Going Up to Jerusalem
Ruth Ann Stites, Staff Writer
“Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” cried Henry II of England in late December of the year of our Lord 1170 as portrayed in the 1964 movie Becket. While these are not his exact words, they catch the king’s meaning in dramatic fashion.[1] Why was King Henry so wroth with his Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket? While there was a long history between Becket and the king, the issue that brought them to such enmity was the archbishop’s opposition to Henry’s claim to authority over the church and its prerogatives.[2]
Four of Henry’s knights were listening to what they believed was the king’s veiled command. Reginald FitzUrse, Hugh De Morville, William de Tracy and Richard le Breton set out for Canterbury immediately to execute the traitor prelate. On December 29th they followed Archbishop Becket into the Cathedral for vespers (the evening prayer service) and killed him there. Contemporary accounts told of the gruesome beheading in detail and helped fuel the horror of the act across Europe that led to Becket’s canonization as a saint in 1173. His tomb at the Cathedral quickly became a popular pilgrimage site.[3]
Fast forward some 200 years to the turn of the 15th century. Londoner Geoffrey Chaucer, civil servant and writer, set his seminal work, The Canterbury Tales, in the framework of a pilgrimage to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Thomas Becket.[4] The book contains 24 stories told by various members of the party traveling to Canterbury in a storytelling contest common to the period. While the book was of groundbreaking importance in the development of literature in the English language, it also reflects changing attitudes to and relationships among pilgrims.[5] No longer was a pilgrimage restricted to the elite; now the rising mercantile and professional classes had the leisure and funds to make a holy pilgrimage.
But what exactly is a pilgrimage? It is a deliberate journey to a sacred, religious, or historically significant place that has both physical (the trek) and inner (spiritual pursuit) dimensions. It has a purpose such as seeking healing, asking for forgiveness (penance), fulfilling a vow, or showing devotion. Pilgrimages are ancient religious rituals. While not restricted to Judaism and Christianity, our focus is on the practice in these traditions.
In ancient Israel the Torah mandated three great feasts that required a pilgrimage. Exodus 23:17 makes clear that “Three times a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.” That meant a trip to the Tabernacle or, later, the Temple. Thus, after the Temple was built in Jerusalem, there was a thrice yearly pilgrimage by the faithful to the city.[6]
The three great feasts are Passover (commemorating the Israelites’ escape from Egypt), Pentecost (which commemorates the receiving of the law on Mount Sinai and coincided with the wheat harvest), and Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths (in remembrance of the wilderness wanderings). When people made these pilgrimages to the Temple in Jerusalem, they had to “go up” to Jerusalem because the city was in the rugged hill country with all roads leading uphill to reach it. And, in a spiritual sense, they were traveling upward to “[T]he spiritual high point where God dwells with human beings.”[7]
Just as Chaucer’s pilgrims engaged in storytelling to ease their journey, most scholars agree that one of the common and solemn practices of the Israelite pilgrims was to sing or pray the “Songs of Ascent,” a group of fifteen psalms, Psalms 120 through 134. While other meanings for “ascent” have been offered, that they were used by the people on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem is widely accepted. As Matt Erickson puts it, “These journey prayers provided a soundtrack for the people of God, a spiritual soundtrack for the pilgrimage of faith.”[8]
Our focus, Psalm 121, is a Psalm of Ascent. It focuses on the certainty that God is watching over us so we can pray with assurance for His assistance. Think how comforting this assertion would be on a long journey up to Jerusalem. The Israelite pilgrim faith journey expressed in this and the other fourteen Psalms includes thoughts of remembrance, deliverance, and metaphorical ascent to the place where God is found. Dr. Rhett Dodson offers some advice on coming to grips with the Psalms of Ascent. He suggests five guidelines to help pilgrims appreciate them better: Reading with comprehension; Appreciating the imagery; Grasping how the psalm is a revelation of Jesus Christ; Applying what you have learned; and Fathoming the group nature of these ascent psalms. Each approach can enrich our understanding. (For more detail on his guidelines go to “How to Read the Psalms of Ascents” webpage from Ligonier Ministries.)
