THE WORD WORKS
Pentecost 8
Luke 10:38-42
Paul Swartz - July 17 & 18, 20010
Sometimes the most familiar and even most beloved stories from the Bible are the most difficult ones to preach. Luke's story about the visit of Jesus to the home of Mary and Martha is a good example. It is almost guaranteed to stir up an argument. To begin with, there is already an argument going on in this story; and, over the years, there have been countless more arguments generated about the story.
Show of hands: How many of you relate to Mary? How many of you relate to Martha? Does that mean the others who did not hold up their hand with you are wrong? Or is it a recognition that some of us are action people like Martha and some of us are more contemplative people like Mary? Is Jesus saying that sitting and listening and praying and learning are more important than the "doing" of hospitality and serving?
Last week's Gospel was on the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) and it taught us about loving our neighbor, and now today's story is about loving God, and next week's centers on prayer (Luke 11:1-13). Maybe the thrust of this little story about two bickering sisters, both of whom loved Jesus, is really about the need to keep all our efforts and deeds balanced or better yet, centered, on the "one thing," Jesus, who not only spoke and revealed the Word of God, but was the Word incarnate. Isn't Jesus really saying that all our efforts and deeds need to be nourished by times of doing absolutely nothing but sitting and being with God?
The problem is that we cannot neatly separate the two: over here is the love of neighbor, over there is the love of God. In the Christian life, they're intertwined, mixed together, and you can hardly tell where one ends and the other begins. We show our love of God by loving our neighbor, and the true love of neighbor grows out of our love of God. They're two sides of the same coin. THE WORD WORKS!
And that, I think, may get us close to the real heart of this Mary and Martha story. There is nothing wrong in and of itself with Martha's fixing the food. This is the way people show love and welcome and hospitality and care. There is nothing wrong, in fact there is something absolutely essential, about showing one's love of God and neighbor by baking the bread and washing the olives, by putting out those bottles of glue in Gloryland and nailing those boards in Beattyville, Kentucky, and serving the cornbread in the soup kitchen. Martha, preparing that meal of hospitality, is doing a good thing--a necessary thing--an act of service--but if we try to do this kind of service apart from the life-giving Word of the Gospel, apart from the vision that comes only from God, it will distract us and finally wear us down. Mary has chosen to listen to the Word. Jesus, the living Word, is present, right in her house, and if she is going to love God and love neighbor, if she is going to show hospitality to the stranger and care for the lost, then everything depends on hearing and trusting that Word. It is then that we will discover that THE WORK WORKS in and through us in our service to others. It is then that hospitality becomes real and meaningful, and not just a "have to" because it's proper and expected. It's all dependent upon "one thing," Jesus.
In the classic Billy Crystal movie “City Slickers,” three long time friends face middle age. In their middle-age crisis they find themselves losing their focus and in danger of losing their families.
To reignite the fire in their lives the guys sign up as “cowboys,” helping a dude ranch move its herd of cattle from high in the hills down to the lower valley. “Curly,” the grizzled old cowboy who leads them, seems to be the toughest, canniest, wisest person they have ever met. Billy Crystal asks the usually tight-lipped cowpoke what his secret is. "What makes your life so strong and centered and sure?" Curly smiles, raises his grubby, gloved index finger and proclaims, “It is just one thing,” then he rides away.
Billy’s character spends the rest of the movie frantically trying to figure out what Curly meant. What IS that “just one thing?”
Psychologists, marriage counselors, relationship gurus of all stripes, warn us not to expect one person to provide for all our emotional, intellectual, and relational needs. We need a variety of relationships, a network of spouse, friends, colleagues from work, basketball buddies, quilting club comrades, children, elders, and peers, to meet all our relational needs.
But what might be true for our human connections does not hold true for our spiritual needs. Our soul needs only “one thing". No matter if your spiritual temperament is exuberant, reserved, flamboyant, or meditative. Whether your soul craves cathedrals, or soars under the blue dome, it is all the same as long as we have that “one thing.”
That “one thing” is Jesus.
In today’s gospel text Martha, the mistress of the house, rushes around trying to make sure everything is perfect. Martha is like some first century Martha Stewart. She is the Queen of Hospitality in a culture that prized hospitality and in fact, is a Biblical mandate. She is focused on the food, the house, the drink. Martha seems to be doing for others. At first reading Martha is just being a conscientious hostess. But a deeper reading of the story reveals Martha is really only concerned with herself.
How does HER house look?0
How does HER food taste?
How are HER wines being served?
Martha is so busy “serving” she completely forgets whom she truly serves.
Frustrated at her sister Mary’s inactivity, Martha is so wrapped up in her own agenda that she plants herself in front of Jesus and demands that He do something about her slothful sister. Martha is hosting the Messiah; the Gospel is being proclaimed in her living room; the Kingdom of God is embracing her entryway. And she complains to the “Lord” that she is doing all the "work" herself (i.e.works rightousness), and couldn’t Jesus please muster Mary into the ranks of domestic service?
No wonder Jesus describes Martha as being in an “uproar,” disturbed and distracted by what she thought were her main activities....her primary concerns. During the uplifting, upending, upheaval that is now known as the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, and other reformers referred to this Martha-type activity as “adiaphora” — literally “things indifferent” in the Greek.
In Christian history, the term became more specific in acknowledging those beliefs in which differences are of no consequence. Usually it would center around actions which are neither commanded nor forbidden by Christ or the Scriptures. During the Reformation it took on added significance as Luther sought to reform a medieval church that had allowed a legalistic "works" framework to shape its understanding of the Gospel. For Luther the term "adiaphora" referred to that which is neither essential nor harmful, for example, rites and ceremonies, whether you bow or make the sign of the cross.
In today's world it is giving "First Class" allegiance to "Second Class" causes. It could be referred to as "majoring in minors." We live in a world that seems to equate busyness with importance, and, a long to-do list, especially when it's finally completed, gives us a sense of satisfaction and even security...at least, until we start on a new list of tasks to be completed. Our days are full, one after another, of many things, and our minds are full and overflowing, worried and distracted like Martha, by many things. Henri Nouwen once wrote that our lives, while full, are often unfulfilled. "Our occupations and preoccupations fill our external and internal lives to the brim. They prevent the Spirit of God from breathing freely in us and thus renewing our lives."
Now we speak a lot about The Word in the Church--The Word that creates, the Word that acts and fulfills the purpose for which it is sent forth, about the Word that does not return empty, the Word that is living and active, that is implanted within us....(“Christ in us…” Colossians 1:27) the incarnate Word of Jesus, the Christ. But it seems to me that we can't hear God still speaking if we don't stop, not just sometimes, but regularly, and just sit and listen like Mary at the feet of Jesus. How can the Still-speaking God get a Word in edgewise over the beepers, cell phones, voicemail, iPods, eMails, television, and radio messages that bombard us? How can we tend to the internal lives like careful gardeners who spend time nurturing new growth, pulling weeds when necessary, and gently showering the thirsty green plants with refreshing water?
Did you notice that Jesus isn't scolding Martha or telling her she is wrong? He says, "Martha, Martha." He says her name twice, and in that culture that's a sign of affection. Saying her name once in this context would be a sign of anger. He is telling her to "lighten up," and gently reminds His hostess that “hospitality” is not about oneself. Hospitality is about giving over your time, your attention, your home, your heart in order to focus on the guests — the ones you are welcoming. My mother put it like this: “If there’s room in the heart, there’s always room in the house.” She fed the "hobos"--our trees were obviously marked. She welcomed into our home blind individuals and persons of color. Friday night dinners usually had strangers at our table who were our "guests". Hospitality is more about room in your heart than the rooms in your house.
Mary sat at Jesus’ feet. She listened to every word he spoke. She attended fully to his words and sat reverently at his feet. While Martha was busy being distracted, Mary was busy being a disciple. Martha admitted and welcomed guests into her home. Mary admitted and welcomed the Word of the Lord, the Kingdom of God, into her heart. Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World is what is needed for living today.
Adiaphora affects today's Church as we are tempted to misplace the central mission of the Church for causes and positions and even our likes or preferences. We have a lot of well-meaning, well-planned, well-organized Martha Stewart churches. Never content with “one thing,” these churches are constantly in the “kitchen” cooking up new stratagems, new plots and plans, new boilerplates and blockbuster programs.
