“Martha and Mary” a sermon based on Luke 10:38-42 July 21, 2013 Humber United Church

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at Jesus’ feet listening to what he said. Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” Jesus answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed - only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
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“Jesus!!! Would you please tell MY SISTER to stop wasting time, and come out here and help with the preparations for dinner!?!”
We know from various versions of different Gospels that Jesus was friends with Mary, Martha and Lazarus. So when Jesus comes to visit them in Bethany Martha welcomes him into the house. Martha, we gather is an oldest child, and in this case the matriarch of the household. Jesus arrives. In this culture, good hospitality is paramount so Martha right away is into preparing a feast.

Mary, the younger of the two, sits enthralled, listening to Jesus’ words. Instead of taking the traditional woman’s role, which Martha has, she takes on the role of a student learning at the feet of a rabbi. So??? you say? Sitting at the feet of a rabbi, learning, was a role traditionally reserved for men. Even by allowing this, Jesus is making a statement about the role of women, and although I don’t think that itself is central to the story, it’s important.

It’s not that Martha is busy serving and providing hospitality - Jesus commends this kind of service to the neighbor many times, notably in the parable of the Good Samaritan that immediately precedes the story of Mary and Martha. Martha is pulled in many different directions, worried and distracted, focusing in on transient things. Martha would have understood today's pace of life, I think. She was the eldest daughter, the one who always took her role much too seriously. When Jesus arrived, she wanted to put on the best supper possible. Is that all it was, though?

“Jesus!!! Would you please tell my SISTER to come out here and help in the kitchen!!!”

In fact, Martha’s distraction and fussing breaks all the rules of hospitality. She tries to embarrass her sister. She asks Jesus to intervene in a family dispute. She accuses Jesus of caring more for Mary than for her.

Martha’s preoccupation with what she thinks *should* be happening causes a wedge between her sister and herself, and between Jesus and herself. Jesus simply points out to her that the most important part of hospitality is listening to the guest. More than once in my life, I’ve been invited to places where the hosts are so busy preparing that they have no time just to sit and talk, to get to know each other better. Yet most of us would say that when we go to a friend’s home for a meal we don’t go to see what their house looks like, or what they serve to eat - we go for the company.

Jesus’ words to Martha are not a rebuke, they are a calling back to the important things. “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.” What is the one thing?

One of the common interpretations of this story is that Martha and Mary are on two different spiritual paths - those of service and devotion. And it’s true, some people find their spiritual fulfillment by doing things. Some find their spiritual fulfillment spending time in meditation and prayer, reading and learning. I don’t think, though, that this is quite the right interpretation. We cannot derive from this passage that spiritual study is more important than service. I think Jesus’ words to Martha say that there’s a time for each, and we need to be mindful.

In a culture which promotes the relentless pursuit of productivity, we are tempted to measure ourselves by how well we meet the expectations of others, and others tend to judge us by how we meet their personal expectations. We fail to realise that if others have expectations, often those expectations are based in their own issues with the world, and that they need to address their own issues. We also forget that others around us might have totally different expectations. I suspect that’s what Jesus was saying to Martha  - that she needed to put aside her expectations of what she thought Mary *should* be doing, simply because she herself was fussing about all kinds of small things which really were distracting her from what was important - human relationship.

“Jesus!!!! Would you please tell my sister to come out here and help ME????”

Yet Jesus doesn’t. Instead he says to Martha “Calm down, stop worrying about so many things.” He doesn't tell Martha that what she is doing is unimportant, he tells her not be so distracted by it that she, Mary, Lazarus and he won’t be able to enjoy each other’s company and learn *from* each other. He tells her that there are more important things than doing it the way she thinks it should be.

The 17th C monk, Brother Lawrence, wrote a book called “The Practice of the Presence of God”.  Here is a quote:

"I turn my little omelette in the pan for the love of God. When it is finished, if I have nothing to do, I prostrate myself on the ground and worship my God, who gave me the grace to make it, after which I arise happier than a king. When I can do nothing else, it is enough to have picked up a straw from the floor for the love of God....Offer Him your heart from time to time, in the midst of your busyness, even every moment if you can. Do not always scrupulously confine yourself to certain rules or particular forms of devotion; but act with a general confidence in God with love and humility."

“Jesus!!!! Would you please tell my SISTER to stop hanging about and come help in the kitchen!!!”
When I was younger, my father often brought people home for meals unannounced. He worked on the theory that there would always be enough to go around somehow, and that the feeding of friends was more important than how the table was set or whether the food was of a specific quality. My mother was a Martha - she had to know well in advance that someone was coming, and be prepared with enough food. She spent hours planning menus. Most of the time she ended up in bed with a migraine after we’d had company for dinner. Surprise guests were not on her list of desirable things. I learned a lot from watching that, and so when I married a man who also would walk in the door with someone he’d invited for dinner, I just stuck out whatever we were having anyway, and maybe opened a can of soup to add to the meal.

I thought it might be fun to look up the meaning of these two names - and in fact, they offer some insight into the character of the women.

Martha, in Aramaic (the language of Jesus and the others) means Lady - perhaps the lady of the house; Martha in Hebrew means “bitter”.

Mary, in both Aramaic and Hebrew, means “longed-for child’, but also means “rebellious”.

I can hear behind Martha’s sharp words “Our parents wanted you more than me, but they aren’t here any more, and I’m the head of this household, and I’m tired of you skipping out on responsibiity. ” Martha, the lady of the house, mired in responsibility for the siblings, and so distracted by all these other things. Mary, the younger, maybe a little bit spoiled when her parents were alive, and now rebelling and establishing her independence.

Martha wanted to be the perfect hostess, the perfect cook, have the perfect table and impeccable hospitality, and she saw her sister just sitting there listening to Jesus talk. Martha would have *liked* to be able to sit and do the same thing, but her perfectionism about the things which were *supposed* to be done would not let her relax, take the pots off the heat, and sit down with Jesus and the others.

I think this is the point of the story. Like Martha, we too often attend church for the wrong reasons. We get all preoccupied with doing things the way we think is the right way, and yet in this story Jesus says that what matters is that faith and following should be our focus. God should be our focus, even if the hymns aren’t the ones we personally like, or the sermon isn’t something we want to hear, or the prayers are the same every Sunday in the summer. If God is our focus, then we can find God in all of those things.

How many times do we act like things have to be a certain way in the service, to be meaningful to us - and  forget about the needs of all the others around us - as if there’s only our way? When we fuss about the music, or the prayers, or something  - are we really focussing on God? Or are we allowing ourselves to be distracted by our own wants - making the issue about us, instead of about God. I say wants on purpose, because that one thing we need from worship is to put aside the distractions of what we personally like, and focus on learning and listening to God, however that word comes to us. Focus on God; is God is glorified in our worship? The question we should ask is not “Is it pleasing to me? Is this how I think worship should be?", but rather “Am I focussing on God? Is this pleasing to God?” May it be so.

Sources:
1. Commentary  - Elisabeth Johnson, Pastor.  Lutheran Institute of Theology Meiganga, Cameroon
2. “Focus on Christ” a sermon based on Luke 10:38-42 by Rev. Frank Schaefer
3. “Mary and Martha” a sermon based on Luke 10:38-42 by Rev. Heather McCance
4. "The Practice of the Presence of God", Brother Lawrence (Nicholas Herman 1605-1691) 17c Carmelite Monk.  Compiled by Father Joseph de Beaufort. Spire Books, Copyright 1958, 1967 by Flemming Revell.
Baker Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI.