Rev. Jennifer Whipple
Congregational Church of Brookfield (UCC)
5th Sunday After Pentecost
July 5, 2009
"Things to Bring"
Mark 6:1-13
Prayer:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our minds and hearts
gathered here this day be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord, our Strength and
our Redeemer. Amen.
I have been thinking a lot about "things to bring" lists lately
as we prepare to go on mission trip with the SYF, and I don’t need any extra
fuel to make me think more obsessively about “things to do” or “things to
bring lists”. You can usually find
me walking around the church during the week with a list or two or three in my
hand at any given time, and I am the one who calls after hours on my way home to
leave myself lists on my voicemail too. I
am so obsessive to the point that one late Saturday night when my husband, Ryan,
returned home from work and saw my list of things to bring with me to work the
next day, he woke me up laughing hysterically.
You see, Brayden, our son, was coming with me to work.
And Sundays for me tend to be pretty long days during the program year,
so that meant that I needed things like a change of clothes, lunch and dinner,
anything for Sunday morning for me, and all of those same things for Brayden.
I didn’t want to forget anything, so I packed the necessary bags before
I went to bed, left them by the front door, and made my final list of things to
bring: bags by door, lunch and dinner from fridge, Brayden’s diaper bag,
Brayden’s cooler with bottles and so on. Now
so far that perhaps wouldn’t make anyone laugh, but the last item I wrote down
on my “things to bring” list in BIG letters was – Brayden.
Figuring that it would be a real shame if I brought all of the necessary
items to have him with me that day but not actually Brayden himself.
I tend to overdo it every now and again with my lists, but I do them
because I have forgotten some important stuff in the past whether going out for
a day or for a week away.
So as the obsessive “things to bring” list creator and follower that
I tend to be, Jesus’ list for his disciples in today’s scripture passage
from the gospel of Mark both offers me comfort and brings me anxiety all at the
same time. You see, it’s a short
list – the shorter the list the less things there are to forget, right?
Well therein lies the comfort. But,
at the same point, I am used to a longer list (especially since Brayden arrived
in the world), which means that a list as short as Jesus’s – a staff, a
tunic, and the sandals on your feet – would leave me feeling like I had
forgotten something, I am sure. That
is all at once the tragedy and comedy of how we live our lives today.
You see, we are so used to stuff – stuff in our houses, stuff attached
to us as we leave the house – whether purses or cell phones or I-pods or
organizers, or merely wallets and car keys.
There is a reason why the airlines had to impose the 50-pound limit on
checked luggage. Because even when
we are trying to get away from our stuff, we have the tendency to bring LOTS of
it with us – and often times forget what is most important!
We have a very tough time trusting that when we go anywhere else we may
need to bring just the necessities – or even that we can probably find the
necessities wherever it is that we are going.
The problem there is that we might need to rely on someone else, even if
just for directions to the local CVS. And
yet, here is Jesus telling his disciples, his very own motley crew of “regular
joe’s” that – not only should they bring a very minimal list of items with
them, they should rely on others for the necessities – things like food,
shelter, and water. They were going
out into the world with no place to stay, no idea of how long they would be in
any one location, and not even an extra dollar to be sure that they could cover
the provisions they needed in case they had to do a whole lot of dust shaking on
a particular day. They needed to trust in something beyond themselves.
They needed to trust in the broader community – some of whom may have
already decided to follow Jesus but many of whom perhaps had not.
And, most importantly, they needed to trust in God.
Armed with only the clothes on their back, the shoes on their feet, a
walking staff, and the message of God – they hit the road – ready, willing
and able – going out to call people to repentance and to proclaim the good
news of God. They left understanding
that what they most needed they carried with them in their hearts and spirits
– Jesus’ power to teach and to heal. And
as Rev. Sharron Lucas reminds us in her sermon on this passage titled
“Traveling Light,” “By sending the disciples into the world in pairs
without resources and means, Jesus teaches us a lesson about sharing
responsibility and mutuality. By
learning to accept help as well as give it, the playing field is leveled.
We learn how to be gracious givers and glad receivers.
We learn that all people have something of value to bring to the table.
Most importantly, we learn that to share the good news does not require a
matched set of monogrammed luggage, a credit card, and a go-it-alone attitude.
As stewards of the good news [which weighs nothing but has the power to
save the world] we are called to live in community and to trust God for all good
gifts.”
However, the gospel of Mark also reminds us that doing God’s work does
not come without some difficulty or even at times some opposition.
The work we are called to as God’s people in this world is difficult
work that we need to be prepared, energized, and strengthened for!
The story about Jesus that began today’s passage foreshadows for the
disciples what may just happen to them when they go out and about proclaiming
the message and relying on the hospitality of others – namely that they may be
rejected. Today’s passage began
with Jesus teaching the people of his own hometown in the synagogue.
Now we tend to think about a homecoming as a happy thing – the
opportunity to welcome back a hometown son.
But this homecoming was met with a bit of resentment – after all, who
did Jesus think he was? How did he
become a know it all? And what right
did he have telling them what they should believe and do?
It’s like when you were a teenager, ready to leave the house and
someone in your family told you to take a jacket because it was going to get
cold. Despite the warning you chose
not to, and you were fine with that until you were shivering later and wishing
you had listened - not to your mom -- but to your pesky little brother.
Jesus was like the little brother that no one wanted to have to give any
credit to. He came from a family of
limited means. Rumor very well may
have spread about Mary having been pregnant with him before she was married.
He and his father were both carpenters – and although a good trade –
it often meant leaving town to find work – so people often said that
carpenters were not to be trusted and could not be stable enough family men.
Clearly Jesus had his place in the very hierarchical society of the time.
So, there was no room in the minds of any of the people who had come to
the synagogue that day, that he should be the one teaching them.
And because of their inability to look beyond the difference of class,
Jesus was unable to do much work at all in his hometown – the place where we
might assume he would have loved to have been able to do the most.
Instead he acknowledged their doubt and moved on with his disciples –
sending them out two by two to spread the message even further and to bring
healing and release to many who were in need.
And by his own example he showed them how to act when they were rejected
– not to be violent or inhospitable yourself – but to brush the dirt of that
place off your feet and to move on to the next place all the while hoping and
praying that the spirit might help inspire your hearts and the hearts of those
listening.
I officiated at two very different memorial services this past week, one
for a 36-year-old for a few family members and friends and one for a 75-year-old
whose family down to great-grandchildren were bidding him farewell and peace.
And I was reminded that there is truth to the old saying that, no matter
how old you are or what your circumstances, “you can’t take it with you when
you go.” What you can do is live a
life full of good examples and wisdom – that leaves a legacy behind.
So why not lay it all out on the line while we are here?
Why not give it all we have for God?
Whether our time, talent or treasure – we have the opportunity to be
prophetic in sharing the gospel message, offering a message of hope in an
otherwise dark hour, and showing others what it is that we believe.
As people of faith by sharing our God-given gifts and skills, working to
raise healthy families, offering extravagant hospitality to others, having the
courage to open ourselves up to others despite the fear of rejection, and by
sharing Christian love and the gospel message in thought, word, and deed we will
be able to say that we have done all we can to advance God’s Kingdom on earth
with no regrets.
We may come here today weighed down with the things we bring – some of
those are the material things we find it difficult to do without, while others
are burdens we are able to lift up to God in prayer.
Hopefully while we are here we are able to drop off many of those things
and turn our faces back to God. And
hopefully we are able to leave here a bit lighter, newly refreshed and energized
to go out and do God’s work and will. So
today may we be renewed and refreshed – strengthened in body, mind, and spirit
with the gospel and the meal we will eat together at the table.
May God open our hearts and minds and the hearts and minds of others so
that first we might feel God’s love and power within us and find welcome in
the world and also so that we might share the peace which passes all
understanding and God’s good news with those who need it most.
Amen.
Quote from:
"Traveling Light" by Rev. Sharron Lucas--
http://www.stewardshipoflife.org/Resources/Sharron/2009/sharron_09.06.29.htm
