Pentecost 18A (Exodus 32:1-14)  10/12/2014

Several years ago I was on a business trip to Cardiff, Wales (this occurred many years ago, in a land without smartphones and GPS…imagine that?). I had been to Cardiff a few times before this trip, but always a short trip during the middle of the week. This time around I arrived on Saturday and had a good part of the weekend free before starting work on Monday. I thought this would be a great chance to see Llandaff Cathedral, the cathedral church of the area and a place that has been holy Christian ground since the early sixth century. Sunday was a beautiful fall day and I decided to set out right after lunch. I decided it might be nice to walk to the cathedral on this beautiful day, so I asked the man at the front desk if the cathedral was close by…”yes, the cathedral is just down the road,” was the cheerful reply. Wonderful, a nice walk to the cathedral! My only pair of shoes were leather dress shoes, but the nice man at the front desk said the cathedral was “just down the road,” so I was sure I would be just fine. I walked through the city center and began walking down a road that led to a large park. After about 20 minutes of walking, with no cathedral spire looming in the near distance, I decided to ask a passerby if I was headed in the right direction; “Oh yes, the cathedral is just down the road,” pointing in the general direction I was headed. As I continued on my pilgrimage, I must admit I began to think more about a taxi than the beautiful cathedral that was promised to be “just down the road.” I was also beginning to think my definition of “just down the road” was significantly different than the nice Welsh people I had met along the way. After nearly three miles of walking, I finally passed through a clearing and the grand walls of the cathedral stood just beyond a cluster of trees, quietly sitting in a little neighborhood of its own. A beautiful spot for a cathedral church nearly 1000 years old, but not a good place for finding a lift home! My cathedral pilgrimage had just started and I found that I was already a bit confused, tired, and short of patience from the long road traveled. Continue reading →