June 21, 2024, Taylor Swift arrived at Wembley Stadium in London to perform her astonishingly popular “Eras Tour” concert. That same Friday, before the weekend shows began, the royal family shared a video on Instagram of the royal guard (usually silent and staid) joyfully rocking it to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.” The band formed a semi-circle right in front of Buckingham Palace during the change of the guard. What a wonderful display of Britain’s youthful and fun-loving spirit. Later, social media captured a video of Prince William celebrating his 42nd birthday with his children Prince George and Princess Charlotte and dancing joyfully at the concert with the rest of the “Swifties.” The clip made us smile.
We, the public, know what the royal family has been going through. Both Princess Catherine and King Charles have been struggling with cancer. Yet that evening in June, Prince William was able to dance along with his children and for a little while, to “shake off” the pall of worry and experience joy in that moment. No rumors. No gossip. No worries. No stress. Just a joy filled evening and a dream come true for a young family! And of course a photo with Taylor Swift!
The song, “Shake It Off,” written in 2014, Swift told the media, was her own response to the “haters,” the rumors, and the gossip circulating about her at the time, the assumptions made by others about her life. Refusing to become a “victim,” Swift instead sloughed off the vitriol with joy, creating the irresistible, driving, pop hit song, now viewed over 3 billion times online![1] The song gone viral is so enticing, you can’t help but dance! You too can throw cares away, get into the beat, and “shake off” your cares and worries, stress and frustration. All you have to do is let it all go. Just dance, dance, dance!
Swift is a true performer, a seasoned stage presence. But she’s also an example of someone who doesn’t let the impediments of life or the negativity of others get her down or still her voice. An icon for young girls, as well as boys, kids and adults alike, her spirit of resilience, energy, and raw thrive within a culture often fraught with finger pointing, insults, gossip, side taking, and envy, feels refreshingly dynamic and ultimately life-giving. No matter what life throws at her, she shakes it off and keeps on dancing!
Don’t you love that? When life feels hard, just do the shake!
Animals know how to “shake it off” as well! You know what I’m talking about! Pour a bucket of water on a dog, and Rover’s got it covered. Just “do the wet-dog shake,” wag your tail, and walk away with a lilt in your step!
So why do we make it so hard sometimes? Why do we let life get us down when we’ve got the Lord of the Dance in our corner, teaching us how to dance through life?
And Jesus does. He IS Lord of the dance! Jesus knows that joy and the ability to shake off worry and stress are vital to our ability to stay energized on God’s mission in the world. Cause things can get tough. People can be hard. And when situations get hairy and entangled, that residue has a tendency to “stick” to our spirits like gum on a shoe.
What an image right? That’s the image that the writer of Hebrews, who early scholars believed was Paul, but we really don’t know, offers us about just such situations. He says, “Let us unload ourselves of every weight and entangling sin (which clings to us), so that we can run with endurance the race set before us” (12:1). Or as Isaiah says similarly, “Shake off your dust; rise up…free yourself from the chains on your neck….for without money you will be redeemed” (52:2-3).
How do you deal with setbacks and failures? How do you cope with knock downs and hardships? How do you stay calm when the pressure is on? How do you deal with rivalry and envy? How do you stay on track when you or your mission feels threatened? What motivates you to keep on running when you feel like you’re stumbling?
You’ve got to shake off the dust and keep on dancing.
Dust. What a great metaphor in scripture! Right? One of the most common and pervasive metaphors we find in the scriptures. From the beginning in Genesis, we learn that we are dust. But that’s not all we are. We are SO much more than this! We have been formed by God from “dust” and water, molded into human form and inbreathed with the life of the Holy Spirit of God –given life and breath, meaning and identity as children of God. In God, we’ve become more than dust, more than simple golum, more than just a chunk of earth. With God’s breath in our lungs, we’ve become more than our flesh and bones, more than our mistakes and sin, more than a trip from and to the grave. Life, whether in this world or the next, is a beautiful and valuable thing. And we are to cherish it, celebrate it, and praise God for it! Above all, dance through it with joy and thanksgiving! Even when times get tough. Jesus tells us, when things feel tough, all we have to do is “shake off the dust,” and we can free ourselves to learn how to dance again.
