"TOO MUCH BAGGAGE!"

Tomorrow morning, I’m flying to Alabama to spend 5 days with my Mom and Dad. Lorraine’s a teacher so she has to stay here for school. It’ll just be me...and Mom and Dad! (Yikes!) Did I mention that it’s for 5 days?

I’ve traveled to a number of places in the past year, actually, and I’ve finally had to face the realization that I am a problem packer. I always try to take way too much stuff with me. Even on short trips.

I always count up the number of days I’ll be gone and then try to figure out what I’ll want to wear each day. Of course, then I have to bring extra clothes ‘cos I don’t know what "mood" I’ll be in. Then that ends up requiring extra shoes. Weather can be very uncertain so I have to allow for that in terms of extra clothes. Then there are various other things. I always take extra underwear...’cos you just never know. And I bring some pharmaceutical item for every possible ailment that could arise...’cos you just never know. And I throw in an eyeglass repair kit, pads of paper and pens, a couple of books, a hat, an iron, plastic bags and a roll of masking tape...because you just never know!

I’ll tell you one thing I do know: if my plane ever fails to get off the ground because its too heavy...I’ll know it was me! Of course I never end up using most of the stuff I take "just in case." And traveling with all that extra baggage can really be annoying. Sometimes a journey loaded down with too much baggage can even be deadly.

Author Annie Dillard tells of the ill-fated Franklin expedition to the Arctic in 1845. That odyssey was a turning point in Arctic exploration because of its well-publicized failure. The preparations made were more suitable for the Royal Navy officer’s club in England than for the frozen Arctic. The explorers made room on their ships for a large library, an organ, china place settings, cut-glass wine goblets, and sterling silver flatware...instead of additional coal for their steam engines. The ornate silver flatware was engraved with the individual officer’s initials and family crests. Search parties found clumps of bodies of men who had set off to walk for help when their supplies ran out. One skeleton wore his fine blue cloth uniform edged with silk braid – hardly a match for the bitter arctic cold. Another apparently chose to carry with him the place setting of sterling silver flatware. What must he have been thinking to take sterling silver tableware in an emergency search for help and food? It’s hard to imagine that any of those sailor adventurers would have said, as they neared death on the frozen landscape, "I wish I had brought more silver place settings." It all seems so incredibly foolish, doesn’t it?

And yet...how many of us, on our spiritual journeys, try to carry a lot of foolish and unnecessary baggage along that just weighs us down and wears us out?

Jesus meets just such a person in our Gospel reading today. A young man who hears Jesus teaching and gets very excited and wants to know how he, too, can follow on this path that leads to eternal life. Ultimately, though, he walks away, disappointed, because Jesus challenges him to unpack some of the baggage he’s carrying. And the young man just won’t do it.

It’s not that the man is stingy or insincere. He really is moved by the things Jesus has said. He’d like to follow...to have not only eternal life but a better, more meaningful life in the here and now. He’s always tried to be "a good person." But his wealth...his material possessions...have become the source of his security, his self-esteem, his "proof" to the world that he’s doing O.K.

And Jesus dares him to risk all that. To trust that he’ll be provided for without all those things. To believe that he’s worthy in God’s eyes without a dime. To follow Jesus, no longer caring what the world thinks one way or another. And he just can’t do it. He’s too invested in the short-term picture of comfort to risk it all for the long-term pursuit of joy and real, lasting life. He probably wasn’t actually caring a bag full of gold at the time...but in terms of the weight this young man was bearing, he might as well have been.

