Awareness in Stillness (shorter version)

Introduction

We’re calling today, “Welcome Back Sunday.” The question is exactly who or what are we welcoming back today. Now, on the surface, today is about welcoming back people. Our United Methodist Men have prepared dogs and brats for us after the service, and today is about welcoming everyone back after a busy summer as we enter the fall and settle into a new routine. However, I think our text for today suggests that we would do well to welcome back into our lives not just people but also a very rare but important quality into our lives: nuance.

Our passage for today comes from the Gospel of Luke is about Mary and Martha. The most common interpretation of this passage pits busyness against reflection, and there is a lot for us to learn from this passage in that regard. However, I would like to suggest that this story is first and foremost about hospitality. I’d like to reflect on this passage today in terms of its invitation not only to welcome others but to welcome back nuance into our thinking especially about other people. As we welcome you back today, I we’ll consider how we can welcome nuance into our lives as we exit summer.

Nuance

Recently, Pastor Bob turned me on to a new podcast from Christianity Today titled “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill Church.”

In case you are unfamiliar with the situation, Mars Hill was a church in Seattle founded in the mid-90’s by a dynamic and charismatic pastor named Mark Driscoll. Under his leadership, the church exploded with growth. Mars Hill went from being a small group of people meeting in the home of an unpaid pastor in 1996 to becoming the third fastest growing church in America with 14 sites in five states and 13,000 attendees by 2012.

Driscoll was a controversial and polarizing figure. People seemed to either love him or hate him. There was no in between. At this point he is largely despised by people, and not without good reason. However, in my opinion, one of the most striking aspects of the podcast is the way it depicts Driscoll as it tells the story of Mars Hill. To be sure, they pull no punches when it comes to revealing the abusive and toxic environment he created in the church that ultimately led to its demise in 2014. If you search for Mark Driscoll on the internet, you’ll find a plethora of unflattering accounts of the scandalous pastor that involved plagiarism, bullying, crudeness, and unethical book promotion. Those tales are a dime a dozen leading us to take a black and white view of Mark Driscoll: the most common being that he is a terrible, unconscionable person who is a blemish on the body of Christ.

However, there is another side of Driscoll that the podcast uncovers (albeit less a dominant one). The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill reveals a deeply compassionate man with notable pastoral sensitivities who was sacrificially committed to the success of the fledgling church and its people.

For example, Mark went unpaid in the first three years of the church’s existence as it was getting off the ground.

One time, he and his wife Grace welcomed into their home on the night before Thanksgiving a woman whom they barely knew because her husband was in the hospital, and she had nowhere to stay.

In the early days of Mars Hill, when Driscoll wasn’t making much money, he would speak at youth events to help make ends meet. After one such event, he was talking with a member of his worship band who traveled with him to these speaking engagements. The band member had a longtime girlfriend he wanted to marry but didn’t have enough money to buy an engagement ring for her. Right then and there Mark handed over the money he made that night so his friend could buy a ring and get married.

Driscoll also had great compassion for single moms, and once he even went to the grocery store and bought groceries of a single mom in need.

So, what does all of this tell us about Mark Driscoll. It tells us that he is a complex person neither wholly good nor wholly bad. He does not fit into just one of these black and white categories. To accurately describe Mark Driscoll requires nuance - something that is nearly impossible to come by these days in our society.

As we turn out attention to the story of Mary and Martha, more often than not, Martha is portrayed as something of a villain in this narrative. However, a close reading of the text reveals a nuanced Martha who possesses both virtues and vices. Let’s think about some of her virtues since we so often focus on what she got wrong.

Note that the text begins with the statement that Martha welcomed Jesus into her home. In Luke 9.46-48, just one chapter before this one, a dispute arises among the disciples regarding which of them is the greatest. To end the dispute, Jesus embraces a child and declares, “Whoever welcomes a child, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me.” Thus, Martha is extending hospitality to Jesus and in turn to the Father as she lives out Jesus’ exhortation to welcome the Lord.

Note also that when Martha addresses Jesus, she addresses him with the title of “Lord.” Martha thus joins the company of those disciples who rightly recognize and identify Jesus as Lord. The text then goes on to indicate that Martha was “distracted by her many tasks” as the NRSV renders the text. However, another way of translating these words is that Martha “was overwhelmed/ burdened by her many services or ministries to Jesus.” In other words, Martha was concerned to lavish Jesus with service as her guest. What we discover is not a cold woman complaining about her lazy sister, but a devout disciple of Jesus doing the best she knows how to serve him.

As we can see, there is more to Martha than meets the eye. There is virtue in her and a strong desire to be a faithful disciple. In Christian circles, we often hear the phrase, “Stop being such a Martha and be more of a Mary.” The implicit assumption here is that what Mary is doing is good and what Martha is doing is bad. However, I think we need to look at this with a little more depth.

The other day, I decided to go through the drive-thru at Starbucks. I placed my order, and when I arrived at the window, I paid for it. My drink wasn’t quite ready so I waited there in a moment of awkward silence with the cashier at the window. After a few moments, the young man struck up a very pleasant conversation with me. Normally, the people working at the window continue working on other things until your order is ready and then they hand you your order and you’re off. Usually, that’s just fine with me. However, it was nice for this young man to be present and engage me in a pleasant conversation. And yet, I am grateful for the baristas working in the back preparing my coffee.

Here’s my point. Being like Martha in terms of her stellar service is not inherently bad. In fact, serving as Martha did is an extremely good and necessary thing. If the whole world was like her sister Mary, nothing would ever get done. You’d just be sitting in the drive thru lane forever.

Augustine puts it this way:

Both [Martha and Mary] were pleasing to the Lord, both amiable, both disciples … both innocent, both laudable—two lives in the same house and just one fountain of life.… Martha has to set sail in order that Mary can remain quietly in port.

However, if everyone was like Martha all the time, the possibility for connection and friendliness would be absent. The point is, we need to strike a balance in our lives of stillness and service for one leads to the other. Indeed, if Mary remains at the feet of Jesus long enough and has the ears to hear what he is saying, she will realize that she must get up because she is called to service.

So often we are sucked into thinking in black and white categories: things or people are all good or all bad. However, this text forbids us from doing so. It forces us to acknowledge the nuance and complexity that exists in others and within ourselves. We cannot only adopt the virtues shown in Mary in this passage, we also need to cultivate the virtues of Martha that lead to faithful service. Thus, this text invites us to welcome back nuance into our thinking as we consider others and ourselves. Martha serves as an ancient example of a person viewed largely in black and white categories. Mark Driscoll serves as a modern one. While Martha’s shortcomings are nowhere near Driscoll’s, she provides us with an invitation to consider those we villainize today and move beyond the categories of all good and all bad. It should not take us long to think of such a person.

Conclusion

I titled this sermon, “Awareness in Stillness,” which may seem a strange title for this message. Well, there is good reason for that. When I initially planned and wrote this message, the everything fit together nicely - or so I thought at least. However, after I submitted the other scripture readings, the sermon title, and the reflection questions for the bulletin for this week, I felt led to move in another direction. Thus, the other Scripture readings, the title, and the reflection questions in the bulletin are dissonant with the message I actually preached.

However, as I reflected on the process that unfolded for me throughout the week, I believe the Lord was trying to teach me my own sermon. Though we start with a certain set of thoughts about something, we need to be willing to adjust our thinking as the Lord leads us. It’s not easy as this meant extra time, prayer, and work for me this week. However, it was hopefully a worthwhile change. I know it blessed and challenged me, and I hope it has you.

As I close, here are some updated reflection questions for us to consider.

Reflection Questions

Who is someone you have villianized as all bad or held on a pedestal as without fault? How is God inviting you to see the person with more nuance?

How is God calling you to welcome more nuance in your life and possibly even shift your thinking in important was that are more in line with the Lord’s perspective?

A BRIEF GREAT THANKSGIVING FOR GENERAL US

Lift up your hearts and give thanks to God.

Blessed are you, O God, who with your Word and Holy Spirit created all things and called them good. In Jesus Christ your Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Through Jesus' suffering and death you took upon yourself our sin and death and destroyed their power for ever. You raised from the dead this same Jesus, who now reigns with you in glory, and poured upon us your Holy Spirit, making us the people of your new covenant.

On the night before meeting with death Jesus took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to the disciples, and said: "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

When the supper was over Jesus took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to the disciples, and said: "Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts, that in the breaking of this bread and the drinking of this wine we may know the presence of the living Christ and be renewed as the body of Christ for the world, redeemed by Christ's blood, until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at your table for ever.

Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, almighty God, now and for ever. Amen.

THE LORD'S PRAYER

And now, with the confidence of children of God, let us pray:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever. Amen.