July 5, 2009
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
For the past two weekends, I have been away from you. First, I flew to Utah for a family wedding and then last Thursday I flew to Pasadena for the ABC Biennial Meetings. As a frequent flyer, I know how to tell a less experienced traveler from a more experienced one on the basis of how big a suitcase the inexperienced traveler drags into the airport. I have seen some really big ones—like those they sell on Grant Avenue! You not only need to check those bags in but you probably have to pay a fee for overweight! Experienced travelers travel light.
In SFO, there’re now different lines set up for “casual travelers” and “experienced travelers” and then for those who have paid upfront to have their identity checked out to quickly pass through the security checkpoints. We frequent flyers pack lightly and carry on-board our suitcases.
Traveling Jesus
Mark tells us that Jesus was traveling back and forth on the Sea of Galilee healing people and restoring them back to life. Then he traveled back to his hometown of Nazareth and taught in the synagogue but the people who knew him as a little boy were astounded by what he had to say. They were amazed and shocked and people became sarcastic toward Jesus and said, “Where did this guy get this stuff?” So Jesus went away and said, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” So he went away from Nazareth to teach in the villages.
Jesus sends his disciples out to do the same things that he does—preach, heal, be signs of the coming reign of God. But before they set out to travel, he gives them instructions, telling them what not to take with them.
Jesus orders them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. For someone who is a frequent flyer, I couldn’t travel that lightly. This past weekend, I had my roll-along suitcase that was filled with a couple of pairs of pants, a sports jacket, a more casual jacket, another pair of shoes, enough underwear, a granola bar in case I get hungry, all my toiletries, my laptop computer, my cell phone recharger, and socks. In my wallet, I had a credit card, an ATM card, some cash and my frequent flyer card. If Jesus looked at me, I would have disobeyed him.
Jesus expends more time and detail in telling his disciples what not to take as disciples on a mission rather than in telling them what to take. He tells them to travel light. Take no purse, no bag, no granola bar.
Relinquishment
Two weeks ago, Pastor Peter Lee shared his first sermon with you behind this pulpit. I heard for his inaugural English message, he did just fine. But I was thinking about how much he and Lydia gave up to come to San Francisco leaving behind their parents and friends back in Hong Kong. He sold his home and landed in California during one of the worst economic downturns in history. He left behind familiar surroundings and a Cantonese-speaking culture to find a home in a very foreign land. There’s something about Jesus that makes him relinquish all of that. Pastor Peter and Lydia may still have packed large suitcases to move to San Francisco but what they left behind was much, much more.
At the Baptist meetings last weekend, we heard so many stories of pastors and missionaries who gave up their comfort of living in the United States to follow Jesus’ command to travel lightly; people like Mike and Becky Mann who are working on the Lanna Coffee Project with coffee growers and Kit Ripley and Karen Smith at the New Life Center in Chiang Mai, Thailand who minister to women and children with AIDS. They left behind the security and safety of living in America.
How different is this from the way we usually present the Christian life? We usually present Jesus as a means for getting something we need. And yet, Jesus is a master of relinquishment. Come and follow Jesus and leave things behind, give up things that were once dear to you, and move forward with Jesus.
In our success-oriented, accumulating society, those missionaries and Christian workers to leave the comforts of living in what America has to offer and to let go of all of these conveniences and securities, to go out and to give up what they have, well, it’s downright subversive. For Pastor Lee and Lydia and their two daughters to give up the comforts of Hong Kong and come to this foreign land of America is downright subversive too.
Jesus sends out his disciples as if he was sending them into war. They are going into battle, and when you go into battle, you don’t take anything except the bare necessities.
Out there, without the props that most people require in our society—power, economic success, a big car, an impressive career, successful children, etcetera—the disciples can accomplish what Christ is sending them to do because all they need is their faith in Jesus Christ. Sometimes we Christians underestimate what a radical challenge we are to the world in this “theology of relinquishment!” We are saying to this world, we don’t want all those things that you think we need to be successful.
At the biennial, we heard testimonies from pastors and leaders who came from some very big, mega churches and from some very tiny, small churches with no more than 50 people. We often think that small churches are not viable and that they are unsuccessful until they become big churches with large staffs and big budgets and an assortment of programs. While small membership churches can be a challenge, it also has a way of keeping focused on what the main thing is for the church—the main thing is the worship and serve the living Christ. If we want to worry about churches, worry about congregations that can get caught up in yoga classes, and pleasure trips, and twelve-step groups that can lead the church to lose its soul.
As a pastor, there are days when I can get distracted, deluded into thinking that my job is to run a well-functioning volunteer organization, or the biggest church in Chinatown. No! I need to remember the “main thing,” I need to look in the mirror and say to myself, “Let go of all that baggage, stay focused on the most important thing—you are a pastor, you are to bring people to God.”
There was a minister who was showing his new church to Clarence Jordan, the theologian in overalls who founded the interracially reconciled Koinonia Community near Americus, Georgia. He pointed out the architect’s distinctive touches, the imported pews and stained glass windows. As they stepped outside, a spotlight illuminated the large cross on top of the steeple. The pastor couldn’t keep from saying, “That cross alone cost us $10,000.”
“You got cheated,” Clarence Jordan said. “There was a time when Christians could get them free.”
We may be so consumed with our dependence on earthly securities that we might get distracted and deluded from what is the real purpose of our lives—it’s not how much we have or how big our church buildings are but it is to worship and serve the living Christ.
Don’t Look Back
Jesus sent out the disciples in two’s to do ministry. What this says to me are two things. First, we are never alone. God is always with us in all that we do. Second, each of us has a responsibility to share our faith. But you say, “I can’t do that, I don’t know enough about the Bible,” or “People will laugh at me and I will fail.” Do you know who is holding you back? You are holding you back. You are seeing yourself from where you came from, not where you can go. Your faith is strengthened when you are willing to share it with total strangers. When we are unwilling to engage people in circles beyond our cozy existence we are limiting ourselves. When we limit ourselves we are limiting the power of God.
Jesus is telling us to go out and travel lightly. We think we need to have a lot of sophisticated equipment and supplies to tackle a challenge. We think that we need to know the Bible inside out before we are ready to tell others about God and Jesus. When we go on a trip, we think we need to pack these gigantic suitcases with clothes, food, shoes, toiletries, laptops, iPhones, and more. When we pack so many worldly things to depend on, have we stopped trusting God today?
Jesus told his disciples to travel light. “Take no bread, no bag, no money.” He wanted them to keep it simple. He wanted their ministry to come from the heart. It’s not about what we have; it’s about who we are.
Jesus told his disciples to “Shake the dust off their shoes” when they are not accepted. There’s no reason to feel guilty or failure when others don’t accept you or your message. The healthiest thing you can do is to move on to a new location. When you are traveling light with nothing that could hold you back, you won’t be looking back but looking forward to see what God has in store for you tomorrow.
I am aware that some of you have found yourselves unemployed during these difficult economic times. There are just so few jobs to be found. Jesus is saying to you not to look back but to look at only what is the most essential truth in your life—the love of God—and move on.
You might not think this is so but you who are unemployed today have something more valuable than those of us who still have a job. You have a wonderful opportunity to discover what is most essential in your life. We think it’s power, economic success, a big car, an impressive career, successful children and etcetera. But Jesus is telling us today that these worldly things distract and delude us from seeing the main purpose of what God has created us to be—to worship and serve the living Christ!
Nick Vujicic
One of the speakers in Pasadena last weekend that affected me the most was Nick Vujicic, a man who was born without arms or legs and given no medical reason for his condition. Faced with countless challenges, God has given him the strength to surmount what others might call impossible. Nick was mad at God for not giving him arms and legs at birth. But today, he is an evangelist of Jesus Christ and has shared a message of hope and genuine love of God with millions of people all over the world.
Nick told us that he needs help from someone else in almost everything he does; like brushing his teeth and scratching his back. He has no hands or arms to pack a suitcase filled with clothes, and shoes, and laptops, and cell phones, and the many things that we think would give us the power and success to represent Jesus Christ. But Nick Vujicic has shown us that when he has nothing but the love of God, nothing but the grace of God, nothing but the power of God, he is able to focused on the main thing—to worship and serve the living Christ.
Nick Vujicic spoke openly about his disability but he said that when you put “Go” in front of disability, you have “God is ability.” When we simplify, strip down and travel lightly to go where Jesus tells his disciples to go; into every house and village taking nothing with you except your staff; no bread, no bag, no money, not two tunics and just wearing your sandals, you are not disable as you might thing, you have “God’s ability!”
If we experience what Jesus experienced when he tried to return to his hometown in Nazareth, we can’t stay home. We have to go out. Jesus leaves his hometown and ventures forth to spread the good news. He abandons his family and friends and tells his disciples that they too must relinquish, abandon, let go and let’s go, and move forward with him.
The next time you pack your suitcase for a trip, think about packing lightly so that nothing might distract you or delude you from the most important reason why we are here—to worship and serve the living Christ.
Let us pray.
Lord, you have called us into your service. You have enlisted us in your work. Grant us, we pray, that having called us and enlisted us, you will also give us the gifts and graces we need to serve you, and in serving you, to enjoy you. Enable us through your grace to acquire those skills and insights that we need to fulfill your will and also to let go, give up, pack lightly, and relinquish every desire and tendency that weighs us down or hinders our faithful work for you. Amen.