Shaking the dust of our feet, in Christ

4 Jul 2021 by Rev Paul Bartlett (service and sermon), Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels in: Worship Services: 2021

CHRIST CANDLE

Jesus said ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’. Light a candle in your place as we gather as the scattered people of God for worship.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY

We gather on the land of the Dharawal people. It was never ceded or sold or given away, it was taken without the thought that it had ever been owned in any Western sense, especially without the awareness that their very identity and purpose is entwined in this land that we too now call home.

We acknowledge their elders past and present and pledge ourselves to work together in peace, in solidarity and in justice making.

OPENING SONG

Deep peace of the running wave to you.

Deep peace of the flowing air to you.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.

Deep peace of the shining starts to you.

Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you. A Celtic Prayer

OPENING PRAYER…

INVITED TO A FEAST

We are the people invited to the feast of God, we will not wait until tomorrow.

How long has it been since you were invited to a feast?

Were you too busy, did you not feel the need to attend, or were you just never invited?

We confess Lord that too often we take this meal for granted and miss its life giving purpose.

We confess Lord that too often we exclude the very people who need this feast, the most.

We confess Lord that too often we reject your offer of forgiveness for the past and refuse your gift.

Forgive us, Lord and set us free.

HYMN TIS 26 Verse 1 ( sing three times)

Just as a lost and thirsty deer

Longs for a cool and running stream

I thirst for you, the living God

Anxious to know that you are near. John Bell & Graham Maule, Iona

GOSPEL READING

Mark 6:1 - 11 Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue & many who heard him were amazed. “Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas & Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.

Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits. These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.

And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” In this we hear God’s Word.

In this we can find Life in Christ’s name. Thanks be the God!

MESSAGE ‘Shaking the dust of our feet, in Christ’

We hear echoes again of the Gospel reading we had last month of Jesus and his family and their less than enthusiastic embrace of his new definition of who constitutes family. ‘Who is my mother…?’

For most of the people of Nazareth, Jesus would always be defined as ‘the son of Mary’ and the ‘brother of Simon, Joseph, Judas and John’. That he was more than this, they couldn’t see.

As many of you know, I grew up as the son of a Methodist Minister in Victoria. Dad had a very high profile within the life of that church and when I was introduced it was always as ‘the son of Warren’.

When the Weather Bureau posted me to Sydney in the mid 1970’s I arrived to a faith community at South Hurstville that had never heard of my dad, but they did come to know me!

Unknown to myself at the time, the shadow which I’d lived under I was now free of, if only and for ever always as both ‘the son of’ but also ‘as Paul’ in my own right. Jesus wasn’t given that opportunity in Nazareth. I wonder if you have grown up with such identity wrestling realities & discoveries?

This rationale can also apply to any significant experience we may have had in our lives, whether it was a good experience or a traumatic one. That event, or series of events does not have to forever define who and whose we are. It does NOT have to be the last defining word on our past, our present or future. For Christ Jesus is the One, who ‘makes all things new’ to quote from Revelation 21.

A consequence of the town of Nazareth ‘taking offense’ at Jesus is that their lack of faith in him make it all but impossible for his teaching and healing ministry to bear any fruit.

There needs to be some faith whether in you or through another for healing to occur but even then Jesus’ compassion can and did heal and touch and set free. But it does become all but impossible if you sit there with arms folded and a scowl on your face, determined to be impervious to all you hear.

All this sets the scene for the next key part of this passage. Last month we heard that Jesus chose and named his key disciples, today they are sent out in ministry with a great sense of urgency.

“Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.”

Not only is there a sense of travelling light and with purpose but you will be dependent upon the hospitality of those whom you meet as well. You won’t be travelling as a self-funded tourist’ but living in community and as St Paul was wont to remind us, and earning your keep as you go.

Plus this wonderful little insight into 3 Star or 5 star living: stay in the one house until you leave that town. Take the offer that is first given you. Don’t shop around for a comfier bed, a larger room, better meals, or people with more clout, value the host who first welcomes you!

Taking just enough stuff with us and having just enough life experience for the journey is key.

Lest we never leave town or in the life of the modern church – because we’re still in the committee or meeting phase and never actually get around to ‘pushing our little boat out into the deep’.

But now to the central part of today’s reading. If any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them. Matthew Ch 10 and Luke 9 also mention this passage of shaking the dust off though Matthew does tweak it a little by referring it to the offer of peace given and if not received then let that peace return to you before you leave.

Jesus is teaching the disciples about rejection. No matter your enthusiasm, warmed heart or sacrificial and transformed life, some will refuse to listen or respond; proverbially if not actually, shutting the door in your face. The love of Christ does not in this life soften every heart. And the same goes for each of us in the lives we lead. We can love and care deeply for family and friends but sometimes that isn’t enough and rejection occurs. Someone I know hasn’t seen or been able to speak to their sister for 69 years. Their attempts at contact were met with silence, with anger and at times with threats.

SHAKING THE DUST OFF YOUR FEET in His name, acknowledges that just as Jesus faced rejection and offense, so can we in our service of him; and that can hurt deeply and lead us to respond angrily which is where I find the phrase in Matthew 10:13 so helpful ‘let your peace return to you’.

We all accumulate dust along the way of life, whether it be under the car following an outback road trip or just the daily toing and froing of daily life. It does accumulate, a bit like the back pack of life into which we keep adding small bits and pieces until we are so weighed down that we are of little use to anyone. And we’re often angry and out of sorts to boot!

Letting go of hurt and rejection is hard. Rejection can and does keep us awake at night.

Keeping hold of it long enough and often enough, can become habit forming and identity and self-worth defining, to our despair and loss and to our Lord’s great sorrow. But it doesn’t have to be so.

Christ has our back. Christ’s commitment to us is unwavering. He is our rock and our safe place.

We’re not always good at letting go of this stuff, but we can in Him do it just often enough for it not to consume our waking and our sleeping and all the relationships we do have.

But there is a sting in the tale of this shaking the dust off, the last line ‘as a testimony against them’. Ouch. Might our peace filled actions shame them or embarrass them into new life?

I value the insight in 1 Peter 3:15-16 which says “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” Maybe there will be some dust which you can shake off today as we prepare for communion or as you return to your homes. Thanks be to God. Amen.

An addendum:

The more I reflect on this passage, I wonder if there is a potential link between washing feet and shaking the dust off your feet. They involve some form of cleansing and of power reversal. In Jesus’ day feet washing was the role of a servant or of a slave and yet Jesus turns that concept upside down by washing the disciples feet.

Is there an act of humility and of mutual respect in Jesus injunction that you shake the dust off as you leave?

Or are the final words in Mark 6, Matt 10 & Luke 9 re this passage just about the eternal costliness facing those who reject the Christ? This focus is understandable when set against the backdrop of the church’s persecution when the Gospels were written between 65 – 95 CE. But I wonder if there might be more to this story?

HYMN TIS 626

Lord of creation, to you be all praise!

Most mighty your working, most wondrous your ways!

Your glory and might are beyond us to tell

And yet in the heart of the humble you dwell.

Lord of all power, I give you my will

In joyful obedience your tasks to fulfil.

Your bondage is freedom, your service is song

And, held in your keeping, my weakness is strong.

Lord of all wisdom, I give you my mind:

Rich truth that surpasses our knowledge to find

What eye has not seen and what ear has not heard

Is taught by your Spirit and shines from your word.

Lord of all bounty, I give you my heart

I praise and adore you for all you impart

Your love to inspire me, your counsel to guide

Your presence to shield me, whatever betide.

Lord of all being, I give you my all

If ever I leave you I stumble and fall

But, led in your service your word to obey

I’ll walk in your freedom to the end of the way.

Jack Copley Winslow 1882 – 1974

Prayer for Healing Country by Common Grace

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

COMMUNION

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

In the beginning God’s Spirit hovered over the waters of Creation.

In the fulness of time God made humankind in God’s image and saw that it was good.

In the fulness of time God gave the Law and the Prophets to his People.

In the fulness of time God sent his son Jesus Christ to be our joy and our peace, God with us.

Following his death & resurrection we received the Holy Spirit that we might not lose our way.

And in that gift, he gave us community through the gift of the Church, one body for the good of all. This meal we will celebrate in remembrance of all that Christ did, this meal we will celebrate as food for our journey in this life and as a foretaste of that heavenly banquet prepared for all whom he loves.

WORDS OF INSTITUTION

PRAYER OF INVOCATION

DISTRIBUTION

CLOSING PRAYER

HYMN All Together OK 412 (repeat)

Sent by the Lord am I, my hands are ready now

To make the earth the place in which the kingdom comes.

Sent by the Lord am I, my hands are ready now

To make the earth the place in which the kingdom comes.

The angels cannot change a world of hurt and pain

into a world of love, of justice and of peace.

The task is mine to do, to set it really free

Help me to obey, help me to do your will.