So, Jesus is sending his disciples out and he's ordering them to travel light. Just the clothes on their back and don't add layers. Trust in the journey he seems to be saying. Trust in me. Trust that I will take care of you as we move along.
Man, this is hard.
I pack for a journey. Even when I go to spend a night or two in Hamilton with the dogs, I pack like I'll be gone a week. I make sure I have my phone, my laptop, my Kindle; phone charger, laptop charger, Kindle charger. Daytime pills, nighttime pills. Work shoes, gym shoes, sandals. Several tunics. Stop and get some beer, maybe some China King. And so often, I get part way down the road and have to turn back because I forgot something.
By the time I get there, it takes three trips to the car to unload. I pack. Traveling light is so foreign to me.
But that's what Jesus tells his followers to do. And here's the thing. Sometimes Jesus is crafty. Sometimes he says one thing but also means something else. Something that only comes to us later, after we sit and think about it.
On the surface, he's telling us that we need to be moving about, town to town, door to door, telling people about God, healing them. And if the door gets slammed in their face, get moving. Don't be burdened with all the baggage you take on a trip. Git! There's another door to knock on.
But I think Jesus is telling us something else here. Like most people today, we Episcopalians communicate with others in the village differently than we once did. We don't knock on doors as much (who knows what’s behind them), and we get skittish or annoyed when someone just pops up on our own doorstep. What do they want? I was just about to take a nap. The house is a mess.
Instead we insulate ourselves with convenience and connectivity. We email; we text; we publish our opinions on Facebook; we share our every thought on Twitter; and when all else fails, we leave a message on the phone. Heaven forbid that we actually take the time it takes to sit down and have a conversation.
And friends, as I've been saying a lot since I’ve been here, I think that our lives today are weighed down with the baggage of too much chattering, trying to be clever, and not enough listening to the simple, quiet voice of God.
Now I'm no Luddite, wanting to get rid of all technology, but I don't think we understand the baggage our spirits get burdened with nowadays with all this instant communication, our continual connection to the vast, open chasm of noise. Passing judgments before we even hear the conversation.
It happens all the time. People in power declaring elections a failure even before folks get a chance to take office. People in our lives, in our communities, declaring others to be somehow less human, more sinner than sinning, before they even get to know them as children of God. I mean, even at the most basic level, how many times do we find ourselves thinking of responses before the person talking finishes a sentence, not even giving them that common courtesy.
And, folks, Christians can be the worst of the lot. Bibles come out and the verses start flying. And it's so easy to pick and choose verses to go whatever which way we want with any issue. If you want to raise taxes, then we should render unto Caesar. If we want to lower taxes, Exodus says the rich shall not give more, nor the poor less, than half a shekel. If you want slavery, take your pick. If you want to subjugate women, there are verses all over. Context schmontext.
We've all heard these arguments, flinging one verse against the other, seeing which wins most support. And we get verse piled on verse, and outrage piled on outrage, and anger building on anger. And all that weighs us down.
And suddenly we have all these demons taking residence in our souls. And we stop seeing each other as human beings with different opinions. We no longer remember that you don't have to be wrong for me to be right. We no longer accept 75% agreement – or 90%, or even 99%--, we no longer agree to disagree and just stand side by side before God. . . it has to be total agreement with my opinions and postings and tweetings and emails, or you are somehow less than human.
And conversation stops. Getting to know each other as Children of God stops. Honoring another as followers of Christ stops. We no longer even make it to the doors of the village to knock because all our spiritual junk has weighed us down in the middle of the street, and we can't move.
And what gets squashed under all that weight is the very reason Jesus sent his disciples out to begin with. Bringing people to God by loving them and offering them healing balm. This great commission Jesus lays on his followers is just another way of stating the Two Great Commandments: Love God and love your neighbor. Love God by LOVING your neighbor. Love God and your neighbor by sloughing off all this spiritual junk in your life and moving lightly through the world unencumbered with prejudiced, preconceived notions of others, trying to love those who disagree with you, . . . but also THOSE YOU DISAGREE WITH.
It is hard to do, but it is what we are called to do. And the thing about it? The thing I fully believe? When we try to do it...when we practice what Jesus preaches, it begins to work. We begin to see each other as Children of God, as parts of the body of Christ. And we begin to see how our lives are diminished when we shun each other. And more important, we see how much we are blessed when we embrace each other.
Embracing each other while saying, “Come with me. I have a place to show you where people are actually trying to listen.” Embracing each other while saying, “Come, let's sit down and talk about your concerns.” Embracing each other while hearing what the other one has to say and being open to it and respecting it as coming from the heart. Embracing each other and striving to be a blessing in each others' lives.
So many of us in this world find so little of in lives to be truly counted as a blessing. And, as I interpret my vows as a priest, the sacraments that I perform all involve bestowing blessings. And as I interpret our baptismal vows, we are all called to be blessings and to bless the lives of others.
As I look around, I see so many of you that I have come to love in such a short time. More than I could have imagined. You have been a blessing to me, and I am so happy to be with you as we move forward, striving to be a church that is about blessing lives with the love and life of Christ.
Love God and love your neighbor. Sloughing off all that baggage we carry, we can walk a long way together. And our feet may get dusty, but we keep our souls light, relying on God's love to sustain us. And there at the end of the journey are the open arms of Jesus Christ, embracing us, blessing us, and welcoming us home.