Did You Know About the Abandoned Bridge Over 130? I Didn't...

So, I know I've talked about walking.  One of the joys of walking is discovering hidden bits.  

I walk for three main reasons. First is for my health.  It is the only sustainable exercise program I have ever managed.  It is also Outside, something we all need.

What follows is a Side Bar Rabbit Hole that took on a life of its own. Enjoy or skip along to the main point.

This may sound nuts, but I actually found something useful on Social Media about going outside.  First thing in the morning, I go outside (or stand on the porch and open the door if the weather is averse).  Now, at first glance I thought the FB post said something about cicadas being in rhythm with us when we do this, but it is, in fact circadian rhythm.  Now, I thought “Circadians” were an order of nuns in the Roman Catholic church from the Middle Ages, but apparently not. 

I ALSO learned a Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious word in all this, 'suprachiasmatic nucleus'.  It's like the gears of the clock in the human brain.

It is the internal clock God created us with to govern our actions and life cycle in response to the First Day of Creation, when God said, “Let there be light.”  And then it was evening, and the first day.  We are created in alignment with all of God’s creation, which is really cool.

I know it’s too late, but in an attempt to make a long story short, a time outside first thing in the morning apparently aligns our internal clocks to the day God created.  And it actually works for me.

Thus endeth the Side Bar Rabbit Hole, back to the main point.

The second reason I walk is for the history and geography laid out in the very ground beneath my feel. 

That is where this hidden bit popped.  If you go west on Maple from the church (toward Rt. 130), and take the really tight right before going up on the Federal Street Overpass, there is a short stretch of road (N. 43^rd Street) up which you can see the terminus of a railway bridge crossing Rt. 130. 

I have seen the bridge as I’ve driven Rt. 130, and I know it is overgrown, but I did not connect it to something even bigger.  It is the extension of the west end of the Merchantville Mile.  I knew the Merchantville Mile was built on a railway line.  I love the coffee drinks at the Station (and the Arts community it helps support).  But walk to the end of the Mile westbound from Centre Street and it dead ends into some trees.  But follow West Chestnut, on the south side of the Mile, and it turns into N 43rd Street at the Merchantville/Pennsauken border, and there's the bridge!

The third reason I walk is for my faith.  It was supposed to be time to pray, but God had other plans.  

Let me back up for a moment to talk about those plans.  We have spoken in our church of Jesus’ summary of the law as our guidance for Christian living, to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our Neighbors as ourselves.  We use that as a chart of a sort.  Loving God with our soul is contemplative of God’s love and grace and creation and all that is great and wonderful.  Loving God with our mind is communicative, to pray.  Loving God with our strength is our Stewardship, what of our abilities and possessions to we offer up in love to do what God calls us to do.

To pray and to do, I know about those.  The contemplative, not so much.  The magical and mystical and simply resting in the power of God, sounds amazing, but I have never been able to sit still with any ease. 

But to walk, that's where God was leading.  Certain walks are not about the walk so much about focus on the beauty of God’s creation in the trees and flowers.  It was very powerful in the delayed spring we’ve had after our first “real” winter in how long?  It is about the insights that Lord drops while out and about.  A thought, a connection, a concern, a possibility. 

This past Sunday, firing up the reality that we are a Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God set things up for today.  We are in the heart of Merchantville, Merchantville is the heart of a ring including Pennsauken, Camden, and Cherry Hill; in turn in the heart of a ring including Palmyra, Cinnaminson, Maple Shade, Mt Laurel, more Cherry Hill (there’s a LOT of Cherry Hill), Haddonfield, Haddon, and Collingswood...and more Camden (LOTS of Camden too).

This is where the hidden bit popped.  A bridge over Rt. 130.  Merchantville comes very close to 130, but doesn’t cross.  But the Neighborhood does.  God has sent us out.  How far then shall we go?  A decommissioned railroad bridge served God’s purpose to poke me, and now us, to think on that.

Pastor Pete