SCRIPTURE READING Mark 6:1-13 Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. 7 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits. 8 These were his instructions: Take nothing for the journey except a staff no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them. 12 They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. This ends the reading from Gospel of Mark. Thanks be to God. Page 1 of 5
This story from the Gospel of Mark has always made a huge impression on me. Especially that line about how Jesus began to send out the disciples two-by-two. I obviously heard the scripture at some point in my youth because I remember having and have always had this feeling that this is a story about how, when there is something that hard to do, it is better when you are doing it with someone else. It also has always stuck in my mind that ministry should be done in pairs. So I am grateful that Rev. Sue Ann has followed God s urging and we have opened our doors to welcome her here as our Associate Minister. There is just too much to be left to one person alone. So I was pretty excited about this text this morning in the middle of our Road Trip summer. Here we have Jesus gathering his disciples together to give them instructions and then, off they go, two at a time, each with a road trip of their own. Jesus throws in that added bit about traveling light just your shirt and your sandals and, after that, relying on the kindness of strangers for room and food and other necessities. Because, after all, on every road trip I have ever been on, nothing will ever go quite as planned. It s a little like all of those old Road movies of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. You remember The Road to Bali, The Road to Zanzibar, The Road to Hong Kong, The Road to Singapore, the Road to Morocco and the Road to Utopia. Dorothy Lamour even showed up in their movies which were a thin little bit of a story with a lot of music, gags, romance and comedy. Delightful and light-hearted fare. And it got me thinking. How many famous duos can you name? Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, of course. And that led me to Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. What about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers? Lucy and Ethel. Abbott and Costello. And then, of course, there is Calvin and Hobbes, Snoopy and Woodstock, Wallace and Gromit, Yogi and Boo Boo. And we can t forget Thelma and Louise, Laurel and Hardy, Starsky and Hutch, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. And once we are going down this path all of a sudden your mind opens up and a million famous duos start poring in: Mork and Mindy, Romeo and Juliet, Tarzan and Jane, Ben & Jerry, Laverne and Shirley, Fish and chips, Macaroni and cheese, Milk and cookies; and we cannot forget Peanut Butter and Jelly! How many duos are you thinking of now? I could keep going, the list is soooo long! You see, I think Jesus was onto something when he said we should be headed out into the world with somebody else. When there is work to be done, when you want or need a little bit of moral support or even when you need a lot more courage, nothing compares to having someone else along for the ride. Page 2 of 5
Isn t there another Bible story about being sent out in twos? I think it had something to do with rain and a flood and an ark and how, when the world needed to be reset, when the earth was granted a mulligan, a do-over, God had the wisdom to set us up in pairs. So that when we arrived at that new dry land, we already have a committee to step off the boat and start planning all over again. The Road movies, as they are called, started way back in 1940. Bing Crosby was already a celebrity both for his singing and his comedy. Dorothy Lamour was also a big star, while Bob Hope was just an up-and-comer. Bing and Bob had previously worked together at the Friars Club in New York and had a two-person show onstage at the Capitol Theater, also in New York. So the two of them already had the chemistry for the buddy movie. But I am told that they were the original buddy-movie genre, as it later came to be known. Most of the Road Movie plots involved the two of them as down-and-out small-time performers trying to make a buck either honestly or otherwise. And, of course, they would be rivals for the affections of the beautiful Ms. Lamour. In six out of seven of the movies, Ms. Lamour fell in love with Bing. Yet there was that one where, by the end of the movie, Ms. Lamour had fallen in love with Bob. He was always playing the underdog and every now and then, the underdog wins. And maybe that is the appeal of having two it s a partnership, an equilibrium and yet, with two, they will never be in the exact same spot at the same time. One will be ahead and one behind; one will be thunder and the other lightning; one will be salt and the other one pepper; one will be bacon and the other one eggs; one will be mountains and the other will be valley; one will be research and the other development. It s a built-in guarantee that there will be differing opinions; a promise that you will not always be right; and also a predictable conclusion that the partnership together will accomplish more and go further than any one of us might do on our own. Yes, I think Jesus was onto something important. We come together and then we go out. But we go out together. This Christianity thing is not a solo activity. This is a community thing, a relationship thing. I m not talking about a life-partner or a soul-mate. I m talking about all of the different people you encounter and, for a time, you are on the same path, working together toward a goal. This is a partnership built because of the need to do so; there is