Sisters - Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 10: 38 - 42
There is an old story in which three women arrive at the Pearly Gates. One is a Roman Catholic, another is a Baptist and the third is a Methodist. Before deciding whether to let them in, St Peter says to them;
“I will need to see proof that you’re worthy of admission.”
The Roman Catholic holds up her rosary and is waved through. Next the Baptist holds up her Bible and is also waved through. The Methodist hands St Peter a dish and says;
“Don’t burn your tongue on the casserole.”
Yes, meeting the needs of our stomachs seems to be an important part of Methodist identity. Not for nothing does the Superintendent Minister of the Bideford Methodist Circuit, tell incoming ministers that the most important decision they will face is what to eat with their clotted cream. For Methodism is often like an army marching on its stomachs.
From our Bible reading, I guess that Martha would be inclined to identify with Methodism. We find her busy with the tasks that come from having a guest in the home. What these tasks were, we are not told but I can imagine her as being hard at work with whatever was the Palestinian equivalent of the casserole dish.
All well and good, we might think. But there is dissension within the house. Such is the level of Martha’s busyness, that she is described as being “distracted by her many tasks.” Meanwhile her sister Mary is failing to help Martha with those tasks, preferring instead to listen to the guest, Jesus.
Such is Martha’s irritation at the lack of help from her sister, that she asks Jesus to tell Mary to help out:
“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.”
And does not something within us sympathise with Martha’s complaint? After all is there not a degree of merit in the old adage;
“Many hands make light work.”
If Mary helped, Martha might also be free to spend some time with Jesus.
But now, Jesus takes the opportunity to surprise us. Instead of backing Martha’s complaint, he decides to take the side of the seemingly lazy Mary;
“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.”
So what’s going on? Does Jesus really fail to understand and sympathise with Martha’s predicament? Surely, this is not fair!
But wait a moment! I think that what Jesus is doing here is not so much to chastise Martha as to help her. It is not that Martha is doing wrong things. Her problem is that she is becoming obsessed with her busyness. Everything has to be done immediately and properly. And it is stressing her out big time!
In this we begin to find that this story speaks very much to us today. We are part of a society that tends to honour doing rather than being. 24/7 activity is increasingly becoming the pattern in our cities so that we become more and more like New York, known as the “city that never sleeps.” And is that not a destructive road to walk down? No wonder, we are beginning to find people talking about our need to rediscover a proper work/life balance.
And this is not just the case in the world of commerce. Within the church, we can also be lured into a cult of busyness. Now of course, there are tasks within the church that need to be done. But is there not a danger that the demands of maintenance and meeting the bills are so overwhelming, that we are failing to adequately listen to God as well as failing to be about God’s mission?
Increasingly, it seems that we need to get away from the idea of doing things as we have always done them. Where our communities have got smaller, all this is doing is putting more and more pressures upon the willing so that like Martha, we become distracted and of little use.
Martha needs to learn to do things simply. She needs to appreciate that doing that which is good, can never be an adequate substitute for doing that which is best. Like us today, she needs to get a proper understanding of priorities.
How does this apply to us? There is a temptation to think of ourselves as being Marys or Marthas. That misses the whole point. You see, we are not being told that we must abandon the need to deal with the practicalities of life. Look at the history of the Jewish people and you find that hospitality quickly became a sacred responsibility. Even the famous story of Sodom and Gomorrah has far more to do with showing hospitality than with any debate about sex. Jesus himself was regularly involved in the receiving of hospitality and in the early days of the Christian church, we find seven deacons being set aside in order to attend to the needs of the poor. And throughout the two millennia that have followed, the practical provision of hospitality has been of great importance to Christians. And rightly so!
To have the right balance in our Christian lives, we need not so much to choose between Mary and Martha but to seek a healthy balance of both of them. For our calling is to be in communion with God and to serve God not so much as we have always done, but in response to the requirements of God’s Kingdom.
And there is something more of God’s Kingdom to note before we leave this story. Notice how Luke places this episode just after the Parable of the Good Samaritan. That parable has taught us that racial and religious barriers to God’s Kingdom are unacceptable. In today’s story, Jesus shows that gender barriers, are equally unacceptable. His own conduct in being alone with women who are not relatives, allowing a woman to serve him and teaching a woman in her own home, would have won him many a frown. More than that by allowing Mary to sit at his feet involved recognising her as a disciple. For here, another barrier is being dismantled. Whatever, the subsequent sins of the church against women, the message of Jesus is clear. Women no longer can be kept in the private spaces. They too can learn the good news of God and be followers every bit as much as men. Indeed part of the purpose for Jesus rebuking Martha is to draw her away from being the martyr who serves because if she doesn’t, nobody else will. The Kingdom is a place of gender equality! It is a place where fixed roles no longer exist and in which women are as free to find their calling as men. May God forgive the church when it fails to practice this!
This morning, let us embrace the good news that we are all called to play a part on God’s Kingdom. Amidst the practical services that are a part of discipleship, we need to remember that our spiritual life is rooted not so much in the frenzy of activity as it is in taking time to listen to God. And rather than being obsessed by busyness, we need to give God the chance to let us know when we need to change directions. For the journey upon which we have embarked is journey in which God shows us the way to connect with and to help others to connect with the wonder of Divine love.
Two sisters - Mary and Martha. Two sisters whose story shows us so much about fulfilling our desire to be God’s people today.
