These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.  And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”
- Mark 6:8-10
 
When Jesus sent his disciples out, he gave them instructions that would force them into positions of radical dependency. They wouldn’t be carrying extra food with them or funds to purchase food. They wouldn’t have any markers of wealth or privilege. They would rely on the charity of those to whom they’d been sent.
 
They moved from town to town but not from house to house. They didn’t trade up as better accommodations or more influential hosts became available and interested in them. In this, they established a practice that would be carried forward for generations. In fact, the early Christian treatise The Didache instructs Christian communities to call people “false apostles” if they come to town and try to bounce from house to house. This restriction, like Jesus’ instruction, is intended to create a culture of connection.
 
The disciples had something to offer the towns they visited. And the people in those towns had something to offer the disciples: teaching and preaching and healing on the one hand, hospitality and access and vulnerability on the other. In God’s kingdom, everyone has something to offer and everyone has needs that can only be met by the community.
 
As we join God in his work to engage the world for good, let’s not lose sight of our need to depend on each other. We might feel more comfortable if we’re always giving and never receiving, but that comes at a cost to both our soul and our ministry.
 
God’s invitation to “together” is the only pathway to “better.”
 
Who are you currently serving? From whom are you currently receiving? Write up a list and then give God joyful thanks for these people he’s thrown together with you.