Monday, July 18, 2022

Sermon - Pentecost 6 - Luke 10:38-42


Luke 10:38-42

Martha, Martha

What a great story Luke shares with us today about Jesus with Mary and Martha.  He visits their home and is teaching, but while Mary listens intently to Jesus, Martha is busy and distracted with many things.  We can imagine all the cooking and cleaning as she buzzed around the house, fluffing pillows, checking on the bread in the oven, makings sure the table was set, sorting out all the loose ends to make Jesus’ visit a success.  After all, he is an honored guest.  And she wanted to make everything just right.

But there was a problem for Martha.  That lazy sister of hers.  Mary wasn’t helping.  Instead, she just sat there listening to Jesus.  Martha wasn’t too busy to notice, and to begin to resent her sister for not helping out.  In fact she goes so far as to just about scold Jesus, “don’t you care that my sister isn’t helping me?” and then presumes to tell him what to say to her.  “Tell my sister to get off her duff and help me out!”

Martha, Martha.  You’ve got to love Jesus’ response.  So gentle and kind.  I imagine him sighing before he says it.  By repeating her name it’s like he’s saying, “dear Martha”.  But there is a corrective here, too.  Martha herself needs to be set straight, not Mary.  Mary has chosen the better portion.  Martha is anxious and troubled about many things.

I suppose a very simple treatment of this passage would be something like, “Don’t be a Martha, be a Mary”.  But there’s more to say than just that.  Let’s consider the two sisters in terms of the commandments, in terms of vocation, and also in terms of the sinner/saint tension of the two natures in all of us.

We might consider the comparison of Mary and Martha according to the 10 commandments.

Martha, for her part, gets it wrong.  The very Son of God comes under her roof, and she places other things, many things, in a more prominent place.  She has other gods before him, you might say.  The gods of busy-ness and work.  The false gods, that is.

And here is a good reminder for us.  Notice Jesus does not condemn the things themselves that Martha is about doing.  Rather, he is concerned about her posture toward them.  He’s concerned about her priorities, and the state of her heart.  Work is good.  Even Adam in the garden, before sin, was given work to do – tending the garden.  We can assume that we’ll even have work to do in heaven.  But labor – difficult and troublesome work comes with the fall into sin.  Thorns and thistles.  Pain in childbirth.  And all of the human anxieties and troubles that come with it – work in the home or outside the home.  Work becomes a burden and a chore.  And sin gets it all twisted.  So that a good thing becomes a little god for us, and supplants the place in our life that should be reserved for the true God alone.

And on the other side of the coin is laziness.  When we steal time from our employer for ourselves.  When we don’t give of ourselves as we should.  This breaks the 7th commandment.  Or perhaps we resent our boss. The 4th commandment.  The commandments shows us we have problems with our work.

Now Martha thought Mary was being lazy, and not helping out as she should.  But Mary was busy rather fulfilling the commandments.  1st – She put Jesus first.  Nothing to get in the way, no other gods before him.  And the 3rd commandment – not despising preaching and God’s word but gladly hearing and learning it at the feet of Christ.  Mary came to this, of course, like all the faithful do – not on her own – but as she was granted the gift of faith by the Spirit.  And Jesus has no intention of taking his good gifts away from her.

And so Martha learns, and we learn, that work, our work – however good a thing it can be – is no substitute for Jesus.  And no amount of our work is worth anything compared to Jesus.  What he gives, what he teaches, is always the better portion. 

Now take a step back, then, and look at these two women through the lens of vocation. 

These women had their callings, their duties, their roles – just as you and I do.  But sinners aren’t always so good at balancing multiple vocations and fulfilling them rightly.  There is a place for Martha to do the cooking and cleaning.  She is called as the hostess to provide for her guests.  She has a vocation to serve, and honor of honors to have Jesus as a houseguest!  And Mary as her sister, also, has a calling to help out, to serve.

But where Martha goes wrong is in this.  The greater calling, the higher calling, is to be a disciple of Jesus.  To sit and learn at his feet.  To hear his word, cherish it, digest it.  He is the one thing needful.  He is the precious treasure above all treasures.  We sinners major in the minors and minor in the majors.  But Jesus sets us straight.

It is of utmost importance for you and me, as Christians, to hear the Word of God regularly, faithfully, intentionally.  It is more important than sports practice.  It is more needful than your Sunday morning shift at Starbucks.  It is more precious than the few extra hours of sleep you might get on Sunday.  It is more pressing than any housework or yardwork or home improvement project on your to-do list this weekend.

