Traveling Light
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Luke 9:1 - 6
October 30, 2011
David C. Wright

         When our kids were in high school, our Youth Director took the youth group winter backpacking for a few days right after Christmas each year.  Our kids always went.  They loved the challenge of winter backpacking.  They would find their way on snow-covered trails, push through drifts, and set up their tents in the snow!  They came home with horror stories about socks frozen so solid that they clinked when you hit them together, going to bed at 8PM because all you wanted to do was get in a warm sleeping bag, and the time our daughter took our dog, Maggie along, who was so cold that she slept on top of Melissa all night!  I preferred to sit at home near the woodstove, drinking hot cocoa! 
Anyway, several days before the trip, the kids would have to pack their backpacks and bring them to the church for inspection.  Steve Cort, the youth director, would go through each pack, making sure they had the required items.  But he would also remove all the items that they didn’t really need!  (like hair care products & nice clothes.)  He even found a curling iron one time!  Steve knew that the kids would never make it through the hardships of the trip, if they were carrying too heavy a pack, so he helped them remove anything that wasn’t essential.
          In this morning’s Scripture lesson (Luke 9:1-6), Jesus is preparing his disciples for some trips of their own.  And he also provides them with packing advice! 
Then Jesus* called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. 3He said to them, ‘Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic. 4Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. 5Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.’ 6They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.
The disciples have been with Jesus for some time.  They’ve watched and assisted him.  Now it’s their turn to do some ministry on their own.  Jesus gives them authority and power to accomplish their mission, which is to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.  But he wants them to travel light.  They weren’t even to bring a travel bag.  They didn’t need it!  They weren’t to bring food or even money to buy food.  Not even an extra shirt!  Instead they were to trust that God would arrange for their housing and food in the villages they visited.  If they were rejected, they were to simply move on to the next place.
          This was a kind of experiment in trusting God to provide for their needs.  It was a spiritual adventure!  And because they carried no stuff with them, they were able to move quickly, unencumbered by the load of extra possessions.   They were traveling light.
          As I thought about this passage, I was reminded that we too have been given a mission, along with the authority to accomplish it.  Jesus’ Great Commission, found in Matt. 28, instructs us to go and make disciples of all nations.  Our Visioning and Planning team has taken that mission seriously, and has made making disciples the focus of our ministry here at GPC.  So we have a mission.  And, like the disciples, we are on a journey, not a literal journey, but a spiritual journey with the Lord.  So, what might traveling light look like for us?  Here are a couple ideas.
          Money and possessions are burdens for us, as they were for those early disciples.  In a Pearls before Swine comic strip, Rat is talking with Goat.  He says, “Here’s the thing…you grow up with huge dreams…dreams of fame and travel and awards and romance and immortality…Then one day you wake up and find your life is nothing more than a string of Saturdays spent at “Home Depot.”  When did new vinyl windows replace my dreams?”  We sometimes try to substitute material things for our real dreams and needs.  And then we have to spend more money and time trying to protect our things.  We must maintain them, insure them, and store them.  Thomas Naylor, a retired professor at Duke University, said, “Modern families work themselves to exhaustion to pay for stuff that sits around not being used.”  And the irony is that all our wealth and stuff doesn’t make us happy. 
A recent study tried to determine in which countries people were happiest.  Here are the top five:  Nigeria, Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, and Puerto Rico.  There doesn’t seem to be a link between wealth and happiness in the study, does there?  Yet, many of us focus a great deal of our energy on accumulating more and more stuff.  But it doesn’t make us happy; it simply weighs us down!  Jesus is inviting us to set some of our stuff aside to lighten our load for the journey.  In fact, our stewardship campaign is an opportunity to do just that.  To entrust some of our possessions to the Lord, trusting that he will provide for us.  Can you lighten the load of your material things?
          Or, how about setting down our guilt?  Jesse Jacobs has created an apology hotline.  People who are unable or unwilling to confess their wrongdoing in person can call his hotline and leave a message of apology in his voicemail.  People have confessed everything from adultery to embezzlement.  One caller remarked, “I hope this apology will cleanse me and basically purify my soul… God knows, I need it.” 
Friends, there is a better way to purify your soul than an apology hotline!  God has already forgiven your sin at a great cost.  Yet, some of us are carrying around guilt from things we did decades ago.  There is no need to do that.  As Paul reminds us in Romans 8, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  No condemnation!  If you are carrying around guilt, what you are really carrying is false guilt.  The real guilt has been taken care of, and you are not condemned for what you have done!  No condemnation.  Remove the guilt from your pack!
          Some of us would also benefit from removing fear from our packs.  In early 2005, Bonnie and I spent a month in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico while I taught a course in the Presbyterian seminary there.  One day we visited the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza.  There is a very high, steep pyramid there.  Bonnie wanted to climb it.  Since I had done so several times before, I waited on the ground.  I watched her climb slowly to the top.  Then she stopped.  I assumed that she was resting or just enjoying the view.  But after a while, I became a little frustrated when she remained at the top, since a friend was waiting for us in the parking lot!  The distance was too great for her to hear me, but I pointed at my watch and jumped up and down a little bit.  There was no response.
Finally, I saw her begin a very slow descent, aided by some kind of walking stick.  I had no idea where she got the stick.  After a very long time, I met her at the bottom.  She grabbed me in a tight bear hug, physically shaking as she did.  It turns out that when she reached the top, the height and steepness of the steps overwhelmed her and she just froze.  That’s why she stayed so long up there- she couldn’t move!  Fortunately, another tourist loaned her the walking stick and she was able to painstakingly make her way down.  I probably didn’t help matters when I asked her why she didn’t walk down the other side of the pyramid where there was a rope to hang onto.  Apparently, she didn’t know about the rope!
Fear paralyzes us.  It can keep us from doing not only what we want to do, but also what we need to do.  It can cause us to shy away from the challenging thing God is calling us to.  It can even cause us to deny our faith.  The good news is that God is with us in our fear.  Joshua 1:9 says, “Be strong and courageous;  do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”  Talk to the Lord about your fears.  Ask for the assurance of his presence with you wherever you are, whatever you are doing.  Take fear out of your pack.
          And, how about pride or arrogance?  Those weigh a lot.  A friend of mine is an excellent organist who has done countless weddings and funerals.  He thought he had seen it all when he got a request to conclude one funeral by playing Frank Sinatra’s hit, “I Did It My Way.”  I’m sorry, but that’s the wrong message for a funeral.  The goal of life should be to have done it God’s way, not our way!  Our way just isn’t anything to get too excited about.  It has led to all kinds of evil and violence and broken hearts and poverty in our world!  Instead, learn humility and dependence on the Lord for direction.  Set down your pride.
          Finally, how about the burden of jealousy or envy?  The story is told of some inexperienced demons who were having a great deal of trouble in tempting a godly hermit.  They lured him with every manner of temptation, but nothing worked.  Finally, they returned to Satan, who told them they were being too hard on the monk.  “Instead,” he instructed, “send him some good news.  Take this message to him, ‘Your brother has been made bishop of Antioch.’”  The demons didn’t understand, but complied.  And sure enough, that poor monk fell into a terrible and wicked jealousy over the success of his brother.  Many of us just can’t let go of envy over the success of others.  They got the promotion and we didn’t.  They got the nice house and we didn’t.  Their investments panned out and ours fell flat.  They got the great husband or wife…  Some of us are just eaten up with envy over what we didn’t get.  Spiritually, envy demonstrates a lack of gratitude for the life God has given us and it’s a failure to trust God.  To trust that God has given us what is best for us, and more importantly, what is best to accomplish God’s purposes in the world.  Learn the discipline of contentment.  Set envy and jealousy aside.  Take them out of your pack.

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