Shake the Dust

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092717.cfm
Ezra 9:5-9
Luke 9:1-6

We learn early on whether a certain job or skillset will fit us. The variety of hobbies and careers can keep us busy as bees. There are so many things out there to try. So, we have to be discerning, because our time is valuable. We rummage through the hype and bullet points, separating the nonsense from the really good stuff. 

Badminton is pretty easy to figure out. Cutting down trees takes a lot more skill and courage. Then there are the big commitments, like team sports. They aren’t for everyone. 

I spent just a few seconds deciding whether to read a long book on London. I went ahead, and the reviews on the book told the truth. I wrangled with myself for years, however, over how best to go camping. The idea of camping is great, but awful weather has ruined several invested days of preparation and planning. The brochures lie a lot.

The fit of an adventure to our personality takes some salesmanship. We should feel the sparks and tingles of intrigue and curiosity. Some pitches attract us more than others. There are always consequences. A good marketing program knows how to lead us along — making money in the stock market, volunteering as a Scout leader, or tiling our own bathroom — hiding the really awful consequences.

Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority
over all demons and to cure diseases,
and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God
and to heal the sick.

After our interest has been piqued, we go check out the practicality of being a surfer or cutting our own firewood. Is this something that fits our personality? Do I look good in biking shorts? I could meet some new people by joining a snorkeling club. I already have the clothes for being a real estate agent. 

We don't always read all the bullet points. The really dicy stuff is usually in small print.

The dreamy feelings and enamor with a task or job first takes place in our mind’s eye. Would I be a good skier? Could I present a case to a jury? The cove moulding on the ceiling of a living room might attract us to a YouTube how-to video, but eventually I have to decide if I have the patience, the tools, and the desire? 

There might be hundreds of these things going through our mind every year. When we finally get beyond the marketing and calculating and take off to try something new, the cut off point to actually following all the way through usually was presented to us earlier. And, we missed it. Way back in the beginning of the sales pitch, we passed the caution by. It now rears its ugly head as an insurmountable difficulty associated with the task.

He said to them, "Take nothing for the journey,
neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money,
and let no one take a second tunic.”

Every difficult team sport I learned as a young man began with the same series of exercises. I heard about the taxing pre-season drills, but I concentrated on the end game of being on the team. And then, we ran around the football field taking laps until we thought our legs would fall off. We did wind sprints from one end of the basketball court to the other until we got blisters on our feet. We jogged around the baseball field until our lungs hurt. We swam laps until our arms were like rubber.

The more complicated and expensive equipment and individual sports involved preparing and taking care of our skies, golf clubs, tennis rackets, fishing tackle, or climbing gear. It cost money that I didn't plan on, or fully grasp. 

We often quit those sports when we finally realized we didn’t have the stamina to train, didn’t enjoy the challenge of the competition, or couldn’t master the syncopation between our body and the equipment.

But, every adventure with glory in the sales pitch includes that little motivational speech that helps to keep us going.  Dreamy consequences lay way out on the horizon, but that speech gives us the courage to go on.

“Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there.”

Not everything we do is glamorous. Most things just deserve attention. We learn to do lots of things simply because they need to get done. Cleaning our kitchens, sharpening a good set of knives, or taking care of our landscaping equipment. 

Being a good citizen, for instance, means more than just following traffic laws and paying our taxes. Loving our families requires reaching out, initiating conversations and visiting each other. We take care of each other when we’re sick or injured. 

The roads on any of our paths of skills, jobs and relationships, though, always come to a stopping point. Every effort runs into a dead end eventually.

Hikers find they no longer breathe at higher altitudes. Our large, young families grow into many new and far flung families, and we are no longer needed, or in charge. We have to retire because we can’t keep up. Golfing gets too expensive. Eventually in all sports or careers the competition passes us by. Most of us get fired, phrased most often as "retirement." 

Jesus' pitch, however, includes a compelling pro/con offering to follow him, suggesting that eternity will follow. 

Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."

In all sales jobs, sports, adventures and careers, naysayers and speed bumps lie in our way. We are taught to take negativity on the chin, and learn from what the customer's "No!" will teach us. In fact, a common refrain is to never take "No" for an answer. Just get back in there and try again. Pick ourselves up and get back on the horse.

“And as for those who do not welcome you,
when you leave that town,
shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them."

Now, one of the things our parents never told us is that when the going gets tough, get angry at our dissenters. Indeed, no coaches at any stage in our life tell us to stink eye the team when we’re kicked off. Anybody have an employer who told us to go postal when we leave our job? It’s not in any exit procedure of an employee handbook.

No anger, stink eyes or firing of weapons are included in our sales pitch when customers slam the door. We’re supposed to close our briefcase and put away our tools nicely, and leave quietly. I was told to be nice to customers who were rude. My father didn’t put up with poor losers. Nobody told me to give the middle finger to the person who has to fire me. 

"You're not wanted here anymore," doesn't mean I should kick dirt.

I can’t ever remember being told to make a big scene when I was no longer welcomed. And, I am certain that not one sales pitch included the bullet point, right before we went off to do our job: 

“Shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.” 

Nope. Not once. I can’t think of any time in my reading of scripture where God makes such a terrible suggestion. But, there it is.

“And as for those who do not welcome you,
when you leave that town,
shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them."

What could be so important about this job that Jesus sent them out to do? The twelve apostles heard the complete pitch and then eagerly agreed with the send off.

“Then they set out and went from village to village
proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere.”

Jesus put a very high regard on the power and authority over all demons and the ability to cure diseases. So much so, that if people didn't accept their pitch then the apostles were walk away from them in disgust.

In any other set of skills and adventure, like embarking on door-to-door sales, handing out firewood to the poor, or playing team sports in front of a hostile crowd, the unwelcome, ungrateful, and unfriendly crowd is smiled at, and forgiven. 

Not the apostles. If made unwelcome, they were testify to everyone about those who ignored God’s gracious wonders, in each and every town that told them to piss off. 

Proclaiming the good news while curing diseases and eradicating evil has a unique sales pitch for a very important reason. These trained folks do not come like any other person knocking on our door, or involve any typical set of skills that we find on a manufacturing floor or at a campout in the mountains. They come to change the landscape of the hearer's lives. They chase away evil and heal folk’s ills. This trumps all other adventurers, because those who refuse it will be examples of obstinance against God’s graciousness. 

There are always consequences with God.

So, have we seen anyone show up in our lives like this? Have we been asked to join up with such an adventure? Are there apostles out there trying to heal us and remove evil from our lives?

Is this summoning even possible today?