Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
“Packing: What Should We Take?”
July 7, 2019 Communion Sunday
We had to be at the van in front of our hotel by 4:00 a.m. so as to make our 7:00 a.m. flight. Needless to say, we were all a bit groggy as we travelled to the airport in Los Angeles and joined our fellow travelers in checking our bags. Having totally forgotten about the fact that there was a weight limit, I had put my newly purchased books from General Synod in Long Beach in my already full large suitcase and heaved it onto the scale. The patient airline employee told me I was 5 pounds over the 50 pound limit and that this would cost me an extra 50 dollars. As I tried to hide my outrage, she told me my other option would be to remove 5 pounds from my bag and either dispose of it or put it in my carry-on and so there I was kneeling on the floor next to the very long line of weary travelers, going through my bag and pulling the heaviest stuff out while trying not to make too big of a mess with my dirty laundry and too many shoes. I once again loaded my bag onto the scale and, thank goodness, I was then a pound under, albeit toting a heavier carry-on. While in the midst of the unpacking and repacking on the floor of LAX that early morning, I realized just how much of the stuff I brought that I never even wore. I’ve been known to pack for all of the “just in case” events that almost never happen when I travel – a little bit like Abram that Kiera just told us about.
Jesus here is preparing these 70 disciples for the travels they will make when they, like John the Baptist, prepare the way for him. To determine that they will bring nothing with them but the clothes on their backs is to speak of a vulnerability few of us would be able to embrace. In those days, anyone who left their own village and went into another town was already likely to be viewed as a foreigner and with plenty of hostility.
Relying on the kindness of strangers rather than personal possessions or money is to level the playing field of who can be a disciple. What one owned meant little and what was in one’s heart meant everything. Here it is not what the messenger brings but rather the importance of the message. To travel light is to take very little baggage with you but it has also been used to mean making one’s way in the world free of everyday responsibilities and worries. These followers of Jesus were to walk away from everything they knew and embrace a life of intentional poverty with an eye only encountering strangers with an open heart and prepping them for Jesus’ radical message of inclusion. And lo and behold, it worked this time!
They go in peace and their message is so powerful that it is all they need. The message was one that said everyone, the ones who embraced them and even the ones who wanted nothing to do with them were all a part of the Kingdom of God. To go out and do this work with literally nothing but faith spoke volumes of the fact that those they were teaching and healing also need bring nothing to the table but a desire to be a part of this kingdom building that Jesus is proclaiming. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem – there are nine more chapters in Luke’s Gospel before he gets there so these followers are paving the way to the drama he will encounter there.
Levelling the playing field is what the church then was all about. Could we say the same thing now these two thousand years later? We say that everyone is welcome but many of us have previously been a part of faith communities where we didn’t feel that we were on equal footing with all the other people with whom we were worshipping and serving beside. How will we continue to ensure that all who feel drawn into this community of faith will feel that they are on equal footing to join us in our mission of kingdom building? Is there room for us to be even more hospitable to folks who may have no concept of church or have been hurt by it in the past?
When we travel out in the world are we travelling light enough that the mission, to love all of God’s people, becomes the clothes on our backs? Thank goodness that we, like the ones Jesus sent out two by two, are not alone in this work. Look around this sanctuary – these are some of your travelling companions, the ones who will pray for you and support you and you, in turn, for each of us.
Consider what we will need to pack, not physically, but rather carry within ourselves as we make this journey through life, following the teacher Jesus and maybe sometimes paving the way for him to those who don’t know him or have soured on religion that makes them feel like they are not enough. We will need to bring a curiosity, words of support and encouragement, a love big and broad enough to encompass all those we meet even the ones we find hard to like and the mercy and grace of God to know we will not always succeed but we will never be abandoned. What we could let go and unpack and leave behind are anger, fear and distrust. Like my too heavy bag at the airport, these are weighing us down. What we take with us has the potential and power to spread the message of Jesus – that all people are beloved parts of the Kingdom of God.
Let us then go out into the world with this part of a prayer titled, “For the Traveler” by the late Irish writer, John O’Donohue:
“A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure before you go,
To take the time
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.
May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner groud;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.
May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;