14 OT C ~ Lk 10:1-12, 17-20~ "Dusty Sandals and Christ's Sending" ~Rev. Richard Eslinger, PhD

“Now is the time for this mission,” Jesus announces. Seventy-two will be sent out, sent to towns and places he intends to go. Two by two, they will be sent out and not according to any preferences or theological agreements shared by the duos. Those pairs will be chosen by the Lord!

These teams will carry no money bags, sacks, or extra sandals. They will not even stop to talk with anyone along the way. The mission is urgent and the time is at hand. They head out, two-by two, a kind of Noah’s Ark in reverse. “The harvest is abundant,” Jesus warns, “but the laborers are few.” So off they go.

As these teams of missioners fan out, they approach their assigned location,

a village or town. In every case, these duos will approach a household and greet

the residents with “Peace be with you.” Now these two laborers face their first

variable. Will the occupants welcome them into their home as honored guests, or

will they summarily turn them away. Particularly for this decisive moment, Jesus

has provided alternative responses. For those who warmly welcome them into the

house, that greeting of peace will flourish and flower; peace will rest upon those

who extend such biblical hospitality. The environment in that house is optimal for

the blossoming of Christ’s peace. While living in the midst of hospitality, Jesus

also provided instructions as to how the two guests are to act: “Stay in the same

house and eat and drink what is offered you.”

Some of us learned those “house rules” as children. A visit to a grandparents’ home was preceded by these words: “Now when we sit down to eat, don’t be picky about what grandma serves from the kitchen. She made it with love for you, so eat up!”

Others of us came by these hospitality rules when being received by

communities of faith, perhaps a monastery. The simple, hearty meal with

the monks or nuns is a gift of hospitality. We eat and drink what is offered

to us.

If we are invited to share in a Jewish service for Shabbat, a Sabbath

occasion in a synagogue, it should be no surprise that we are at an ample

kosher meal among God’s people Israel. Here, too, Jesus’ command is

highly pertinent. We eat what is offered to us that day.

Interesting that in the midst of our attention to the ongoing vocation of extending

hospitality, here Jesus instructs us how to live out the distinctive vocation of

receiving the hospitality of others. It is a reversal of roles that expands and

enriches us. Ironically, once we have experienced the role of being welcomed into

a household not our own, we grow in the ability and motivation to extend such

hospitality to others!

Of course, alternatively, Jesus warns these missioners that there will be those

who are indifferent to the Good News or, even, actively hostile to such witness.

There will be some who do not receive these emissaries of the Lord. What they are

told is simple, but important. They are not to engage in shouting matches with

those who exclude them from their household. Nor are they to seek any kind of

revenge. They will not even try to “cancel” these unwelcoming townsfolk!

Rather, they missioners are told to reply, “The dust of your town that clings to our

feet, even that we shake off against you!” There is a deeper significance to this

instruction, though. Remember that for Jewish persons who extend hospitality to

strangers, the most immediate and obvious action is to wash the feet of the

welcomed stranger. The only reason that Jesus’ followers would have for dusty

feet is that they have already been dishonored by these folks. Those welcoming

the “sons and daughters of peace” would have immediately washed the feet of

those sent by the Lord! So the most tangible sign of a community’s inhospitality is

that the sons and daughters of peace leave these houses with dusty feet.

Some peoples have other ways to signal a blunt word of rejection and

inhospitality. In our own land, there were years in the South where signs

indicating that Blacks where not welcome into an establishment or even allowed to drink from a common water fountain. Less visible but also prevalent was the “red lining” of certain areas of a Northern city where Black persons where not to

receive mortgages for a house. All of these practices were linked to the same

intention. Make it impossible for certain persons to enter into the full life of a

community.*

The climax of this visitation by the followers of Jesus is to be about two

related actions that will be seen and heard in every village and town to which these missioners are sent. They will cure the sick everywhere they are sent. Finally,

each pair of these followers of Jesus will announce that the kingdom of God is at

hand. The key word here is “everywhere.” They will be about ministries of

healing,… everywhere in that community. And their proclamation that the

kingdom of God is at hand is broadcast without discrimination. Actually, oral

communication is like that anyway. You can try to direct someone’s vision to see

only this or that. But when a person speaks out, everyone hears the words. So

Jesus is telling his missioners to pay keen attention to those who are ill and

disabled. Their ministry will be directed to those sisters and brothers. But once

the proclamation is made that God’s peaceful reign is near, no one is exempt from

those words.

It is something similar to the mystery of Holy Communion at the Mass. The word goes out, “The Body of Christ.” Yet the inward forgiving and healing of the presence of Christ is felt and known in such intimacy. The sacrament is one of great healing and also a meal for the community brought into the one Body. So the townspeople see, some first hand, the healing power of the Lord. And they hear this announcement that God’s reign is at hand, so close they can taste and see.

As the Lord intended, sending of the seventy-two was to places where he

himself would later visit. They are forerunners much like John the Baptist, whose

Feast Day we just observed. Soon Jesus himself will be among these people. He

would bring healing to the sick, the frail, and the disabled. And he brings with

him the fullness of the kingdom the Father has intended since the beginning of

creation. Now we, too, come, needing to be healed. And we come as well wanting

the peace of Christ and welcoming his peaceable kingdom.

Amen.

*A more contemporary issue, of course, is that of undocumented migrants who are now in the U.S. How do we extend biblical hospitality and what do we do with

regard to those who bring criminal records with them or commit crimes while

here? A major challenge to the churches!