Jesus charged the disciples to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and only one tunic. Not even a change of clothes.

When I preached this text before, I ended up preaching a sermon about St. Francis, because this is what Francis used as the first rule for his order, the Franciscans. He just took the words of Jesus' instruction to his disciples on their first missionary journey, and said, we will do this.

There would be other rules for the Franciscans later on, much more lenient after St. Francis died, but this was the first rule for the Franciscans. And they took it literally. "Take nothing with you on your journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in your belts; but wear sandals and only one tunic."

Inci…