Today’s question is a summertime question. And since it is summertime, it’s a very easy one. The question is this: how many of you enjoy going barefoot in the summertime? Do you like to wander around the house and the yard without your shoes on? Wandering around like that can be very relaxing for some people. They don’t even wait for summer. Here in Houston, they do it all year ‘round. They come home from work and change into comfortable clothes. They take off their hot, tight shoes, wiggle their toes and spend the rest of the evening shoeless.
But there are other people who believe it’s dangerous to walk around without shoes. Outside, you might encounter fire ants. Inside, you might step on a needle. I’ve done that. I once had a dropped sewing needle break off in my heel when I stepped on it. It was years before I was, once again, comfortable going barefoot around the house.
Today’s readings talk a lot about feet. The feet of disciples. It’s important for disciples to have good feet. They need to do a lot of walking. They need to follow in the footsteps of the master, the teacher. That’s what being a disciple is all about. If you are merely a student, someone who studies what the master teaches, you can sit at his feet and just listen to what he has to say. You can memorize his words. But if you are going to be a disciple, you need to stand up and follow him. You need to walk with him and see, on an hour-by-hour basis, just exactly what he does. How he does it. You need take part in the discipline of the master.
Yes, “disciple” and “discipline” are directly related. A disciple follows a discipline, a way of life, a way of living. You must walk with the teacher no matter where he goes or where he might send you. To put into practice what you have seen him do. To be an extension of the master. To act in his place. In modern terms, a disciple must “walk the talk.”
The prophets were such disciples. They walked with the Lord and tried to put into practice what he asked of them, even if it was in a foreign land. The prophet Amos was like that. We heard about him in our first reading. Amos didn’t start out as a prophet. He trimmed trees for a living and was a part-time shepherd. He lived in the southern kingdom of Judea. But one day, the Lord God sent him up north to the kingdom of Israel to preach in Bethel, a religious center of the northern kingdom. If you wonder about the kind of reception he got, imagine a farmer from Spring, Texas going up to Austin to tell them how to be politicians. The priests up in Bethel told Amos to go back home. He didn’t. But that’s another story.
Instead, let’s go back to our gospel story from Mark, where Jesus sends out his disciples to new lands. It’s a story about discipleship. And about hospitality. About giving. And about receiving. There had been many who had listened to what Jesus had to say, what he had to teach. But from all those who were his students, he chose Twelve to be his disciples. Twelve who would live the kind of life he, himself, lived. It was these Twelve he sent out, two by two on their journeys.
And while on their journeys, they were to trust entirely in God. All that they accomplished would be through the power given to them by the Author of all life, the Author who gave them their “authority” over the evils they would encounter. These disciples had to rely on the hospitality of the people to whom they were being sent. Those whom Jesus sent out carried neither food nor money to buy food. They had no extra clothing to ward off the cold of night nor to change into when they were soaked by rain. They had the clothes on their back and a single pair of sandals to protect their feet as they traveled the back roads of Galilee. They carried only a walking stick, a staff, the universal sign of the traveler, the wanderer.
They were to depend upon the kindness of strangers whose homes they entered. They had to rely upon the hospitality, the openness of those they did not know to receive them. They were not to look for the best place in town to stay, but rather, to remain with the first ones who opened their homes to them and to their mission.
And what was their mission? Why were they being sent forth among strangers? First of all, to preach the need of repentance. This had been the basic message of their Master. The need for each person to change what he or she had been doing that was not in accord with God’s desires. Like the prophets before them, the disciples were to re-call the people back to the Kingdom of God.
And secondly, they were to expel demons, to anoint the sick, and to heal. They were not only to speak the Word of God, but they were also to accomplish the Word of God. By expelling demons, they named the evil they saw so that, once named, it could be driven out of the lives of those they met. By anointing the sick, they brought comfort and hope to those whose lives were being destroyed by the world around them.
And what if they were not received? What if no one listened to them? Jesus told them not to quit. Instead, they were to shake off the past, like shaking off the dust from their feet, and move on to the next village. What Jesus told his disciples, those who not merely listened to him but who put into practice what he taught, he tells to us. Don’t be concerned with your own welfare. Trust in the goodness and openness of others. Trust that God will be with you in what you do and say. Trust that others want to hear the Good News and will welcome it. And if the results are not what you had hoped or expected, don’t give up and quit. Shake off past failures and try anew.
Each one of us is to speak the Word of God, not only in what we say, but in what we do. We are to name the evils confronting the world today. We are to comfort and bring hope to the poor and homeless. We are to counsel those in need and to plant and to harvest for those who hunger. We are sent forth to undertake tasks for which we feel we are unqualified, but know we must do.
In the next few weeks, we will be hearing appeals for help in our R.E. program. A need for catechists, teaching aides, team leaders and team members. Later on, there will be calls for the contribution of our time and our talent as we are called to stewardship. In the coming weeks, there will be special ways in which we will be asked, as were the disciples, to go out to those we do not know, to speak God’s word, and to do God’s work.
But in the meantime, each day presents opportunities to be a disciple. To put into practice what we know needs to be done. Each day is a day in which we can give of our hospitality as we receive others into our lives. Each day is a day in which we can give of ourselves to those whom we meet as strangers but leave as friends. Moreover, we are to be present to our own family and friends who need our love and understanding when it might seem easier to give our help to total strangers than to those with whom we are estranged.
Perhaps, each day, in summer or in other seasons of the year, is a day to walk barefoot in our homes or to put on our sandals and walk as disciples who journey with Jesus the Christ. But no matter where we journey with him, each day is a day to recall the first words spoken by God to the prophet Moses: “Take off your sandals, for you walk on holy ground.”
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time; July 13, 1997
Amos 7:12-15; Eph 1:3-14; Mk 6:7-13