1 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures for ever. 2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
those he redeemed from trouble 3 and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south. 4 Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to an inhabited town; 5 hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them. 6 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress; 7 he led them by a straight way,
until they reached an inhabited town. 8 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wonderful works to humankind. 9 For he satisfies the thirsty,
and the hungry he fills with good things.
43 Let those who are wise give heed to these things,
and consider the steadfast love of the Lord.
What does this psalm say about God?
Does this psalm get me thinking about Jesus?
What emotions do I notice in this psalm? When have I felt the same way?
Does this psalm comfort me or challenge me?
Is there one verse that particularly speaks to me? Why? Consider memorizing this verse to carry with you for the upcoming week.
Grace to you and peace from God our father and from our
Lord and savior Jesus the Christ, amen.
When I worked for three summers as a camp counselor at a
Lutheran Bible camp in central Wisconsin, we were strongly recommended to pack
for the summer what we could bear to carry in one trip. We would be moving from
one cabin to another, living in a different cabin every week, and so hauling
and setting up our stuff was a weekly chore. Some of us held to this
recommendation … while others… not so much. And sometimes, it felt like our
campers, who were only with us for 5 days, had packed more for that week than WE had for the entiresummer.
Now, just two weeks ago, as I prepared for a synod event
– which happened to be hosted by Cross Roads Camp in northwest Jersey –I
realized that I had put three books in my bag. For an event that was for 24
hours. But did I take them OUT of my bag when I realized how silly this was? Nope, I left them in
there! I felt like I needed to bring them… you know. JUST IN CASE.
Yes, I used my actual purse
There is a game on an improv show called “Whose Line is
It Anyway,” that is based on the cast members borrowing two handbags from the
audience and creating a skit based on what they find in there. And the stuff they pull out… Shoes, dental
floss, cardigans, earbuds, q-tips, sun hats, empty water bottles, bags and bags
of snacks. And wee laugh at how ridiculous it is… but really, are the rest of
us any different? Like that one credit card commercial that asks “What’s in
your wallet?”… What’s do you have in
your purse, wallet, backpack, or
car?
It’s only fair that I pick on myself for a moment… Besides the usual car keys, church keys, wallet, and cell phone, I have
tissues, hand sanitizer, some pens, lip balm, an extra collar insert, my tablet
with my calendar and a Bible app, and usually at least on book that I’m
reading, of course! This week I also have with me a VBS CD, since we just had ours this
past week. So, for the most part, pretty standard stuff. But still. It’s a lot
of stuff in there.Just in case… (During the first service when I took out my purse to show this stuff, my sermon flew off when I set it on the pulpit! Too much stuff in there!)
Unless you have one of these.
Being ready and prepared is a good thing, but there comes a point where we can be TOO prepared, which
can hinder rather than help us. Because if we wait until we
are absolutely the most prepared we can ever be before we agree to do anything or go anywhere, we would never actually get started, and we would miss what God has in store
for us.
The kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus is on a mission, and
is getting people on board, though as we witnessed last week some would-be
followers were more ready than others to get with the program. The upside is
that this week, we hear that the
harvest is athand, the people are ready
to hear the good news of God’s love and forgiveness, and there is so much work
to do to get ready that Jesus needs help. Jesus has already called his core
group of twelve disciples, but he needs all hands on deck for the harvest,
people. This is getting so big so fast, that Jesus needs even MORE people to
help him, seventy more to be exact.
Jesus chooses them, buddies them up two by two, gives
then their marching orders, and then recommends a packing list for them too.
Only… Jesus’ packing list is very, very short. Too short for our liking, in
fact. We also have to remember that in Jesus’ time, there was no Motel 6 or
Hilton to sleep at, McDonald’s, Panera, or Shoprite to get food along the way,
or a local Target in case you forgot to pack your toothbrush.
So when Jesus told the seventy NOT to pack a bag, NOT to
bring an extra change of clothes, or even a pair of shoes, NOT to bring extra
snacks or food, and no changing houses if the owner snores. Jesus UN-equips
them, to make then totallydependent on the hospitality of those
who are hearing the good news and being healed. Which seems pretty foolish. Why
would Jesus do that? Because he is
sending them to be physicalembodiments of what is means to be totallydependent on
God.
