It
can feel like we’re supposed to take sides, right?
I’m for Listening-Mary against Overactive-Martha.
Or I’m for Hospitable-Martha against Couch
Potato-Mary.
Soon enough, we could start to hear
Martha crashing around in the kitchen colanders and pots and pans flying
everywhere, brisket burning, emotionally on the edge of meltdown.
Soon enough, we could transform Mary
into a figure popping Pringles on a grody beanbag chair while Jesus
philosophizes for her.
After
all, Jesus does make the statement,
“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.”
There
is, clearly, a side being taken, and so, a shallow reading of today’s gospel
could leave us in lethargy, listening, not doing.
But,
I think, if we consider all that leads up to Jesus’ time with Mary and Martha,
we can, and should, embrace both of
their examples of being disciples of
Jesus.
Let
us pray:
Lord,
May we know the peace of Christ’s
presence,
have
a love of service
and
find joy in both. Amen.
It should be unsurprising that Mary is praised
for listening to Jesus.
After all, from Jesus’
transfiguration
—that wild story about Jesus taking
James and John and Peter up a high mountain and revealing his glory to them
—from that mountain to this humble
visit to Mary and Martha, we’re constantly being reminded of how special it is
to be in the presence of Jesus, to see, hear, and listen to him.
On
that mountain the three are commanded, “This is my Son, my Chosen; Listen to
him.” Listen to him, just like Mary.
Then
people are called to account by Christ’s presence
—his being-with-them becomes the only thing.
He
affirms that the presence of just his name is enough to make someone for him, and not against
him.
His
presence causes people to follow him and to head out telling everyone
that he’s coming—that his presence will soon be felt!
The
disciples are reminded that knowing him is the same as knowing the Father.
They’re
reminded that seeing him and hearing him… listening to him… is a privilege that
Prophets and potentates miss out on.
For
that matter, people who respond to his presence with other concerns are
condemned. “I have to bury my father”—tough.
“I have to say farewell to my family first”—too bad. Being in his presence is the only thing.
Yes,
by the time we get to Mary and Martha’s house, we realize how important the presence
of Christ is,
sitting at his feet as disciples,
listening to his words and letting
them soothe us and shape us.
But
that’s not all. Service, hospitality, welcome, the core of what Martha is about, is also lifted up on the
way to the sisters’ home.
The
moment Jesus steps off that mountain, he welcomes a child to be healed,
and then tells his disciples that greatness is found in being hospitable
to a child.
He
tells his disciples to go out and rely on the hospitality of others as
they prepare a way for him.
He
caps this off with last week’s story of the Samaritan who serves a man
of a race and religion different than his own, condemning the unwelcoming
Levite and unwelcoming Priest in the process.
In
a strange reversal of this story Jesus himself runs into an Inhospitable
Samaritan village and leaves those Samaritans behind.
On
top of all that, he declares that those who do not welcome are a
deeply evil people.
By
the time the disciples reach Martha and Mary’s—they’ve heard and seen Jesus
assess service, and welcome, and hospitality as central to the proclamation of the Kingdom of God.
So,
I would imagine, Jesus’ words were surprising to them, just as they ought to be
to us.
Because
of this surprise it is worth looking closer and noticing that they are spoken
in a defensive way.
Jesus doesn’t want to get caught up
in a family argument
—strangely a common theme in Luke’s
Gospel
—but more importantly, he wants to
make sure there is space for listening,
for sitting at the feet of the Lord,
space to allow
Mary to experience the presence of the
Kingdom of God.
I wonder… if Mary had attacked Martha
for serving and asked Jesus to side with her, as Martha did to Mary, would a
similar skewering would have occurred?
Would Jesus have lifted up service in
a similar way?
Make
no mistake. Both service and
listening,
presence and hospitality,
welcome and sitting at the feet of
the Lord,
are part of the Kingdom of God, part of being
a disciple,
part of this whole Jesus thing.
Perhaps
you feel like a Martha, always inviting, and encouraging fellowship and feeding
and collecting, and quilting and preparing care packages.
I pray you also find rest, filled with the Joy of Jesus’ presence, find yourself more closely knowing the God
revealed in Jesus Christ.
Or,
perhaps, you feel like a Mary, always in Bible Study and personal prayer and
reflection, finding Jesus in worship and sacraments and sacred conversation.
I pray you also come to know the joy
of serving your sisters and brothers, becoming a welcoming presence and being
hospitable as Christ was hospitable.
And
so, I pray that neither of these are
threatened.
I pray also that all of us might
regularly get to experience both.
I
pray, in short:
Lord, May we know the peace of Christ’s
presence,
have a love of service
and find joy in both. Amen.
