4^th Sunday after Pentecost

July 7, 2019

“Travel Light”

St. Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

“Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals…” St. Luke 10:4a

May be quoted with permission.

Contact:  kennstorck@gmail.com

How long have you lived in your house – 5, 10, 15, 20 years?  Raise your and if it has been more than 20 years!  We accumulate a lot of stuff – unnecessary, often sentimental stuff and we need to have a rummage sale.  We have lots of stuff in our basement – some of it means something to me – but my children will find it useless.  Stuff can weigh us down and prevent us from moving ahead.

Episcopal Bishop Mark Dyer (1930-2014) recognizes that every 500 years there is a major upheaval in society and the church.  He names these periods of upheaval giant “rummage sales” in which the church rids itself of what is no longer needed and rediscovers treasures it had forgotten.  We are in such a 500 year period. 

Think of it: 500 years ago at Luther’s time the world was in an upheaval.  The earth was no longer flat. The three story universe gone.  A new world was discovered.  Nation states were beginning to form.  The printing press made information more available.  The Reformation had begun. The church was in a quandary.  It had a rummage sale.

Today think of it:  We are at a 500 year mark.  We are a pale blue dot in a universe of 100 billion galaxies.  We are discovering a myriad of exoplanets where there may be life.  Will we embrace globalization or retreat into tribes?  Like Gutenberg's printing press the internet and I-phones have changed our way of communicating.  

The church is declining and in a quandary.  We have a lot of old stuff in our basement or attic.  We are in the midst of a 'rummage sale.' 

The church of the 21^st Century is being challenged to look at its stuff and what needs to be kept, revised, or thrown out.  We are in the midst of a transition and great change. 

In the Gospel reading appointed for today Jesus sends out 70 disciples.  Their mission is to participate in the nearness of God’s kingdom by preaching, teaching, and healing. 

And what are they to take along – no purse, no bag, no extra set of sandals.  In other words they are to depend on the hospitality of strangers and God’s providence.  Don’t clutter the mission with lots of stuff. 

If their ministry is accepted they give thanks and move on.  If their ministry is rejected, they simple shake the dust off their one pair of sandals they are wearing and move on.  They are empowered for the mission.  They are enough.  They bring enough.

Who are the 70?  We don’t know.  But other parts of Luke’s Gospel give us clues.  Could they have been some of the women who were following him, or members of the crowd who were moved to step forward?  Or the two Emmaus disciples featured in a resurrection story at the end of Luke.

Whoever they are they are given explicit instructions on how to proceed with proclaiming ‘the Kingdom of God has come near.’

One thing we can take away from this text is a message about stuff.  About the church’s current rummage sale. What unnecessary things do we cling to in our lives?  What about the rummage we need to put out in the life of the church? 

Are there things that we hold onto or attitudes that hinder or get in the way of the true purpose and mission of the church? 

It was an Episcopal Church in New York City in the Harlem District.  The priest was concerned about the kind of people that surrounded the church and how to take care of the beautiful sanctuary. 

William Stringfellow, lay theologian, attorney, and author, who lived at a tenement house in the slum of Harlem challenged the priest:  “Sell the gold cross, pawn the silver vessels and use those assets to rebuild this neighborhood!”

Stringfellow after his graduation from Harvard Law School had moved to a slum tenement in Harlem, New York City to work among poor African-Americans and Hispanics.

He saw his church as carrying too much baggage to be an effective witness to the Gospel and challenged his priest for the church and its leaders to conduct a rummage sale.

Pam Hillenbrand, Priest at Emmanuel Episcopal here in Rockford, shared this incident as she announced her retirement to fellow clergy several years ago. (I have her permission to share this).  She received this note from one of her parishioners:

“Congratulations and blessings on your retirement.  Please put back the pews before you leave!” 

The back-story: through a long process with her parish council and the entire congregation pews had been removed in the back of church near the entrance to make room for the baptismal font.

After a sufficient time for study and education the leaders explained that the pews are being removed to make room for the baptismal font at the entrance to the sanctuary. 

Removal of the pews made the narthex (entrance) of the church less crowded and a better place for hospitality.

Such a move enhanced the area for the ministry of Word and Sacrament.  Yet upon her retirement she gets a serious note about putting the pews back!

Stuff – church stuff – gets in the way of Christ’s call in proclaiming ‘the Kingdom of God is near.’  One can appreciate why most millennials are not interested in church.  As individuals, as a church what baggage do we cling to that gets in the way of following the Christ?

Andrea Wight – retired rector at St. Anskar Episcopal Church tells her story of her mission trips to Haiti.  Andrea is a licensed pharmacists as well as a priest. She goes to Haiti for about week each spring to help distribute medicine.  She goes with a group of people – some going for the first time.

At an orientation session she lifts up a small back pack – light in weight and easy to carry.  She tells the novices:  “Everything you need for this trip should fit in this back pack.  The hospitality of the people will take care of you!” 

When in mission and serving others we are called to travel light.

In a past issue of The Lutheran, (now called ‘Living Lutheran) magazine there is an ad by the

Mission Investment Fund:

Putting People into a home of their own…

Now that’s an extraordinary investment.

Gethsemane Lutheran Church Seattle, Washington.

The AD begins with this question:

Tear down your parish hall and build a homeless shelter in its place?  That’s exactly what Gethsemane Lutheran Church did, using a loan from the Mission Investment Fund…It is an investment that gives a whole new meaning to the words ‘home sweet home.’

What about us?  Are we willing to sell the silver?  Are we open to rearranging pews?  Are we able to travel light in one back pack as a church to be in mission for the Kingdom?  Dare we tear town a parish hall?  Does ‘stuff’ get in the way?  What will the rummage sale be like?

In most mainline traditions pastors are trained in seminaries.  They get the equivalent of 8 years of college and graduate with a Master of Divinity Degree. 

Part of pastoral care training includes an internship and what is known as CPE – Clinical Pastoral Education.  CPE typically takes place at a hospital or another care institution and includes peer evaluations in group sessions. 

A woman clergyperson came to each session disclosing to her peer group how inadequate she felt in regards to the situations she had to minister to in the course of her rounds.  She seldom knew the families or had time to study the background.  She felt she was not making any difference.

In a group session she shared her concerns and her feelings of inadequacy.  One of her colleagues stood up on a chair in the midst of the group and exclaimed: 

“You are enough and you bring enough!”

“You are enough and you bring enough!”

What he was saying is that the power of God’s compassion happens through us.  We do not need all sorts of stuff to prop us up.  In Christ, we are enough and we bring enough.

So the question for today is look at your stuff – as an individual – as a church.  Does the stuff of certain attitudes or what we think makes for church stifle Christ’s call to preach, teach, and heal?

Just maybe we need to shed some of our ‘stuff.’  The church indeed needs to conduct a 21^st Century rummage sale.

Then remember with little or nothing that God in Christ empowered the disciples who brought grace, compassion, forgiveness and healing to others. 

Every time we or anyone else is involved in reconciliation, forgiveness, or healing - the forces of evil – the powers of domination - fall like a flash of lightning.

Remember that in Christ:  ‘You are enough and you bring enough’ to the situations that need hope and healing.

Amen