The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
February 21, 2010
Vol. 13 no. 08
There are not many Arameans running or wandering around anymore. Some of the newer English translations dub them “Syrians” - not quite insult or injury - but you wouldn’t want to be called Manitobans either!
“My father was a wandering Aramean” begins the recital of the famous creed of Israel - it’s our creed too. The ‘father’ is originally Abraham who wandered all over Mesopotamia, settling in various places. His descendants didn’t stop wandering either, down to Egypt and back again. His language was an ancestor of Aramaic, the universal language for the ancient Near East and the language spoken by Jesus.
We prefer not to think of ourselves as wandering, yet who are we fooling? The Christian faith is a pilgrimage and while we convince ourselves that we know where we are going, few of us have any idea where we are going to end up. You may have heard some of the Olympic athletes mention how focused they were preparing for the 2010 Games, but where are they going to wander after this?
Abraham wandered because herdsmen were always on the move for better pasture for their animals. But Abraham wandered as well because God never told him where to really stop. Israel kept wandering, wandering down to Egypt in search of food, wandering in the wilderness in search of freedom and the Promised Land. Jesus wandered too in the wilderness as we begin again our Lenten sojourn. Notice that we always end up back at the same place each year - wandering and sometimes a little lost. Until Jesus headed for Jerusalem, he was wandering throughout Galilee with no particular place to go. That’s what faith is all about.
Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan