Sermon - Mark 6: 1-13 Shake the dust off your feet

Sermon - Mark 6: 1-13

Shake the dust off your feet

May I speak in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Signals or signs can be interesting things, especially those of defiance or rebellion. Today's Gospel passage contains what might be considered to contain a sign that we can use as Christians against those that reject us or the message of Jesus ? shaking the dust off our feet. But it is not meant in that way at all.

So where does this action come from? Rabbinic law stated that the dust of any Gentile country was unclean, so when Jews entered Palestine they should shake off the dust from it; a form of denial that they would have anything to do with it. Jesus is using this symbol back against those who would refuse to listen.

It is important to note that this is not a sign of condemnation, nor a sign of cursing, nor something derogatory. It is more a statement of the reality of the situation. The burden of finding hospitality was not placed on the stranger, but on the village that they entered. It was down to the local residents to provide hospitality, not for the stranger to seek it out. So if doors and homes, as well as ears and hearts were shut, then it was time to move on.

What can we learn from this?

Firstly, if we look at the preceding few verses in Mark, we get to see the urgency in Mark's writing. Jesus instructs his disciples to go out on a mission. What they took with them shows how urgent things were.

`He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts.' (Mark 6:8)

God's kingdom was breaking in ? you can see this in the amount of references to the healing of demon-possessed people in Mark's Gospel ? and these particular words show the signs of immediacy ? no long term goals, no 5 year plan. Leave now with the minimum of kit and get on with the job. There is no time to reason with people, no lingering with long explanations. For this time in the history of the Gospel this is what was required, to let as many people know

The Rev'd Colin Datchler

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as quickly as possible. It is not to say we should do it this way now, but this is what was needed then.

Secondly, the reality that the disciples faced is contained in this instruction to shake the dust off their feet; some people were going to reject the Gospel. I'm not talking about not signing up to the doctrinal fine-print. What Jesus was saying, and who He was just couldn't be understood or entertained by some people. We see this in verses 1 to 6 ? his home town mainly rejected him, more than that they were astounded that it was him, and took offence. We sit in the comfort of 2000 years of the Church and people getting used to who Jesus is, even if now they don't agree, but this was radically different then. His claims, his actions, and his incarnation (God becoming human) was so difficult for many. More than that, at the time people were reading Mark's Gospel, times were hard.

Rowan Williams says this:

`You must imagine the Gospel aimed at a Church that is perhaps a bit too much in love with wonderworking and success, a Church that puts too much store by tangible signs of God's favour and God's assistance... Mark is writing for a Church baffled and fearful because the signs and the miracles aren't coming thick and fast. What is coming thick and fast is persecution and a sense of threat and failure. Mark is writing into the life of communities experiencing fear and disorientation.' (2014: 46)

In a very real way, it may not have been a good idea to hang around once the message had been delivered and rejected.

Thirdly, there is a sense of responsibility here. As Christians, our responsibility is to give and not demand. We give, prepared not to receive in return because of the deep love of Christ that dwells within us, the love that has changed everything for us. We attempt to work for God, and we work hard, but the results are in His hands always. This is freedom for us; freedom from targets and results. We are free to serve our King with our whole selves. Ultimately, it is this freedom in Christ that enables the disciples on their mission to step back and say, `Ok, it's down to you ? it's your decision.'

If there was just one Christian book I would recommend to you to read it would be Christianity Rediscovered by Vincent Donovan. It tells the story of a Catholic Priest working with the Masai in East Africa in the 1960's. He came

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to see that the mission strategy current at the time was predicated on the belief that God had been completely silent or inactive over vast aeons of time before the arrival of the missionary. This placed a huge burden on the missionary who was now the first or sole voice for God amongst these 'new' people. Donovan resisted the idea that God could speak to people only through the voice of the missionary - and then, only in English, or at best a poor imitation of their own language.

He set about meeting with small groups of Masai, listening to what God had already spoken into their culture, rather than telling them what God had spoken into his own culture. By this means he discovered that a deep consciousness of such things as good and evil; personal sin and the need for redemption already existed - although in a language unfamiliar to and sometimes discordant with 'western' orthodoxy. His mission strategy was then to build upon these already deeply accepted understandings to share the good news of Christ... but there came a point when he had finished telling them.

`As I was nearing the end of the evangelization of the first six Masai communities, I began looking towards baptism. So I went to the old man Ndangoya's community to prepare them for the final step... I told them I had finished the imparting of the Christian message as I could. I had taught them everything I knew about Christianity. Now it was up to them. They could reject it or accept it. I could do no more. If they did accept it, of course it required public baptism. So I would go away for a week or so and give them the opportunity to make their judgment on the gospel of Jesus Christ.' (1982: 91)

There comes a point when what is done is done. To continue pressing home the Gospel may not be the wisest thing to do. This is different from not having hope or consistently loving our neighbour ? this is about the right time to act; `a time to keep silence and a time to speak' .

Let us all pray for wisdom to speak those eternal truths we know ourselves, or when to step away acknowledging it is time for decisions to be made... Amen

The Rev'd Colin Datchler

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Suggested Reading Donovan, V.J. (1982) Christianity Rediscovered. Orbis Books: NY Williams, R (2014) Meeting God in Mark. SPCK: London

The Rev'd Colin Datchler

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