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| Christ at the home of Martha and Mary († 1639) Georg Friedrich Stettner |
Our Gospel message comes to us today from the 10th chapter of Luke, beginning with the 38th verse.
Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42, NRSV)
All mighty God, we thank you for your word and the way that you in it revealed to us who you are and what you've done for us in Christ. Now as we open that word we pray that your spirit may be present, that all thoughts of worry or distraction may be removed and that the Spirit will allow us to hear your voice. And so, oh God, fill us with your spirit through the reading and proclamation of your word this day. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
“Distracted, Deaf, and Disturbed”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The story from today’s gospel message centers on the actions of two individuals, Martha and Mary. The Apostle John tells us that Martha and Mary were the sisters of Lazarus and very close to Jesus. It’s believed by many that they were part of a wider circle of disciples in addition to the twelve. We usually only think of twelve disciples traveling with and around Jesus during his ministry. But there were others that were also followers of the Lord: Mary Magdalene, Martha, Mary and Lazarus were but a few of those additional followers.
We know that Mary and Martha were not strangers to Jesus. In fact, Jesus had been to this house in Bethany before. We also know that the social rules of the day required hospitality. So they invited him into their home, to prepare a meal, and enjoy time with their friend and teacher.
Martha went to work with preparations of a feast and trying to get everything just right. Jesus sat down and spoke trying to explain how God’s kingdom really was. And Mary took the place of a student. Which was unusual by itself, because during this time, women were not allowed to sit with men and listen to the Rabbis.
Jesus, Mary and Martha, together in a house, but not necessarily focused on the same things. Jesus was focused on teaching, Mary on learning, but Martha had a different focus. Mary chose to worship. Martha chose to serve. But, service without worship has lost its’ focus. Service without love is the wrong attitude. Service instead of worship misses the mark that Jesus set out for us.
Today, I’d like to take a closer look at Martha, and why Mary was focused on what was more important.
Distracted: Too busy to listen to God
First, let’s look at how Martha was distracted.
Houses in Bethany didn’t have a separate kitchen and living spaces. They were one and the same room. So when Jesus spoke, he was speaking to Martha as well as Mary. But, Martha was distracted by her chores, and paying more attention to her labors rather than Jesus’ teachings.
After a while, Martha got irritated that she was doing all the work. She decided that Mary should be helping her rather than loafing around on the floor. You can almost imagine the frustration in her voice. Why was Jesus allowing this? Martha needed help now! Instead of helping her, Jesus explained that Mary was doing the more important thing.
Martha was pulled away from her company, isolated from her friend, and she became entangled in completing her chores. She was engulfed in what she felt needed to be done and paying too little paying attention to her guest. With all the focus of Israel’s society on showing hospitality and being the perfect host, Martha was being a workaholic and paying little attention to the company she was trying to entertain.
I can think of a similar situation with my Grandmother during the holidays. She would spend all day cooking and preparing the meal both the day before the festive meal, as well as on the holiday itself. Turkey, vegetables, three-bean salad, fresh bread, yams, corn, beans, Jell-O with fruit inside, homemade pie, German pastries and anything else you can think of during this joyful day. She would bend over backwards to ensure all the preparations were made just right, that all the food was beautifully presented and ready for the family to share in. To a lesser degree, she did this same thing with other meals when we visited. But, when we got ready to leave, she felt she hadn’t spent enough time visiting with us. She had spent all of her time working in the kitchen, as hard and fast as she could, while we spent time visiting in the living room with Grandpa.
Martha experienced a similar problem, and we need to be careful to avoid the same thing. For her, it was preparing meals. For us, it could be any of a number of activities. Our society tends to value hard-working employees, and often expects much more than a 40 hour week. The hectic nature of the work schedule, bringing kids to band, choir, sports and other events, weekly church worship, Sunday school, church council, the local PTA, various fundraising events and other activities, then top it off with hobbies and family time (when we can fit it in) and we find a hectic life with little room, or energy, to tackle any additional activities. In fact, the pleasure is lost out of many of the efforts that normally we take great joy in. Getting caught up with our work and our other activities can cause us to losing track of what is more important.
Sometimes, there are distractions that take us away from listening to God. Sometimes, our good intentions take us away from hearing what we need to listen to. We need to find a way to identify these distractions, identify what really is the priority, and focus on the important things.
Deaf: Unable to hear God speak to us
But, it’s more than just sheer work that can get us distracted. Often, we want answers to our questions and concerns, and the answers we’re looking for is right in front of us. But, we fail to listen to what’s really going on. We fail to pay attention to the answers, perhaps because we don’t want a different answer. Instead, we find a deaf ear toward the words we really need to hear.
Jesus made it clear that we are to listen carefully. In the book of Matthew he said, “Let anyone with ears listen!” (Matthew 13:9). However, the basic concept of listening is not always as simple as we’d like it to be.