In America today many people struggle “to know how to relate to both ourselves and the world around us in trying to establish meaning and identity in the midst of prevalent confusion and hopelessness.”[9] The concept of pilgrimage can serve to bring hope and meaning more fully alive for ourselves and others. When we incorporate pilgrimage into our prayer life, we bring many levels of discipleship into operation as we seek more integration of the spiritual into our lives.
In Chaucer’s day pilgrimages were being undertaken by an ever-widening range of people. Today pilgrimages of various types are open to almost anyone who wishes to incorporate the practice into their prayer life. From travel to a place of sacred or holy meaning to the pilgrim to a pilgrimage of the mind alone, the central elements of pilgrimage can be experienced if one is willing to commit to the spiritual discipline, dedication of time, and depth of openness to encountering the presence of God in awe filled worship. And the Psalms of Ascent can become our entry point into a personal pilgrimage.
There are many creative ways to engage in pilgrimage. A few, built around the Psalms of Ascent, that may inspire others’ creative thinking are:
· Go on a prayer walk (around your neighborhood or in your community or on a nature trail chosen for your hiking ability) and pray some or all of the fifteen psalms as you go. Remember a pilgrimage may take more than one day to complete, so give yourself permission to take the time this pilgrimage requires.
· Write a journal analyzing and meditating on some (or all) of the Psalms of Ascent. Need some help? A classic work on discipleship built around them is Eugene Peterson’s A Long Obedience in the Same Direction and its accompanying six-week study guide. Spend your pilgrimage prayer time following Professor Peterson’s thoughts on the Psalms of Ascent. Remember, questions, even out-of-the-box questions and ones with no clear answer, are allowed. This is your personal prayer journey into the presence of God, not a test you will be graded on.
· Choose one or two Psalms of Ascent and set out to understand and apply them to yourself and your life as completely as you can. Travel through the psalm verse by verse as though you were taking a physical pilgrimage. Consider each psalm in light of some of the different purposes of pilgrimage such as seeking healing, asking for forgiveness, or showing devotion.
Reflection Questions:
1. Have you made a pilgrimage to some meaningful destination? If so, reflect on your experience. If not, is there somewhere you would like to make a pilgrimage to? Whether you can make this pilgrimage or not, think about how you would undertake the journey and what your spiritual ambition would be.
2. Was your definition of pilgrimage too limited before you read this post? If so, how have your views changed?
3. I suggested some starter ideas of innovative pilgrimages you can make even if you cannot physically travel to a meaningful place. Have you been encouraged to integrate your own pilgrimage into your prayer life? (Follow this link for more ideas in keeping with Evangelical traditions on integrating prayer with pilgrimage.)
(Photo description and credit: This photo of a path through a fall woodland suggests the physical aspect of pilgrimage available near to us as we put feet to our prayers. Credit: R. A. Stites, an Ozark woodland trail taken in 2020.)
[1] While this phrase has become widely used and conveys the sentiment of Henry II, it is quite modern in origin as it is from the dialogue written for Peter O’Toole (Henry II) in the 1964 film Becket. One of the most credible versions of the king’s actual words come from a contemporary biographer, Edward Grim, who gives them as, “What miserable drones and traitors have I nourished and brought up in my household, who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric?” Quote from Wikipedia article on Thomas Becket.
[3] Archbishop Thomas Becket – Learning Resources – Canterbury Cathedral
[4] Geoffrey Chaucer – Wikipedia
[5] The Canterbury Tales is conceived | Literature and Writing | Research Starters | EBSCOhost
[6] Three Pilgrimage Festivals – Wikipedia
[7] Preaching the Psalms of Ascent – CT Pastors
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
