Pentecost 8

July 18, 2010

The Rev. Canon David W. Lovelace

Jesus decides to drop in on his friends Mary and Martha. Martha's impulse is to get something going for dinner. She is being faithful to the tradition of hospitality that is so much a part of the culture in which she lived.You cannot have a guest show up and not feed them well as a sign of welcoming hospitality.

Martha hurries off to the kitchen and begins flipping through cookbooks while Mary flops down at the feet of Jesus to talk. Normally in the ancient world all adult women share in the responsibility of preparing a meal, but Mary chooses not to help. Mary takes the place of a disciple at the feet of the Master, a role women of her day seldom occupy.

Martha gets the water boiling while she cleans the vegetables. She sets the table for three and puts the bread in the oven. While she is banging pots and pans, slamming dishes on the table, Mary sits at Jesus feet, listening intently to what he has to say.

Here is Jesus caught up in the middle of an argument between sisters. Mary is sitting at his feet listening to him and Martha stands over him wet bread dough still on her hands telling him off as uncaring and insensitive. If he has any sense of what is right, Jesus will order Mary to go help out in the kitchen.

Caught in this situation, what should Jesus do? Should he defend himself?

After all he does care about both sisters. Should he acknowledge the fact that Martha makes a good point and suggest that Mary might want to go lend a helping hand? Should he pull a typical Jesus surprise and go to the kitchen to prepare the meal himself? Perhaps he should be the peacemaker who helps the sisters divide the work needed in the kitchen.

What he does is fuel an argument that has lasted across the centuries. "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by so many things, there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen it, Mary has chosen the better part."

Why does Jesus praise Mary over hard working Martha? Why does he say that Mary who simply sits and listens has chosen the better part? Martha is working hard to make Jesus feel at home and extending gracious hospitality by preparing a meal.

Some folks think Luke has an agenda in the telling of this story. Luke is bothered by the women of the early church who are taking too much of a leadership role. So he tells a story in which Jesus criticizes Martha who is active, doing, working and in charge, and instead he praises Mary who is passive and silent. These folks claim Luke is putting women in their place.

But it does not square with Jesus' view of women. In fact throughout Luke's gospel women are prominent, powerful, articulate and celebrated. The fact that Luke tells us Mary is seated at Jesus' feet is an important posture reserved for a disciple. This argument does not hold much water.

Other folks say Jesus is criticizing "Busy work Christianity." They argue Martha is preoccupied with trivial chores and misses the deeper spiritual point of hospitality. She is like so many people who are busy collecting food for the poor, baking cakes for the next potluck supper, going to committee meetings and yet lack a devotional life that informs the busyness. Jesus says to Martha, "Stop being a busy religious person and become a spiritual person, like Mary."

Well, they may have a point. I do hear people complain that churches are too busy doing things, going on mission trips, and holding lots of activities. I hear people claim to be spiritual but not religious. But I don't think that argument holds much water either. Christian faith has never been an abstract purely spiritual thing. It takes on a solid embodied form in Jesus Christ who was involved in the messy details of human life. The incarnation means God came among us in the midst of this world. Hospitality for Martha was not abstract and it was not trivial. Hospitality means someone has to peel the potatoes and put on the water to boil for the vegetables.

I think of the folks who came in this week to prepare for Vacation Bible School. They transformed the Parish Hall into a ship, they got out the glue, the scissors, the construction paper. I think of the woman who washes the sheets for the battered women's shelter as her ministry. Or the man who spends his weekends driving nails at a Habitat for Humanity house. Busy work? I don't think so. This is the action love and faith take. I cannot imagine Jesus saying to these faithful people, "You are preoccupied with busy work. Leave the children, the abused, the sick, the needy. Come sit and meditate for a while. Be spiritual and not religious. This is the better part."

Some will argue since this story comes in Luke just after the parable of the Good Samaritan that the writer is making a point that a believer loves the Lord with all of his or her being. The Samaritan is an example of love for neighbor and Mary and Martha an example of love of God. The problem is that you cannot separate the two. We show love of God by loving our neighbor and love of neighbor grows out of our love for God. I understand it to be two sides of the same coin.

If a believer is going to love God and love neighbor they must show hospitality based on hearing and trusting God's word.

If you don't have a vision of what God is doing in this world, the busyness of life finally beats you down. Mary sits at Jesus' feet and listens to Jesus' understanding of God's vision. You know, without that vision, we can go on preparing meals of hospitality until they distract us, exhaust us, anger us and beat us up. With that vision we prepare meals for the hungry, we care for the sick, we show hospitality to a stranger in the name of Christ who invites us to live our faith in both word and deed.

Perhaps the message in this story to us is this - a plea from God to focus on what God is doing in the world about us. A plea to give God our full attention at least for a time each day so when we work for justice, respect, peace for all people our work is part of God's larger vision. A plea for us like Mary to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to his life giving word, so we can get up and like Martha serve others in Jesus' name. Amen

Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist

York, PA

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