The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost ----- 17 July 2016

Luke 10:38-42

38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. ³⁹ She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." ⁴¹ But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; ⁴² there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;  there is need of only one thing.

·        We’re all very familiar with the Mary-and-Martha story. It might be hard to understand at times. There are time when this story might have made us angry.

·        How could this simple story make angry, you might ask? Well, have you never had a gathering at your house and had able bodied people engage in deep conversation… while there was a table to set, or a roast to get to the table, or worst of all, dishes to wash and put away? If that’s ever been the case, you know how Martha felt. "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me."  There are days when the words of the Gospel really hit us where we live.

·        I was acquainted with a pastor who would cancel the Sunday worship service once in a while and send the congregation out to do service for the neighborhood – cutting lawns, fixing walkways, trimming hedges, painting – especially for shut-ins. To be honest, I was never that brave.

·        When we see Mary and Martha in the Gospels, they are always together. Their brother, Lazarus is often with them as well. Both of the women are faithful disciples. They are just different in how they are faithful. Mary is held up by some preachers as an example of the necessity of prayer in the life of a Christian. Martha seems to take a back seat because of her busy-ness. Still, as I said, Mary and Martha are never seen apart. There has to be something to that.

·        As Christians, we are called to work and to pray. It has long been a Lutheran concept that doing your work right and doing it well. Martin Luther is quoted as saying “The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.” This is all part of the Reformation idea that we find our holiness in what we do daily rather than through intense bodily penances, fasting, vigils, or hair shirts – all things recommended by the medieval Church as a way to be close to God.

·        The Reformation did a lot to bring Martha and Mary together rather than splitting them apart. Prayer is the vocation of all Christians and service (shown by Martha in her hospitality) is the vocation of all Christians.

·        Let’s not think of this as a tug-of-war or a ride on a see-saw. It is true that balance is required in practical terms; the crops won’t bring themselves in, will they? On the other hand, I’ve heard people say that their work is their prayer. I’ve found that to be a convenient excuse for being busy and not praying or attending the congregation’s worship. A person can pray while they work, but work is not prayer. The classic definition of prayer is the “lifting of the heart and mind to God.” Prayer and work can be done together but one cannot replace the other.

·        There is a base line that needs to be considered.

·        The activity we all are involved in and the quiet that prayer often requires are both needed. If we choose one and lack the other, we find we on shaky ground in the face of a false split. That’s why Martha and Mary are two sides of the same coin. The busy devotion of the one is added to the attention to the Word of God of the other. Maybe they’re never seen apart in the Gospels because they are a true example of discipleship when they are together, even with the tension between them that this reading shows.

·        So why does Mary have the better part? Because all of a disciple’s actions – even Christian charity and hospitality, if they are to be sustained - must flow from who we are. Who we are is formed, inspired, and continually fed by the Word of God. We have to sit still to hear and digest it; Only then can we apply it to our daily lives.

·        We are a people called, gathered, and formed by the Word of God. To be Jesus’ hands and feet and voice in the world today, we need to know Jesus. We know him through his Word given to the Christian community. Prayer (and worship) are the way we have contact with God through grace and it is through prayer that we can hear the Word of God and come to live it out in our actions. In this case, what we do flows from who we are.

·        Simply put, we are all both Mary and Martha. Our prayer leads us to action because our action is the fruit of our relationship with God. Our actions and their effects leads us to prayer because our actions are a way of God expressing grace in the world. Whether we cry out from our weakness or rejoice in what God is doing, we are praying… and the circle turns.

·        Martha did not do wrong in being hospitable. Mary did not do wrong in listening at Jesus’ feet. To make a proper house, both are needed.

·        Lately, I’ve added some sort of contemporary comment on the reading. Last week, it was from Dr. Seuss. This week, I remembered a sentence from a silly movie called Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The main character says this “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Prayer and action in God’s grace are what our lives are to be. I, for one, don’t want to miss it.

"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."