Pentecost 7

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Pentecost 7
PROPER: 11 C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: July 19, 1998

TEXT: Luke 10:38-42 - The Account of Martha & Mary
. . . Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listend to what he was saying.

ISSUE: The story of Mary and Martha is startling as Jesus is portrayed alone with women, and Mary sits at his feet. Mary's relationship here is uncommon for the period. Martha's hospitality is also tainted with anxiety and distraction. It is, in fact, Jesus the Lord who extends the real and genuine hospitality as he calls both into a close relationship. We cannot be a hospitable people in any Christian sense until we ourselves sit at the feet of the Lord and become faithful.
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The account of Jesus meeting with Martha and Mary in their home is a very curious story. And for the people who first heard it, it was another one of those rather startling stories about Jesus. The meeting of Jesus in the home of Martha and Mary does, in fact, immediately follow in Luke the account of Jesus' encounter with the lawyer and the Parable of the Good Samaritan. You will recall that the lawyer was challenging Jesus, as they did in those days. He had asked Jesus: What do I do to receive eternal life? Jesus' then asked him the question: What do the scriptures say? The lawyer responded with the familiar "Shema:" Hear O Israel, you shall love the Lord your god with all your hearet, mind, and strength. He also adds from Leviticus. You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. The story continued with the discussion of who was your neighbor which became spelled out the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The lawyer was forced to admit that even a hated Samaritan could be a good neighbor. The emphasis of all that exchange for Luke was the revelation of what it means to love your neighbor and the great depth of that kind of commitment. The early church if it was to be unique in the world had to set aside its old prejudices and hatreds and learn a deeper and profounder understanding of neighbor.
In the subsequent story in Luke, Jesus goes to the home of Mary and Martha. Martha is busy preparing a meal, but Mary is seen, much to Martha's displeasure, at the feet of Jesus. Martha refers to Jesus as Lord. And according to the story, Mary is doing the better thing. She is seated at the feet of the Lord. So while we heard last week all about what it means to be a neighbor, as the story continues the emphasis is upon how do we love the Lord God. Mary sits at the Lord's feet.
It is a startling story, and would have captured the attention of Luke's readers, certainly more than it gets our attention. It is curious that Luke says that Jesus went to Martha's house where he is welcomed. Women in Jesus' time rarely held property. The idea that it was Martha's house is curious. Maybe Luke is simply implying that it was the house where Martha lived. Perhaps, Luke is making a statement about the place of women in the early church, that women might be given some greater sense of ownership in the life of the church. We can't be absolutely sure as to what Luke has in mind but women are significant in the story. What's more is that Jesus enters the home of Martha and Mary and appears to be alone with them. In Jesus' time men did not associate with women, and would not have been alone with them. Women lived in a very private world among themselves. Even married women spent little time even with their husbands, seeing them only a meals and at bedtime. They were closer to other women and the children. They were very task oriented: caring for children and attending to the household tasks. When Jesus sits with Mary, it is Martha who is complains that Mary is not helping her. Remember too that when Jesus went to the home of Simon Peter and heals his sick mother-in-law, she gets up immediately from her sick bed and begins preparing a meal.
In the account of Mary and Martha once again Luke seems to be implying that Jesus challenged the strict and rigid order of the time. Martha is given ownership. Mary and Martha are given a closer relationship with Jesus. The role of women is changing. Mary is given and assumes the right to sit at the Lord's feet, to put aside the task oriented role of women and to take the role of men who sat at or were attentive to the teachings of the rabbi. In the story women become worthy of being taught. Women become worthy of being educated and have the right to be with the Lord in the same way that men were.
Look at what's happening. In the story of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan breaks out of the conventional role of Samaritans who hated Jews. He risks being impure by touching the naked and unclean victim. In this story today, Mary steps out of the conventional role of women by being alone with a man and by sitting at the feet of a teacher to learn. The Samaritan learns to love his neighbor. Mary learns to love the Lord her God. These are important values for the church that have to be kept in balance. Luke conveys that when Jesus comes on the scene, the conventions, the prejudices and hatreds of the world are indeed challenged, and all who come to know him will find their own ways challenged.
