"Excess Baggage"

Matthew 10:1-16

A Sermon Preached by The Rev. Douglas M. Donley

March 18, 2001

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

It is truly wonderful to be here amongst you great people. It’s been a long time coming hasn’t it? I want to thank the people who helped make the move smooth. Ann Mavity for the hospitality; the Roys and Joyce Deboe for the sleeping bags and mattresses while we camped out; Tai Shagaki, Harriet Johnson, Betty & Denise Roy for unpacking; Denise Roy, Ann Mavity, Harriet and Cork Johnson for child care; Terri Wottrich, Dan Murphy, Doug Roy, and Cork Johnson for construction and destruction in preparation for the arrival of our stuff; and of course, Joyce Deboe, Jean Lubke, Nancy Myers, Sarah Campbell, the Johnsons, the Wottrich’s, Paula Moyer and Dan Murphy for the food; Paula Moyer for the logistics and the Search Committee for making it all happen. We are overwhelmed by your generosity and support.

We’ve been dealing with boxes for the past few months. It’s been six years since we moved last and then we didn’t have any kids. We have more stuff than we know what to do with. It’s almost obscene, he says knowing confession is good for the soul.

Even though we took pains to reduce the amount of baggage we would take here through garage sales and donations to friends and charity. We still moved over six tons of stuff. Who needs all of that? Even now, we’re setting stuff aside for our next garage sale. I hear tell it thaws by June around here?

While we waited for the movers to eventually show up with our stuff, we had the chance to reflect on the stuff of our lives. While we enjoy all of our belongings, it is really just stuff. In the scheme of things, it’s not real important. Our health, our sanity, our community, our relationship with God and each other that’s the important stuff. But you know, sometimes our stuff gets in the way of our health. Sometimes our baggage gets a little heavy to carry and we don’t have a free hand to tend to the real important stuff. I encourage you to think about the excess baggage you might carry around in your life.

Today's gospel recounts the commissioning of the twelve disciples to do acts of mercy and healing. He was very concerned that they do the gospel for the gospel’s sake. They needed to leave their physical and mental and emotional baggage behind. They weren’t always successful, but they tried. Jesus then tells the disciples to do their ministry for free. Jesus tells them to take no gold or silver or copper in their belts. That means, no currency. No money. He also said to take no baggage, no walking stick, no tunics and no shoes.

I have always been intrigued by this passage. Especially as I look at the clutter in my life, I am moved by Jesus' encouragement of us to live simply. That is the message which leaps out to me from today's gospel. The environmentalist in me hears the phrase, "live simply so that others may simply live." The disciples had all sorts of baggage. Being a disciple was hard enough work. Doing this simplicity thing just about put them over the edge. They had differing needs that they wanted Jesus to fulfill. They had different personalities. They had different backgrounds. But Jesus kept refocusing them.

"Take nothing with you, just the bare essentials and if you don’t know what to say, ask the Holy Spirit for guidance and the words will dance off your tongue. Leave your excess baggage behind. You’re on a holy mission. The rewards and trappings of this world are called traps for a reason. Be wise as serpents and gentle as doves."

I love to backpack. I love being able to carry all of my stuff on my back. I love to fend for myself and look toward the bare necessities of life. With no TV or radio or pavement, I can live free and I cannot escape from looking deeply at myself. I have had many a religious experience while backpacking. I find a renewed sense of focus and centering.

Henry David Thoreau's words from Walden ring clear for me:

There was a time, when I was much younger, that I used to pride myself on how much weight I could carry. When backpacking with a group of people, I would take more than my share of supplies because I could do anything. Secretly, I wanted the recognition. I wanted the feeling of importance. I wanted the control that carrying all that weight brought to me.

I find I'm still like that, more than I want to be. I still try to carry a lot on my shoulders; in my head, on my back. I know intellectually that this is not good for me, for my family or for the church. But I still do it anyway. It is part of the Protestant work ethic which has forgotten Jesus simple words of commissioning. "Carry no bag. Be weighted down by no money. Don't gussy yourself up in fancy clothes especially if that is going to be used as a crutch to hide your own insecurity."

I learned this week the damage excess baggage in the form of snow can do to your house. After noticing leaks in the basement, I spent a good bit of Tuesday afternoon on my roof shoveling through four feet of accumulated snow. We don’t see things like this in San Francisco. Getting rid of the excess prevented more damage to our home.

There is an advantage or two to getting rid of excess baggage. First of all, your life gets simpler. There is less stuff to cart all over the place. There is less clutter in your life. There is presumably more time and energy to focus upon the important things. Jesus encouraged us who would be his disciples to travel light through the highways and the byways of this life. If you travel light, you can make a pretty quick exit. When you travel light, you have to rely upon what is inside of you, not so much what is decorating your appearance.

As many of you know, Dolores Street Baptist Church was destroyed by fire many years ago. They worshipped until recently in a storefront shared by a community group. As part of their discernment process, they asked different congregations what things they might really need in order to make the space sacred. A Mennonite congregation said, "Nothing really. The space should be simple and versatile. We don't really need anything. We would like to have things like light and non-fixed seating, a baptistery and a place for storage, but we don't need anything." The Quaker hymn saying "‘tis a gift to be simple ‘tis a gift to be free..." came to mind. When you live simply without the clutter, there is something very freeing that happens.

