July 7, 2024: Take Nothing

Old Testament Reading: 2 Samuel 5: 1-5 & 9-10
The Gospel: Mark 6: 1-13
 
Have you ever noticed how many storage units have been cropping up across the Vermont landscape and everywhere else? I often drive through these Green Mountains enjoying the farms, fields and forests and when I am seemingly in the middle of nowhere - there they are: Self Storage Units for 30 or more different people. While storage units have their place, particularly for the in-between times of our lives, do we Americans really need that many? Do we really need that much stuff?
 
I am guilty of having too much stuff also. Russ and I have a home that is over 100 years old. They did not have as much stuff back then, the closets are small, so in our four-bedroom home, we each have closets in two different bedrooms. Of course we also have four bedrooms and a full attic for only two people, so we have a lot of stuff in general, as many of us do. 
 
 You know how whether you are packing for one night or five there seems to be a lot of “stuff” that you have to bring with you from combs to toothbrushes, face creams, medicines, shoes, and, of course, clothes? Nowadays, with the fees for luggage, we try to smash all of that stuff into our carryon luggage and some bargain fares do not even let us have carryons!
 
But Jesus “ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts.”
 
The disciples would definitely have qualified for the bargain flights, as long as their staffs were collapsible. 
 
But what does it mean to “take nothing”?
 
For the disciples it meant that they were clothed in faith, trusting that their essentials would be provided for them in the homes that welcomed them, by the people who listened to them. Those people were rewarded, as needed, with the removal of unclean spirits, by the healing of the sick. For others who would not listen to them, who barred their entrance, the disciples were to visibly “shake the dust off their feet” in front of them as they left, as if washing their hands, or in this case, feet of them. 
 
The increase of wealth even for people not in the aristocracy in Medieval Europe in the 11th-13th Centuries gave rise to the Mendicant Orders who resisted having a life filled with “stuff” even communally owned stuff like most monasteries had. Father Thomas Nairin in his article “Begging without Shame: Medieval Mendicant Orders Relied on Contributions” (March-April 2017 Health Progress: Journal of the Catholic Health Association of the United States) says “members of mendicant orders were itinerant preachers, moving from town to town to preach the Gospel. Consciously modeling themselves on the disciples of Jesus, they went about two by two and were to "take nothing for the journey, neither knapsack, nor purse, nor bread, nor money nor walking stick."3 The form of poverty embraced by these religious communities involved the renunciation of all ownership of goods, communal as well as individual. To survive, the mendicant friars asked for alms as they preached, traveled and worked along the way.” 
 
Buddhist monks in Thailand and other Asian countries rise before dawn and silently go around seeking alms. The donations of food from lay Buddhists provide the primary support for thousands of monks in Bangkok and other places. The disciplinary rule for monks says that they should not engage in agricultural labor, should keep only a few possessions and should eat whatever appears in their bowls from their daily alms collections. 
 
Those medieval friars took Jesus’ words literally and many Buddhist Monks seem to live that way to focus on their spiritual lives as well, but what about us?
 
While many of us have a lot of stuff and could use some yard sale pairing down or even have some downsizing in our future, this scripture is less about our physical stuff than our spiritual stuff. The question really is, is all of our physical stuff getting in the way or taking the place of our spiritual stuff? Do we spend our lives accumulating physical stuff rather than building our spiritual selves which can then go out and help others? It is very easy to do that and I would hazard a guess that we have all done that, at times. 
 
Father Richard Rohr discusses this in his book, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life. In it he lays out that the first half of our lives is about stuff. We have to establish careers and homes to support and maintain our growing families or even just ourselves.  He notes that in the first half of life we establish our identities and part of the process of doing that is having enough stuff to feel secure. He describes this first half of life as building our container: the container of our identity. Rohr says, “We need a very strong container to hold the content and contradictions that arrive later in life. We ironically need a very strong ego structure to let go of our ego. We need to struggle with the rules more than a bit before we throw them out. We only internalize values by butting up against external values for a while. All of this builds the strong self that can positively obey Jesus–and “die” to itself.” 
 
It is in this dying to the self needs of the first half of life that Rohr says that we move into the spiritual second half of our lives; in that second half, we do not need so much stuff. We are secure in ourselves and can spend more time looking inward, building our spiritual selves, being content with what and who we are and considering how we can deal with the inevitable challenges and tragedies that will happen in our lives and how we can help and support others through them as well. And we must do this. Rohr says that “if we stay in the protected first half of life beyond its natural period, we become well-disguised narcissists or adult infants (who are also narcissists!) –both of whom are often thought to be successful “good old boys” by the mainstream culture.” These are the people who worship stuff, ideas or even country over Jesus and advocate for limiting rights rather than expanding them for all, as Jesus would. 
 
Jesus refused political power when tempted by Satan in the wilderness and he said to give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s when it came to paying taxes. Jesus believed in the separation of church and state that our constitution upholds. He would want us to honor and celebrate the freedoms in our country as we did this week - honoring and celebrating our country and all Americans in whatever shape, size, race, gender, gender identity, economic or disability status or faith they do or don’t have. 
 
We are called to follow Jesus’ model to welcome and love all, even our enemies and to “take nothing” on that journey. That journey is primarily a second half of life journey, as Rohr would say. Our identity containers are built. We have learned from our successes but even more from our failures. We have fallen down and gotten back up again. We are ready to metaphorically grab our staff and embark on that inward spiritual journey. But do we still have too much literal or figurative stuff in the way? Taking nothing is hard, even with the lower priced airfare. Taking nothing is a letting go, a trust in both ourselves and God that we are and we have all we need to really embark on that spiritual journey. It is a way of finding inner peace among outer turmoil. It is a way of focusing beyond ourselves and our individual needs. 
 
We really do not need anything to take a contemplative journey with Jesus as our guide and model. Taking this journey, we realize that we do not need stuff to love ourselves and others. We don’t need stuff to get through life’s challenges; we just need faith. As Rohr says, “Faith is simply to trust the real and to trust that God is found within it–even before we change it.” The ability to make positive Jesus-like changes: to welcome, accept, love and help all people is what Jesus sends all of us disciples out to do even though some may take offense and question this wisdom just as the people of Jesus’ own hometown questioned him.

So, armed with faith, let’s grab our staff and get going; maybe we can recruit a few fellow pilgrims along the way. Amen. 

Pastor Michelle Fountain

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