Sermon Tone Analysis

Today’s reading was short and sweet but contains so much that it was necessary to just look at this on its own.

It is not found in any of the other gospels but the characters are familiar if we know the Gospels.

Jesus and His disciples are on their way down from Galilee to Jerusalem.

We are told that a certain woman by the name of Martha welcomes Him, and by extension His entourage into her large house which belongs to her.

We know that Martha, Mary and Lazarus have a house in Bethany just outside Jerusalem but this may actually be another house that they have.

Jesus needed the support of others including this family.

We are aware that there were many women, especially, supporting the ministry of Jesus.

And therefore we are introduced to a woman, which without her support, the ministry of Jesus would have not gone as smoothly.

Of course, we are also introduced to her sister, Mary, who thought to leave all the work to her sister instead.

Well, that is what Martha thought.

Martha was the kind of person who would have scrubbed the house clean, been to Asda to get the food with the special bits from Marks and Sparks.

She’s been slaving in the kitchen making sure that all the food comes out right and that is on top of making sure all the drinks are topped up, snacks are filled, and the guests are happy.

But things are starting to go awry.

There’s just too much to do and some things are starting to get burnt, the potatoes are overcooked, the spilt drinks are not getting cleared up, and the timing of all the other foods is starting to fall apart.

This is hard for those who have the gift of hospitality big time!

Grrr.

Where is my sister?! Help! You’d think that she’d speak to her sister: What are you doing?

How rude to be sitting with the other guests!

But this seething suddenly explodes but not at who you’d expect, no, not at her sister, but at Jesus.

“Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?

Tell her to help me!”

Even though Martha is asking a question it is plainly rhetorical.

The answer is yes, you should care by telling her! Her decorum has dissipated.

She is not in control of her feelings.

She’s not asking but demanding.

Mary’s not pulling her weight.

She’s doing nothing at all.

Martha is only concerned with what Mary is NOT doing.

Martha is judging Mary’s choice as wrong, and now she is demanding that Jesus judge her the same way.

Look, Jesus.

I am right; Mary is wrong; and you need to tell her the same thing!

What I find interesting is that Jesus is the guest of honour but she is now treating Him with disrespect.

I’m doing all this work for you and your disciples and I am not getting any help and you are just allowing her.

Now I am absolutely sure that the majority of us here have had this rising feeling with someone else whom we think is not doing what they ought to be doing.

There has been a build up and then, trying to be in control of our anger, told them what they should do.

I have found that the most intense place for this is wen driving.

I am right and you are wrong.

Maybe we are right but our attitude most certainly is not.

And we certainly have not been able to see things from their perspective.

For Martha she has a hundred things on the go all at once.

When one of those things goes wrong or another one is added there is no room and it can no longer be handled.

She is at the end of herself.

There is no margin, no space left.

She is the picture of Western living.

We fill our lives with so much that when something goes wrong or another task needs doing the margin is overflowed and there is no space.

I am one of those people who wants us as a Church to be a go-getter.

Where we do the work that God has called us to in meeting this community in good deeds and word, making the Gospel known.

I have said before that everyone needs to do their part both spiritually and practically using the gifts that we have for the building of the Kingdom.

But do you know what I have discovered?

No one has time for anything.

Our lives are already too busy.

There’s no space for anything else.

Maybe we have shrinking space because of health or lack of it.

We’ve already had to tighten what we can or cannot do.

We are overworked, overbooked, over-stressed and the result is frustration at God and others.

It’s not always that way.

There are times of serving that feel different, invigorating, fulfilling, worthwhile.

What’s the difference?

Is it that some things are worth volunteering for and some things are not as worthy?

What is it that has sometimes made some service opportunities feel so absolutely right, and other service opportunities feel so stressfully overwhelming?

Let’s look at what Jesus has to say in response to Martha.

As Martha bursts into the room and lets her explosive tirade loose upon the entire room.

“Martha, Martha”, Jesus says, with obvious care and a little chiding: “You are worried and upset about much.

But few is needed, in fact, one.”

Martha is worried and upset about the details of the meal.

This dinner party is quite a project.

In all the commotion of this project, it seems as though Martha lost track of the people and relationships for whom this meal is being prepared in the first place.

The people disappeared from importance, and only the project mattered.

Somehow in the midst of Martha’s serving, the project of hosting dinner became most important, and the people who were there only served as part of a project.

Jesus turns the whole thing around to the right way.

When it comes to serving, people matter most.

Projects and programs are inferior to real relationships with real people.

In this particular instance, Jesus commends Mary for recognising that it is He who is important rather than the timing of the food.

Let’s review what we have heard so far for there are a couple of things we need to keep in mind.

First: check your margins.

If every opportunity to serve comes at you as something that needs to be packed into your already-filled diary, then maybe it’s time to lighten the diary and create some margin.

Maybe you’ve got the best of intentions but sometimes we need to drop things and say no to others instead of saying ‘yes’ to everything.

I think that we have to have the ministry of disappointment.

There are only so many hours in the day, it is not possible to do everything.

When I say “margin” I assume you know what I mean.

On an A4 piece of lined paper there is a line down the side which is a margin.

This used to be where comments or notes were made on the work but it was space that you left unfilled.

But it is into this space we have pushed all of life so now there is no margin, no space for when things go wrong.

The second checkpoint is to always put people before projects.

Programs and projects are not bad things for this is where relationships can happen.

So, relationships with people are the ultimate goal of programs and projects.

Whenever we find ourselves in a place where the programs or the projects are getting in the way of relationships more than helping to create and nurture relationships, then it is time to shift our approach, change what we are doing or stop it altogether.

Jesus shows these things in the way he demonstrates service.

In one village he is approached by a ruler named Jairus who asks Jesus to come heal her daughter.

This was unplanned but Jesus creates some margin in his schedule and goes with him.

On the way there is a woman who has suffered from chronic bleeding who sneaks through the crowd and touches Jesus in order to be healed.

Again unplanned but there is still space in the margin.

Jesus stops everything and turns his attention towards the woman.

He creates margin for relationship with this woman—not just the project of healing her.

Then Jesus continues with Jairus.

He shows the importance of having margin in order to serve.

This is just not possible if we are already overwhelmed.

On one occasion Jesus is travelling through Samaria.

He stops off by a well and asks a woman there for a drink.

Instead of just thanking her for her hospitality, he begins talking with her and goes into her entire life story.