What to Wear?

R and I have taken several plane trips in the last year. Because we can’t get anywhere on fewer than two flights, and because the connections may be dicey, we’ve taken to checking our bags. That way we don’t have to lug them around and compete for stowage with passengers who bring more and larger “carry-on” luggage each time. However, we paid $100 in baggage fees on the last trip. So for her next excursion, R is planning to take a suitcase small enough to fit under her seat. That will require some careful packing.

In this week’s readings we have two stories about packing for a trip. Naaman traveled to Israel to be cured of his leprosy, and seventy of Jesus’ disciples were sent on a preaching mission. Naaman, “a great man” and foreign army commander, packed the reward he intended to give his healer: ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten festal garments. Jesus’ disciples were told what not to take: no purse, bag, or sandals – and presumably no money, given that they were to depend on good will for room and board.

The contrast couldn’t be greater. Naaman exudes wealth and power. The disciples of Jesus are told to embrace poverty. When Naaman isn’t treated the way he expects, he’s furious. When the disciples of Jesus return, they’re filled with joy. Naaman is forced to humble himself before the power of the God of Israel. The seventy discover that they are more powerful than the powers of evil – Satan himself falls from heaven like a flash of lightning.

What’s packed does reveal one’s priorities. Naaman in his military finery expects everything to go his way. Ironically, it is people with almost nothing who effect his cure – the young Israeli slave who tipped him off to Elisha’s power, the servant whom Elisha sent to talk to Naaman, and the foreign servants who timidly approached their master and convinced him to do what Elisha commanded. The followers of Jesus were poor to begin with. Yet the power that they carried, a message that the kingdom of God had come near, was enough to send the demons packing. Maybe that’s because the disciples carried the most important baggage inside of themselves, in the form of the Holy Spirit.

On our last trip, besides the hefty luggage fees, one airplane was too heavy. No passenger was willing to take another flight, so some of the bags were left behind. Mine was one of them. For a while it looked like I’d have to attend the Pentecost Solemn High Mass at our son’s Anglo-Catholic church in a day-old polo shirt, but my suitcase finally arrived around 3 a.m. with my clergy duds inside. We were relieved. I suppose I could have gone to church barefoot to proclaim that the kingdom of God had come near, but what would I have done if a bunch of demons had started yelling?

Pentecost 6: 2 Kings 5:1-14; Psalm 30; Galatians 6:1-16; Luke 10:1-11, 16-20.