March 16, 2008

The journey was coming to an end as we traveled down a pitch dark, winding road through the Gap of Dunloe. The sun had long set on the Ring of Kerry and we were trusting our guide, Dan Ryan, wasn’t lost. The longer the road became the more we began to wonder. And we really didn’t know what awaited us wherever it was Dan was taking us, except that he promised it would be an Irish evening with dinner and music. I had visions of something like Riverdance in mind. And as we continued to move through the darkness and further away from the city of Killarney, I sensed we were a long way from Riverdance, too! Then ahead of us we saw in what seemed out in the middle of nowhere the lights of a country cottage--Kate Kearney’s Cottage--where we would have a splendid Irish evening of good food and authentic music by traditional Irish musicians whose name we learned was “Tuatha.”

This was not a scheduled stop on our itinerary. Knowing ahead of time that hotel accommodations had changed in Killarney from a charming, beautiful Irish hotel called Randal’s Court to the run of the mill Holiday Inn might diminish our final 2 days in Ireland, I asked our guide Dan early in the trip if he could find some special way to end our very memorable trip with a surprise memorable night. And he did. It was at the end of our journey and down a dark winding County Kerry road that Dan guided us to Kate Kearney’s Cottage and that night led to this morning and the beginning of our relationship with Donal, Barry and Mike…Tuatha.

As the evening came to a close, Mike announced that we should mark our calendar because, God willing and with enough CD’s sold, they would be coming to America for their premier performance in 2020! New York City--Carnegie Hall! Out back, in the alley!

When we got home some of us thought that was too long to wait for Tuatha and for us and a dream too good to too abandon. With the help of many of you in prayers and gifts, a dream has come true; a vision has become reality.

At first it seemed like a wild idea. Should we or shouldn’t we? Can we or can’t we? We didn’t hold back the dream out of fear or doubts or reservations. We did not hold back with self-determination to make it happen by ourselves. We let go and watched the dream come true as God unfolded it.

For some in our group it was the first time to fly a great distance and over an ocean, or to travel outside the United States, or to travel to Ireland. But they didn’t hold back. They let go of whatever had been holding them back and let God carry them on an unforgettable journey.

And Barry, Mike and Donal didn’t hold back, either, in apprehension of the unknown and stay home. They let go to travel where they had never before gone. They left their homeland of Ireland to make their first journey to our land.

And now we are here this morning together in worship of the God whose grace in so many ways from its beginning has made this crossing of paths and common journey possible. The whole journey has been by the grace of God in the graciousness of God’s people.

It has been God working in the usual mysterious ways. Just imagine: had there been no hotel change to the Holiday Inn, there would have been no change in the itinerary and no request of Dan Ryan for some extra-special evening in Killarney and no Kate Kearney’s Cottage and no Tuatha that night or this morning. And they would still be waiting for their first journey to perform in America. Had it not been for our tour group being bumped to the Holiday Inn in Killarney, Tuatha would not be staying and performing at the Holiday Inn in Charleston on St. Patrick’s night! How about that for God’s mysterious and ironic way!

And this sanctuary or the Lighthouse Café or the Holiday Inn on Kanawha Boulevard may not be Carnegie Hall, but at least you’re not playing in the alley! And you only had to wait 5 months, not 13 more years.

So here we are together with Tuatha because our paths crossed and converged on to a common road, a road less traveled, as they title their CD. The road in life from holding back to letting go is a road less traveled. It is so easy and common for us to hold back and stay home and do what we’ve always done and do it the way we’ve always done it. We stay where we are geographically and never go see what’s on the other side of the mountain or beyond the hollow or across the state line, let along the continent! The road most traveled is the road to nowhere. Just stay put where we are mentally, perceptually, theologically, spiritually. Hold back from growing and maturing and expanding in vision and awareness and compassion. The road less traveled is the one moving us from holding back to letting go. But, as Robert Frost said in his poem, taking that road makes all the difference. God can do some amazing and wondrous things when w move from holding back to letting go!

Patrick of Ireland took that less traveled road, too. Only, his first journey away from home to an unknown land was not voluntary. He was kidnapped by pirates as a boy in Britain and sold into slavery in Ireland, where he spent the next 6 years of his life tending sheeping day and night. It was there and then that he learned to pray and learned the language and ways of the people. He eventually escaped and returned to the safety and security of home. In a dream a voice beckoned him back to Ireland as a servant of Christ to spread the good news that carries the power to transform. It was a voice to which Patrick could not and would not say, “No.” This time he left home voluntarily and returned to live and serve and die in Ireland. He did not hold back. He let go into the flow of God’s purpose and love and presence. When we stop holding back and start letting go to travel in the company of God, God does mysterious and marvelous things.

When we are in the holding on mode we are graspy and clingy of others or of what we have or of who we are or of our safety or reputation or comfort. We cling to control of our lives, of other people, of our plans. But moving from holding back to letting go is learning to hold life lightly and loosely. When it comes to life and people and possessions and plans, we lighten up and enter, as Henri Nouwen said, “a life of new, unexpected freedom.”[1] Letting go and holding lightly is knowing “the deepest joys come not from the money we earn, the friends we surround ourselves with, or the results we achieve; we are rather whom God made us to be in his infinite love.” Moving from holding back to letting go is to “surrender to the God whom we love and want to follow.”

And now today we see Jesus on his first journey to Jerusalem. He enters the city surrounded with palms and popularity. As the week wears on, however, the tide will turn and finally he will stand alone, betrayed and abandoned by those close to him. He took the road less traveled and let go all the way to the cross.

He could have held back and played it safe and avoided Jerusalem and what awaited him there, but faith and faithfulness aren’t always safe and secure. Then again, long before Jerusalem he could have held back and never started the great journey of incarnation at all. But he didn’t hold back. Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death--even death on a cross. (Phil. 2:5-8)

He didn’t hold back. He emptied himself. He let go and took on human likeness. He let go and took on the form of a servant. He let go and in his final days took on the city. He took on the religious and political powers. He took on the forces of darkness. He let go and took on death itself. He didn’t hold back from the journey. He let himself go into the hand and heart, the grace and guidance of God for us and our salvation and healing.

He let go in surrender to the God whom he loved and wanted to follow, even to death on a cross. Therefore God highly exalted him, and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knew shall bend in heaven and on earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (2:9-11)

It may be your first trip somewhere nearby or far away, whether it is to or from Ireland or on a dark road in Dunloe Gap to Kate Kearney’s Cottage. It may be a big deal or a little thing. It may be a journey outward or a journey inward. It may be in relationship to a person or your possessions or your plans. There are first journeys in life in many different ways. And, of course, there is the last journey we shall all make someday through the dark valley of death. But whatever the journey, every time we move in some way from holding back to letting go we are walking in the steps of Jesus on a road less traveled and with him we surrender more and more of ourselves to the God whom we love and want to follow.

Prayer: Lord, you did not hold back but let go to give us life, give us love, give us yourself. Help us to not hold back, but give our lives to you, through Christ who died and rose again for us and who lives with you and the Holy Spirit in everlasting splendor and light. Amen.

[1] Henri Nouwen, Turn My Mourning into Dancing, 26, 32, 27.