|
We live in a culture that wants everything today, right now! We can communicate faster, and we expect response faster. You have to keep up with the times, be on the bandwagon, get with the program. But as Christians, we aren’t “in it” while the going is trendy, or easy, fun. We are in it for the long haul.
You might ask, “What does it matter?”--whether you are focusing on the present, or playing the long game? And while everything is going well, it doesn’t seem to matter much. But when things get hard, when plans don’t work out, when there is push back, it matters.
When I read our Scripture lesson in the continuing saga of David, it hit me afresh that David had to be in it for the long haul. He was anointed when he was a boy. But he doesn’t become king until he was 30, and then he only became king of Judah (not all of Israel)—that took until he was 37. He was in it for the long haul.
But the image that captured me this week was Jesus’ instructions to those he was sending out in God’s name. Especially the directive: “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.”
I think this is the strategy of those on the long haul. “Shake the dust and move on.”
Now Jesus didn’t say, “Don’t try to preach and heal in those places that are hard.” We aren’t supposed to fold up our show in a nanosecond if we don’t get the response we had expected. Because how will you know they don’t welcome you unless you have been there; how will you know they refuse to hear you unless you have spoken up in the first place. You have to give it a good try. As we hear in the beginning of this reading, Jesus’ hometown did not accept him, and “he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them.”
“Shake the dust and move on.” Now Jesus also didn’t say, “Don’t fix what can be fixed.” Shake the dust is not an invitation to pick up your marbles and go home if you get angry, or insulted, or hurt. Jesus is always admonishing us to make things right with our brothers and sisters—to go to extraordinary lengths to do so in fact. “Do I really have to forgive my brother or sister seven times? (the legal limit of the day)” Jesus is asked. “No,” he responds. “seventy times seven” (or in other words, again, and again, and again, and again).
There is a tale told that while Leonardo da Vinci was working on The Last Supper, he got into an argument with a fellow painter. He was so offended and angry with this person that out of spite he painted that man’s face as the face of Judas. But then, when he came to paint the face of Christ he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t visualize the face of Christ. Da Vinci put down his brush and went to find the man with whom he had had the argument. They both apologized and forgave one another. That evening Leonardo da Vinci had a dream and in that dream he saw the face of Christ. He quickly got up from his bed and finished painting.
So “Shake the dust” doesn’t give us an out in trying our hardest. And “Shake the dust” doesn’t give us an excuse for walking away from others. But, if we are on this Christian journey for the long haul, it does have something to say to us.
“Shake the dust” says: Remember what is important. Spreading the good news; being the voice and hands and feet and heart of God in the world. Don’t get caught up in how well YOU are received. It’s not about you; it’s about God.
“Shake the dust” says: Don’t get bogged down in one place, especially if that place is frustrating, oppositional, keeping you from your appointed task. If you are not welcome, keep moving. There will be locales that do need what you have to offer. Who will welcome you with open arms. Who will benefit from your gifts. Move on.
“Shake the dust” says: Leave the baggage of that experience, even the dust, in that place. Shake it off. Don’t carry it with you. Don’t be like the ghost of Jacob Marley in Charles Dickens The Christmas Carol, who carries with him the heavy locks and chains he had forged in life. Let it go. Leave it behind. Shake it off.
I was fascinated to bump into Anis Mojgani’s poem “Shake the dust” which splashed onto the scene in 2010. It is a powerful statement written (as he says)
This is for the fat girls
This is for the little brothers
For the former prom queen
And for the milk crate ball players
This is for the school yard wimps
And the childhood bullies that tormented them
Shake the dust.
This is for the benches and the people sitting upon them.
This is for the bus drivers driving a million broken hymns
And for the men who have to hold down 3 jobs,
Simply to hold up their children.
For the nighttime schoolers
And for the midnight bike riders trying to fly
Shake the dust.
For the two year olds who cannot be understood
because they speak half English and half god
Shake the dust…
As one commentator summarizes, “This poem was written to give dignity to people on the margins, the ones who are easily overlooked and whose stories are mostly unaccounted for. It is a poem meant to encourage all of us to embrace the stories we’ve lived and to have the courage to keep on living.”
Shake the dust has become a rally cry, a shout of defiance, a t-shirt. Don’t let others define you. Don’t let others beat you down. Claim what makes you special. Share it with the world. Here are a few more excerpts from the poem, which I encourage you to read or listen to online.
For the ones who are told to speak only when they are spoken to
And then are never spoken to
Speak every time you stand
So that you do not forget yourself
Never let a moment go by that doesn't remind you
That your heart beats 100 000 times a day
And that there enough gallons of blood
To make everyone of you an ocean
Do not settle for letting these waves settle
And for the dust to collect in your veins…
Shaking the dust
So when the world knocks at your front door
Clutch the knob tightly, and open on up
Run forward into its wide spread greeting arms
With your hands before you
Your fingertips trembling
Though they may be (Excerpts from Anis Mojgani’s “Shake the Dust”)
If we are to survive the long haul of journeying with Jesus, of being sent out into the world, two by two, then we have to practice shaking the dust. Not in anger. Not in disregard. But in keeping with our instructions. In being faithful with the task God has given to us. And in deep trust that God will use us as a blessing somewhere.
May it be so
Alleluia, Amen.
|
