Martha Martha!

Common English Bible Chapter 10

38 While Jesus and his disciples were traveling, Jesus entered a village where a woman named Martha welcomed him as a guest. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his message. 40 By contrast, Martha was preoccupied with getting everything ready for their meal. So Martha came to him and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to prepare the table all by myself? Tell her to help me.”

41 The Lord answered, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things. 42 One thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part. It won’t be taken away from her.”

Introduction- Ted Plays Darts

There was a show that came on Apple TV (who can keep all the streaming services straight these days?) during the pandemic that really caught my attention.

It’s called Ted Lasso, and if you can get past all the swearing that usually pops up in the show, it’s a really kind, warm, and beautiful TV show about an American Football Coach who finds himself coaching soccer in England.

Just to set this up a little bit, there’s the owner of the team Rebecca who has just recently divorced her husband Rupert, who is a world class jerk.

Rebecca and Ted are in a bar, and they run in to Rupert, who still wants to be a world class jerk. And this is what happens!

<Play video> (Add 3 minutes)

First things first: Just saying “Barbecue Sauce” before you do something awesome is a level of swagger I could only dream of aspiring to!

Secondly, we should note that Walt Whitman never actually said that line, though lots of people attribute it to him.

But still…I wonder what would happen if we were more curious and less judgemental?

Bible Breakdown

Usually I spend a lot of time working through the Scriptures with you all, breaking it down line by line and seeing what’s what.

This is a pretty simple story though.

Jesus comes to town, and stays at the home of Mary and Martha.

Martha invites Jesus to stay with them, and in those days hospitality was such an incredibly big deal.

If you invited someone in to your home, even just for a little bit, you essentially said that they were family.

In Genesis 18, Abraham hosts three men who later it turns out are angels of the Lord.

So to invite someone in to your home in that culture was to essentially invite God to come to dinner.

And, ironically, that’s exactly what happens when Jesus comes to dinner.

So Martha made the invitation, Jesus comes, and as he’s want to do, he starts teaching.

Mary, Martha’s sister, sits down at Jesus’ feet and listens to what’s being said.

Martha, displaying perhaps a little bit of sibling rivalry in this text, starts complaining to Jesus.

(Side note: When you find yourself complaining to Jesus, you are probably not in a good spot)

Mary won’t help me do the dishes!

All she does is sit there!

She doesn’t even come to church every week!

Jesus says “One thing is necessary.”

Ooh. Doesn’t that sound like what we need in our world today?

What’s the one thing we all need to focus on? What’s the secret to life.

To sit at the feet of Jesus.

To be curious about how Jesus views the world.

To be curious about Jesus’ teaching.

To be curious.

Huh. Look at that.

Martha, Martha is being judgemental.

I’m doing all the work.

I’m the one doing all the service.

I’m focused on the right things.

She...

She is just sitting there.

What could possibly be gained by sitting still and not helping?

And what’s pretty crazy about Martha in this story is that she would tell us that what she’s doing is important, and she’d be right.

Being hospitable is very important

Mary is being curious.

What is this Jesus teaching?

How can Jesus help me see the world differently?

How could I live more in the way of Jesus?

What can I learn about this strange person in front of me?

Examples of Judgemental Versus Curious

First: A word about auto-fill

One of my least favorite features on any computer anywhere is the idea of Auto Fill.

This is where you start typing in a form, and the computer magically uses your previous answers to fill in the rest.

Though sometimes it gets it wrong, and then I have to go back and adjust everything.

One eagle-eyed member of our congregation caught it in action this week: You may have noticed our new e-mail service thought we were in Bethel Park...

One of the fastest ways you can tell if you are engaged in judgement over curiosity is whether you are autofilling what you think about a person before you get to know them.

Politics

So for instance, as you’re driving down the road, and you come across a Biden or a Trump lawn sign, do you kind of in your head make snap judgements in your mind about the person that lives there?

Do you fill in the blanks of what you think you know about them?

Do you decide right then and there whether that person is a neighbor, or an enemy?

Or, and this is one that both sides of our particular political system are guilty of, did you decide that they are out to destroy America?

If we stop and get curious for a second, we might come to realize that none of that really adds up.

Neither party is particularly interested in destroying America, they just have different ideas about how best to serve it.

Neither party is our enemy, if we stopped to think about it, we’re all in this together.

And in fact, if we were a little more curious, if we stopped like Mary to listen, we might come to see that the vast spectrum of political beliefs that any one person can hold are probably too big for just two parties.

So when we insist on putting a person in either bucket A or bucket B, we’re restricting them and making assumptions.

When we do these things, we’re judgmental and not curious.

Homelessness

This is a story that has been coming along a lot here (or at the church up the street)

When we see a person experiencing homelessness, it might be easy to make a snap judgement.

They’re dirty, they don’t care for themselves, in many cases they’re drunks or drug addicts.

We size them up quickly, and then determine that we can dismiss them.

A few years ago I was on a mission trip to Washington DC

Our church was working with an organization that dealt specifically with homelessnes, and something they told me at that mission trip stuck with me to this day.

They said one of the best things you can do when you encounter a person experiencing homelessness is to ask them their name.