All those other things might be good.  But we want to hear from Jesus.  We want to hear his words to us.  We want to sit at his feet and listen with the ears of faith and soak up every last bit of goodness.

Those words of Jesus may convict us at times.  Jesus was never above calling out people who were in the wrong – even as he does so gently here with Martha.  Sometimes he is more bold, even harsh – as he calls out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, or Herod that fox, or promises a millstone to those who lead little ones astray.  But take the gentle word of correction when you can get it.

Jesus can get your attention with his word of law – and when he does – don’t explain it away or deafen yourself to his diagnosis.  Don’t make excuses or shift blame.  Don’t point to other worse sinners to make yourself look good by comparison.  Receive the accusation of the law with humility and in truth.  I have sinned.  I deserve what I get for it.  You’re absolutely right, Jesus.

But hear also the precious Gospel of Jesus.  Sidle up next to Mary and listen with the wonderment of a child again at the old, old, story.  Jesus did it all for you.  He is conceived and born for you.  He grows and learns for you.  He preaches and heals and casts out demons for you.  He goes to Jerusalem for you.  He is arrested, mocked, spat upon, stricken, smitten and afflicted for you.  He dies for you, nailed to a cross with all the sins – the many things – that you’ve done wrong.  And in his work – his perfect work – you are at peace.  You are at rest.  There’s nothing left to do – it is finished. 

So now, what about approaching this Mary/Martha comparison through the lens of our own dual nature.  For all of us Christians are both sinners and saints.  All of us Christians are Martha and all of us are also Mary.

We struggle to get the balance right.  When do I need to listen, and when do I need to speak?  When do I need to hear and receive, and when do I need to work and serve?  Both vocations of hearer and servant are godly.  Both are universal to all Christians.  But how do we strike the right balance, and make sure we are Mary when we ought to be, and Martha when we ought to be?

That, dear Christian, is for you to wrestle with.  I don’t have any great wisdom about it.  It is part of applying the word that we’ve heard and continue to hear in the day-to-day of being a child of God.  And like parenting, and marriage, there is no step-by-step instruction book for balancing your vocations properly.  At times we will get it right, and at times we will fail.  At times our Old Adam will overcome us – and at times the New Adam will win the day.

But we are not without resources.  God gives us his word and Spirit.  He puts teachers and preachers in our lives to help us make sense of it.  He teaches us through our experiences and even our failures and disciplines us as beloved children. 

But the struggle with sin is a daily struggle and one we won’t be free from until we shed this body of death to the grave and rest in paradise with Christ.  And then in the resurrection we will attain to the full measure of perfection in Christ – glorified like him and seeing him as he is. 

When you succeed – give thanks to God, and take no credit for yourself.  Boast in the Lord but only in the Lord. 

And when you fail.  When you get sucked in to the work and worry of worldliness.  When you lose the forest for the trees, and the true God for the many false gods.  When you forget that it’s all about Jesus and it’s not about you.  Then hear again the voice of Jesus:  Martha, Martha.

Martha, Martha, come hear from Jesus.  Come sit at his feet and rest awhile.  Come hear the comfort of his Gospel, the good news that is always for you.  Come know that your sins are forgiven.  Come hear about the place he’s preparing for you in heaven.  Come place your hope and trust in him, for he cares for you.

“Don’t you care?”  That was part of Martha’s question for Jesus.  Sort of like when he was sleeping in the boat and his disciples woke him amidst the storm, “Don’t you care that we are perishing!”  What gives, Jesus!?

Of course he cares.  And this is why he teaches us.  To show us himself.  His work for us, his promises fulfilled.  This is why he sends pastors and teachers today, who continue to bring us to hear from Jesus, by whom we still sit at his feet.  May they always show us the better part – the one thing needful – the one who cares for us and cared not for himself, even unto death, to win for us the crown of life.

And while we can’t see him or touch him – he’s not under our roof the same as when he came to Martha’s home, still he is here with us.  By his word, but also in this meal – that he prepares for us.  Here at his table, we are his guests.  We are fed.  We are made clean.  And this portion will not be taken from us. 

Martha, Martha, choose the better part.  Yes, you have plenty of work to do, we all do.  But never let anything overshadow your faith in Christ, or keep you from humbly hearing his word, receiving his teaching, his gifts.  And when you get off track, when you go all Martha, he’ll always call you back to be Mary, to sit and receive his good gifts.  For in him – the work is done.  May it be so for us all, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

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