Sermons

July 21 and 22

Sermon

July 21-22, 2007 – Proper 11

Psalm 15; Luke 10:38-42

Hillary T. West

Now, we live busy lives, don’t we?.  Even in the summer, there is so much to do. 

 

This week many households gave a sigh of relief at the final swim meet of the season. 

Summer school is coming to a close just in time for families to squeeze in some vacation time; then, hurry back for school shopping.  Then, load up the car and off to college campuses to unload, say goodbye and hurry home.  Because at home fall sports practices are starting.  Also, that long list of chores we had every intention of getting done at the beginning of the summer, before it got too hot, is still waiting.

 

It’s exhausting just hearing about it all.  Trying to get it all done.  And it’s all very important.  Sometimes, when I have those longs lists of so much to do, I think that if I could be as efficient as Martha Stewart, it could all happen.  She’s the queen of getting things done.  Here’s a glimpse of some of her calendar for the next several days:

 

1. Catch up on gardening-sew leaves back onto trees.
2. Align carpets to adjust for the curvature of the earth.
3. Replace air in minivan tires with Glad air freshener in case tires go flat.
4. Get new eyeglasses; grind the lenses myself.
5. Repaint the Sistine Chapel ceiling in ecru with mocha trim.
6. Take the dog apart; disinfect and then reassemble.
7. Organize the spice racks by genus and phylum.

 

Martha also suggests that we put all these chores on a re-writable chalkboard calendar that we make ourselves.  First, if you’re a math genius, measure off one wall in your kitchen or home office into sections that equal six weeks worth of squares.  Then, using different shades of one color, paint each square so that the colors compliment one another, the space and you.  There you are.  Now write in all dates and your chores.  Every six weeks, start over. 

 

Ok, this is over the top.  And it seems that’s what Jesus is telling Martha when she welcomes Jesus into her home in today’s lesson.  I can’t always keep the players straight.  Which one is Martha and which one is Mary.  So, I’ve come to call the story the Mary and Martha Stewart story.  Martha has kind of overdone it with the hospitality to the point where she’s distracted and resentful and Mary is actually shaming her sister with her quiet and pensive listening. 

 

Martha really is trying to honor her role as a disciple of Jesus.  Remember, earlier in Luke Jesus gives instructions to his followers:  when guests come, you’re to welcome them; help them feel valued - offer them food.  She’s probably trying to fix a delicious meal and set a table fit for a king; simply doing what is required of one who understands servant hood.  After all, service leads to humility. Maybe Martha’s activity is a means of obtaining peace that comes from humility.  We do remember that just earlier Jesus has taught his disciples through the parable of the Good Samaritan that we must love our neighbor as ourselves.  “Go and do likewise,” Jesus instructs.  So, it seems that action is part of the requirement for discipleship. 

 

Martha may be upset with her sister, Mary, because she isn’t doing her fair share in getting the house ready for their most honored guest.  Martha is fretting and worried about her many tasks an action that is customarily translated from the Greek as pollen diakonian, to mean, much service, or to wait at table.  So, we can rightly assume that Martha is organizing a feast.  She may also be upset because Mary is defying the rabbinic code.  Jewish custom states that a house should be a meeting place for wise men to gather at one another’s feet and share each other’s wisdom; and they should not talk with the women of the household. 

 

Mary, has crossed over the boundary lines.  Not only is she not helping her sister, but, she is acting as a man would act, sitting at the feet of Jesus.  This may well be inappropriate behavior in a Jewish household.   But, Jesus, does not discriminate; in fact, he honors Mary stating that she has chosen the better part. 

 

We know that Jesus and Mary and Martha are good friends.  The gospel of John tells us his friendship with the sisters and their brother Lazarus, who has died.  Jesus is close to this family. We’re  told that, “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” When he sees the pain and heartbreak Mary and Martha endure at the death of their brother, he too breaks down into tears.  Scripture tells us that he is deeply disturbed.  So, perhaps the actions of both Mary and Martha in this current visit with Jesus are related to the miracle that Jesus has performed in raising Lazarus from the dead. 

 

Both women want to serve Jesus out of love and gratitude.  One by making her home as hospitable as possible, by welcoming Jesus and offering him a delicious meal.  The other finds that serving Jesus by sitting at his feet with intense concentration, oblivious to the action surrounding her, taking instruction, is imperative.  We know that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to his impending death.  Perhaps Mary senses that what Jesus needs right now is a sanctuary, a place of peace and quiet.  Martha, on the other hand, appears to be unaware of the tension mounting upon Jesus.  Yet, she desperately wants to honor our Lord.

