Knock'n off a little dust

Mark 6:7-13

         I think we are all aware of oil and water - they don't mix. In that same way, we know that there are people that meet each other and have an immediate dislike for each other. I'm not sure of it's a shortcoming or chemistry but I know it occurs. Perhaps it's the polar opposite of love at first sight.

         And so I began to think about this directive to 'shake off the dust'. I think we all have had the experience of meeting someone who simply does not like us, simply cannot understand us or perhaps knows us and does not believe or agree with anything we might say. It happens. 

          How do we react to such people? What do we do in such a situation.  It's very likely that the more you might try to persuade the person to your way of thinking or the harder you try to convince them that you really are a swell person, the more likely it is they would not be so inclined. This might be a case of shaking the dust off.

           What I truly wonder is whether or not the 'sahking off of the dirt' is really so much of a testimony against them as much as it is a respect for wherever they are on their journey. Short of a disagreeable person trying to kill you, I think that everyone is entitled to the respect for their journey as we'd like for our own. 

           I recall many years ago my teenage daughter going on a retreat and coming home filled with the Holy Spirit and with wisdom and knowledge that was a bit unnatural for her age. She still holds this same wisdom and knowledge. Sadly, our very large extended family was far from agreeable and accepting of her. Perhaps it's that old adage of a 'prophet not being welcome in their own town'.  It has taken decades for some of those relatives to attain what my lovely daughter discovered on that retreat. Some of those relatives may never attain a tenth of what she knows - and lives. That's not a dig though, it's not testimony against them.  They are simply on a different journey. If any fault could be judged - and I am not a position to do so - it might be the lack of respect those relatives meted out.

           I like to think of 'knocking off a little dust as  sign of respect for someone else's journey. Let us witness to people by our lives and our actions and if it is not received, let them alone to respect where they are and to discover their path in their own time. 

He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, ‘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.’ So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.