Go and Do or Sit and Listen
07/18/10
Scripture:
Luke 10:38-42Those of you who have worked for the Federal Government are probably familiar with the General Services Administration, which has experts who visit various government agencies and suggest ways to streamline their day-to-day routines. One such expert visited the Federal Communications Commission and suggested that they get rid of the clutter. He suggested that, for starters, they throw out all correspondence over 10 years old. Sounds reasonable!
The FCC Director loved the idea, and replied, “Good thought! But first, we’ll have to make three copies of everything.” Now, that sounds like a local church Finance Committee! But, I think that’s an excellent parable for the very complicated society we live in. One thing leads to another, and before we know it, we are over our heads in work and don’t know where to start!
In fact, my sermon library in just 15 years, is a little like the FCC. I still have the computer with all the early sermons on it, but I had my son copy them to floppy discs for back-up. Most computers won’t even read floppy discs anymore, so I have since put most of them on a “travel drive” too. Then, while I was in Sierra Vista I had the luxury of a three-month study leave, and filed all the paper copies in binders. Those from the last four years are still in the file cabinet. Life was perhaps not that complicated for Martha and Mary in Jesus’ day, but people haven’t changed.
My first sermon on this Mary-Martha incident was written when I was in Seminary (I got an A-). I edited that one to preach in 2004, and I think it was pretty good too, but both were based on a kind of feminist view of “woman’s work” in Jesus’ time and ours, and the idea that this was another case of sibling rivalry in the Bible, a feminine version of Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, etc. I realized in studying Luke’s short story this time that it’s not really all about women’s roles, or family feuds. It’s not about being a Mary or a Martha, a Thomas or a Peter. It’s about call to discipleship, and it’s about setting priorities: choosing the “better part” that will not be taken away.
It’s interesting, and perhaps very intentional, that Luke placed the story of Martha and Mary right after the parable of the Good Samaritan. A Samaritan, like a woman, was a “second-class citizen” of the Jewish society that Jesus lived in. So, first of all, as he so often did, Jesus was lifting up those people whom his society looked down on.
Second, and most important, Jesus is showing us that at various times and places in our lives, both the doing and the listening are necessary. Before the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus told an expert in the Jewish law that he was correct when he said that the heart of the law was in the statement, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus praised the Samaritan for helping his neighbor. He was the one who was willing to “go and do” what was needed, and in doing so, he was loving and serving God. Now, Jesus is praising Mary for “sitting and listening”, because in doing that, she was loving God with all her heart, soul, strength and mind, and that was what was appropriate for that moment. Martha’s busy-ness, her being “distracted by many things”, and especially her irritation toward her sister, were definitely not the “one thing” that was needed.
Of course, in her defense, Martha was doing what a woman of her day was called upon to do: offer hospitality to travelers. In the ninth chapter of Luke’s gospel, Jesus had sent the 12 disciples out on a mission to the towns to “proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.” In the first twelve verses of Luke’s tenth chapter, Jesus sent seventy more followers out, two-by-two, to do the same thing. They were told to choose one house to stay in, eat and drink what was offered, and proclaim “Peace to this house!” In that context, we can assume that Jesus was there with Mary and Martha to talk about the kingdom of God, which he said “has come near.” The urgency of that message presumably should have pulled Martha out of hospitality mode, and into preparation for discipleship. But that wasn’t Martha’s way.
And, those who have read the ancient rabbinic writings tell us how counter-cultural Jesus’ visit in Martha and Mary’s living room was. Ancient rabbinic lore said, “Let thy house be a meeting-house for the sages, and sit amid the dust of their feet and drink in their words with thirst”…but, it also said, “talk not much with womankind.” The Mishnah, compiled soon after Jesus’ day, said “May the words of the Torah be burned, they should not be handed over to a woman,” And, Rabbi Eliezer wrote in about 90 AD “If a man gives his daughter a knowledge of the Law, it is as though he taught her lechery.” Another rabbi said it was better to teach your dog the scripture than your wife. If that was the case, Mary was where she shouldn’t be, and Martha’s complaint was justified.
The early Christian church followed much the same thinking. They made Martha a saint: the patron saint of housewives, domestic servants, and those who nursed the sick! Her day is coming up on July 29! In the Renaissance they went so far as to picture Martha as a heroine conquering a dragon. But, unlike St. George, Martha didn’t slay it with a sword; she only held it down with her foot! Martha was glorified because she exemplified the traditional woman’s role.
