Traveling Unattached
Traveling Unattached
Luke 9:1-6
March 8, 2026 Meeting Jesus on the Road Lent 3
Rev. Cynthia Cochran-Carney, First Presbyterian Church of San Rafael, CA
1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. 4 Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. 5 If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.
As the Lenten season began and we were moving toward Spring, I started to notice multiple articles on decluttering and simplifying on my Internet news feeds. I wondered why this issue is of such interest to so many Americans and why we feel such an urgent desire to declutter our lives. “Don’t hold onto to your stuff, your things.” Maybe it is the Marie Kondo approach to life and faith - Commit to tidying, Discard items by category, Organize by category (not location), and Ask if each item "sparks joy," keeping only those that do.
This is not a sermon about God calling you to declutter your closets and kitchen table before Easter. But I think this passage from Luke invites us into some deeper questions related to what we hold onto, what we let go of, and how we see ourselves traveling on the road of life and faith. And how our intentional living can deepen our connections to other people, to the earth and to the Holy One.
In Luke 9:1–6, we find a short but powerful moment in the ministry of Jesus. He gathers the twelve disciples and sends them out to proclaim the kingdom, the reign, the kin-dom of God and to heal. But before they go, he gives them surprising instructions:
“Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic.”
This instruction can sound strange to our ears. After all, most of us prepare carefully before traveling. We pack extra clothes, snacks, chargers, and all the things we think we might need. Yet here, Jesus asks his followers to go out with almost nothing.
Why? Maybe because Jesus is not only sending them out. Maybe it is because he is forming them into a different kind of people.
Traveling Light
Jesus teaches the disciples to travel light—not just physically, but spiritually.
The truth is that many of us carry heavy baggage. Some of it is visible: possessions, books, clothes, electronic devices, special items that were gifts or mementos. But much of our baggage may be invisible: fear, regret, shame, anxiety about the future, worry about health or finances.
We carry memories of old arguments and hurt.
We carry wounds from relationships.
We carry expectations of who we think we should be or what we had hoped to accomplish.
We carry the emotional weight – Am I doing things right?
So listen again to Jesus words to his disciples. He offers a different way of moving in the world and seeing themselves. When he tells the disciples to take nothing for the journey, he is teaching them a deeper spiritual truth: the kingdom of God is easier to enter when our hands are open rather than clenched. An openness. A freedom. You are enough. You are not alone. I am with you. You don’t need to carry baggage with you. Live simply.
The Spiritual Practice of Simplicity
Simplicity is one of the great spiritual practices of the Christian life. When we simplify, we make space—space to notice God, space to care for one another, space to live more intentionally.
Simplicity can look like many things:
Letting go of possessions we don’t truly need
Practicing gratitude for what we already have
Finding a good rhythm – sometimes saying “No” to opportunities, invitations
In a culture that tells us more is better, the gospel whispers something different: Enough is enough.
I was skimming Thoreau’s Walden. Simplicity is more than a mode of life for Thoreau. It is a philosophical ideal as well. In his “Economy” chapter, Thoreau asserts that a feeling of dissatisfaction with one’s possessions can be resolved in two ways: one may acquire more, or reduce one’s desires. Thoreau looks around at his fellow Concord residents and finds them taking the first path, devoting their energies to making mortgage payments and buying the latest fashions. He prefers to take the second path of radically minimizing his consumer activity. Thoreau patches his clothes instead of buying new ones and dispenses with all possessions he finds unnecessary. He chooses this simple lifestyle to find meaning.
Another image of simplicity came when Jeffrey and I watched a compelling movie this week. “Train Dreams” is a story about a man Robert Granier who is orphaned as a child and grows up in the woods in Eastern Washington state in the early 1900’s. He lives simply in a small cabin in the woods. He has many tragedies in his life, but he perseveres and finds a few friends, a There is a resilience of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming loss. Simplicity is who he is and he maintains that life as he faces joys and terrible losses.
There is a simplicity in Jesus’ words and actions. Jesus sends the disciples out with enough faith, and enough trust to do the work before them.
Trusting the Hospitality of Others
Jesus also instructs them that when they enter a house, they should stay there and receive hospitality. This teaches another truth about following Jesus: faith is communal. We are not meant to live isolated lives of self-sufficiency. The disciples depend on the kindness of strangers, and in doing so they form relationships. The kingdom of God grows not through coersion, but through hospitality, generosity, and shared life.
Maybe you have experienced hospitality from people or in situations you were not expecting it. Or that it was more than you expected. Or maybe you have offered hospitality to others. Friends, family and people you do not know well. Every act of kindness becomes a small doorway into God’s kingdom.
Letting Go of What We Cannot Control
There is another instruction Jesus gives that can be difficult: if a town does not welcome them, they are to shake the dust from their feet and move on. “shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” It is an act of freedom. Live in the present. Certainly a spiritual practice. They would not always be successful.
Jesus teaches the disciples that they cannot control how others respond. Their job is simply to live faithfully—to proclaim love, to bring healing, to embody the good news. The are planting seeds of God’s reign along the way. That is what we are called to do.
Sometimes the most faithful thing we can do is release the dust and continue the journey.
Loving Our Neighbors Along the Way
As the disciples travel from village to village, they proclaim good news and they heal. They are not keeping score. They talk with Jews and Gentiles, all people. Embodying loving their neighbors.
Standing alongside those who suffer
Being people of compassion, justice and peace
This stands in contrast to the message we are hearing today from some leaders.
Each day we are told by those in high offices to fear each other
We see bigotry and greed being celebrated
Cruelty and violence seen as acceptable and normal and necessary.
We are told compassion and empathy are weak and ineffective.
Like the disciples, Christ calls us to walk a different path. A path that leads to the Beloved Community, to hope, to shalom.
In the Mark version of our passage, it ends with these words
6:30-31: “The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.”
Like Jesus, the disciples were doing and teaching. Like Jesus, they needed a deserted place to get away from the crowds and for restoration – a rhythm of prayer and action. And that is the point - those who follow Jesus are invited to be like Jesus, by participating in the Reign of God at hand – prayer and action, learning to live simply, offering experiences and invitation of God’s love and grace, peace and justice, deeper. New eyes to see, a vision of God’s shalom.
Closing
Close with a blessing from Jan Richardson as we consider how we walk, how we move, how we travel along the Lenten road and how we travel along life’s road. Sometimes wilderness, sometimes familiar places, sometimes unfamiliar. What do we carry? And who are we on that road? Who is with us on the road?
Beloved Is Where We Begin
Resources
Center for Action and Contemplation, “The Path to Simplicity” weekly summary, May 4, 2024
https://cac.org/daily-meditations/simplicity-weekly-summary/
Jan Richardson, “Beloved Is Where We Begin,” The Painted Prayerbook Feb. 2, 2011
https://paintedprayerbook.com/2016/02/11/lent-1-beloved-is-where-we-begin/