For example. A man who had been married to his wife for about 30 years begin to get frustrated at her not answering him. He suspected that her hearing was going, but she wouldn’t admit to it, so he decided to do a test. When she didn’t know he was in the room, he stood behind her chair across the room and gently said, “Can you hear me?” She didn’t respond, so he moved a little closer and asked again. Again, she didn’t respond, so he moved even closer. A fourth time, when he was now right behind her, he asked, “Can you hear me?”
Suddenly, she spun around in her chair and said with slight aggravation in her voice. “For the fourth time, Yes, I can hear you!”
Sometimes, we’re just like the husband, who thought his wife was failing him, when really he was the one who was failing. Sometimes we don’t think God hears our prayers, when the truth is, we don’t hear His answers. Like the wife, God continues to answer our questions. But, like the husband, we expect one thing and might not hear the opposite. We want to be assured of our own version of the ‘facts,’ rather than face the reality God has set out before us. In short, we’re not always ready to listen to what God is trying to tell us.
Disturbed: Worried, angry and anxious
But, beyond the distraction, and beyond listening is still the problem of emotions. The overworking pulls us away from what’s important. It takes us away from worshiping and enjoying the peace and understanding of God. The multi-tasking and workload bogs us down and doesn’t let us hear through the noise of our lives. These loud and demanding tasks often fuel our emotions: fear, worry, anxious feelings taking us away from the joy of worship, and towards the concern of the world. We become disturbed as we let our feelings get the best of us.
This is not a new concept. David wrote in the book of Proverbs “Anxiety weighs down the human heart, but a good word cheers it up” (Proverbs 12:25). We have to be ready to listen to the Words of God.
In the gospel lesson, Martha wasn’t ready. Instead, she was anxious about many things. She was worried about preparing a meal. Upset that no one was assisting her. And angry that she was all alone doing more work than she could handle. That was the emotional state of Martha. Overwork took over her life. It was service without worship. It was work without pleasure. It was a piece of work without peace of mind. Her well intentioned effort lacked any kind of joy of the moment.
Through the distractions, the emotions and specially the worship, we can learn a lot from Martha and Mary. Mary chose to worship peacefully at the feet of Jesus. Martha attempted to be the servant of two masters: the customs of her society, and her Lord Jesus.
Just like her, sometimes, there can be such a thing as too much activity in our lives. We push ourselves in several directions trying to fit more into our schedule. The result is nothing but stress. Even when serving others, we can put too much of a burden on ourselves.
We put this stress into our own lives. We live in a world that doesn’t know how to be quiet and still. But, these hectic moments are not where we find comfort. They are not where we find the peace that we need. In fact, we will rarely find God in the hectic moments in our lives. But we will often find Him in the quiet moments.
Mary was at peace, but Martha was in a driven state of mind. But, it may be our state of mind as well from time to time. She was distracted by the tasks on her plate, deafened by the noise of the moment and disturbed by her emotional state of mind.
Like her, sometimes we put work before worship, and this can be any kind of work. It can be our volunteer efforts for the PTA, or our coaching of a softball team. It can be our efforts to raise money for a good cause, or just spreading ourselves bringing the kids to sports practice. Sometimes, we need to find a quiet time to sit at the feet of Jesus, and bask in his presence. We have to be able to pace ourselves in the tasks that we take on. We have to be able to find quiet time to allow our joy to come out.
The prophet Elijah had an interesting experience with chaos and noise. The Lord told the prophet, “'Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.' Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence” (1 Kings 19:11-12). God wasn’t in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire. He wasn’t in the chaos, instead He was in the whisper; He was in the quiet.
Mother Teresa had observed, "God rarely is found in the midst of noise and restlessness; instead, He is the friend of silence."
And through our quiet times with God, we can experience the joy that God has intended for us. Through dedicated time examining His words and lessons, we can come to peace and understanding. Through the peaceful times of prayer, we can quell our restless souls and truly find freedom. Through sitting at his feet, we can learn what He wants us to know. By spending time dedicated to listening to what Jesus wants to say, we can reap the benefits of a peaceful spirit and joyful heart. As followers of Christ, we need to dedicate some of our time at the feet of our Lord.
Martha was distracted, deaf and disturbed. Mary was peaceful, joyful and serene. We have a lot to learn from them both. We have a lot to learn about the quiet moments we can spend with God.
Let us pray: Almighty God, We bless you for our lives, we give you praise for your abundant mercy and grace we receive. We thank you for your faithfulness even though we are not that faithful to you. Lord Jesus, we ask you to give us all around peace in our mind, body, soul and spirit. We want you to heal and remove everything that is causing stress, grief, and sorrow in our lives.
Please guide our path through life and make our enemies be at peace with us. Let your peace reign in our family, at our place of work, businesses and everything we lay our hands on.
Let your angels of peace go ahead of us when we go out and stay by our side when we return. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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Scripture taken from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)® Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Sermon contributed by Rev. Scott Jensen.
Mary and Martha both knew Jesus, but Mary was doing what was more important. Sometimes, we need to spend time dedicated to God, and away from the fast paced, hectic way of the world.
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