Mark 6: 7-13
During my student days I would often travel by hitch-hiking. I also hitch hiked in a number of European countries. All those cars and trucks with empty seats were making their journeys anyway. It didn’t do anybody any harm. And I met an interesting range of people.
This is a story about the last time I hitch-hiked, about 8 years ago.
I was driving to Chester in a very old car to meet with the Director of Ordinands for Chester Diocese. He was the person who would decide whether or not Chester Diocese would recommend me for ordination training.
My car broke down on the M56.
What I should have done is use my mobile telephone to call for a taxi.
But for some reason I decided to stand at the slip road to the motorway and hitch hike. Pretty much instantly a car pulled up. There were three young men inside. ‘Where are you going?’ ‘Chester’ ‘Get in!’ And the car zoomed off into the outside lane and pretty soon we were bowling along at 90 miles an hour.
‘Whereabouts in Chester are you going?’ ‘The cathedral’ ‘The cathedral? Why are you going there?’ ‘I want to train to be a priest and I am being interviewed by the man who decides who gets to train and who deosn’t.’
The car took the exit for Chester, barely slowing down. I began to realise that these young men were enjoying scaring me with the speed at which they were driving. I resolved not to show the fear I was feeling. But inside I thought, ‘I am going to die.’ I even began to think what a funny way to die it would be. Killed on the motorway while hitch-hiking to a meeting with the Diocesan Director of Ordinands.
The car came onto a roundabout. The driver executed a handbrake turn. I had never been in a car which had done a handbrake turn before. Again, I thought, I was going to die. They dropped me off right in front of the cathedral. ‘Good luck!’ And then they zoomed off.
Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs. He told them to depend entirely on the hospitality of others. He knew that this would lead them to all sorts of fruitful encounters with people. People who would see their vulnerability and respond to it.
In our daily lives, as we follow Jesus, we should ask others for hospitality. This will lead us to those people who don’t mind being hospitable. These encounters will be the fruitful encounters.
But, like the disciples, we should go out in pairs. We will make better decisions that way.