Lost Luggage

Luke 4.1-15

Mark 6.4-13

Lost Luggage

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

So, Jesus, let me get this straight:  you want your disciples to go out in the world and do your work, to heal the ailing, welcome the stranger and declare the gospel, and your specific instructions amount to this:  we can’t bring any food with us, we can’t carry any money, no change of clothes, not even a hotel reservation.  Would anybody here undertake a journey like this?  I’m not at all certain I would, and I have a little bit of experience in this kind of thing.  It was right around this time last year, on the cusp of our trip to Greece, that I will admit to having lost a few nights’ sleep when I learned the Greek currency crisis was about to close every bank in the country, on the very day of our arrival, for an indeterminate amount of time, which turned out to be nearly three weeks.  So I can’t begin to imagine what my state of mind would have been if someone had told me that not only would I not have access to cash, but that I couldn’t take any food or any clothing except for what I wore when I left.  Yet essentially, these are Jesus’ instructions to the disciples when he sent them out into the countryside to minister.  “He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.”  And yet guess what?  The disciples were successful – the disciples were successful:  “They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.”  Perhaps it is possible to do God’s work in the world without carrying a lot of baggage.

Dana Ciolli is a childhood friend of my daughter Clare, and was returning from a conference last month in the Virgin Islands when she found herself sitting in the Miami airport, waiting for her connecting flight home to Hartford.  She was flying American Airlines, and had downloaded an app to her phone that let her track her luggage on the trip.  So just to be sure that her bags were on the same track as she was, she opened the app as she sat in the departures lounge, just in time to watch her suitcase taking off for Trinidad and Tobago.  Immediately she went to the closest airline rep and told her what was going on only be given the Zen-like reply, “The app lets us know when mistakes happen; it does not fix them!”  No wonder people try to stuff all their things in a carry-on!

Now, a close look at our text this morning shows there were some good, practical reasons why Jesus sent his disciples out for mission and ministry with so few provisions.  For example, they were told not to bring a bag for the journey because that was something that common street preachers, who were prevalent in those days, often carried with them, begging for money in return for their message.  They were like street performers - they’d put their beggars’ bag out, and stand there and preach, like a busker in Harvard Square.  So Jesus said, don’t bring a bag – that’s not who we are.  He also directed them to bring not to bring any food or a second tunic, which would have been for warmth at nighttime, because Jesus expected them to be reliant on the hospitality of others.  And they didn’t need money because this was to be a missionary journey, not a shopping trip.  Like I said, just underneath the surface of the story lie some good practical reasons to deliver the gospel message practically empty-handed.

But the practical reasons only touch the surface level of the story.  With just a little more imagination we might discover some other, equally sensible explanations for these unusual travel instructions.  For example, taking a lesson from Clare’s friend Dana, you can’t lose your luggage if you don’t bring any, right?  That’s why a lot of travelers put their valuables – jewelry, prescriptions, money and passports – in their carry-ons; the only person responsible for your carry-on is you.  As somebody once said, “Don’t take any more than you need, and you won’t miss what you don’t have.”  But Jesus’ direction to the disciples also suggests that they really aren’t traveling very far.  Yes, they required a place to stay – “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place.”  But most of their work was done in nearby villages, where they could expect to receive hospitality – a welcome, a meal, a roof over their heads.  These were villages and neighborhoods they knew, that were part of their own wider community.  Perhaps the implication here is that some of the most successful work of discipleship can be done not very far from home.  Who are our neighbors?  Who is our community?  These places are where some of the disciples’ most fruitful work was accomplished.

And of course the whole metaphor of excess baggage is at work here as well.  What are the things we carry around with us that we know deep down inside we would be better off without?  Worry and anxiety?  Possessions and prestige?    The weight of the past or the familiarity of the status quo?  What are the things that prevent us from being our best selves, that tempt us to settle for second-best?  What baggage do we carry that keeps us from being true disciples of Jesus Christ?  The things Jesus asked the disciples to forego are worrisome, are they not?  Go out there without food or money or enough layers to stay warm against the chill of night?  Are you serious, Jesus?

This morning after church you and I are going to begin the most exciting and the most possibility- and opportunity-laden chapter of our Crossroads/New Beginnings conversations.  We have already assessed our church’s past and we have taken the measure of our present; this morning we are going to begin both to dream and to design the shape of our future and the continuing ministry of Second Church.  We too are about to embark on a journey not all that different from the one the disciples undertook in Mark’s gospel.  Who are our neighbors?  Who is our community?  And if these are the places where some of the disciples’ most fruitful work was accomplished, then what is the Christ-centered mission and ministry we might undertake that will reveal God’s good news and good deeds within this community of faith, and convey them into the community around us?

And to put it in the context of this morning’s gospel story, what is the luggage, or baggage, we need to take on this journey, and what do we need to let go?  If the disciples’ experience is illustrative, then we need to be prepared to travel lightly.  There are likely to be some things we think we need, because we have always carried them with us before, but these may be the very things that slow us down or prevent us from being fully engaged in God’s mission.  For the disciples, it was food and money and an extra layer – an insurance layer – of clothes.  And I wouldn’t be surprised if the disciples thought to themselves, “That’s crazy talk!  How can we be the church and engage in effective mission without food and money and an extra layer of comfort?”  But here’s the clue:  they were successful – they were successful – precisely because they left behind the things they thought they needed to carry with them.

Our other gospel today is the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.  He too went out into a place set apart without food, without any visible means of support, and came into deep communion with God, when temptation intervened.  What is telling about this encounter is the form the temptations took.  The tempter made Jesus three offers:  he could have food in abundance, he could have kingdoms and wealth, and he could have command of the angels.  But Jesus reminded the tempter that in each instance there was always one thing better:  living by the word is better than living by bread alone; honoring God is greater than the honor and adulation of kingdoms and their glory; and trusting God is superior to commanding all the legions of heaven.  We might say that in each case Jesus was tempted to settle for penultimate glory, for what is only second-best.  But settling for second best was never an option for Jesus, and his insistence on focusing on the realm and righteousness of God led to this conclusion:  “[He] was filled with the power of the Spirit, [he] returned to Galilee… word about him spread through all the surrounding country, [and] he began to teach in the synagogues and was praised by everyone.”

Easy answers will always be tempting.  Quick fixes will always be tempting.  Low-hanging fruit will always be tempting.  Second-best solutions and penultimate proposals will always prove tempting.  But we know from experience, and we know from the disciples’ success in their own ministry, that maintaining our focus on the realm and righteousness of God, and on God’s mission for our church, will lead us, not into temptation, but into the next chapter of life and vitality for Second Congregational Church.  As Tara likes to say, May it be so, dear Lord – may this ever and always be so.

Let us pray.