Nancy Myer
July 14, 2024
Mark 6:1-13
Prayer for Illumination
We are waiting, O God, to hear your Word, for in your Word is our hope. By the power of the Holy Spirit, may we hear your voice
and be attentive to what you will say to us today.In the name of Christ, we ask this and all things. Amen.
Mark 6:1-13
6He left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him. 2On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! 3Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence at him. 4Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honour, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’ 5And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6And he was amazed at their unbelief.
Then he went about among the villages teaching. 7He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; 9but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. 10He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. 11If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ 12So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. 13They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Sermon
You know the scene well. The score is tied. A player gets fouled in the final minute and heads to the free throw line. The player dribbles a few times… shoots… and misses. Teammates quickly start clapping, uttering words of encouragement, saying, “Shake it off! Shake it off! You’ll get the next one!” When the pressure is on, and literally every point matters, shaking it off is not the easiest response.
Even though several of our middle school Taylor Swift lovers are at Massanetta this morning, I have no doubt we have some Swifties in the congregation here. I have a sneaking suspicion you cannot hear this text without thinking about how Taylor penned her own version of this idea in the song “Shake it off.” Players gonna play, haters gonna hate, heartbreakers gonna break, fakers gonna fake… essentially people are going to do what they do – so what do we do? We shake it off! Here, too, like with the free throws, Taylor makes it sound easy. No big deal – just shake it off!
In our text today, Jesus encourages the disciples to shake off the dust that is on their feet. This practice was used by pious Jews when they returned to Israel from a Gentile land to symbolize separation from any clinging remnant of ritual defilements. This was their way of removing any trace of a foreign land or a foreign people from themselves. In this case, the phrase “shake off the dust from your feet” seems to have a negative connotation associated with it. Maybe that tone was exactly what Jesus meant when he said it, especially because he followed it up with the idea that it would serve as a testimony against any place that did not offer welcome. But I wonder if we could take it beyond just the negative idea. I admit that this week, I really struggled with this text. All week, I wrestled and wrestled and yearned for the Spirit to intervene with a word for us today. And then after political violence last night, I struggled again. What could “shake off the dust from your feet” mean in the face of today’s world?
I think perhaps part of that wrestling is because I don’t love the idea of thinking about Jesus asking the disciples to do something against anybody, especially on their first time out of the gate. Just a few chapters before this in the book of Mark, Jesus appointed the twelve. Jesus said they were appointed to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons. Asking them essentially to turn their cheek on others feels a bit outside the job description to me. It seems almost to be a way of putting down somebody else, so that may be what led me to yearn for a more complete answer, a different answer. There has to be more to it.
When Jesus says to the disciples, “shake off the dust from your feet,” there must be some real intention involved in order for somebody to complete that action. When I have been in a situation in which I have received anything but welcome, it does not always feel easy to “shake it off” and move on with whatever comes next. It often feels easier to dwell on it and to try to understand why the person may have treated me that way. We can be sensitive beings, and it never feels good to have somebody turn us away or turn us down. And as time goes on, we are weathered and changed by the ins and outs of daily life. When we are in a sense rejected, we are forever changed. We are no longer the person we were when we first showed up to that setting but instead somebody with different experiences, feelings, and maybe even opinions than we had previously.
In the lectionary text, two chunks of scripture are paired together, as is often the case. First Jesus is teaching in the synagogue in his home town, and the scripture tells us they took offence at him. Jesus was rejected by his own people. He began teaching, and the people began responding like he was out of his mind. Then just a few verses later, as he’s sending his disciples out to preach, teach, and cast out demons, he sends them with some advice, perhaps even a command. Jesus uses his own experience of being rejected to teach his disciples what to do if they experience something similar. If you go anywhere and they do not welcome you or choose not to hear you, shake off the dust that is on your feet.
Two years ago, I completed a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education. I was one of the chaplain interns for the summer at UNC Hospital in Hillsborough. One of the things that was the most difficult for me, and for my chaplain colleagues, especially at the beginning of the summer, was “finding” people – patients – for visits. Now you know the hospital is regularly busy, so physically finding them was not the hard part. You see, sometimes we would get referrals from a medical team about a patient who might benefit from a chaplain visit, and sometimes a patient would self-refer and ask for a visit. But at times when we didn’t have anybody on our list, we were to go knocking on doors. Essentially, a cold call. I could look briefly at the chart and know a patient’s basic situation – and sometimes it would tell me if the person had a religious affiliation and if so, what it was – but generally, I was knocking on the door, introducing myself, and asking if they’d like a visit.