Another important point to be made in this story is that Martha is distracted and anxious, and she asks Jesus to tell Mary to help her. I have often heard it said that if it were not for the Martha's of this world nothing would ever get done. Keep in mind that Martha is not scolded by Jesus for doing what is expected of her. Martha is scolded for being anxious and distracted. Distraction is very different from being busy. Martha is not scolded for being busy. The Greek words indicate that Martha is anxious, divided, has too many causes, making uproar, troubled distrubed, disordered, confusion, groaning, madness, frenzied. (Lk 10:41- ) The Greek words give the impression of person out of control. It expresses nearly a craziness in terms of a being out of focus and out of touch with what is really basically important. Mary has found something better to be focused upon. It is the Lord. He is the source of wellness, healing, forgiveness, calm, serenity.
Luke's world was a crazy world. Jews hated Gentile and Samaritans. Samaritans hated Jews. Romans crucified anybody they could without much question or second thoughts. Lying and cheating was very common. Religion was caught up in rules and regulations and had little effect upon the suffering. Women were considered property and had no rights or citizenship. It was a hostile world. It was not a very hospitable world. Neither is our own.
Many Gentiles still hate Jews, and blacks, hispanics. Our prejudices remain still deeply rooted. There is still much confusion and anxiety in the human condition. Our religion still doesn't always do much for the poor, the suffering and the oppressed. We are sometimes so distracted that we accomplish little. We put one another off by our insecurities and our anxieties. We try to be good to one another, polite, nice, and mouth the words of respectability, but we still can't or find it hard to be genuinely hospitable to one another, accepting, welcoming, open, ready to make and be in a real and genuine relationship. We remain exclusive and trapped by the conventions of our times, the traditions that keep us locked-up in old unchanging, and thereby dying ways. The old crazy ways don't seem to go away. We often respond to the world in a re-actionary way, We become defensive or guilty, or feel a sense of hopelessness. We are inclined to quickly fight back at hostility and violence. We find it hard to change and find new hope and new ways.
Jesus comes to the home of Martha and Mary. He is something of an intrusion that challenges the way things are supposed to be. Woman separated from men, and not educated. God in Christ Jesus has dropped in among us int he midst of all of our madness. Martha tries to offer him hospitality, but she cannot escape being cranky, crazy, distraught, anxious. She tries to drag Mary into her fear and confusion. So what happens? Jesus ends up being the one who offers the greater hospitality. Let me show you something that is better. Come to me all of you who are in travail, heavy laden, distracted, caught up in the hurt, the pain, the suffering of the world, and I will give you rest. I will give you peace, I will give you hope. The ministry of Jesus is one meant to convey the mystery and wonder of God and his love. It is God who is the true and and generous Good Samaritan. It is God who is the one who offers to the world the greatest hospitality. Come sit at my feet and learn from me.
In our reactionary way of life, like the women we can keep ourselves very busy. Like so many of the men of Jesus own time and ours, the men are often spontaneous and too quick for their own good. Sometimes we need a sabbath, a sabbatical, a time for quiet, a time to let the Lord be our host, and reveal to us his wonder and his glory. Sometimes we have to receive God's hospitality and feast at his table in quiet and peacefulness. Jesus calls the women, Jesus calls the world into precious moments of relationship to see ourselves as God's children, God's friends, graciously accepting his hospitality and his ways. None of us can teach and be for others, and for the world, what we ourselves have not learned from our teacher. Keeping busy and doing our work and fulfilling our calling in the world is not bad. Unfortunately we do and are inclined to become distracted and lose focus on what is our real calling as Christians and as the people of God. But God in Christ who is still the giver of the finest hospitality says, Come sit with me, let me show you a better way to be calm and in focus. Learn from me. Mary sat at the Lord's feet. Martha, Martha, Do you hear the call? Do you know who is sitting here with you, and who it is that calls? Anybody with an ounce of good sense knows the importance of getting away once in awhile for rest, relaxation, for a change of scenery. We know it is good for us. Sometimes it's so much better to let somebody else be the host and provide the hospitality. We learn from it, and we are renewed by it. People with good sense also know you can't be on a perpetual vacation or sabbath either. Even retired people have to find meaningful activities. There is a need for balance. We need to let God be our host, to drop-in on us and challenge our ruts and time treasured traditions, and our craziness and frenzy, so that we can be renewed in things that are really important and push aside the things that keep us from being spiritually sane and focused on what is truly good, lovely, valuable, and just.