The "rich young man" could just as easily be a typical American today. Statistics show that between 1957 and 1990, the per capita income of Americans doubled in real money. Yet the number of Americans who reported being "very happy" remained unchanged at one-third. Why? Author David G. Myers says, "People in our culture have plenty to live on but little to live for. Doubling one’s income and having more things does not make for happiness. Many people, both in our congregations and in our world, sense that something vital is missing in their lives. Material success allows them to live in comfort but fails to meet their basic spiritual needs. Their spiritual emptiness becomes a gnawing hunger when they have to confront the reality of death and bereavement, the anxieties and stress of personal relationships, or the tenacious down drag of evil in their own souls. They wonder if there’s something more to life and something beyond this life. When confronted by Jesus’ invitation to sell all and follow him, however, the world usually counts possessions as more important than the hope of eternal life or a meaningful earthly life." So many people lack for nothing and, as a result, lack everything.

Now please understand Jesus’ suggestion that the young man sell everything he had and give the money to the poor. This Scripture is not some "proof text" for the notion that we must all dwell in poverty or that its wrong to own anything or that all people are meant to live in communes. That’s not the point here.

Remember, the Scripture says that, before making his suggestion, Jesus looked at the young man "and loved him." Jesus could see what the young man’s burden really was and he wanted to offer him a way to a better, freer life. Jesus knew just how heavy the baggage of wealth and possessions had become. Jesus knows that baggage still weighs down lives today.

Possessions can set humans against other humans and against God. A recent survey has revealed that a low but significant percentage of Americans would still buy bargain-priced clothing even if they knew that it had been produced by slave labor in a sweatshop. The cheaper cost would override any compassion or justice.

Jane Goodall’s famous study of chimpanzees reveals a surprising trait about their communal life, a trait that humans obviously share. The chimps, who were normally placid and cooperative, changed their behavior when she began to give them bananas; they immediately began to fight among themselves. The new surplus of food caused the dominant ones to try to keep it all for themselves and to chase the others off. The less dominant ones had to come begging.

In our own lives, we see evidence that the more we have, the more we want and the more jealous we become of those who have a little bit more. Jesus tries to free us from these desires to accumulate, which ultimately destroy fellowship and a sense of unity among people.

The main point of today’s Scripture reading has to do with where our ultimate loyalties lie. With God? Or somewhere else...in something else...with someone else. Money and material things aren’t the only kinds of baggage people insist on trying to drag along their life’s journey. Sometimes its our relationships with others that create the bag of burdens we carry.

It may surprise you to learn (or to realize that your pastor is aware of this phenomenon) that one of the most likely things to cause a person to turn away from this church is finding a new partner. In M.C.C. (and I suspect, possibly, in most churches) one of the most dangerous times for a church member, spiritually, is when they find a new lover. Most of us place so much emphasis on the need and perceived importance of being in a coupled relationship, that it’s not at all unusual to see people who have been deeply committed to Christ and to this body suddenly turn away...because their new lover doesn’t want to get up "early" on Sunday morning or is still angry at "the church" or is jealous of all the relationships the church member has here in which they aren’t the main focus. And so, that one, who had been following Jesus, simply falls away. At least until the U-Haul arrives and all sweetie’s "baggage" starts to pile up and create a mess. You know what I mean!

Whatever it is that gets the best of our energy and attention, our commitment and our trust, is that which is first in our lives. And Jesus wants us to put God first! Bottom-line. Not money...or possessions...or other people...or ourselves. God. #1. That’s the key to eternal life...and to a genuinely happy life in the here and now.

Remember Christ’s familiar words: "Those who would lose their lives, for my sake, will find life." and "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." We need to give our hearts, first and foremost, to God. The best of our energy and attention, our commitment and our trust. "Seek first the kindom of heaven...and everything else will be added as well."

On this journey through life, we’re a lot more likely to be happy if we learn how to travel light. Unpack all that unnecessary baggage...it only slows us down and wears us out and sends us down a path that looks easier but goes nowhere. When we travel the path of Jesus, we we’ll find out that much of what we thought was so necessary was really quite a burden. And that everything we were so afraid of was just a mirage.

In the end, we’ll reach the destination of this journey and discover that the trip was bought and paid for all along and that the things we really needed have already been delivered. Amen.

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