a purpose and plan. Now I don t think there is any particular power in the number two. I think it was simply convenient and expedient for Jesus to divide the 12 disciples into six teams. I think the key in this story is that he didn t send out 12 teams composed of one person each. That s the difference. Don t spread yourself so thin that you cannot sustain your mission and purpose. Have a cohort. Have a companion. Use one another as sound-boards for all of your crazy ideas. This is the buddy-system church. When one woman knits herself a pink hat with little kitten ears and wears it to the march, there are soon millions of pink hats with little kitten ears worn by women and men to pronounce both an affirmation of power and strength and a defiance for those who try to oppress women s voices and destroy women s healthcare. This is a buddy-system church. When one person lights a candle and stands on the church lawn to honor and mourn the victims of gun violence, another person will always join you. And then there are two candles to break the darkness, then three, then more. This is a buddy-system church. Page 3 of 5
That s how this Christian-thing works. This works -- not because we are perfect or because every idea succeeds no, this works because we are called and challenged to go into this world together. Strengthening one another. Praying for one another. Relying upon, depending upon one another. Elevating one another. Forgiving one another. And then there is this second part of the instruction from Jesus travel light. Cheryl tells the story of one company for whom she worked she was required to travel every week. Every Monday morning she was at the airport to fly to the corporate office and every Thursday night she was at the airport for her return flight home. When you do this every week with the same flight from the same airport, at the same time, you get to know the people who work for the airline. They have the same schedule, too. They know you by name. And you know get to know them. That s how this work. Our repeated behavior becomes known, it becomes common; it becomes expected. Now this is back in the day when they printed paper tickets and everyone checked in at the ticker counter to convert your airline ticket for a boarding pass. And Cheryl walks up to the ticket counter but this time it is a same-day travel rather than for the week. The ticket counter woman, Janet, who has seen Cheryl every week for months, greets Cheryl and says, do you have any baggage today? To which Cheryl, without missing a beat, simply says, only emotional baggage and I m leaving it behind. If only it were that easy. I, on the other hand, over-pack for every occasion. I bring clothes were warm weather, hot weather, rainy weather, cold weather. I may leave snow-gear at home but only if it is summertime and we re headed to the beach. So when Jesus sends us out two-by-two to do our thing, he tells us to travel light take your walking stick and put on your sandals. Take nothing else with you. You can wear the clothes you have on but don t try to plan for every inevitability. No need for two shirts or an extra coat; no need for a cooler of food or a backpack of Snickers bars; no need for an umbrella or baseball cap. In fact, Jesus, says, no need for money. I don t know about you but I m feeling pretty exposed, pretty vulnerable right about now. As I read and reread the scripture for today, I kept looking for the promise that everything will work out fine that the universe will supply. I kept looking for the reassurance that God will provide. It says that elsewhere in the Bible, doesn t it? Yes, I m sure it does. Then why doesn t Jesus give me that comfort here? After all, I am much more likely to go out into the world if I am assured that no harm will come to me and that God will provide for all my needs and that I get to sleep on a good and comfortable bed and wake in the morning with a refreshing shower. I am much more likely to undertake the needs of the world if I am assured there will be no risk involved. Page 4 of 5
But that s not what Jesus is doing or promising. Jesus is saying rely on one another. This work of Christian love and Christian peace -- it s a community built upon each of us taking our place in the human long chain, linking arms and walking into that next place that needs to know the love of God by the witness of who we are and what we do and how we treat each other. It won t always go well and we will surely face our fair share of disappointments along the way but we will do so together. We should not be laden with all of the rest of our baggage. All of that will only interfere with the work ahead. Just like our friends Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. The film opens with a large freighter at sea exploding into pieces and several news announcements. The cause of the explosion is a mystery, with all of the crew accounted for with the exception of two unidentified stowaways. The camera pans out and we see Bing and Bob floating at sea aboard a pile of wreckage. It was, after all, Bing s idea to stow away in the powder room, but it was Bob s idea to light a cigarette. By the end of the movie, Bing and Bob have ventured all through the land of Morocco and need to take a fast escape, except this time they do so with the women each has fallen in love with. Later, on a boat headed home, Bob sneaks away into the powder room for a cigarette. There is an explosion and, yes, you guessed it, all four land afloat upon a pile of wreckage. Which is to say, you can t take it with you. The Truth with a capital T is that we do not need to pack any suitcase full of anything in order to pursue hope and love. What you need is a community. May it be so. Amen. Page 5 of 5