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I have mentioned before that I tend to overpack when I travel. Just a little bit. Just a little. I have with me this morning the suitcases I need when I travel – for a weekend trip. You might think this would be overpacking, but in my view, it’s called being prepared. What if you plan to go for a weekend, but end up staying for two weeks? Who’s going to be prepared? I am. If I had to carry all of this with me, however, wherever I went, I might pack differently. What I do carry is my backpack, which is my carryon bag when I fly. I carry this through the airports, and it does get really heavy. By the time I load some books, magazines, iPad, laptop, and a bunch of other stuff in it, the weight really adds up, and gives me a shoulder and backache.
This morning, as we continue the series of messages, The Journey, the title of today’s message is Packing for the Journey. The passage that serves as our Scripture text is one that is part of a larger passage that teaches us about the Passover. Historically speaking, the Passover was, and remains, one of the most significant events in Judaism. The first Passover was the final act of the struggle between Pharaoh, Moses, and God. It was the Passover event that finally moved Pharaoh to let the people go, sending them off into the wilderness and on to their journey to the Promised Land.
As the people prepared for their exit from Egypt, one of the elements of the Passover was the unleavened bread. The unleavened bread was a symbol of the haste in which the people left Egypt. There was no time to wait on the yeast to rise, so the unleavened bread became, for all time, the symbol of the hasty departure from Egypt. Leaving in haste, the people did not have time to gather much in terms of material belongings. Traveling through the wilderness meant it would be very difficult to take much with them. Very quickly, the people had to determine what must absolutely needed. Imagine what it would be like, being in a position where you had to determine what you absolutely needed and what would be left behind, and doing so in a very, very short amount of time. Each person could, after all, only carry a certain amount, so making the determination between what was essential and nonessential was of critical importance.
I’m not sure how well I would have functioned in that situation, as I really struggle when it comes to leaving anything behind. If, however, I knew I could only take what I was able to carry, it would be much, much easier to make the decision of what was necessary and what was expendable. But even though we are not taking the kind of journey that requires us to pack any bags, we are, nonetheless, on this journey, through this pandemic that has upended life in so many ways. As we continue our journey through this time of difficulty, we have to decide what is essential to us.
In Disciples churches, we are very fond of the saying, in essentials unity, opinions liberty, and all things love. That’s a great saying, but there is one big problem with it as well – how do we determine what is an essential and what is a non-essential, and who gets to make that determination? That question has sparked quite a bit of debate in recent weeks, in discussions about what constitutes essential and non-essential businesses. But for the Hebrew people, stepping out of Egypt and into the wilderness, it was a very practical and existential question they faced. What did they absolutely need on their journey, and what would be left behind?
Hear now our Scripture text, which comes from Exodus 12:17, 20, 31-34, 40-41–
17 “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.
20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”
31 During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested.
32 Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”
33 The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!”
34 So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing.
40 Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years.
41 At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt.
So what are the essentials that we must take on our journey? I made a list, that grew to be quite lengthy, so I pared that list down to what I considered to be the most essential, which left me with only two, the first of which is –
1. Community.
When this pandemic is over, there are some phrases I hope to never hear again – flattening the curve, we can’t be doing that, and most of all, social distancing. Who could have imagined those phrases would become part of our cultural lexicon. I should add at this point, that people have often picked at me because I like to maintain my sense of personal space. For many years, I have jokingly (mostly joking) extended my arms and asked that people draw an imaginary circle that extends around my arms, and then asked that they not enter into that space. Well, as it turns out, guess who has been not only ahead of the curve, but flattening the curve, all these years? (Would someone put a laughing emoji in the comment section please? James, does our streaming system have a built-in laugh track?). I’ve been practicing social distancingall my life! And guess what? Now I’m really tired of it! You very kindly sent in your pictures that are taped to the chairs so that David, James, and I wouldn’t feel so alone here, and we appreciate it very much. And connecting electronically is okay, isn’t it? We are all very grateful for the various technologies that allow us to connect – because imagine what it would be like living through this pandemic without it – but it’s not the same as being together, is it?
We need connectivity. We need community. We were created by God to live in connection with one another. We were created by God to be in community. That need for connectivity is one of the reasons why God gave us the gift of the church, a gift we have missed so much in these now seven weeks of being closed. Seven weeks. That’s unbelievable, isn’t it?
If you have been confined to home, it is very probable that you have everything you need. Theoretically, at least. You can have food, medicine; whatever you need in terms of your physical body. But what is it like, being at home without human contact? Without the opportunity to be with your family? Your friends? Your church? Ask the people in nursing homes and assisted living centers, confined to their rooms, if they have everything they need. Yes, they do, but at the same time, no, they don’t. While we need the tangible items, such as food and shelter, we also need the intangibles just as much, and perhaps even more.
