Hebrews 12:1-3 – Baggage
Let me tell you something right from the start: we hate moving. I know we only moved less than 10 minutes away, but that didn’t make things radically different from moving away. Sure, we used several pick-up trucks instead of a U-Haul, and we made several trips each instead of 1 big trip, but the preparation wasn’t much different. Everything had to be boxed or bagged. Everything had to be labeled, at least, if we are going to find it again some time soon.
Right now all the rooms in the new house are sprinkled with maybe half-emptied boxes, in between the furniture that may or may not be in place. We have some of the bedrooms partly set up, the kitchen partly arranged, and the living room mostly arranged. Unfortunately, and here is where the problem arises, the house that we have moved into does not accommodate the 5 of us and our belongings. Yes, there are 4 bedrooms, which works well for our family, but we don’t fit in it. A great deal of our stuff is in storage in Deep Cove.
And I really think the flaw is not with the house. I think the flaw is with us. We have too much stuff. Too many books, too many clothes, too much furniture, too many toys, too many decorations, too many sentimental items… in short, just too much.
Which is the basis for this week’s message. Michelle was talking to me on Friday about today’s passage in Hebrews 12, and completely summed up my message for me, not knowing that I was even preaching on the passage. We had both come up with the same spiritual truth about our lives, from the same passage no less, so I really felt affirmed that this message may be what we all need to hear. Follow along with me from Hebrews 12:1-3.
This is one of my very favourite passages. I love the inspiration it provides to me, no matter how many times I visit it. Let’s see what it says to us today. The writer is said by some to be Paul, but I don’t think so. The wording and the phrases are fairly different from Paul’s other works, so I tend to believe it’s an unknown NT author. Regardless, the author starts off begins by tying together all the heroes of faith listed in ch.11, to what that means for us. The verse says, “Because of these heroes, because of these faithful witnesses, because of what these great people did because they believed in God, we should do our part as well.”
And what is our part? We are to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. That’s really where I want to camp out today. I mean, there’s lots more here – fixing our eyes on Jesus and what He did, or considering what others have gone through. But I want to speak about “stuff” today. Baggage.
The reality is that “stuff” holds us down. Look at the passage again. Sure, it mentions sin, and I’ll speak about that in a few minutes, and it also says “everything that hinders”. The NLT reads: “every weight that slows us down”. The truth of the matter is that we have things in our lives that make obedience difficult. Not necessarily sin or disobedience, but excess weight in our race to win the prize of heaven. Look at Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9 – “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”
A runner in a marathon wouldn’t think of wearing a heavy backpack or carrying a Save-Easy bag full of bricks. Of course not. An athlete works to get into shape to compete in their sport, and then doesn’t clog up their efforts by self-sabotage. Self-sabotage. That’s what we Christians do when we carry along baggage that we shouldn’t be dragging along with us.
For example, this summer, as you know, I received a job interview from a school district up north. I’m ashamed to say this, but the biggest thing holding me back from putting on a good interview was the nagging question: “What would we do with all our stuff?” Truly, this was my biggest fear. We’d have had to pack up all our belongings, sort out what we wanted to take with us, sort out what we’d put in storage, find storage, sell the rest, sell the van, and all in the space of the 2 weeks between the interview and the start of school. It was too much to sort out. I didn’t think we could do it, and so I didn’t give my very best to the interview. Other factors came into play, like the housing shortage up north, but I didn’t try too hard. Because of stuff.
That’s a case, not of sin, but certainly of a person not free to do what God might have been leading me to do. My baggage hindered me. My love of “stuff” slowed me down and tied me up from doing my very best for God. Luke 16:13 tells me these sobering words - “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” That word, “mammon”, is usually translated to mean money or riches, but I’m pretty sure the thought is the same. Your love of stuff will get in the way of your walk with God. That’s why Jesus also said, “It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.”
I think of Martha, sister of Mary, who wanted to serve her Lord when He came to supper. She was resentful of her sister who just sat and chatted with Jesus, and complained to Him. He said, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." You see? Martha wanted to serve Jesus, but her concern for other things held her back from doing what was best. She wanted things just right. That passage in Luke 10 says that she was “distracted by all the preparations that had to be made”. It was about “stuff”. Martha was scolded, because her love for Jesus was blurred by her concern for other things.
I also think of one of the saddest passages in the NT, too. Some of Paul’s last written words. He says in 2 Timothy 4, “Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.” Here was Demas, one of Paul’s ministry partners, who had abandoned him near the time of his death, because he loved the world. If someone who worked beside the apostle Paul could stumble away because of his love for the world, who am I to think that my affection for stuff won’t affect my love for God? Demas didn’t throw off everything that hindered him, nor the sin that entangled him. Demas didn’t do all he could to run with perseverance the race set out before him.
Another NT image, besides runners in a race, is the idea of aliens and strangers. People who don’t belong here. That’s a similar idea to the OT concept of “sojourners”. Sojourners is the term for a group of people who don’t live in one permanent place. Always traveling, always carrying their lives with them from place to place, never really belonging in one place too long, like the Hebrew nation wandering through the desert for 40 years, or like Abram being told to pick up his belongings and just go, not knowing where.
We watched The Littlest Hobo yesterday. The boys had never seen it before. Remember that old Canadian show, about the dog who wandered from one place to another, helping people along the way? “Can’t stay too long, just turn around, and I’m gone again. Maybe tomorrow, I’ll want to settle down; until tomorrow, the whole world is my home.” That’s sojourning.
The thing about sojourning is that they had to travel light. They couldn’t take baggage with them, or else it would weigh them down. Even their place of worship was a tent. Everything was meant to be carried easily. I think we are meant to be sojourners. We aren’t meant to carry huge loads of stuff that would slow us down.
Well, folks, we don’t belong here. This world is not our home. We are hobos, too. Just passing through. Aliens and strangers, sojourning until we reach our true home. We need to act like it. We need to travel this road and run this race, knowing that we can’t have stuff to slow us down and tie us up and hinder our progress. Sometimes we need to let stuff go.
I know, sometimes the baggage we carry isn’t always physical. Sometimes the stuff that hinders our walk with God is internal. It may or may not be more distracting than the stuff I’ve been talking about, all the stuff that won’t fit into our new 4-bedroom rental house. Michelle and I would certainly say that our concern and affection for our stuff makes us feel dragged down and held back, but others deal with completely different baggage. But with the same results.
Some people have baggage of unforgiveness. They drag around past insults and hurts and sleights and pains, and never leave them in one place. Dragging this stuff around from home to home, or from decade to decade. One Christian songwriter asked these questions: “ Why you holding grudges in old jars? Why you wanna show off all your scars?” Some people carry resentment all the way through their Christian walk, instead of forgiving the offence, getting over it, and moving on.
Some people have other kinds of baggage, too, like the baggage of caring too much about what others think of them, or like the baggage of feelings of inferiority. I suppose we all have our own baggage to deal with. Problems and habits that we carry around, year after year, on our way home.
So how do we get rid of our stuff? Sometimes it needs to be thrown out. Which is not easy, not when it’s actual stuff that we carry around, and not when it’s spiritual problems that we’ve had for years. There is no easy way to get rid of baggage. But I encourage you to get alone with God and seek Him in this issue. You need to ask him: “What do I have that I need to get rid of? What baggage do I have? What is slowing me down from running the race? What is tying me up from doing my very best for You? What is hindering me?”
Let’s pray about this right now.