They pointed out that if you are experiencing homelessness, if you are living out on the street, you might go weeks or even months without ever hearing someone use your name.

So we went out to minister to some of those who were homeless in DC.

One of the students and I met a man experiencing homelessness, and I asked him if I could know his name.

He told me his name was Rick.

We talked for a little bit, gave Rick some of the granola bars that we were carrying, and we moved on.

When we got back, it turned out that my student had left his glasses behind at the park...

(side note: If ever there is an olympics for youth pastors, taking a group to DC should be an event…)

So we went back to get the glasses, and came across Rick.

So I greeted him the same way I would greet anyone I know.

And the look on his face, that someone cared enough to remember him.

I wonder if we could be curious, even just enough to wonder what someone’s name is.

I wonder what that would do to all our judgements and pre-conceived notions.

In the church

I know, I know.

How could it be that in the house where we regularly hear the words of our Lord who told us “Judge not, lest we be judged” there would ever be people who are judgmental and not curious?

But…it happens all the time, doesn’t it?

Can you believe she wore that to church?

Oh, that person never helps out with vacation bible school.

They say they’re members here, but they never really come to church.

Can you believe that Pastor J would consider preaching without a pulpit today?!

But what if every one of those instances would be opportunities for curiousity?

Maybe she wore that to church because that’s really all she has, because her family is struggling?

What if that person never helps out at vacation bible school because they themselves lost a child, and being around children reminds them of the pain?

What if those folks never come to church because they’re busy chasing children from a never ending string of sports and band and other obligations and they are just desperate for a little bit of time together as a family?

Maybe Pastor J likes preaching without a pulpit because he really doesn’t like having anything in between us?

This doesn’t have anything to do with importance.

What Martha was doing was important, of course it was.

Politics in our nation are important, yes! So many lives are impacted by our political decisions and votes and systems.

Homelessness is very important, and we want to do all we can to get those folks help and wellness however we can.

And of course how we view the church, what we wear, how we help, whether or not there’s a pulpit, those are all super important.

But…Jesus says that only one thing is necessary.

Hospitality is important, but is it always necessary?

Political disagreement is important, but is it always necessary?

What we wear to church, or how we help out, or how frequently we’re here are important…but are they necessary?

I think we get to what’s necessary by focusing on being curious, not judgemental.

So how do we do that?

Apprentices

Notice our judgements in a spirit of grace.

I’ve been trying lately in my prayer life to have moments of meditation, where I focus my mind in silence and try to clear out my thoughts.

And I think my record is about 40, 45 seconds before my mind will start to wander.

I’ll be thinking about the laundry or who the Penguins should trade for or whether I should brew another cup of coffee before I settle in or...

And then when I notice it, I tend to get kind of mean with myself!

You dummy! You can’t even focus for three seconds...

Some of the meditation leaders I’ve been listening to have this delightful invitation.

Notice that you’ve wandered, but then give grace to yourself as you come back.

I think one of the first things we can do to be curious and not judgemental is to notice our judgements.

We are human beings after all, so our day is full of endless examples of judgement.

When you find yourself judging someone else, using that auto-fill feature, take a moment to call yourself out on it.

But do so in a spirit of Grace and forgiveness.

We don’t call ourselves out so that we can feel bad about ourselves, we call ourselves out so that we can continue to grow as people in Christ.

Be legitimately curious about those around us.

There’s an old story about a plumber who had saved up his whole life to take a trip to Niagara falls.

When he arrived at the viewing deck, staring out over the water below, as everyone else was working to catch their breath, the plumber thought about it for a second and then turned to his neighbor.

“Yeah, I could totally fix this!”

Such an attitude is missing what everyone seems to have around things like Niagara falls: A sense of wonder.

We can carry a sense of wonder about those we encounter every day as well.

I wonder what that person really enjoys?

I wonder how that person sees the world around us?

I wonder how that person walks with Christ in their every day life?

I think rather than trying to go around fixing everyone in our lives, instead of trying to get them to fit in our mold or understanding of the world, instead of insisting that they get up and help us in the kitchen,

We would be much farther ahead if we held everyone in a legitimate sense of wonder as the beautiful creation of God that they are.

Engage in the highest curiousity.

I think the highest curiousity we could hold is to, like Mary, sit at the feet of Jesus.

I wonder how we could love each other a little bit more.

I wonder how we could grow into the disciples that we were meant to be?

I wonder how we can continue to spread compassion, and grace, and love, and tenderness, and kindness?

I wonder what Jesus would have to say about the way we speak to each other online?

I wonder what Jesus would have to say about the thoughts we carry in our heads toward each other?

I wonder what Jesus would have to say about those images that came from NASA this week?

I wonder what Jesus would have to say to the victims of gun violence in our country?

I wonder what Jesus would have to say to someone who doesn’t have a place to rest their head tonight?

I wonder what Jesus would have to say to me when I’m beating myself up for not being focused?

I wonder what Jesus would have to say to each and every one of the children that are on their way in this week for our VBS?

I wonder what Jesus would have to say about the congregation that gather’s here at Laboratory Presbyterian Church?

I think the best thing we could do is take a seat next to Mary, right there at Jesus’ feet, and get curious.

Barbecue Sauce.