Acts chapter 20 tells us of Paul’s departure from Ephesus, as he bid farewell to the elders of the church there. Paul had been with them for three years, and they had grown very close. Luke writes at the end of the chapter these words – when Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship(Acts 20:36-38). I find that scene to be very touching. Later, in his letter to the Philippian church Paul writes these words at the beginning – every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God(Philippians 1:3). As Paul sat in his place of confinement, under arrest by the Romans, he thought about the many people who meant so much to him, and he thanked God for the gift of those relationships. Let us think also of Jesus and the twelve disciples, and the time they spent together. Jesus picked the twelve for a number of reasons, chief among them, I believe, for the provision of fellowship, connection, and community. Jesus knew they would need one another, and that certainly proved to be true.
As the people wandered through the wilderness, they needed one another. Now, to be honest, sometimes there was a bit too much togetherness. We all know how it can be when you have a group of people together; things can sometimes get interesting. In the best of circumstances, people don’t always get along. In a crisis, well, things can get very interesting. One of the themes of the journey of the people in the wilderness was their near-constant grumbling and complaining to Moses and Aaron. A crisis can bring people together or pull them apart. In the course of their wandering through the wilderness, there was some of both. But ultimately, it was the wilderness that fashioned them into a people, a community, and into a nation.
Faith.
That’s a no-brainer, isn’t it? But how often do we say, in times of difficulty, this is really testing my faith? A time of difficulty might become a test of faith, but I don’t believe this time of difficulty or others are inflicted upon us by God as a test.
Faith is a gift that helps us to navigate our way through difficulty; it is not an insurance policy against difficulty. I have said on more than one occasion, but it is always worth repeating, that faith is not a magic formula for creating a trouble-free life. In fact, faith can complicate our lives in some ways, because faith will ask of us what is not easy, it will compel us to accept and live truths that go against our natural instincts. Being asked to love our enemies is not simple, is it? To give of our time and resources is not always easy, is it? Wouldn’t it be easier to live our lives according to what we want, not getting entangled in the needs and difficulties of others? It might be, in some ways, but faith pushes us to do what is not only best for us, but best for others as well.
We could all use an extra portion of faith right now. As we see the numbers of those infected by the virus, as we see the death toll rise, as we see the millions entering the unemployment line, as we see the scores of businesses shuttered, we can’t help but feel uneasy, and in the need of an extra measure of faith.
For the Hebrew people, to wander into the desert, to endure all the hardships of the wilderness, and to travel to a land they had never seen but knew to be as the land of promise, that took a lot of faith. Sometimes, the faith of the people stumbled, as we saw several weeks ago when we studied the passage about the golden calf, when Moses was on the mountain and the people came to Aaron, asking for a god they could see (Exodus chapter 32). What they failed to understand is that faith does not require the necessity of seeing what is around every band. Faith does not require that every question be answered before taking a step. Faith does not require definitive proof in order to take away every doubt. Faith becomes its own way of seeing, it becomes its own answer, and it becomes its own proof. It is a great temptation to ask,what is ahead, what is around the next bend, how do we know, where is the proof, and a hundred other questions. Faith, however, continues whether or not we have the answers, it continues regardless of our fears, and it holds up to every crisis that comes our way.
When we talk about packing for our journey – our journey of faith – we are really talking about intangibles rather than tangible items. In fact, these suitcases right here, the ones I so like to fill with clothes and other items I take with me on a trip, are not at all what we need for our faith journey. We don’t need to pack items; what we need to do is to unpack. We often speak metaphorically of baggage. We will say of someone, they are carrying around a lot of baggage. When we make that remark, it comes with the implication that the person has things in their life that they need to let go of.
So I will close with the question, what will we unpack for the journey? To walk our journey of faith, what do we need to unpack, what do we need to leave behind, in order to move forward? As the Hebrew people left Egypt, they very quickly had to decide what was essential and what was nonessential, what they would take and what they would leave behind. I wonder, what will we leave behind as we journey through this unprecedented time?
Think about what you need to unpack. Think about what has been weighing you down, what has been a burden to you, and unpack it. Is it fear, anxiety, uncertainty, doubt? These, and perhaps many, many more. To take our journey of faith, what is it we need to unload from our shoulders? What burden needs to be lifted from our hearts? What do we need to leave behind, in order to move forward? As the Hebrew people left Egypt, they very quickly had to decide what was essential and what was nonessential, what they would take, and what they would leave behind. I wonder, what will we leave behind? What do we need to leave behind? What do we need to unpack as we journey through this unprecedented time? Think about what has been weighing you down, and unpack them. Think about what has been burden to you, and unpack them. Take them off your shoulders. It is so wearying to carry what should have been left behind long ago. We all carry things we should have unpacked, that we should have set aside, long ago. Don’t take another step of your journey without letting them go. Come to me, Jesus said, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light(Matthew 11:28-30). I believe we are all looking for something that is light and easy to carry. Before this pandemic struck, we were all carrying enough; we were all carrying more than we needed to carry. Since it has begun, I fear we have all added even more burdens to ourselves – burdens of fear, anxiety, and so much more. We have allowed more to weigh on our hearts and minds, and we must unpack them. Let us set them aside, and receive the peace, the comfort, and the strength of God.
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