This sermon is being preached at Woolsery Methodist Church in the Bude Methodist Circuit on Sunday July 22nd 2007
There is an old story in which three women arrive at the Pearly Gates. One is a Roman Catholic, another is a Baptist and the third is a Methodist. Before deciding whether to let them in, St Peter says to them;
“I will need to see proof that you’re worthy of admission.”
The Roman Catholic holds up her rosary and is waved through. Next the Baptist holds up her Bible and is also waved through. The Methodist hands St Peter a dish and says;
“Don’t burn your tongue on the casserole.”
Yes, meeting the needs of our stomachs seems to be an important part of Methodist identity. Not for nothing does the Superintendent Minister of the Bideford Methodist Circuit, tell incoming ministers that the most important decision they will face is what to eat with their clotted cream. For Methodism is often like an army marching on its stomachs.
From our Bible reading, I guess that Martha would be inclined to identify with Methodism. We find her busy with the tasks that come from having a guest in the home. What these tasks were, we are not told but I can imagine her as being hard at work with whatever was the Palestinian equivalent of the casserole dish.
All well and good, we might think. But there is dissension within the house. Such is the level of Martha’s busyness, that she is described as being “distracted by her many tasks.” Meanwhile her sister Mary is failing to help Martha with those tasks, preferring instead to listen to the guest, Jesus.
Such is Martha’s irritation at the lack of help from her sister, that she asks Jesus to tell Mary to help out:
“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.”
And does not something within us sympathise with Martha’s complaint? After all is there not a degree of merit in the old adage;
“Many hands make light work.”
If Mary helped, Martha might also be free to spend some time with Jesus.
But now, Jesus takes the opportunity to surprise us. Instead of backing Martha’s complaint, he decides to take the side of the seemingly lazy Mary;
“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.”
So what’s going on? Does Jesus really fail to understand and sympathise with Martha’s predicament? Surely, this is not fair!
But wait a moment! I think that what Jesus is doing here is not so much to chastise Martha as to help her. It is not that Martha is doing wrong things. Her problem is that she is becoming obsessed with her busyness. Everything has to be done immediately and properly. And it is stressing her out big time!
In this we begin to find that this story speaks very much to us today. We are part of a society that tends to honour doing rather than being. 24/7 activity is increasingly becoming the pattern in our cities so that we become more and more like New York, known as the “city that never sleeps.” And is that not a destructive road to walk down? No wonder, we are beginning to find people talking about our need to rediscover a proper work/life balance.
And this is not just the case in the world of commerce. Within the church, we can also be lured into a cult of busyness. Now of course, there are tasks within the church that need to be done. But is there not a danger that the demands of maintenance and meeting the bills are so overwhelming, that we are failing to adequately listen to God as well as failing to be about God’s mission?
Increasingly, it seems that we need to get away from the idea of doing things as we have always done them. Where our communities have got smaller, all this is doing is putting more and more pressures upon the willing so that like Martha, we become distracted and of little use.
Martha needs to learn to do things simply. She needs to appreciate that doing that which is good, can never be an adequate substitute for doing that which is best. Like us today, she needs to get a proper understanding of priorities.
How does this apply to us? There is a temptation to think of ourselves as being Marys or Marthas. That misses the whole point. You see, we are not being told that we must abandon the need to deal with the practicalities of life. Look at the history of the Jewish people and you find that hospitality quickly became a sacred responsibility. Even the famous story of Sodom and Gomorrah has far more to do with showing hospitality than with any debate about sex. Jesus himself was regularly involved in the receiving of hospitality and in the early days of the Christian church, we find seven deacons being set aside in order to attend to the needs of the poor. And throughout the two millennia that have followed, the practical provision of hospitality has been of great importance to Christians. And rightly so!
To have the right balance in our Christian lives, we need not so much to choose between Mary and Martha but to seek a healthy balance of both of them. For our calling is to be in communion with God and to serve God not so much as we have always done, but in response to the requirements of God’s Kingdom.
And there is something more of God’s Kingdom to note before we leave this story. Notice how Luke places this episode just after the Parable of the Good Samaritan. That parable has taught us that racial and religious barriers to God’s Kingdom are unacceptable. In today’s story, Jesus shows that gender barriers, are equally unacceptable. His own conduct in being alone with women who are not relatives, allowing a woman to serve him and teaching a woman in her own home, would have won him many a frown. More than that by allowing Mary to sit at his feet involved recognising her as a disciple. For here, another barrier is being dismantled. Whatever, the subsequent sins of the church against women, the message of Jesus is clear. Women no longer can be kept in the private spaces. They too can learn the good news of God and be followers every bit as much as men. Indeed part of the purpose for Jesus rebuking Martha is to draw her away from being the martyr who serves because if she doesn’t, nobody else will. The Kingdom is a place of gender equality! It is a place where fixed roles no longer exist and in which women are as free to find their calling as men. May God forgive the church when it fails to practice this!
This morning, let us embrace the good news that we are all called to play a part on God’s Kingdom. Amidst the practical services that are a part of discipleship, we need to remember that our spiritual life is rooted not so much in the frenzy of activity as it is in taking time to listen to God. And rather than being obsessed by busyness, we need to give God the chance to let us know when we need to change directions. For the journey upon which we have embarked is journey in which God shows us the way to connect with and to help others to connect with the wonder of Divine love.
Two sisters - Mary and Martha. Two sisters whose story shows us so much about fulfilling our desire to be God’s people today.
This sermon is being preached at Woolsery Methodist Church in the Bude Methodist Circuit on Sunday July 22nd 2007
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