There's something happening here. First we will celebrate the one year anniversary of Pastor Emillie becoming Creator's current pastor today and the congregation is involved in cottage meetings over the summer. We are engaged in building our relationships with one another together Pastor Emillie and we are discussing Creator's present and future mission.
Pastor Nick Doversberger was our guest preacher Sunday. He preached on what Jesus said about his hometown synagogue members, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” He portrayed prophets as being impelled and propelled to change the world
around them. They had faith that finding a new way to change was possible. Not part
of the religion. Not only that but they were driven by care and compassion for people beyond those who they would want to help because of their own self-interest. "Unless you think of them and a tear comes to your eye you are not grasping the ministry Jesus had in mind." Pastor Nick said about the Gospel.
The prophetic implications of the Gospel reading is apparent. Relevancy and History may need some explanation. His command to “shake the dust off your feet” appears four times in the New Testament. In each case the command is spoken by Jesus to the disciples when sending them out two by two (Matthew 10:14; Luke 9:5). In Mark 6:11 Jesus says, “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 the Matthew 10 account, Jesus clarifies His meaning: “Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town” (verse 15).
Shaking the dust off one’s feet conveys the same idea as our modern phrase “I wash my hands of it.” Shaking the dust off the feet is a symbolic indication that one has done all that can be done in a situation and therefore carries no further responsibility for it. In the scriptural examples, Jesus was telling His disciples that they were to preach the gospel to everyone. Where they were received with joy, they should stay and teach. But where their message was rejected, they had no further responsibility. They were free to walk away with a clear conscience, knowing they had done all they could do. Shaking the dust off their feet was, in effect, saying that those who rejected God’s truth would not be allowed to hinder the furtherance of the gospel. Even the dust of those cities that rejected the Lord was an abomination and would not be allowed to cling to the feet of God’s messengers.
This works for the itinerant ministry of the disciples and initial Christians He was giving them guidance on how to handle rejection during their mission of spreading his teachings. In the cultural context of the time, shaking the dust off one's feet was a symbolic act performed by Jews when leaving a Gentile (non-Jewish) area. It signified a separation from the impurity of the Gentiles and their practices. By using this gesture, Jesus was instructing his disciples to show a clear break from those who reject their message.
"Washing your hands" and taking no further responsibility for telling the Gospel may have been effective historically but is not a relevant way to spread the Christian message given today's culture. As a symbolic act "shaking the dust off your feet" works better as a metaphor for being open to an emotional or psychological release rather than as sign of judgement against respecters. So I see this much more as a call to be open to a new vision of a prophetic and relevant ministry for today and not attach ourselves tightly to a vision of past ministry. Essentially what this means for today's ministry is to shake the dust off of a tired way of giving testimony.
As far as miracles, the fact that Jesus could do no deed of power in Nazareth because of town's unbelief (except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them). This underscores how important the reciprocity of faith was needed for Jesus to perform miracles. The details of each miracle also highlight how tied they were to some benefit or restoration of faith. These were not accomplished Jesus' will alone but by shared faith. This is another perspective that seems more relevant for relating the Good News rather than relying on what worked in the past.
This perspective, together with the idea of keeping the messianic nature of Jesus secret, is prevalent in Mark so the timing of reading Mark's Gospel while Creator is involved in the Cottage meetings shifts our conversation of ministry.
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