For All the Marthas

 Luke 10: 38-42    July 17, 2022

 

Are any of you here do-ers?

Do you relate to Martha?

Do you like to get things done and be productive?

Do you like to keep yourself busy doing things?
Do you like to get ahead of things?

One Thing
Molle Walker Freeman

Do you like to make and complete a to do list?

Do you like to be responsible and accomplished?

Do you like serving others with helpful tasks?

Making a difference? getting that check list done?

Turning your faith into action in solid and real ways?

Good.

 

Your service is valued, and necessary.

I’m not here to tell you to stop doing that

and I don’t think Jesus is telling you to do that either.

And not just because I’m a pastor and churches

depend on people like you doing things.

But because Martha’s way is one way to serve.

God needs our work and tasks.

I’m not going to scold anyone for being like that.

I don’t think Jesus was at Martha’s house to do that either.

 

And why would we want to do that?

We serve a God and a Messiah who was incarnational.

Whose love wasn’t just an airy fairy kind of statement of love.

It was real, it was solid and practical.

The Word became flesh and lived among us

and our words are expected to become flesh too.

 

We say that love is not just feelings or sentiment.

Love is shown in day in, day out actions.

Wiping snotty noses, giving hugs, taking out the garbage.

We just got finished with Jesus parable of the Good Samaritan.

Being a neighbor is stopping to help, tending wounds,

and lifting someone out of the dirt.

It’s not just saying “God loves you, but I’m going

to hear a lecture on Jesus, so I don’t have time for your problem.”

 

So Martha putting together an olive and cheese platter

and sweeping the floor for her guest was not just idle busy work,

it was her way of showing her love and respect for a special guest.

It was also very much her job and duty, and not really a choice she made.

 

In Martha’s time,

women were not expected to just sit and talk to guests.

They were expected to be up and doing stuff,

making the meal, getting what guests needed, cleaning up

 

Martha is doing exactly what is expected of her.

She is filling the role that women had filled forever.

Maintaining the home, making the food, and raising the children.

 

And frankly, we’re not too far away from that mindset.

In my last church one of the major objections of opening

up their child care center in 1980 was that in doing so,

the church was encouraging women to work outside the home.

 

In Martha’s time and beyond, women did all the home

stuff so that men could run the business that got what house needed

and also so the men could be the spiritual guides for the family.

 

The man was to attend and participate

in the prayer services, he was to go and spend

the afternoon at the synagogue and listen to the teachers,

and contemplate God’s will for everyone

and then come home and teach his family.

The men were supposed to sit at the teacher’s feet.

The men were disciples, the women were supposed to

serve so that the men could do that.

 

So then we come to Martha’s home.

And it’s referred to as Martha’s home which is very interesting.

and she’s doing exactly what is expected of her.

She’s doing the “right thing”.

She’s filling her duties, she’s earning her keep

She’s doing what is necessary to keep the system running.

 

It’s Mary who’s not acting appropriately.

She’s not doing, she’s just sitting and listening.

She probably looks lazy and presumptuous by a lot of

people’s standards those days.

Certainly, she’s not doing what was typical for a woman to do.

 

So Martha wants help yes. But I think she’s got this.

What I think Martha mostly wants is for

her sister to come back and be normal again.

She wants her to fill her expected role.

And she wants Jesus to back her up on this.

“Jesus, are you just going to let her be crazy like this?

You’re the teacher, tell her to get back to what she should be doing.”

And the first hearers of this story

would probably have been with Martha.

Mary is acting weird. Jesus, tell her to stop it.

 

But Jesus won’t. Jesus actually says that

Mary has made a good choice.

This is exactly what Mary should be doing.

This is exactly what women should be doing.

And maybe Martha could do that sometimes too.

To come and sit at Jesus feet and hear words of

love and forgiveness and not worry about the world,

not worry about the world’s expectations,

about the role that she’s supposed to fill.

 

I don’t think this story from Luke’s gospel

is a statement from Jesus about how the church

should be weighted towards worship and learning

instead of hospitality and service to the outside world.

Although some preachers have tried to do that.

 

And I don’t’ think that Jesus is scolding the doers of the world,

the social workers, the service project people,

the habitat for humanity, or food pantry people,

the Sunday school teacher, or anyone who is moved

to do the work that needs to be done

this is not Jesus telling everyone to just sit down

and pray and read the bible.

And I don’t think the world is divided into Marthas and Marys

We’re not divided in to busy workers and contemplative thinkers

and this is not Jesus saying “yay” for the Marys of the world

and “nay” to the Martha’s.

I think the truth is that we’re all Marthas and Marys.

 

We all have that Martha side of us.

We are driven by our need to fill our role

We live under the pressure of what the world

wants and needs us to do, at home, at work, at church,

in our communities.

 

We stress about our to-do list and get frustrated and distracted.

We set out to accomplish what the world expects us to accomplish,

and when it doesn’t happen we get filled with anxiety,

and self-doubt and we wonder whether

we’re worthy of Jesus company.

 

But also have that Mary inside us.

That part that often needs to be coaxed out.

To be reassured to be told that

just sitting and being is good enough.

 

Sometimes when we’re the one who is running distracted,

Jesus reminds us “Martha, Martha.

You’re trying to do too much.

I don’t need you to do everything.

Your presence with me is enough.”

 

Jesus reminds all of us at times,

it is enough to just sit at Jesus feet,

and hear the word of God --

the word that says that we are loved

not for what we do,

but just because we are God’s.

It is enough just to sit and be with Jesus.