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The Sixth Sunday After Pentecost, 07/21/2019
Sermon on Luke 10:38-42, by Judson F. Merrel
38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.
39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying.
40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me."
41 But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;
42 there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."
(Luk 10:38-1 NRSV)
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Several years ago we took the girls to see the circus before it stopped touring. One of my favorite acts was the troupe of performers who somehow manage to balance themselves one on top of the other. You know, one starts out, and then another climbs or jumps onto their shoulders, and then another, and then another, and so on? Before you know it, 6 or 7 people are all balanced on 1 person. I always thought that was an amazing act of balance and strength. Now, what would happen if that person on the bottom lost their balance, or if they moved the wrong way? They would all fall down, wouldn’t they? Balance is the key here. The balance of the 6 or 7 people must be perfect, or else the whole system would not be able to perform their act. The same can be said about our lives, and about the church.
In the case of our lives, we must delicately balance things such as our jobs and careers, our vacation time, our family, sports activities, school, and the list goes on. In order to keep from falling apart, and not having a grasp on any of this, it seems that an intentional balance needs to be struck between activity and leisure, involvement and withdrawal, and between work and family. If balances are not maintained in our lives, then the structure of our lives eventually teeters and the joy of doing often becomes drudgery. But this doesn’t only happen in our personal lives. This happens in our church life as well.
Everything that we could say needs balance in our personal lives also needs balance in our spiritual lives. We get an example of that today in our Gospel reading. At the core of Jesus’ encounter with Mary and Martha is this concern over balance. In commending Mary, Jesus did not deride Martha’s work of hospitality. Rather, he expressed disquiet at her distraction. Jesus observed that she was so busy with work that she had lost her sense of balance and proportion, leaving insufficient room for the better part. It is as if one of the members of the circus troupe had overshot a leap, lost the balance, and landed topsy-turvy. Another example is this: we are all in one big canoe. Now what happens if someone in that canoe stands up, or changes seats? The canoe becomes unstable, and starts to lose its balance in the water. Before you know it, the canoe is swamped and everyone is wet. One person can cause the whole thing to become unbalanced. That can happen in the church as well. If we want to maintain the balance in this canoe that we call church, we must do things together. What would happen if I were to
come in on a Sunday morning and say “I was too distracted by hospital visits this week to get my sermon done?” What if you were to say “I was so distracted by work this week that I forgot today was Sunday?” As a church, the Spirit is guiding us, telling us how we can balance our ministry and our vocations. However, if we are distracted by too many things, then we will not be able to maintain our balance and we will come falling down, or the canoe will tip over and we will get wet.
God is with us today, as He was with Abraham at the oaks of Mamre that is mentioned in our first lesson today. God is still enabling us to trust in him, to listen to what he has to say, to sit at his feet without being distracted by all the “tasks” we think we must accomplish. As a church we are able to accomplish whatever task is thrown our way. We are enabled by the Holy Spirit to carry out ministry in this community, inviting our neighbors in and welcoming strangers in our midst. However, it is important to be able to distinguish our busyness from our ministry. What really matters? What is your seat in the canoe enabling you do accomplish? What does it look like to let go of previous tasks, to sit at the feet of Jesus and to just listen for a change? When this Gospel lesson is preached every three years, Martha usually ends up getting a bad rap for her actions. But in my opinion that is not always the best course of action. You see, in a different story found in John’s Gospel, Martha eventually got things right, her balance clearly in place. Martha was so upset about her brother’s death. Even so, she responded to Jesus in a way that showed she had regained her equilibrium. Questioned about resurrection and belief, Martha gave a commendable response: “Yes Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world” (John 11:27). When we as a church are seeking to serve, busyness is not always a bad thing, but balance is better. We will be able to sit and listen to what the Spirit is telling us, without having to worry about those tasks in our lives that WE deem more important. We will be able to do this only with the help of God. Let us remind ourselves that it is only through Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, that we are able to keep our balance and hold all things together. Amen.