Sermon: 8th Sunday after Pentecost

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 10^th Chapter:

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.”

The Gospel of the Lord

http://www.louisglanzman.com/martha.html

The Power of Standing Still

I was unendingly perturbed with the isles of baking products before me. The store was closing in less than thirty minutes, and there were still plenty of items we had to get before we could go home. Baking soda? Check. Baking cocoa? Check. Blueberry muffin mix? Where did they keep that mix? I was about to seriously lose my temper with a box of brownies when I heard the sound just beside me. It was an unnatural noise to my ear just then; it interrupted my train of thought.

"Happy Easter!" came the small voice.

And suddenly, I was aware of myself again. Standing in the middle of the grocery store in my clerical collar on, having worked 12 hours already on that Good Friday. We were on our way home from services very late, and I was tired, and there was this petite little girl who barely came up to my waist smiling up at me. She had a dotted sun-dress on with a little hat, and I looked down very surprise, almost unable to speak.

"Happy Easter!" she said again.

"Happy Easter!" I responded. "I like your dress."

She smiled, giggled, and skipped back to her parents who had been waiting and watching from the end of the isle as this little girl, who had obviously asked to come over to me, had greeted a pastor in the appropriate way. In the middle of a grocery store. At night after a Good Friday service when he was about to lose his temper with baked goods.

That little girl brought me back to where I was, back to who I was, that night. I had forgotten. In the middle of the busyness of that day, I had forgotten who I was and what my purpose was. What the purpose of that day was. I never thought that my agreeing to bring baked goods to the Easter Vigil the next night would consume my Good Friday to the point that I missed the emotions of the night. Standing there in that baked goods isle, my thoughts were not with the crucified savior, but with my own preoccupations. I was so full of anxiety that I missed the emptiness of the night; emptiness that I surely needed if I was to experience the fullness of Easter morn. That young girl brought me back indeed, from busying myself to death into a new, reflective and aware life.

In our gospel message today Jesus brings Martha back from busying herself to death into new life. I sympathize with Martha, I truly do. I'm a host to the end, wanting to bend over backwards so that guests are comfortable. Martha no doubt was simply trying to ensure that Jesus and the rest of his entourage were comfortable. We often think of this as a simple exchange between Jesus, Mary, and Martha, but we must remember that Jesus had many people traveling with him, over 80 other guests by some estimates. Martha was caught unawares, and had much to do to keep everyone happy!

Artist Louis Glanzman has created a wonderful depiction of Martha that I enjoy. It has her dressed beautifully with a head scarf and golden necklace, and she has her hands on her hips as if she is saying to Jesus, "Are you just gonna let Mary sit there?" much like I was in the store with my hands on my hips thinking, "If I don't find these muffins, someone is gonna pay..." But if lasts week's message of the Good Samaritan was an example of taking care of a guest’s bodily needs, how to act when we are host to our neighbor, today’s message is the compliment of that: Today we see how to take care of our guest’s spiritual needs, and how to be a guest in the presence of God.

The hospitality in today’s story is one shown equally by Jesus and by Mary. Today we see that it does no good to invite a stranger, loved one, and neighbor, anyone into our home if you do not listen to them and attend to their heart's desire for interaction. Martha presumed she knew what Jesus needed and went about getting it done, but it seems Mary didn't know. She didn't know what Jesus needed, and she ultimately didn't know what she herself needed, and so she sat to listen to her Rabbi. This was at the same time risky and rude. Rude because there were a number of guests in the house that needed tending to, and Martha was doing it all herself.

It was risky because her culture did not allow her to sit there, with the men, and listen to a teacher of the Torah. Early rabbinic scholars have suggested that it would be better to burn the Torah than teach it to women, as they were not allowed to sit in the temple and discuss the law. But Mary chose to stay and sit, to learn from her guest. This is probably part of the reason Martha came and demanded that Jesus send her to help in the other room: it was scandalous for her to sit there, to listen, and to learn. But if there is one thing we know about Jesus, he was not afraid of a little scandal. No, in fact, when Martha confronts him, Jesus confronts her own situation, noting that she is "distracted by many things,” pulled in a million directions, and missing the main distraction, or rather, the main attraction of the day.

You see, I think that Jesus was trying to say to her, "Martha, you're so busy right now that you just don't get it. When you are in my presence, I am the host. You are pulled in so many directions trying to make me comfortable that you are refusing to be in my presence, allowing yourself to be comforted. Mary gets it; she sees that I am the only distraction that should be here today. I can't keep her from me, what about you?"

And what about you? Are we so consumed in the busyness of our lives that we can't sit down for a moment to allow God to be our host? That’s one of the reasons we're here today, isn't it, to be in the presence of God. So why do our thoughts clutter us in? Why do we rush to the other rooms of our mind even while our bodies sit here? It's scandalous for us to sit and not do anything, we must plan and plan and plan. We must go and do and rush. But Jesus invites us today to think about what we need internally as well as externally. When we are in the presence of God, God gives us the power of standing still.

That phrase, "The power of standing still" is an important one. It’s used by Robert Frost in his poem "The Master Speed." Frost’s poem is about the love of marriage, and he describes married people as having the power to stand still. It’s a paradox because we don’t often consider standing still to require much power. But in our busy lives where we are constantly told to move and to go, it takes the ultimate power, a power that only God can give, to sit, listen, and learn from the Word of God.

Here, today, God invites us to marry ourselves into the presence of Christ, to sit and receive as guest what Jesus provides as host. Let this table here, this communion you are about to receive, be your own "Happy Easter!" you're own wake up call that reminds you who you are what you are about. Every week this meal should be that wake up call that takes you from busying yourself to death into a new, reflective and aware life.

So, as Jesus probably would have said to Martha, "Don't just do something, stand there!" God gives us the desire to move, but also gives us the space to sit and just be with God; both are equally important, and just as we should not miss the opportunity to tend to our neighbor’s needs, we should not miss the opportunity to be the guest of our Lord, listening and learning. It’s scandalous to be still in the busy world, and we cannot always be still, but God invites us to be scandalous and listen. The Good News is that God invites us to be guests today. And it is only in being the guest of God that we truly can learn how to be hosts to others. Amen.