The portion of Saint Mark’s Gospel which has just been read to you is an account of the continuation of a project Jesus began last Sunday in which “He . . . came to his own country . . . And on the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue.”  Now, today, having set an example for the disciples who followed Him to Nazareth; . . . having shown Peter and Andrew and James and John and the others the pattern He wants them to emulate, . . . Jesus sends the Twelve out from Nazareth to do as their Master has done.  Jesus sends out the Twelve, two by two, to go into the neighboring towns and, on the sabbath, teach in the local synagogue.  . . . Do you suppose you could do that?  . . . Do you suppose you could walk into some strange church . . . and stand up front and start teaching, just like that?  Could you do it?  . . . Well, if you’re not sure that you could do what Jesus sent His disciples to do, . . . why do you suppose they did it?  I mean, look at them!  Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen.  And fishing involves specifically not spending a lot of time talking to people . . . about anything . . . let alone about what they believe in their hearts and practice in their lives.  And Matthew was more proficient at extortion than exhortation.  In fact, all twelve of those disciples Jesus sent out two by two were ordinary people just like all of us, and just as unwilling as we would be to go among strangers and preach!

    So why did they go?  . . . Well, to understand that . . . you have to imagine that, just for the fun of it and because you have a few hours of time to yourself and you feel in the mood, . . . you decide to go to Southside Mall.  Or perhaps you want to go to Sangertown Mall in New Hartford or the Carousel Mall in Syracuse.  Whichever it is, . . . you go.  . . . And as you’re taking in the sights and the smells and the sounds . . . you notice a neatly dressed, nice looking elderly gentleman standing in the broad expanse of the Mall . . . holding an open umbrella and appearing somewhat bewildered.  The fellow looks harmless enough (and really quite pathetic), so you gather up your courage and you go over to him and ask if he needs any help.  And he looks at you with bright and really quite pleasant eyes, and he says, “Why yes, I need you to hold out your hand to me.”  A rather odd request, but you’re in a good mood, so you do it; you hold out your hand to him, … and he places into your hand a crisp, perfectly legal, genuine one thousand dollar bill!  And he says to you, “Use it well.  I will always be here for you and for anyone you send me.”  . . . And he walks off.

    Now, what do you do next?  Never mind what you do with the thousand dollars.  What do you do with the knowledge of where and how you got it?  . . . I trust that with a little thought and a lot of prayer the goodness that is at the core of your being will burst forth with gracious light . . . and move you to tell people about the nice looking elderly gentleman who is waiting for them in the Mall, . . . just like he suggested you do.  I trust that you would tell the good news of merciful riches to everyone you could think of who might need such a thing:  homeless people and jobless people and people who come to the Magic Closet.  You tell them because you have knowledge of a tangible good.  You have knowledge not about some vague “belief system”, . . . but you have knowledge about something you know will make an important difference in people’s lives.

    And this is the reason why the Twelve willingly went out wherever the Lord Jesus sent them.  Because they knew what the Apostle declares in his Epistle to the Ephesians:  they knew that

the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . destined us in love to be his heirs [to possess everything that belongs to Him; moreover, we] . . . were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit which is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.

And what the Apostle is saying, in effect, is that God is the elderly gentleman with the umbrella Who has given you an eternal “grand.”  . . . And Jesus has said, “Go tell everyone where to get it and how.”  . . . That was the authority Jesus gave to the Twelve, and that was the story which Jesus sent them out to tell.  And it is the same authority and the same story which Jesus has given to you.  . . . We, like the Twelve, are ordinary people with an extraordinary story.

    Trouble is, you see, the ordinariness of our lives confuses us.  The turmoil of unruly family members, the frustration of obtuse supervisors, the pressure of schedules; indeed, my own wandering mind and disquiet heart . . . all conspire to stifle the story; . . . so that we lose focus on what it is we have to say; . . . we become distracted by incidentals so that the really, really important thing in our life seems so . . . irrelevant; . . . we become so worried about ourselves or how the world perceives us . . . that we forget what it is that God wants us to say.

    So, we need to pay attention to what Saint Mark tells us that Jesus says next.  We need to pay particular attention to what instructions Jesus gives after He sends everyone out to tell about the nice old man in the Mall.  . . . Saint Mark says that Jesus

charged [the Twelve] to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.

Jesus knows all about unruly family members; . . . He knows all about obtuse supervisors, impossible schedules, and the disquietude of the human heart.  Jesus knows all about these things.  And so He says, . . . “Leave your baggage with me.”

    Because, you see, you can’t fix anyone else’s shortcomings.  I’m even willing to suppose you find it hard enough to fix your own.  . . . You can’t fix anyone else’s shortcomings; . . . and so, . . . there comes a time when you must simply commend unruly family members, obtuse supervisors, impossible schedules, and your own disquietude; . . . there comes a time when you must simply commend them all to Jesus.  . . . You must hand them all over to Jesus because he has instructed you to go on your journey unencumbered.  . . . Because, you see, miracles happen when you can do that.  . . . I once gave a retreat, at Saint Margaret’s House in New Hartford, in which the subject of my retreat talks was “Virtue.”  When the retreat ended, one of the participants admitted to me that she had at first been angry with me because she assumed that the entirety of my reflections would focus upon how much of a sinner she is.  But she concluded by thanking me, because “now I see that there is more to me than just sin,” she said.  Now, . . . it is very possible that if I had known this woman was angry with me at the beginning, . . . it is very possible that I would have spent my time trying to deflect her anger by revising what I had to say about Virtue.  But if I had spent that retreat weekend lugging about the baggage of someone’s anger, . . . I never would have said what God had given me to say, . . . and my friend never would have heard what God wanted her to hear.  . . . And so, we remember, today, that Jesus has instructed us to leave the baggage that will encumber us and distract us; . . . He has told us to leave that baggage with Him.

    So, here you are today; . . . here you are to spy out the nice looking Gentleman on spacious Calvary with His arms stretched out; . . . you are here today to see the brightness of His resurrected and glorified aspect; . . . you are here today to hear Him say, “Take, eat.  I will always be here for you and for anyone you send me.”  You will hold out your hand, and God will place into your hand … the eternal wealth of Heaven.  He will give you His unconditional love; He will give you His shalom -- the health of divine peace; He will give to you a token of the eternal life and dignity which makes you a child of the Divine King, an heir of all the realms of Heaven.  . . . And suddenly . . . you are not a victim but a Victor.  And isn’t that a tangible good which everyone wants?  . . . To win; . . . to be a Victor in this life?

    And everyone can have it.  All they need to know is where to go to get it; … all they need to know is Who to look for, . . . and to hold out their hand to receive.  . . . The Twelve knew.  . . . And they told it to someone else who told it to someone else . . . down through the centuries to the person who told it to you.  And so, you have knowledge of a tangible good.  You have knowledge not about some vague “belief system”, . . . but you have knowledge about something you know will make an important difference in people’s lives.  And Jesus has given you authority to tell simply everyone about it; . . . Jesus sends you out from here to show simply everyone the enormous wealth of divine love which God has placed into your life … and to tell the story of how they can have it too:  . . . to remind the Faithful of its truth . . . and to guide the needful into His Presence.  . . . The only thing is, . . . on your way out the door . . . leave your baggage with Jesus.