Gospeling Your Life ~ the Luggage we Lug Around ~ Matthew 10

 

Chapter 10 begins with a commissioning and sending out of the disciples.  Part of this passage revolves around what the disciples are told to carry with them and what to leave behind.  Jesus gives them power to heal, help, hold the hurt of this world; they are told they don’t have to bring a change of underwear or an extra coat in case the restaurant’s dining room is doubling as a freezer space!  What do you carry with you?  Yesterday in worship, we talked about God creating in us a clean heart and renewed/refreshed spirit.  Some of what I carry in my heart is clutter and past hurts and things I said that I wished I had not.  I lug all that around in the luggage of my life.  What if setting down the “stuff” (both material and metaphorical stuff) might be one way to clean up the clutter of our heart and open space for the Spirit?  The disciples are told to be open to whoever and wherever they are welcomed.  Who has welcomed you recently?  Where have you been able to be fully yourself?  And when someone slams the door in the disciples’ face don’t carry that hurt, don’t add that to the luggage of life.  I read these words slack jawed whilst simultaneously scratching and shaking my head.  Because honest, I do the exact opposite of what Jesus instructs.  I carry (even cling to!) my possession, I stuff my life with stuff that I have been told by the Gospel according to economist Adam Smith will save me.  Faith?  Faith is fine for Sunday mornings, but I don’t want to be considered weird, so I don’t broadcast to the person next to me on the plane that I am a pastor ~ because honestly who would want to be stuck sitting next to that person in a tin can hurling through air 40,000 feet off the ground?  Moreover, when someone says something that hurts me I hold that for dear life.  When someone takes a metaphorical red ink pen to my life becoming the editor I didn’t ask for, I carry that for too long.  I don’t wipe the dust off my feet, I turn to the closest person and say, “I can’t believe what he just did!”  I love to triangulate and stir the gossip stew talking about those people. 

 

What if the mission of going out to those on the fringe and fray wasn’t just about the disciples back then and there, but for you and me right here and now?  What if we didn’t dismiss this passage quickly because Jesus upends and overturns our modern ways of traveling with enough luggage to clothe a small village?  What if we find one way today to greet those who cross our path?  To hold the hand of someone who is hurting.  To visit someone who is lonely without constantly looking at the clock on the wall.  To practice pay attention to the person, God’s incarnate and beloved, right in front of you.  Maybe chapter 10 might find flesh and breathe and expression in your life in these days.  Amen.