It seemed like in some cases, patients assumed a chaplain would only stop by with a surprise visit if they were dying, so they were a bit taken aback at the invitation. I would explain that there was no particular reason for this visit. “We don’t even have to talk about faith or church,” I’d say. “I’m just here to check on you and to see how you are doing.” The response to most of these cold calls was positive – people were glad for a visit and open to talk about how they were feeling about their current hospital stay. And many of them would start right in on their faith and their religious beliefs and how it all tied together. But on occasion, I’d hardly even finish that first sentence – “Hi, my name is Nancy, and I’m one of the chaplains here” – before I’d hear a “no thank you” or an “I’m not interested.” I would tell the patient to have a good day and be on my way. “Shake the dust from your feet.”
Now I easily could have felt one of those “rejections” and walked myself back to the chaplain’s office and wallowed for a bit in self-pity. And the first few times it happened, that’s exactly what I wanted to do. But I’m not a quitter, and I picked up my feet and went on to the next room. Not allowing myself to get caught up in those moments when somebody told me “no thank you” allowed space to open up in my schedule for many other meaningful conversations.
Of course we can’t choose – and don’t want to choose – to shake it off in every scenario. And sometimes, I think we need to make a conscious decision about when to push forward and when to let it go. Sometimes we tend to focus on smaller, trivial things that probably do not deserve the amount of time we devote to them. And there are much, much bigger things that demand our attention. The political scene right now, no matter what your views or opinions, is turbulent, and after last night, violent. A united way forward is seeming more unlikely by the day. There are many parts of the world that are war-torn and people are fighting for their very lives. This is one of the hottest summers we’ve had and various locations are setting new record temperatures as the effects of climate change only grow more concerning. We have violence in our cities and in our schools, and world hunger is a very real dilemma. No, the “shake it off” mentality just doesn’t work when it comes to giant humanitarian and truly life-affecting issues. It simply isn’t the answer, and I’m not suggesting that it should be.
I don’t think Jesus is asking the disciples to curse those who chose not to listen to them or not to welcome them. And I know he is not asking them to turn to violence, for that is never the answer. I think Jesus is reminding them there is important work to do. There are people who are waiting to hear the good news. Let’s shake off the dust from our feet – and not spend time and resources in places where we cannot get traction because people are simply not interested. Let’s go out of our way to extend hospitality to one another and to model for friends and neighbors alike how Jesus would act.
If we can “shake it off” on some smaller things, some things that in the long run don’t matter that much, it just may create space to focus on what’s most important. Don’t sweat the small stuff, right? Don’t leave that dust on your feet long enough for things to get muddy… stand up, and move on.
When we are able to focus time on what matters, when we are in a place where we can and do truly receive and offer hospitality, we are able to do things like provide school supplies for the Refugee Support Center, ensure that children and youth in Orange County are fed over the summer, make homes in Appalachia warmer, safer, and drier, and continue to strive toward peace in this world. If shaking the dust off our feet has to do with hospitality, with serving one another, then let’s shake the dust from our feet in every case where we don’t feel welcome and where we notice that others are not being welcomed.
I also don’t think when Jesus says, “Shake the dust from your feet,” he is saying, “forget this ever happened.” The experience of rejection changes you. When you think you have a great idea, and you share it with the people around you, and they immediately shut it down, it doesn’t feel great. It takes a bit of self-confidence to puff up and keep moving.
When others say or do things with which we do not agree, we can choose to live in it with them and be troubled by it… or we can choose to have a conversation about it, to move beyond it. When somebody fails to extend hospitality to us, we can shake it off and move on with our lives.
But whatever we are in the process of doing at the time… it likely has a purpose. Jesus called his disciples and sent them out into the world to preach and to teach and to cast out demons. They had good news to share, and there was no time to be down in the dumps when they happened upon some inhospitable folks. They were living their own life stories while sharing the story of Jesus.
Today we’re singing a hymn that is likely a favorite for many of you, “I Love to Tell the Story.” “I love to tell the story, of Jesus and his glory… it satisfies my longings, as nothing else could do.” There is work to be done. There is good news to be shared. There is a story to be told. It’s our job, our calling, our life’s work. People will get in our way. People will distract us and detract from what we are doing. Not everybody is going to be hospitable nor will everybody be interested in what we have to say. But shake the dust from your feet, my friends. Help others to shake the dust from theirs. Stay true to the journey. Leave a trail of God’s love and grace wherever you go. This story isn’t going to tell itself. Amen.