There is nothing wrong with having things to enhance our lives together. But the things must never take priority over the people.

Think about the things that clutter your lives. Think about what might weigh you down. Think about the burdens you carry that keeps you from doing what you want to do, or being who you want to be. Think about what you carry with you from move to move, from job to job, from relationship to relationship. "Are ye weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?" asks the old hymn, "Precious Savior still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer" comes the answer.

When we are full, there is little room for God to come in. But God is clamoring to come in to grant us health, wholeness and hope. Think about one place where you can remove clutter in your life. One less bag that you need to carry around. One less millstone around your neck. If you can just remove one piece of clutter, then you have begun the process of freeing yourself up to be the child of God that you are. Many people use the seven weeks leading up to Easter which we call LENT to remove clutter.

Clutter is tempting. Living complicated lives is exactly what we do. If our lives are not complicated, then we are prone to think that there is something wrong with us.

The Apostle Paul, or whoever wrote the letter to the Ephesians encourages us in the fourth chapter to rid ourselves of the diversionary clutter which we hold in our souls. Only when we do that, he implies, can we be free to live a gospel lifestyle.

It’s all about priorities.

A professor was giving a seminar to a bunch of type-A workaholics. People defined by and proud of their baggage. He said, "I have a test for you." He pulls out a big jar and says, "is this jar full or empty."

The students look around and say, "Empty".

"Right" says the professor. He then takes a few large rocks that will just barely fit through the top of the jar. He fills the jar with these large rocks. He asks again, "Is this jar full now?"

A few people say "yes."

But he pulls out a bag of small stones and starts pouring the stones into the jar and they magically fit in the nooks and crannies near the larger rocks. He asks again, "Is this jar full now?" They start catching on. "No."

"Right" shouts the professor. He then takes a bag of sand and pours it into the jar. After a few shakes even he is surprised at how much sand fits in the now very heavy jar. Again he asks, "It is full?"

"No", is the reply.

"Right". He then takes water and fills it with water until it almost overflows. "Now is it full?"

"Uh, yeah" say the type A’s.

"What’s the point of this?" asks the professor.

"That even though you may think there is not enough room in your life, there is always room for more?"

"That you can handle more than you think you can?"

"Never say Never?"

"No", says the professor. "The point is that you could never fit everything into the jar unless you put the large rocks in first. So here’s the question: Are your rocks in the right place? Do you focus more upon the sand and the water or do you focus on the rocks?" The rocks are the big things, the important things. Everything else is baggage. And if it prevents you from attending to the rocks, it might just be excess baggage.

Sisters and brothers, the role of a Christian is to put the rocks in the right place.

The rock of a Christian is to follow Jesus.

The rock of a Christian is to sacrifice to the work of God and not the work of empire.

The rock of Christian is to live with integrity.

The rock of a Christian is to celebrate every moment of this life as a gift from God.

Your burdens, your worries, your old life, your workaholism, your despair and cynicism, your concern about what others think of you, your judgementalism and your apathy, those are all sand and water.

My life is often so busy and so cluttered that I do not always take the time to reconnect with God. I’m used to carrying the big load, much of which is made of pebbles and sand. I forget that we are supposed to do this work barefoot and without two tunics and with no baggage at all.

Last night, as I was thinking about all of you and the adventure upon which we are embarking together, I sat in the living room of our less cluttered house which will soon be a home. The rest of the family was in bed, and I sat there in the darkness, looking a the things of our lives which have brought us to this place, reflecting on the memories that each item holds, chuckling at the excess and thankful for the help. I looked and saw the rockers we brought back from Nicaragua; the stereo speakers I purchased with money from my first job out of college; the dining room set inherited from my grandparents; the piano on which Kim learned to play; the fountain I gave to Kim last mother’s day and the Winnie the Pooh table for the Amanda and Rebecca. And I sat in a moment of prayerful thanksgiving for all that I have and prayerful discernment for the coming day and week. Our house is so filled with activity that there is seldom time to stop and consciously connect with the Spirit of God.

I need the Spirit's presence to reconnect me with my real purpose for doing this work. It is to proclaim that the reign of God is at hand; to recognize and proclaim that the Spirit is present. To proclaim that there is life and it is good life available to everyone. It is even more available when we loose those ties that bind us from experiencing the healing and freeing power of Christ.

I'm going to take some time this week, and I hope you will too, to reconnect with God and get the rocks of my life in order.

Sisters and brothers, take a moment now and then to remember your calling.

Take time out from your cluttered lives and let God in to remind you of the miracle that you are.

Let God speak to you and free you.

Then we can truly walk in discipleship.

When we get rid of all that baggage, then we walk more upright, more sure-footed and more empowered to be the body of Christ in the world. And that’s what we seek in our individual lives and our lives together as a church community.

Jesus picked out 12 people some of whose names were Simon, Phillip, Bartholomew. Others were named Dodie and Bea and John and Don and Mindy and Michael and Nancy and Jean and Jim and Harriet and he said "take no gold or copper or silver, no tunics or shoes or a staff: no baggage." But instead set yourself free with the truth that sets all free. For that is what brings salvation in this world and the next.

Amen.

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