And amazingly, it worked.
The seventy came back reporting with great joy that even the forces of evil
were responding and getting out of the way of the kingdom. The harvest is being
received, the good news spread, and the kingdom is coming near. All this they
accomplished WITHOUT being prepared to the gills with floss, hand sanitizer, or
extra snacks. All this they accomplished while bringing absolutelynothing with
them.
All this for Jesus to show us that it’s not WHAT we bring
with us that matters. Instead, it’s WHO we bring that matters, isn’t it?
That’s why Jesus send out seventypeople do to the
work of the kingdom… and he sent them out TWO by TWO. No one was alone in this
work. They had a huge support network of others to lean on, and someone else
physically with them, so that they could care for each other when things got
tough, like when they entered a town where they were not welcome. And they also
had someone else along to share in the joys as well.
Because Jesus didn’t promise that the following him would
make our lives stress-free and comfortable, or that doing his work would be
easy. But Jesus does provide people along the way to help us through when (and not if) times get tough.
Too often though, we get caught up in thinking that we’ll
be successful at making it through life depending on how prepared we are, if we have enough,
and what we bringalong with us. But what we own can
often weight us down and hold us back. Even as the culture around us tells us
the exact opposite – all the time we are told to had bigger purses, wallets,
cars, houses, storage units, all in the name of “just in case.”
And there are also non-physical things that we carry with
us that weigh us down, too – Fear, anxiety, worry, depression, despair,
impatience, addiction, apathy, anger, hostility… all this things are HEAVY to
carry around with us, aren’t they? Really, too heavy for us to bear all by
ourselves on a daily basis.
At the end of his letter to the Galatians, we heard Paul
encourage his divided congregation to bear one another’s burdens. I recently
saw this illustrated perfectly in a movie I watched called “Inside Out.” This
may be an animated movie, but it is not
JUST for kids! Most of the movie happens inside the head of an eleven year old
girl named Riley, where we meet her five emotions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger,
and Disgust. Sadness and Joy find themselves lost deep in Riley’s brain while
on a mission to get back some of her formative memories. On their quest, they
come across Riley’s imaginary friend Bing Bong, who leads them to something
called the Train of Thought which will get them back to where they’re supposed
to be. Along the way to the train, the three watch in horror as Bing Bong’s
beloved rocket wagon gets plunged into the Memory Dump, to be forgotten by
Riley forever. Bing Bong, overwhelmed with grief that Riley might have outgrown
him, sits down and is unable to go on. Joy is very impatient to get back, so
she tries to distract him from his feelings, by tickling him and making funny
faces. Which didn't work.
Sadness, however, stops. She sits down next to him. She
says to him, “I’m sorry they took your rocket. They took something that you
loved. And it’s gone. Forever…” Then, she listened to him. Then, she held him
as he cried his candy tears on her shoulder. Then, because Sadness was bearing
his burdens with him, he had the strength to continue on their adventure
together.
Sadness had remembered to bring with her something that
Joy did not: kindness, empathy, and compassion, things that made their tough
journey together a little easier to get through.
God is calling us on a journey to spread the news that
God’s kingdom is here. When we refuse to
pack some of the things that can weight us down: fear of the future, our belief
in scarcity, and our longing for security – then we have so much more room for
the things that ARE on Jesus’s packing list: things like vulnerability, trust,
courage, compassion, kindness, empathy, and love.
This doesn’t necessarily mean for us to get rid of the all
stuff in our purses, wallets, cars, or homes. But perhaps we should start
asking ourselves if what we HAVE helps
us or hinders us along the way.
In Paul’s letter to the Philippians which we read through during the weeks of Lent this last year, Paul also wrote – "I know what it is to have little, and I know
what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the
secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in
need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (4:12-13)
That’s the secret: The stuff we bring with us doesn’t give us strength. Jesus does. The seventy disciples could
do all things set before them, and we can
too, because we bring JesusWITHus along the way. Amen.
