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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.

Mark 6:11

We’ve all seen a lot of sunsets, but there was one in particular that I remember from last year. It was on an ordinary day, driving west down highway 14 through Crystal Lake, and on the horizon was the most magnificent orange sun I had ever seen.  It caught my breath, as I found myself wanting to pullover and stop time so I could fully appreciate it as it slowly lowered itself behind the edge of the earth. 

I later learned that this particular sunset was a meteorological rarity caused by dust – and not just any dust, but dust that had circumnavigated the globe, originating in the Sahara Desert (yes, THAT Sahara Desert).  Dust in the atmosphere from the Sahara is actually common, but the particular dust storm that caused this sunset came from a storm later dubbed “Godzilla,” if that paints a picture. 

This “Godzilla” dust swept across the Atlantic to South and Central America, eventually making its way to (of all places) Crystal Lake, IL. 

As we continue to explore the “Anything But Ordinary” theme, I couldn’t help but reflect on dust, and how the dust we sometimes have to wipe off our feet, God uses to create something truly spectacular.

In the Gospel this week, Jesus is rejected in his hometown.  His neighbors, friends, and even his family question why Jesus is going down the path that he was.  They can’t understand (how could they?) why Jesus would leave his life as a carpenter’s son, abandoning his familial responsibilities, to preach the Gospel. They don’t believe that Jesus is any more than the boy they knew growing up. 

You could consider it a missional failure of Jesus; his own hometown didn’t believe in him.  I can imagine how it might have felt to be dismissed by those who knew and loved him best: depressing, lonely, embarrassing … dusty. 

But then Jesus’ next act is to turn around and send out his disciples, two-by-two, out into the world to do the same thing.  Jesus’ knew they would experience the same kind of failure.  He knew that the Gospel message would be rejected by many people. 

But Jesus’ message to them was to shake off the dust.  “If they refuse you” Jesus told them, “Then shake the dust off your feet” and move on. 

Dust is kind of like failure.  It’s everywhere.  It’s ubiquitous.  There’s nothing special about it.  But just like dust, when God gets a hold of our failures … well, he can make something spectacular out them.