Luke 10: 38-42 July
21, 2019
What
is more important? Serving Jesus brunch
or joining in conversation with the Almighty?
Martha is on for the brunch. Mary
steps up for the conversation. A debate
ensues, seeking to draw Jesus in. So it is between two sisters in our Bible
passage today.
This
is right after Jesus debate with the lawyer, establishing who our neighbor is
by the telling of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. It is not hard to imagine Jesus has gone to
the home of some friends, taking time to recharge his batteries after that debate
before what comes next. Mary and Martha
figure elsewhere in the gospels. It is
their brother, Lazarus, that Jesus will raise from the dead. There is familiarity with the people in the
scene. Mary sits comfortably with Jesus,
Martha is comfortable enough with Jesus to complain that she isn’t
helping. Sounds like a typical domestic
scene.
The
lesson of the story is fairly obvious, pick Jesus over making sure the snacks
have been laid out. Pick Jesus over
getting dinner on the table. Time with
Jesus is better spent than time preparing for Jesus. Are we picking on Martha? If Jesus was coming to one of our homes after
worship today, what kind of a list can we make our heads right now about what
we need to get done first?
Listen
to Martha’s words again. “Lord, do you
not care that my sister Mary has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” Martha would love nothing less than to do as
Mary, but there is too much to get done first.
If she would only help…
We
could spend some time talking about the sisters and personality types, the
worker bee versus the engager, we might type Mary and Martha into current
theories of who people are and how they act.
We might invent an entire story arc to explain why Mary was leaving
Martha to do all the work and why Martha got so frustrated, she called out
Jesus to do something about it.
But
Jesus cuts to the heart of the matter.
He tells Martha that she is “worried and distracted by many things” when
“there is need of only one thing.” “Mary
has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken away from her.”
I
find this snapshot of life in Jesus’ ministry to be a powerful connector to
what we spoke of last week. That was all
about loving our neighbor through showing mercy. That, in turn, was the answer of what we do
to inherit eternal life, fulfilling the command to love God and love
neighbor. That, in turn, was the life
lesson of how it is we fulfill the vision of our church, that we give our
hearts to the Lord eagerly and sincerely.
We
see the sisters giving their hearts to the Lord. In Mary, we see a sincere and eager desire to
learn from the Master. In Martha, we see
a sincere desire to serve, but her eagerness is dampened by looking around and
seeing that she is left to do all the work.
There is no doubt that she wants to give her heart to the Lord, but
Jesus diagnoses her frustration, being distracted and worried by many things.”
I
don’t know about you, but I find myself identifying with Martha in this. Distractions and worries are the stuff of
life. To be able to put it aside in an
instant and sit in joy at the feet of the Savior, how wonderful that sounds,
but how completely could we actually do that?
There
was a cautionary note in the sermon last week in regards to showing mercy to
our neighbor that is out of love and not from some other motivation, not from
some sense of obligation or expectation.
We all have obligations and expectations in our lives. That is what it means to be human and to be
in community with other humans. Maybe
the difference can be summed up in whether, when we serve the Lord, or when we
serve our neighbor, we can say to ourselves, “I want to do this” with a cheerful
heart versus “I have to do this” with a
burdened heart.
This
is the moment to return to the basics of why we are Christians in the first
place. Why did Mary come to the feet of
Jesus so readily to learn and to listen?
Because he brought a new truth of love and salvation from God. Martha knows this. At the raising of Lazarus, she will confess
that she knows her brother will return at the Resurrection. Jesus has come to put into effect the plan of
love that God has established to reverse the rule of sin and of Satan on this
earth.
Why
do I want to love my neighbor? Because I
was first loved by the Lord so much that he gave his life for me on the
cross. He has freed me from the bonds of
sin. I can come to the Lord in
confession and receive the blessed healing of forgiveness at any time and at
any moment. I can come to the Lord in my
pain and suffering and the Lord will provide.
Our faith in Jesus is not based on a fear of failure that leads to
death, thus motivation by an angry God.
Our faith in Jesus is based in love, a love that was so powerful that he
offered life for life for each of us to renewed as God’s children.
Secondly,
I want to love my neighbor so they may know those same joys. It is like the hymn, “This little light of
mine, I am going to let it shine.” A
verse goes, “Hide it under a bushel?”
NO, I’m going to let it shine.”
When
we come to a time in our lives when things weigh heavily on us and living the
Christian life becomes a “have to” and not a “want to”, that is the time for us
to dig back into who we are as Children of God, to remember what God has done
for us in Jesus, to rejoice in the gifts we have received.
It
is why we offer the celebration of communion on a regular basis. For this church, it is monthly, for others it
is done weekly. It is a reminder of what
Jesus has done for us to refill the spiritual well of our souls. It is a time to return when we wander away.
Martha
got caught up in the things of life, creeping up like weeds to strangle the joy
of her faith. Jesus looked into her very
soul and called her out for what she needed, to be in the blessed company of
the saints in light, to be with her sister at the feet of Jesus, to be
refilling her well with the waters of life.
I
think sometimes we get caught up in the powerful extremes of faith, of life and
death, of healing and suffering, that we lose sight of this. It’s not all about the grand battles, the
mountain tops and valley floors of life.
It is about each and every day, lived in joy and wonder or worry and
distraction. Its about all the moments,
each one lived as for the Lord. And when
the stuff of life threatens, with its worries and distractions, it is about the
opportunity we have to come back to be filled once more with the joy and wonder
of being brothers and sisters of Christ Jesus.
Amen
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