These past few Sunday's we've been looking at various aspects of discipleship.   We’ve looked at the idea of study – reading texts that are inspirational and good for the heart and soul.    We’ve looked at sharing – not just from our resources, but also our stories of faith.    We’ve looked at prayer in some of it’s different forms, and its importance in discipleship.     We’ve looked at Worship as a means of reminding ourselves, and the world (but mostly ourselves), that there’s something more important than “me”.      And here recently we looked at the idea of “Giving” as a means of discipleship; giving, not just to do away with something, but to "let go" of something.    Not just to let go of something, but let go of something that might be holding us back.    "Giving" in the sense of letting go of something in order to embrace life more fully.  Letting go, and reminding ourselves of the connection between giving and compassion.

I started life in the military in the Light Infantry.   “Light” as opposed to “Heavy”… but this really is referring to how the soldiers get to where they are going.   Light Infantry soldiers might indeed be moved somewhere by truck, or even (more often) by helicopter.   But this is for sure a misnomer!   It’s a contradiction in terms!    Light Infantry is far from Light!  The “Light Fighter” is expected to carry everything they want to take with them on their backs or somehow strapped to their bodies.    So a Light Infantry soldier might have to carry 60, 70, 80, and likely over 100 lbs or more of gear, weapon, ammo, water and food, cold-weather gear if needed, sleeping gear, change of clothes and boots, radio, batteries, and other electronic equipment.   Light Infantry is not light at all! 

Then some years after that I was assigned to the 49^th Armored Division.    “Armor” means tanks, armored personnel carriers, and heavy vehicles like that.    I was assigned to the division headquarters – so no tanks there.  But they did have vehicles.    And we used them for sure.    My first time in the field with them, I showed up with my ruck (an Army word for back pack) packed with all the things I thought I would need and more importantly what I thought I could carry.    I remember walking up to one of the sergeants as he was packing one of the vehicles – he was talking to another sergeant.   This is what I heard:   “Hey, where are you putting the cots?”    “Over by the coolers.”    Cots????   Coolers????     What are these “coolers” you speak of?? 

I told you that so I could tell you this:   In the spiritual sense, in terms of discipleship – of trying to follow a particular discipline for a greater good… there’s a term from the Quaker tradition – to be encumbered or un-encumbered.   The typical Light Infantry soldier is weighed down by a LOT of stuff he has to carry.    What they carry really depends on the mission and how long they will be out, but again, added all up, it’s not light.   Look at the enemy the US faced in Vietnam… the typical NVA soldier was somewhere just above a hundred pounds, they carried their weapon, some ammo, some food, and really not that much else.   They wore a light cotton uniform, a belt, some kind of light helmet (mostly to keep the sun out of their eyes and the rain off their heads), sandals on their feet, maybe a small backpack with a few more things, and that was pretty much it.     In Afghanistan and Iraq, America’s enemy there wore (and still wears) not that much more than their equivalent from 35 years ago.    Compared to the American Infantryman, they were (and are) “unencumbered”, whereas the American soldier seems so much more “encumbered”.  

To be unencumbered means to be free from being weighted down, bogged down, light… free.     Physically, spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, how many of us feel so unencumbered?   Maybe we’re encumbered by certain aspects of our pasts?  Maybe by our life-choices, or by our material possessions.  We can feel encumbered by anything that pulls us back or impedes our travel forward from a life of ignorance to a life of freedom and fullness.  In the Quaker tradition, “giving” can help free us – it can help us become un-encumbered in that way.   

There was this book about 20 years ago – called Material Possessions.    Photographers travelled the world photographing  families that were statistically average for their country.    They photographed them in front of their homes with all their possessions around them.  So basically all the things inside the home were taken out of the home so all that – including the families – could be to be in the photo.    Siberia, Africa, South America, Asia, North America, etc.   Families in front of homes of stone, brick, wood, canvas, combinations of materials.     Guess who had the most amount of stuff?    I don’t know about you, but I would not relish the idea of having to take out all the stuff out of our home for a picture, only to put it back afterwards.  

It seems the longer we stay somewhere, the more stuff we end up having.    And when we get to that point – where we have more stuff than we have space for, we either do away with some of our stuff, or we find extra space for the stuff (storage units or a bigger home).     I didn’t know this until recently, but Storage units are a $22 billion industry here in the US.   We collectively (as well as individually) have a LOT OF STUFF.   So much stuff, we don’t know what to do with it all.   And there’s always more stuff coming along.    This is the stream we live in – we more often than not are unconscious to the idea that there is more stuff than we really need.   Advertisers and marketers, and the capitalist system itself, floods us with this notion of “stuff”, and more “stuff”, and here’s why you need this stuff, and here’s how this stuff can help you… etc. etc. that we get so busy dealing with stuff, we forget to even ask the questions…  Why so much stuff?  Do I really need all this?   “Don’t think!   Buy!”     We’re to some degree or other encumbered by the stuff.

The spiritual idea here, that runs across all culture and traditions, is that giving – being able to give freely – opens and frees the heart, which opens and frees the soul to experience true happiness and joy.  Giving unencumbers us.  

Giving allows us to not be possessed by our possessions.  Giving in this way is hard to do!   There’s giving to make us (the giver) look good, which really is an ego trip and very condescending.   I know people who would give so they could tell others what they did, how many poor people they helped, etc.   Now, they actually did help people, but it was a very narcissistic and egocentric approach to giving.    And demeaning to those receiving help – they were often reminded how much they’d been helped, and they were encouraged to be as grateful as possible.     Then there’s giving to help, which isn’t bad…   That’s sharing, and that’s certainly a good thing.   Then there’s giving until we no longer feel possessed by our possessions… and that’s very hard!      Giving teaches us to let go; of or possessions, of our possessiveness – over things, ideas, people, our own egos.     And.. this is hard for westerners to hear – especially Americans – learning to let go also teaches us, that when it is our time to die, to be able to let go of this life, and travel more freely and easily into the next life.    

Another aspect of “Giving” is that it teaches Compassion – which is a core principle in quite a number of religious traditions.  Why is compassion a core principle?   Because, compassion, like “letting go”, teaches us there are things more important to life than our ego’s.     Sometimes we need “ego”; to help us stand up, to help us speak up, to help express to the world we are not door-mats!    But too much ego… the idea that it’s all about us… not so good for us.    Compassion helps us see life from another point of view, feel from another point of view, experience life from another point of view… besides our own.

“Giving” is easy… and very hard!    For many, giving is part of their spiritual practices and disciplines.   Giving teaches us about ourselves – about who we are, about who we want to be.   And as a practice it helps us open our minds and hearts to the voice of God.    Which leads us to Love!     

And what’s love?    For most of us, I think our first responses might have to do with some sense of emotionalism, of love as a feeling.    Our most immediate thoughts on what  Love might be involve some degree of a sentimental experience that one feels more than anything.   Now for sure Love does indeed involve feelings.   But I don’t immediately associate feelings with “giving”.     I’d bet most people don’t either.   Well, there more to come of Love here very soon….