1 Pentecost 6 Proper 9 Year B Traveling Light Ezekiel 2:1-5, Psalm 123, 2 Corinthians 12:2-10, Mark 6: 1-13
As many of you know, Marc and I have just returned from a three week trip. We packed carefully for our trip, making sure that we had just what we needed, but not more than what we needed. Our packing list was a bit more complicated than usual because we planned to stay in a variety of different accommodations, from a rustic cabin, to a few nights with family, to a very nice bed and breakfast. As a rule we like to pack as little as we can get away with. We like to travel light. But not as light as Jesus ordered his disciples to travel! In today’s Gospel Jesus told his followers to take a staff, and the clothes on their backs, and that was it. No food. No cooler with provisions for sandwiches and cold drinks along the way. Not even any money, to buy a bag of chips from the gas station, when the munchies set in! Jesus’ disciples are required to leave all their encumbrances behind and to go out and do God’s work. Jesus’ followers, then and now, are to rely on the bountiful provision of God. If I had been among those original disciples I confess I might have thought “Wow! Why do we have to be such minimalists? What is wrong with a little comfort along the way? Why can’t we plan for some of the events that are likely to happen? Shouldn’t we be prepared for some obstacles along the way?” You know that some of the disciples had to be thinking those kinds of thoughts. I smiled when I read that Jesus cautioned them not to try to put on two tunics. I might have been happy to comply with wearing sandals, but I’d like to take a change of clothes! Jesus expected his followers to step out in faith, without expending a whole lot of energy on coming up with plan B, in case the first scenario went awry. That is hard for some of us. Marc and I planned our long winding trip to the Catskill Mountains. We stuck with our plan, although we did go off our schedule and stop to visit the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY. We did allow some free flow. At this point in my life, I like serendipity as much as the next person, but only when the rest of my life does not depend on the outcome. Before sending out his disciples to travel lightly through life Jesus had just experienced a bit of a setback in his home town. The locals were not impressed by what he had to say, or perhaps it would be closer to the truth to say that the locals could not hear what Jesus had to say because they kept on thinking “who does he think he is?” They knew him, you see. They had watched him grow up. They had seen him with a runny nose and skinned knees. They had heard what his brothers and sisters said about him. Jesus acknowledged that even he, the Son of God, had a hard time being heard by his home town people. And so he began to send his disciples out on his behalf, to nearby communities with his message. Two by two he sent them. With the bare minimum of provisions he sent them, so that they would have to rely on God’s providence.
2 Eugene Peterson, in his marvelous paraphrase of the Bible called “The Message” writes it this way: Jesus said, "Don't think you need a lot of extra equipment for this. You are the equipment. No special appeals for funds. Keep it simple. And no luxury inns. Get a modest place and be content there until you leave. If you're not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw. Don't make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way." And what was the message that Jesus sent them with? Peterson translates the scriptures this way: “They preached with joyful urgency that life can be radically different; right and left they sent the demons packing; they brought wellness to the sick, anointing their bodies, healing their spirits.” In other words, Jesus sent his disciples out to be prophets: to tell people the “word of the Lord.” To announce what God wanted to do in their lives. To let people know that life can be a joy filled, radiantly healthful experience, no matter what circumstances they were living through, if God was at the center of their lives. And by acts of love, to bring healing to those who needed it. God wants us to share the good news with others. God wants us all to be prophets. God wants us to being healing to others. The call to the life of a prophet is not exceptionally good news. Look at what happened to prophets down through the ages. Prophets were jeered at. They were locked up, they were pelted with stones. Many of them gave their lives. In the Old Testament passage that we heard today, we hear what a tough assignment it is to be a prophet. God doesn’t mince words with the prophet Ezekiel. God says that the people are stubborn and wayward, and that they won’t listen to God – but God says, “Ezekiel, I want you to go out there and give it a shot”! Poor Ezekiel! But again, God wanted Ezekiel to be dependent on God alone for his ministry. The point was to travel light. The point was to trust in God alone. The point was to not boast in one’s own abilities. The point is that in our weakness, God shows His strength. The point is that we are the means and the message. St Paul understood this concept well. He often preached on this subject. He had some affliction of his own which he referred to as “a thorn in the flesh” that kept him humble, and dependent on God. All too easily we humans fall prey to hubris when we leave God out of our lives. Things go well for a while and we begin to think that we aren’t doing too badly, and that we are pretty talented really. We might even become so successful that we begin to imagine that we are above the law! And then the next thing you know you have fallen; tripped over your own inflated ego. History is strewn with examples: Richard Nixon, Jim Bakker, and more recently Bernard Madoff. Hubris, or pride, is a very human sin. It is not only high profile people who suffer from it. All of us think we can go it alone, and that we don’t need God’s help. All of us resist travelling lightly and depending on God for direction, for food, for shelter, for safety. The odd thing is that travelling light offers us
3 amazing freedom! Travelling light allows us the freedom to become who God wants us to be. And God wants us all to be prophets, to spread the good news to everyone we meet. We have no need to fear because God takes our perceived weakness and makes it into His strength. Recently someone I know well visited the birthplace of Helen Keller in Tuscambia, Alabama, and wrote on facebook “I would like to be as brave and intelligent and determined and thoughtful as Helen Keller was. Only without the blind and deaf part.” I happen to know that the author of that statement had her tongue planted firmly in her cheek when she wrote it, because of course, you cannot separate what Helen Keller became from her physical infirmities. Helen’s deafness and blindness was her “thorn in the flesh.” They were the conditions that shaped her into the wise and wonderful woman that she became. They were what kept her dependent on God. Through Helen’s weakness she found God’s strength. And through Helen’s own life the world saw that being joyful and radiant was not a product of life’s circumstances, but it was a product of reliance on God. For many of us the idea of trusting in God as totally as Jesus wants us to do is fraught with fear. We are afraid that we might suffer hardship and deprivation. Helen Keller understood that a life lived in fear was no life at all. She wrote, “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. “ Life with God is always a daring adventure! You never know what will come next. You can plan and, as my Jewish friends, say “God will laugh”! But for those of us who instinctively feel the need to pack that extra tunic in our luggage, just in case, God offers a wonderful promise of freedom. Leave the extra baggage behind! Take just your staff and the clothes on your back, and go out into the world trusting in God’s provision! You yourself are the message and the means of the message. God will turn your weakness into his own strength. You need nothing more than the faith that God always keeps his word and will provide whatever you need. There is true freedom in traveling light. Go with God. Amen.