about the journey. The time spent away from home was time for them to grow spiritually.
It was time for them to learn about the ways of God and draw closer to God. It was time for them to learn how to live in obedience to God; to learn how to worship.
It was a time for them to learn something about who they were, as a people. You see, they didn’t really know who they were. They had only ever been slaves in Egypt. They needed to learn to know themselves as free people in the world.
The Exodus story is one that speaks to many peoples and many times. It certainly spoke strongly to the Black slaves in America before the Civil War. In fact, it was such a powerful story, the white slaveowners made every effort to hide it from them. Special slave Bibles were printed that omitted the Exodus story and various other parts of the Bible that might inspire Black slaves to imagine themselves as free human beings.
That is how powerful the story was.
The Exodus is just as powerful today, and it speaks broadly to all of us. Because there are so many ways to be enslaved – very often enslaved to our own devices.
The character Macon, in Ann Tyler’s book, appears that way to me. He has drawn his life so close, so small, because everything else seems frightening. He becomes a slave to his rigid systems and he knows no way out. When certain things happen that disrupt his systems, Macon finds himself in a kind of wilderness.
What Macon needs is a guide to get him through the wilderness. He finds one. But I won’t spoil the story – you might want to read it.
We all need guides when we set out to explore unfamiliar territory. The Israelites needed Moses to guide them toward taking that first step out of Egypt, leaving what had been for them the only home they had ever known. That first step might be the hardest one of all. Not to say that they didn’t want to turn back many times during the journey. They couldn’t have done it without Moses, and Moses couldn’t have done it without God guiding him.
And where would any of us be if they had not made the journey?
Travel is a spiritual act because it allows us to grow.
When the Israelites left home and ventured into the wilderness, when Macon Leary ventured out of his comfort zone, when we get in a plane or our cars and go out to explore new places, we have the opportunity to learn something new about the world and learn something new about ourselves. Encountering a new place is a gift that allows us to broaden our perspective, and as Rick Steves says, the most beautiful souvenir is a broader perspective.
All kinds of strange and wonderful things happen to us when we venture out into the world. We see that God created people and places that are so different from the people we know and the places we live.
When we go out into the world we learn that we can do more than we ever thought we could. We find, perhaps to our surprise, that there are good and generous and helpful people everywhere. We carry home with us some of our best stories, and we never tire of telling others about the time in Mexico City when we followed a woman onto a subway train, not knowing if something terrible or wonderful would happen. That’s one of my stories. I will tell it to you sometime, if I haven’t already.
When we travel we see the world God created. And in the process, we see God.
During the next few weeks we will spend some time thinking about the things that happen when we travel – the encounters we have, the ways these encounters give us opportunity to reflect on our lives, our beliefs and assumptions, and then be transformed.
After a year and a half of being mostly homebound, some of us are raring to go, while others are still hesitant. And yet others are simply unable to go anywhere. Travel is not available to all of us. But what we might call the traveler’s mindset is something that is available to all of us. Regardless of whether we go anywhere, we all can look at the world with wonder and curiosity, and a willingness to learn and grow.
The people of Israel could not take possession of the promised land unless they sojourned in the wilderness. That is the reality. So it is that we cannot take full possession of our identity as God’s beloved children, until we spend some time sojourning. Whether we hit the road or stay at home, the journey begins with the first step. A willingness to move out of our safe space, our comfort zone, and look at the world with new eyes. To surrender our judgment and preformed opinions. Or, as Rick Steves says, to let the road be our church.
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Photo by Mantas Hesthaven on Unsplash