Jesus knows how important this advice to “shake off the dust” will be for his disciples, and still for us today.
Jesus knows that his mission, God’s mission, is not going to be easy for his disciples. Their lives are not going to be easy! Discipleship is not an easy job! It will be fraught with pain, persecution, rejection, self-doubt, frustration, disillusionment, even death. He tells them that multiple times in our scripture for today, as he’s sending them out on their missional journey. But Jesus has a solution. He gifts them an Rx prescription for dealing with stress and the tendency to feel like they’ve failed, a cure-all solution for the sin, self-doubt, anger, and rejection, he knows they will face. For he understands the debris that can stick to our souls when we start disbelieving in ourselves, in others, and above all, in God and God’s mission.
It's easy to get discouraged when people thwart us and our attempts to be kind. It’s easy to become disillusioned when we seem to keep on trying and failing every time. It’s easy to get down on ourselves when we feel we must be doing something wrong or that people just don’t like us. It’s easy to become frustrated and want to give up when we feel our attempts at mission or relationships are useless.
But Jesus’ message is clear. Let that debris that is cluttering up your life go! Dust yourself off and keep on moving. Go out to my people in love. Love them. Heal them. Share with them the good news of the gospel. Be kind, be humble, be in service, make it simple. Don’t feel defensive if they don’t hear you right away or even ever. Don’t feel you’ve failed if someone doesn’t want to befriend you. Don’t get down on yourself if it seems you haven’t done what you hoped you’d do. Don’t chastise yourself for every mistake. Don’t sweat it if you aren’t the biggest, the best, the greatest, or the coolest. For that is not your mission. And even Jesus couldn’t reach them all! Just go out and be you. And if you encounter the haters, the gossipers, the disbelievers, and the doubters, just shake off the dust and go dancing on your way.
Often, we have too many expectations of ourselves, of what we believe should be the fruits or return for our time and energy. But Jesus never asks us to deliver the goods. He only asks us to deliver the message. The rest is up to God.
Sometimes that’s the most important dust that we need to remove, the “dust” of our own expectations, the dust of our own need to control the outcomes of every situation, the dust of our desire to succeed imprinted upon us by our cultural upbringing, the dust of our own grief, doubt, discouragement, insecurities, and disillusionment.
In the scriptures, we see that metaphor for dust most often, don’t we? When people are mourning, grieving, or discouraged by life, they literally sit in the dust. They don sackcloth and ashes, they throw dust upon their heads, they smear dust upon their clothing, they mire their spirits in the mud of their tears.[2]
But Jesus tells us, if we want to be part of God’s mission, we need to shake off that dust. Shake off the doubt that binds you, shake off the fear that paralyzes you, shake off the hesitance that inhibits you. And just keep dancing.
Do the “wet dog shake” and move forward with a smile on your face and a lilt in your step.
Why? Because that’s what disciples do. More than that, that’s what apostles do! We don’t let our voices be stifled by mud throwing. We don’t let our feet be mired in muck.
Whatever is keeping you back from expressing your true self, your joy of the gospel, your love of people, your zest to build relationships with all kinds of people, your ability to love freely and authentically, your encouragement to keep on moving when things get tough, let it go. Kick off the dust.
Whatever you carry with you will inhibit your spirit, will inhibit your ability to allow the light of God to shine through you. Have you ever tried to look through a dusty, muddy window? In order to see clearly you’ve got to remove the dust. Your “dust” is the perception of your own sin, failure, guilt, or anger, that you continue to carry with you, and your dust will inhibit others from seeing the beautiful person that God made you to be.
So kick off the dust, people of God!
Let’s all do the “wet-dog” shake!
For we have places to go, people to see, and our amazing, God-given lives to live!
[1] For an article about the song, see Darian Lusk, “The Real Meaning Behind ‘Shake It Off’ By Taylor Swift,” March 27, 2023, https://www.nickiswift.com/309048/the-real-meaning-behind-shake-it-off-by-taylor-swift/.
[2] See for example, https://ancientbiblehistory.com.