July 17-18, 2010
8th Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 10:38-42
Salem Lutheran Church
Sycamore, Illinois
I had a terrible time with the sermon this week. I would guess that if they're honest, most who step into the pulpit this week-end would say the same thing. Because for most of us, this story hits too close to home. Because Jesus' words to Martha, no matter how gently he may have spoken them, ring like judgment in my ears. Because I want to be more like Mary, but on most days I fall far short.
So I had a terrible time figuring out how to bring this word to you in a way that was both authentic and at least a little helpful. For I am Martha. I know the distraction which Jesus observes in her today. I am distracted by a to-do list which never quite gets done before more gets added on. I am distracted by the needs of so many --- all of whom I want to get to, but the hours and the energy run out before I can get there. I am distracted by my own physical, emotional, and spiritual limits which have my resources running scarce before the work can all get done. I am distracted by worries about bills to be paid, family members to be cared for, and lessons and sermons and funerals and weddings to be prepared, shared, performed, and by a kitchen floor that only seems to get mopped when I have a few days off.
I expect it's much that way also for all of you… Oh, the details will differ, to be sure, but I'm betting the anxiety you feel is much the same --- you know worry and distraction. You know it to your bones. Even you who are retired have been known to say that you're busier now than when you were working for pay as there is so much that needs to be done in the world and now you're seen as those who have enough time to be able to give to all those pressing needs. And you try to… until perhaps even you find yourself with Martha looking over your shoulder in resentment at Mary who somehow 'knows the better part' and more than that, is able to claim it for herself.
So I don't stand before you today as someone with any kind of profound insight into the struggle described for us now. I stand alongside you, yearning for another way to be and do and live and breathe. And I'm trying awfully hard to hear Jesus' words for me today as grace and hope and promise and not just one more thing to add to my 'to-do' list. You know --- shop for groceries, go to work, mow the lawn, pick up the kids for their games, pay the bills, spend at least 30 minutes in good aerobic exercise, fold the laundry and spend some time sitting at the feet of Jesus. No indeed, that would seem to be missing the point. Jesus is not telling Martha she should be doing one more thing. Rather, it seems, he's getting at a posture, a way of living, that may be entirely contrary to anything you and I have known in our lifetimes. Something that was clearly a challenge long before the age of cable television, commuting, cell phones and Facebook.
So I'm not thinking for a minute that what Jesus is calling us to here is easy… at least not on the surface. Even so, I'm wondering to myself a little bit if maybe I've heard the argument all wrong for most of my life. For somehow it doesn't seem right that all of us could simply give up our work and simply 'be' like Mary… else how would all the work get done? In fact, even Jesus doesn't say that. If you were here last week, you would have heard Jesus say to those listening after the story of the Good Samaritan to go and do likewise. We hear today that Abraham and Sarah and their slave are scurrying all over the place making sure there is a feast on the table before their three visitors. No, in fact, as I sat with this familiar story long enough this week to actually hear it beyond the layers of old understandings I carry with me, here is what I realized. We really do have two different personalities playing out in Martha and Mary, … two very different people with very different gifts and I would guess they've spent most of their lives talking past each other, not truly understanding the other. And today it just all boils over.
Now it could be that Martha is just weary of trying to get through to Mary directly… maybe she's tried and tried, but what we see today is that she tries to pull Jesus into what has probably been a fight they've been having since they were children. She's angry at Mary and she tells Jesus to fix it. And in the meantime, she actually turns the fight on him --- accusing him of not caring.
It's an ugly, uncomfortable scene, and if you think about it that way, Jesus' words to her today really are pretty gentle. He doesn't turn on Martha and tell her she's obnoxious, which she is in this moment. He doesn't give her a lecture on direct communication --- reminding her that if she has a problem with Mary she needs to talk to Mary. He doesn't ignore her --- as if that would even be possible, given the directness with which Martha tends to communicate. He doesn't even get defensive, insisting that yes, in fact, he does actually care. No instead he lives out that care… he looks into her heart. He sees beyond the surface, beyond the actual words that Martha is spouting in that moment and he takes in her pain. She's carrying too much. Too many things are pulling at her attention. And, no doubt, her anger in this moment is borne of all that pain. And Jesus urges her to let it go. Not to be Mary, but to embrace some of what Mary has somehow learned. To be in the moment. To learn to acknowledge and celebrate the gifts of God which are right before her.
And so it is for me and perhaps also for you. Jesus speaks out of a great love today. One that sees into your heart and mine. One that sees beyond my petulance, my frustration, my overwhelmed-ness, my resentment. One that sees you and sees me and urges us to let it go. To let it all go… because the way it is really isn't working. No, this is not a call to be Mary. At the same time it is to discover some of what she already knows. That nothing matters more than the gifts of God in this moment. And to live like that's so. And as for those moments when I'm looking over my shoulder in resentment at those who have this better figured out than I? Well the story today pushes me to quit asking what's wrong with them; and rather to wonder about what's wrong with me? To consider what words Jesus would whisper in my ear --- reminding me that you and I are seen just as we are --- just as Martha was. And we are loved right there. And then we are invited into a new way ---this way of Mary --- for our own sakes. Amen.
