We celebrate our church’s 20th Anniversary this weekend! There will be food, memories, video greetings from those who couldn’t attend and possibly some grateful tears. This time of gratitude and remembering has me in “looking back mode” in a lot of ways.
I remember arriving at the airport in Istanbul with my summer team and what seemed like a million people returning from the Hajj, dressed in white abayas, looking like ghosts milling about, waiting for their luggage.
I remember the pleasure with which a couple in California shared the sense of cleanness and forgiveness they experienced upon completing the pilgrimage.
I imagine the couple million people now returning, or just returned, from the Hajj. They’ve completed the pinnacle of their religion’s requirements. They have done the things most likely to merit them forgiveness for their sins and shortcomings. What do they head home to?
Some certainly to husbands who still haven’t found a job. Some to weary wives and kids with colds. Many to friends and families who don’t find their Hajj stories as interesting as they’d hoped.
I suppose many didn’t even make it off the plane before they sinned in a way they couldn’t deny: They lied, they stole, they coveted. Whatever. The aura, the illusion, of being clean vanished.
My heart goes out to them. What do you do when you’ve done the thing, but the effect didn’t last? Start booking next year’s Hajj? I don’t know. I do hope many will hear what Jesus wants to say to them. At least part of that is this, “You burdened? Carrying a heavy load? C’mere. I will give you rest. I’ve done all it for you.”