11
καὶ τὸν κονιορτὸν τον κολληθέντα ἡμῖν ἐκ τῆς πόλεως ὑμῶν εἰς τοὺς πόδας
ἀπομασσόμεθα
ὑμῖν·
πλὴν
τοῦτο γινώσκετε ὅτι ἤγγικεν
ἡ
βασιλεία
τοῦ
θεοῦ.
Luke 10:11
14
καὶ ὃς ἂν μὴ δέξηται ὑμᾶς μηδὲ ἀκούσῃ τοὺς λόγους
ὑμῶν,
ἐξερχόμενοι
ἔξω
τῆς
οἰκίας
ἢ
τῆς
πόλεως
ἐκείνης
ἐκτινάξατε
τὸν
κονιορτὸν
ἐκ τῶν ποδῶν ὑμῶν. Matthew 10:14
These
words, allegedly from the mouth of Jesus of Nazareth, are something of an admonition
to move on, as Mathew clearly indicates, if they do not hear your words. “Move on to where” is the critical question
though, isn’t it? Can we simply move on
to nowhere in particular? Of course not!
Many,
too many years ago I was dismissed from my teaching post, and the advice I was
given was directly the above quote from Matthew. Should I have received that advice? I am not certain it was a propos, since my
third child was just born, and my wife had contracted a serious illness, which
prohibited moving on to the next town.
And it was not apparent what town we were to go to. I admit that I had made many mistakes in my
teaching career, and yet I loved teaching and seeing the gears turning in the
heads of my students. Some of course
were stuck and did not move because they came to class with a preconceived notion
of what is, and were not willing or able to adjust their noematic structures of
their consciousnesses to accept the possibility that there might just be other
ways of seeing the world. Of course the
subject I taught was Philosophy, and Philosophy entails concept analysis and a
skeptical treatment of our preconceptions.
Naturally
I did not follow precisely the advice given, but I did shake the dust off my
feet and instead of going on to the next town, I embarked on a journey of
several careers. My first career was to work
as a carpenter for the father of one of my students. It was an exciting career, not only because
one built and building is rewarding in its own way, but because the carpentry
trade was in my blood, so to speak. From
my genealogical studies I learned that since the time of Napoleon my ancestors
and their relatives were carpenters. Next
I embarked on building and contracting on my own, and then when the economy slowed
down I went to work as a cabinetmaker for a good friend. From there I moved on to mill-shop foreman,
all of which involved the same type of work - building and wood.
I
then moved on to re-educating myself in the field of computer assisted drafting,
and went to work as the drafting manager for a design firm. I had opportunity in this area to teach and
that in itself was rewarding. Having
next reached the required age, I retired.
I was retired for a whole 10 days, and my wife told a dean at the college
she worked at that I could perhaps fill the position of a philosophy instructor
who was unfortunately ill. So I went
back to teaching philosophy – full circle if you like. I have now been teaching as an adjunct,
Philosophy, for nigh on 10 years.
Yesterday,
after visiting with the oncologist and learning that, despite the ill effects
of chemotherapy, the tumor is, in fact, shrinking, I met the wife of a former
colleague. She invited me to visit with
her husband who was down the hall having his chemotherapy treatment. So I did.
The people were wondering about me wandering down the hall and I told
them I was going to visit a friend in treatment room 3. It was a pleasure and privilege to visit with
my former colleague. We had such a wonderful
conversation. It was as though 41 years had melted away
and we were in fact again colleagues. I
guess we are and always will be. We
talked of many subjects and did not skip a beat in discussing almost anything
possible in our symphony of becoming reacquainted, though ‘reacquainted’ is the
wrong term for what transpired. I felt
that all the mistakes I had made while we were colleagues were suddenly
forgotten and forgiven, almost as if the burden of the dust from my feet had
been wiped off (see Luke quote above). There
was hope also in our conversation, and as Theognis says: Ἐλπὶς ἐν ἀνθρώποις μούνη θεὸς ἐσθλὴ ἔνεστιν.
When
reading Scripture it is advisable to not take words and phrases too literally,
or you might miss the point. Jesus
taught in parables, metaphors, and similes.
We ought not to miss their meaning.
Luke tells us elsewhere that the Kingdom of God is internal (ἰδοὺ γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία
τοῦ θεοῦ ἐντὸς ὑμῶν ἐστιν. - Luke 17:21). But here in Chapter 10 we not only get the
message that the dust is wiped off our feet, but that the Kingdom of God is
near. Let me suggest that the tense of ἤγγικεν
(perfect active indicative) gives us the force of meaning that the Kingdom is here
and now, presently.
I
certainly felt the presence of that Kingdom in my conversation with my former
colleague yesterday. It was there at
hand and nigh unto the two of us. We
ought to thank the Lord for that glimpse into the eternity that we are both
bound; I do and I will.
