Sermon, Rev. Cindy Corrigan

July 21, 2019  

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts, always be acceptable unto O Lord, our rock and our salvation.

Our Gospel story this morning is about HOSPITALITY.  We know hospitality, it is what we do here at St Mary’s, and we do it very well.  Hospitality is exceedingly important in the bible and especially in Luke’s Gospel. 

The lives of the disciples, apostles, the 70 sent out a couple of weeks ago, would have looked very different without the hospitality of the people in all the towns and villages they went to – sometimes received well and other times sent away hungry – hungry for food but also hungry to share the Gospel, the Good news with people.  

Martha and Mary welcome Jesus into their home and Martha gets on with preparing the food, the table, the……., everything that is need to host a special guest.  Mary sits at Jesus’ feet to listen to him speak, mesmerized but the conversation. 

Sitting at Jesus’ feet was the place for a man.  Mary is inverting the roles of women and men, causing a disturbance especially from Martha who wants Mary to get into her proper place and help prepare the food.  Jesus has been seen by others as upsetting the status quo for some time.  This is another instance of that, women where men should be.  My oh my, what is this world coming too!

The problem with Martha is not that she is busy serving and providing hospitality.  Jesus commends this kind of service to neighbour many times, most noticeably in the Gospel from last week where the Good Samaritan is the one who helps the poor man in the ditch, showing neighbourly love and hospitality. 

The problem with Martha is not her serving, but rather that she is worried and distracted.  My commentary has translated DISTRACTED to mean being pulled or dragged in different directions.  Her distraction leaves no room for the most important aspect of HOSPITALITY which is gracious attention to the guest. 

In fact, she breaks all the rules of hospitality by embarrassing her sister in front of the guest and then by asking the guest to intervene in this family dispute.  “Make her get up Lord and help me, I am overwhelmed with all the work to prepare this feast for you!  Do you not care Lord?” Poor Martha is so worried about the correct way to do things, the correct meal and the correct placement of things – can’t you just picture it – fussing around, busy, busy. 

The sad thing in this is that Martha is missing such an important moment in time.  She is in the presence of Jesus and she is not taking the time to bask in it.  She is not fully present with Jesus.  She is missing out on the one thing needed for true hospitality – listening, actively listening to your guest.

I think that most of us, no probably all of us can relate to this.  We invite people over for dinner and we are up to our necks in preparation, with no time to visit beforehand then after – the clean-up.   I am as guilty of this as the next person – I stew about what to cook, what do people like, will they like what I cook – whew – exhausting. 

That is why a potluck is the best way to have dinner together – everyone brings something and there is no real overwhelming need to be perfect and busy right till we sit down, just the opportunity to enjoy each other’s company and enjoy the conversation. Jesus invites Martha, he doesn’t rebuke her, but invites her to receive his gracious presence, to listen to his words, to know that she is valued not for what she does or how well she does it, but for who she is as a child of God.

In this culture of busyness, hectic schedules and the relentless pursuit of productivity, we are tempted to measure our worth by how busy we are, how much we can accomplish or by how well we meet the expectations of others.  This is a sad statement and I almost don’t want to say it, but I believe it to be true. 

Our lives in this community is not only what we do at St Mary’s but what we do elsewhere – our other commitments – we often get to the point where we are pulled to and fro, trying to balance all the needs and requests – with little or no time for ourselves and our much loved hospitality to others.  No need to raise your hands, just to think about this.  How many of you can relate to Martha?  I bet we all do on any given day; I know I sure do. 

But Jesus does not rebuke us, he invites us to receive his gracious presence too.  Feeling pulled to and fro, in every direction, feeling worried and distracted by many things, seem to be common threads in our lives.  Jesus reminds us in Luke 12:25 “Can any of you/us by worrying add a single hour to your span of Life?” We know that worrying does no good and that much of what we worry about is not too important in the larger scheme of things, and yet we cannot seem to quell our anxious thoughts and frantic activity. 

It is true that much of our busyness and distraction stems from the noblest of intentions, providing for our families, caring for aging parents or partners, babysitting grandkids – trying to make the lives of us and others comfortable.  We want to serve our neighbour as well as serving Jesus. Where would our church be without all of us, our Martha’s?  Who would perform the tasks for hospitality and service so vital to our existence, so vital in making us a welcoming and well-functioning community? 

Our Martha existence is so very important, we can’t all be Mary’s, sitting quietly and listening.  Sometimes, each of us is Martha and we’re glad of it. But if we allow our activities to take away the quiet, listening time we won’t have the time to hear Gods word, and if we don’t sit quietly in the Jesus’ presence, we are likely to continue being anxious and troubled.  This anxiousness has the potential to lead to service that is devoid of love and joy.

Listening and doing, receiving Gods word and serving others, are vital to the Christian Life, just as inhaling and exhaling are to breathing.  Yet how often do we forget to breathe deeply.  Trying to serve without being nourished by Gods word is like expecting food fruit to grow from a tree that has been uprooted.  We don’t know the end of this story of Martha and Mary, did they both sit and listen and relax and enjoy their guest? 

We have to hope that they did, as we need to hope that we can too, relax and enjoy our guests.  What we do know is that Jesus invites us all, with our worries and distractions to sit and rest in his presence, to hear his words of grace and truth, to know that we are loved and valued as children of God, to be renewed in faith and strengthened in service.  There is need of only one thing: attention to our guest, our guest who is our host, with abundant gifts to give.   I pray that this may be so, thanks be to God. AMEN