 

Martha, in her despair turns to Jesus looking for sympathy and a solution.  Expecting Jesus to reprimand Mary, Martha whines to Jesus, “Tell her to help me…my sister has left me to do all the work myself.”  But, instead Jesus, as is always the case, turns things upside down.  “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things…Mary has chosen the better part.”  Not what we want to hear.   We want Jesus to say, “you’re right Martha, Mary needs to do her part and help you out so that you’re not so troubled.” 

 

This is one of those stories that often lends to strong reactions.  We can all relate to this story.  When have we not worked ourselves to the bone trying to make everything just perfect only to end up exhausted and unable to truly appreciate the event we’ve worked so hard to make happen?

 

Several years ago, a friend who freely claims that she is not comfortable entertaining, decided it was time to have the big dinner party.  She wanted to pay back all those who have so kindly extended invitations to her.  The party was perfect.  When we arrived we could tell immediately that she had worked for weeks getting her house in perfect order, arranging the food and enough help to serve the 70 or so guests.  Our hosts stood at the door and graciously greeted everyone, welcoming them into their beautiful home.  We felt so honored to be a part of such a festive event.  But, not long after the party began, our hostess disappeared.  She had worked herself into such a frenzy that she was unable to enjoy her own party.  Excusing herself, she went to bed!

 

We worry and fret about so many things.  Jesus calls us to choose the better part.  He’s not suggesting that we stop our work, our service, our ministry.  He’s suggesting that we choose the better, the good; that which brings us into a right relationship with God and produces satisfaction, and pleasure.   

 

It seems that the human mind is really only able to focus intently on just a few things at a time.  So, when we’ve overloaded with worry there’s no room for peace; no space for us to let God in to help with our troubles.  Jesus cautions to choose the part that will give us relief, choose the peace of God which passes all understanding.  Trust in God’s loving, redeeming power in our lives.

 

It’s not an either or.  Because, after all, we’re all a little bit Mary and a little bit Martha. 

 

It seems that what Jesus is saying is, that in every change, in each turn, in the very current of live, in every sound we utter, each step and movement that we take, there is God.  We move and think and have our being with the realization that God is our very core, the essence of who we are.  Scots Presbyterian minister and scholar George MacLeod explains that, “we don’t have to try to reach God…for God is closer to us than our very breath…we have been given union with God whether we like it or not.” (p. 76 of Listening for the Heartbeat of God).  So, we live as one author states, and perhaps as our Mary is demonstrating in today’s lesson from Luke, we live, “listening for the heartbeat of God” trying not to miss the moment, the “’nows’ of our points of contact with God” (p. 80, Philip Newell, Listening for the Heartbeat of God).  Looking, watching, listening and recognizing the very pulse of God as the rhythm that stirs us.

 

George MacLeod, tells his story of missing the “now” point of contact with God.  His young daughter came bouncing into his office early one fall morning, ready for her very first day of school.  She could hardly contain herself in her excitement, all pressed out in her school uniform.  There she stood, beaming, waiting for her father to join in her enthusiasm.  MacLeod, distracted by his many tasks on his desk, looked down at his daughter and remarked, “your tie’s not quite right.”  Crestfallen, and disappointed, his daughter looked down at her uniform.  “I had let her down,” MacLeod remembers.  “I missed the moment.”  He tried to fix it by walking with her to school, meeting the teacher, saying too many things to make it right.  He knows he’s forgiven.  Jesus has assured him of that, and so has his precious daughter.  But, he can’t forget.

 

Choose.  Jesus has already chosen.  He has chosen us and he asks us to turn to him.  Sometimes it’s easier said than done.  So, bear with me a minute here and lets try what author Joanna Weaver calls, dumping rocks.  Imagine if you will a wagon.  Make it any color you like, as big as it needs to be.  Now, fill it with the list of all your chores, all your activities.  Everything that you and your household need to do:  swim team, camp, tutoring, lawn work, errands, family responsibilities;  load them all into the wagon. 

 

Now, sort them on a scale of one to four.  Prioritize the most important as ones and the least important as fours.  Next, take all those numbered as fours out of the wagon.  Are you able to take some threes out also?  Pile them all up.  Ask Jesus to help.  Trust in his guidance.  He’s saying, what is God asking you to do?  How do you want to strive for the kingdom of God?  How does the wagon look now? Somewhat manageable?  Now, be transformed and go, and do, with the listening, loving hearts of God. In our tasks and chores, know always that it is the God within us that serves and the Christ around us whom we encounter.   You have chosen the better part and it will not be taken from you.