It appears that the early church wanted to reinforce the belief that that a woman’s place is in the home, despite the fact that Jesus himself allowed Martha’s sister, Mary, to sit as his feet, a traditional description for someone who was a disciple. And, Jesus responded to Martha’s complaint, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Jesus seemed to be saying that at that moment, in that place, the message of the kingdom took precedence over the question of gender roles, and over the domestic chores, or the fixing of food, or whatever was distracting Martha from the importance of Jesus’ visit.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus made a hero of the man who helped the victim of a crime, even though he belonged to a group the Jews very much disapproved of; Jesus also defied convention in John’s gospel by talking to a woman whom he met at Jacob’s well in Samaria, offering her “water that would become in the one who drank it a spring of water, gushing up to eternal life.” She went back to proclaim the good news in her city that the Messiah had come.
Another parable, the parable of the seeds and the Sower relates to Mary and Martha as well. Jesus explained that the seed is the Word of God. All of the seed represented people who heard the Word of God; the seeds that fell among thorns were people who heard the good news, and went on their way, but they were choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life and the fruit didn’t make it to maturity. “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things.”
Christian writer Charles Swindoll once found himself, like Mrtha, with too many commitments in too few days. He got nervous and tense about it, and wrote in his book, Stress Fractures: “I was snapping at my wife and our children, choking down my food at mealtimes, and feeling irritated at those unexpected interruptions through the day. Before long, things around our home started reflecting the pattern of my hurry-up style. It was becoming unbearable.
“I distinctly remember,” he went on, “after supper one evening, the words of our youngest daughter, Colleen. She wanted to tell me something important that had happened to her at school that day. She began hurriedly, ‘Daddy, I wanna tell you somethin’ and I’ll tell you real fast.’
“Suddenly realizing her frustration, Charles Swindoll answered, ‘Honey, you can tell me ---and you don’t have to tell me really fast. Say it slowly.’ He’ll never forget her answer: “Then listen slowly.”
Mary “listened slowly”, gave Jesus her full attention, and the seed of God’s Word fell on fertile soil, so that Mary could “hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.”
Many of the women of this church completed a study not long ago of two books by Joanna Weaver: Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, and its sequel, Having a Mary Spirit. I didn’t have time to read them both, but I read enough to see that she gave some sound advice that is very appropriate for women and men. She wrote that the “principle of ‘one thing’ can have practical implications that can help when life feels overwhelming.
· First, she suggests what we all know is very sound advice: each morning before you get out of bed, invite Jesus to rule in your life, to be your “one thing.” Present your day to God and ask for wisdom and guidance.
· Second, ask God to reveal the next step. Ask, “What is the next thing I need to do?” Don’t be overwhelmed by the big picture, just take the next step as it’s revealed to you…and the next…and the next.
· Have faith that what needs to get done will get done. Do what you can in the time that’s allotted. Then, since you dedicated your day to the Lord, you can trust that you will be guided to do the things that are necessary.
· Be open to the Spirit’s leading. You might find your day interrupted by “divine appointments.” “Instead of resisting the interruptions, flow with the one thing as God brings it across your path. Joanna Weaver says you’ll be amazed at the joy and freedom that comes from surrendering your agenda and cooperating with God’s.
Joanna Weaver wrote about an important lesson she learned from a thirty-something birthday card she received from her friend Janet McHenry. The message wished her a “Hoopy Birthday,” and she was especially drawn to the picture on the front. The picture from the early 1950’s showed a young woman in what she called “Greta Garbo shorts” with 8 or 9 hula hoops “swinging madly around her waist.” Joanna thought of all the “Hula Hoops” she was trying to keep in motion in her life: wife, mother, pastor’s wife, friend, writer, piano instructor, cook, cleaning lady and the big one, Little League mother. ( I’m sure that each of us has our own list.)
Joanna had a calming cup of chamomile tea and some cookies she called “chocolate chip sedatives” and read the letter that came with the card. Then she carefully examined again the girl on the card: “looking straight into the camera, she smiled peacefully as though she hadn’t a care in the world. Joanna writes: “Then it dawned on me—I saw her secret. She found a rhythm. She established the center, then let everything move around that.”
Martha saw that Jesus needed a place to rest and eat a meal, and she wanted to meet that need in “Martha Stewart style”. She wanted to offer a four-course meal, when a simple sandwich would do, while Jesus valued the needs of the soul far more that the needs of the body. But, Mary, the quiet one, ate the Bread of Life when she listened to the words of Jesus, established her center in the one whom John’s gospel says was himself the Word of God.
We too can find that quiet center in Christ, and be disciples like Martha, serving Jesus with our hands and our service; and like Mary, sitting and contemplating his words. We all need to do some of each throughout our lives, remembering the Good News of the Kingdom of God, a message of love, which was then, and still is, the better part that will not be taken away. Amen.