I shared with the Council Monday night an account from a just published book by G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Thieves in the Temple: The Christian Church and the Selling of the American Soul. The books opening paragraph puts its readers into the midst of a seemingly powerful success story about Community of Joy in Glendale, Arizona which had been the largest congregation in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The congregation “had all the accoutrements of success. Its 187 acre campus and membership roster of 12,000 made it a poster congregation for the megachurch movement. On a visit there in 2002 I saw firsthand its Disney-designed campus, incredible parking lot system, elaborate food court, and throngs of happy worshipers.”
In the second paragraph we learn that its senior pastor could not sleep at night. Members of the congregation seemed “oblivious” to the social problems of the greater Phoenix area—crime, addiction, unwanted pregnancy, broken homes, illegal immigration, etc. Pastor Kallestad wondered if the larger community would miss his congregation or even notice if it disappeared. He asked His congregation and concluded, “They didn’t really want to engage with God. They wanted relief and inspiration.”
Twenty years into his ministry, Kallestad went before his congregation and with tears repented that Community of Joy had become “a dispenser of religious goods and services.” Then he purged many of the frills that made his congregation stand out—talented professional musicians, square dancing classes, groups dedicated to visiting restaurants, card-playing evenings. Over one third of the members and almost half of the staff left. Six years later the congregation had recovered less than a quarter of its lost members. But it had gained a sense that there was more to being a Christian congregation than being entertained spectators and satisfied customers. As Kallestad put it, “it’s time you grow up!” reflecting the truly pastoral heart we heard from St. Paul in his letter to the Colossians about “presenting all (believers) mature in Christ” (Colossians 1:28).
Like much larger Willow Creek in the Western suburbs of Chicago has discovered, those kind of offerings appeal to our consumer driven society but do not grow disciples. The church is giving people what they want, and not what they need to be “mature” Christ followers. Again, these activities or things are not bad, nor are they necessarily detrimental. But they are not the “one thing!” Whatever stratagems we strategize, whatever long-range plans or short-term project we energize, whatever goals we are going for — we need to always keep first and foremost the reason for the church’s existence — that “just one thing.”
And our “one thing” is always Jesus, The Word made flesh!
Christianity is a religion based on a person, not on propositions or regulations. We Christians derive our unique identity, not from dogmas, principles or even “values,” but from relationships. And the primary relationship for every Christian must be with Jesus the Christ. The claim to be a member of the Jesus family is one Jesus wants us all to make.
When we say "Yes" to Christ, when Jesus becomes our “one thing,” we are welcomed into the most intense, intimate relationship possible — “even as You, Father are in Me, and I in You . . . may they--My followers-- be one in Us” (John 17:21). When we become a follower of Christ, we become "heirs of God", "joint‑heirs with Christ", "heirs of promise", "heirs to the kingdom of God", "heirs of salvation,” “sons and daughters of the Most High God.” This is how Paul puts it in Romans 8:17: “Now if we are children, then we are heirs‑‑heirs of God and co‑heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17).
We can do a lot of things for Jesus, but miss out on being in relationship with Jesus. That is the one claim Jesus is calling us to embrace as a member of His family, and He promises to be with us always as we let the world know that Jesus is our “one thing.” All the rest is "adiaphora."
One of my favorite Sunday School stories is of the child who comes home from the first day of Sunday School. His parents are curious about how things went, and begin by asking him what the teacher’s name was.
“I don’t know. I don’t remember her name.”
“Well, do you remember anything about her?”
“I think she is Jesus’ grandmother.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because all she did was hold up His picture and brag on him.”
If Jesus is your “one thing” shouldn’t you be “bragging on him” every day to every one you meet?
The greatest moment in your life comes when you say from the innermost depths of your being, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” When you can say that, when you can say “Jesus, you are my One Thing” and mean that, you will have discovered the pearl of great price. You will have found the buried treasure you have been searching for. You will discover how The WORD WORKS in and through you. And you will know that abundant life that can fulfill your fondest hopes, your wildest dreams.
Make Jesus your “One Thing.”
Let us pray. You have taught us, O God, that the way to life is to love you with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves. But we are often so overwhelmed by the swirling demands of life that we cannot truly do either one. But then, in your mercy, there is Jesus, come to visit in our home, come to speak to us in the midst of life. Let us, like Mary, sit at his feet and listen to his Word that gives life. Then, having heard that Word, let us, like Martha, get up to serve others in Jesus' name. Amen!
