Photo Courtesy of UMC LEAD
Dust Off Feet
Recently, our New Day worshiping community, a missional micro-church comprised of people from all walks of life in an apartment complex where many African refugees are settled when they arrive in Dallas, met for weekly worship and discovered that the week’s Scripture passage was Mark 6:1-13. Mark 6 finds itself nestled right in the midst of the ongoing action of the Markan Gospel. If there’s an Energizer Bunny Gospel, it’s Mark. Mark is like a football commentator providing a non-stop play-by-play of Jesus’ incredibly active ministry without a lot of pause for breath. So when the action in Mark stops for a moment and Jesus the no-huddle quarterback takes a timeout to give the disciples some instructions, it must be important. And this is what we find in Mark 6:7-13:
He [Jesus] called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If 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.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Finally, we have a chance to take a deep breath, and what does Jesus do but get the disciples involved in the action. BUT, Jesus doesn’t just send the disciples out to do stuff willy-nilly in His name. He gives them a playbook: Here’s what you’re going to do; if this happens stay there, and if this happens, DON’T. This passage created quite a dialogue at New Day. Our African friends went back and forth over whether or not shaking the dust off their feet was a curse the disciples were placing on communities where they were not welcome, while others of us were taken with what “welcome” really means. In the midst of the discussion, my friend Willy from the Democratic Republic of Congo made the point that a proper show of hospitality in Jesus’ day would include having your feet washed. If you had been properly welcomed into a place, then your feet wouldn’t have dust to shake off. Now, we never really solved the dilemma about whether shaking dust off your feet was a curse or not, but Willy’s statement stayed with me.
Sometimes in ministry, there are places I go with the Gospel that profess to welcome the truth of God’s Word, but their actions never transform into hospitable care for others, including those bearing the Good News to their community. Sometimes these inhospitable environments include people I have grown to love, and it seems the burden for their transformation falls on my shoulders. But I am not God. The work of transformation and transformed living in light of the Good News of Jesus Christ is not mine. It’s God’s. So when I go into new and old places alike to do the work and witness of the Gospel, and I leave with the dust of the journey and the dust of the work and the dust of pouring myself out in answering God’s still on my feet day in and day out, Jesus is pretty clear. Shake it off. Let it go. The work of ministry may call for sacrifice, but not self-mutilation. Let the Holy Spirit do the work in that community, that church, that person. Put the emergency oxygen mask on yourself before you try to help someone else. I am not responsible for the transformation of inhospitable people. I am responsible to be hospitable to those around me, including myself, and follow God’s call to go and see and share Christ’s freeing message as the Holy Spirit leads.
As Christ’s disciples in the world, there are times when we will find hospitable places that invite us in and ask us to stay for a while. We may step on each other’s toes and disagree and question what God might be doing, but in those places, we each share in the work of cleaning off the others’ dust. Other times, communities may invite us in but choose to ignore the dust we carry and even add more of their own. We may not be able to remove ourselves physically from these environments, but Jesus’ Markan playbook begs the question: What is God’s work and what is my/your/our work in these places?
Lisa Hancock graduated with a Master of Sacred Music before returning to Perkins as a Master of Theological Studies. Lisa's areas of focus are multicultural worship, liturgy, disability theology, new monasticism, and a plethora of other things! She lives in an intentional community in Dallas with her husband Justin. This article is reprinted with permission from UMC LEAD.