Move Better
Sermon for Proper 11 cycle c Move Better July 21, 2007 CtK Luke 10:38-42
Greeting
AR Visit
Monday Night – Me bathrooms, Janice dusting & floors
Comment: Nice not to worry about being to clean
Dad’s comment: Ruthie made sure she was too busy to have to clean.
It is a contrast to my mother
I joked one time – Why clean before my mom comes – she’ll redo it anyway!
This text is such a familiar text – isn’t it?
As we listen we easily identify with either Mary or Martha
Should I ask? How Many are Martha? How many Mary? How many live with Mary?
OK – if we are honest we are all Mary at times and Martha at others right?
We know this story. Right?
Jesus is traveling and is invited to the home of Mary & Martha
Jesus accepts
With Jesus comes an entourage.
Martha is busy working – serving – tasks
Mary – she plops down at Jesus feet and listens to him teach/preach.
One is a worker – One is a shirker.
Martha was doing what was expected of a host.
Mary was pretending to be a man – acting like a disciple.
Martha realized the injustice of it all and comes to Jesus
“Lord do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work myself?”
In the Maxey house it would be – there are too many dishes on my dish week. “You have to wash some.”
Yet Jesus doesn’t come to Martha’s rescue – He doesn’t order Mary to help
Rather Jesus commends Mary.
This is good news! You can go home and ignore your chores “it is the better thing!”
Do you really think that is what Jesus is saying?
Or is that what we want Jesus to say?
Is the context a comparison of service/doing and listening to Jesus?
Most of the scholars challenge this common assumption
Green says that the issue is between hearing the word “discipleship” and “anxious behavior” – the antithesis of discipleship.
Perhaps we are best served by looking at the context of this periscope – this text.
Last week we had the parable of the good Samaritan
The parable develops the meaning of the command to love one’s neighbor.
The story of Mary and Martha highlights the overriding importance of devotion the Jesus’ Word.
Culpepper also notes that both texts lift up the marginalized – The Samaritan and Mary.
An Outcast & a the unseen – a woman.
There are some other interesting observations to be made
Mary sits beside Jesus Feet
Martha – stands over Jesus (root of the word come)
Martha is opposing what Jesus and Mary are doing.
Mary was listening
Martha speaks to Jesus.
Martha tells Jesus what she wants Jesus to do.
Mary lets Jesus tell her what she should do.
It seems like the two texts offer a sense of balance.
There is a both go and do and a sit and listen.
The lawyer in last week’s text had trouble hearing the word – the Samaritan did the Word
Martha is so anxious about doing that she had trouble hearing.
We know how the story ends. Mary 1 – Martha 0
Jesus doesn’t order Mary to the Kitchen.
He instead commends her and points out that Martha is distracted
We may root for Mary – you know give her the thumbs up to her victory, but we tend to honor Martha more in our lives. When we look into our own lives, we see all the chores that need to be done and that we need to do.
Having attended far to many ministry committee and council meetings I can share how this plays out.
Have a devotion or Bible Study that goes on for more than 10 minutes and people begin to shift in their seats.
We have business to attend to – we don’t have time for devotions, or study
Not true – it is more like we don’t have time for too much
That’s not our priority
We cheer on Mary – but we take on Martha’s persona and world view.
I have thought of relating Mary's actions with sabbath rest -- a time to stop doing -- and as Luther defines the commandment: "We are to fear and love God, so that we do not despise preaching or God’s Word, but instead keep that Word holy and gladly hear and learn it."
In Power Surge: Six Marks of Discipleship for a Changing Church, Mike Foss includes these paragraphs, with an application from our text.
As important as the practice of the marks of discipleship are to every Christian, it is remarkable to see their effect on leaders in the church. Most pastors and lay professional staff entered the ministry of the church because of deeply felt experiences of the forgiving, redeeming presence of God in their lives. The call to ministry is experienced as grace; the response to the call is experienced as grace. Most workers in the church begin with the strong desire to "render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord" (Ephesians 6:7), and their ministry is motivated by the experience of a lived relationship with Christ.
But, in a membership-driven church, it is often not long before the demands of a chaplaincy ministry shift the focus from mission to the member and from God to the "business" of the church. The result -- either clergy and staff burn out or become small, ineffectual, and turned in on themselves. The need to continually and personally care for the members, provide the services they seek, always be on call, and keep the "business" of the church going by resolving conflict and keeping everyone happy to keep the offering flowing -- all this and more drain the energy and distract the souls of clergy and staff from the one thing necessary (Luke 10:41-42). "Worried and distracted by many things," all too many clergy and staff fail to tend to their own spirituality and end up losing the joy of their salvation. The irony is that if pastors and staff would spend sufficient time looking to their own spiritual growth and teaching others how to do the same, rather than exhausting themselves in an impossible chaplaincy ministry to the whole membership, everyone's needs would be taken care of. The community of disciples would see to it. [pp. 107-8]
Jesus breaks down all the boundaries that restrict and oppress
Our human reaction is to cry that it’s not fair
Make her help me we say!
Yet Jesus tears down the boundaries – Samaritan, woman, victim
To love one’s neighbor as one’s self means to reject the societal rules & norms
In breaking down the boundaries we are invited to enter a new kingdom
To come into this kingdom requires sitting at Jesus feet
It isn’t all listening
It isn’t all doing
It is all about loving- loving as we have first been loved. Amen.