2021.07.04 Travel Guidance
“Travel Guidance”
The Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, California
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
July 4, 2021
Happy U.S.A. Independence Day, Church! I suspect that most of us in the congregation today are either enjoying a long holiday weekend at home with family and friends, or getting ready to pack up and leave town for vacation.
Regardless of where we find ourselves, Independence Day serves as a reminder that we are a nation of migrants and we are still on the move.
Similarly, today’s gospel lesson reminds us as Christians that we are the posterity of migrants, and we are called to be pilgrims, travelers, on a journey that is not entirely of our own design.
To be sure, this identity and lifestyle are not always easy or pleasant to embrace, because not everyone back home is waiting with open arms to greet us upon our return, and not everyone in towns where we travel will roll out the red carpet and extend hospitality to us.
The travel advice that Jesus offered his first disciples in Mark 6 is as relevant today as it was in the first century of the common erra. Jesus says: do not define your success by worldly standards, or set your moral compass on popular opinion. If you do, you will be sorely disappointed, and God’s mission will not be advanced--at least not through your efforts.
II
Mark explains in the opening verse of chapter 6 that Jesus has been itinerating all around the Sea of Galilee, and he has just returned to Nazareth, his hometown, for a visit.
During his visit, Jesus showed up at the synagogue, which was no surprise, because he was a good Jew. So the surprise wasn’t what he; it was what he said.
According to Mark, Jesus began to teach and everyone was surprised by his knowledge of the Torah and the insights that he offered. According to Mark, everyone was amazed and perplexed, asking, “Where did all this wisdom and talent come from?
Isn’t Jesus’ Mary’s son? Isn’t his father a carpenter? Neither Mary or Joseph was from a noble family. Neither came from money. Joseph wasn’t a leader in the synagogue. He worked with his hands. His parents couldn’t afford to send their children to school. And, look, here are his siblings. None of them turned out to be exceptional. How did Jesus acquire this wisdom and knowledge? How could hands that swung a hammer and pounded pegs heal the sick?
The commentary uttered that day wasn’t particularly complimentary about Jesus, but it also implied some disparaging qualities about the commentators. Who, after all, “trash talks” other people anyway? Only people who feel poorly about themselves. Right?
Although the comments made were said in a hushed voice or “off stage,” word got around to Jesus, which may have prompted him to move on to more hospitable venues. Meanwhile, the occasion provided a tutorial for his followers. Here’s a case in point, guys, if my people reject you, surely your people will reject you too, and so will strangers in the villages and cities where I send you.
Jesus advises the disciples for these and other reasons to go in pairs and to travel light. Take nothing with you; no bread, no bag, no money. Wear sandals, and don’t even take a change of clothes.
That’s right, Jesus said. “No checked baggage allowed. You don’t even need a carryon.”
If you receive an invitation from anyone, accept the first offer and stay put. If no one offers to host, dust off your sandals and move on to the next town.
And, so they did. The disciples went on from Nazareth and proclaimed that all should repent, and they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and they cured them.
Everyone who received the disciples and welcomed them and their ministries was served, regardless of their geographic origin or social location.
III
As we celebrate the 245th anniversary of our nation’s independence today, and reflect on our gospel lesson, the thought occurs to me that all but 1% of Americans either come from humble beginnings and somewhere else, or they are the descendants of people who were of humble beginnings and from somewhere else. This fact is part of the narrative that we tell ourselves as a nation, and that we depict in our artifacts.
Consider the Statue of Liberty as an example. Poet Emma Lazarus, who wrote the poem that was auctioned to raise funds for the base of the Statue of Liberty, and who was herself an immigrant from Portugal and the descendant of Sephardic Jews, wrote these words in her poem, “The New Colossus,” which is inscribed on a bronze plaque positioned at the base of the statue:
....Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Similarly, 99% of us who are US residents, and who identify as Christians are also from humble backgrounds, and we are either migrants or the descendants of migrants. As a result, we may be vulnerable to the same type of behavior that Jesus “homies” engaged in, in the synagogue.
We may look down on people of humble beginnings or who migrated to the U.S. from other places, because we have either forgotten (or we are ashamed of) who we are or where we come from; because we erroneously think that we are more superior than others on account of our inherited or acquired status; or because we are afraid that the newcomers in our midst may take away something that we have earned or deserve.
Given these circumstances, we would do well to live humbly, as Jesus’ entreated the disciples, to take nothing with us on the journey, to receive only the hospitality of others who gladly offer it, and to affirm the source of our true identity and worth as God’s beloved children.
The Apostle Paul said it best in his first letter to church at Corinth, were he wrote in I Corinthians, chapter 1, verses 26-30:
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
Friends, believe the good news of the gospel: our self-worth doesn’t come from putting others down or keeping them down, and we don’t have to define our success in terms of the zip code where we come from, the clothes that we wear, the vehicle we drive on the vacation, or the accommodations that we book on our journey through life.
Instead, we can affirm that our identity and self-worth are wrapped up in being children of God and being inherently valued by our creator, and our success is defined in accordance with the degree to which we contribute to Christ’s mission and ministry. Amen.
Endnotes