38Now as they
went on their
way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed
him into
her home.39She had a sister named Mary,
who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying.40But 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.”41But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha,
you are worried and distracted by many things;42there is need of only one thing.Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken
away from her.”
¿Where
are
You in the Story of Mary and Martha?
+ In nomine Domini.Amen.
Grace,
mercy and peace to you from God who is the Creator, the Redeemer and
the One
who Sustains us and nourishes us with love and hope.Amen.
If
you search on the Internet long and hard enough, you can actually find
some
Mary and Martha jokes, or shall we say, humorous comparisons of the two
personalities
which sprang forth from just 5 verses in the 10th chapter of
the Story of the Life of Jesus of Nazareth
by the Gospel-Writer we call Luke.
Those
5 verses from the end of the 1st Century have given grist to
the
mill of sermons in every Century since they came into the public domain
of
preachers (all male of course) who used those verses, and the two women
within those
verses, to make various points before a congregation … usually pointing
out the
pious virtue of one of the women in the story (Mary) … and the total
lack of
understanding of the other woman in the story (Martha).
I
don’t believe for one moment this is the point of the story at all … in
fact it
does great injustice to the story … but we will get to that in a moment.First, a little humor … the Mary and Martha
Jokes, or as they are found on the quite interesting web site Sensible House Cleaning Solutions, “Martha’s
Way and Mary’s Way.”[1]
#1
Martha’s
way: Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugar cone to
prevent ice
cream drips. ??
Mary’s
way: Just suck the ice cream out of the bottom of the cone.
#2
Martha’s
way: Use a meat-baster to “squeeze” your pancake batter onto the hot
griddle
and you’ll get perfectly shaped pancakes every time. ??
Mary’s way: Buy the precooked
kind you nuke in the microwave for 30 seconds.
#4
Martha’s
way: To prevent eggshells from cracking, add a pinch of salt to the
water
before hard-boiling. ??
Mary’s way: Who cares if they
crack, aren’t you going to take the shells off anyway?
+++
Well
that’s the kind of stuff that religious thinking can turn into rather
than talking
about a home into which Jesus is invited, with an act of hospitality,
which,
while being full of happiness is nothing to joke about … two friends of
Jesus, one
sitting devotedly and listening to him teach … the other being the
attentive
worker seeing that Jesus is indeed welcome.But …
But,
what do we have here?Sisterhood?
Sibling rivalry?And what kind of remark
is that in the story from Jesus … the … guest
… as he turns and chides the one sister!?
It’s
what psychiatrists call triangulation …
Jesus – according to the story – chooses the side of Mary … and, if we
think
this story through … what kind of model for ministry, indeed for daily
living
is that‽
The
answer is, It’s not!Not if this story
is just about two different kinds of personalities, one better than the
other
which leads to the categorization of people … which, in the church
means
mostly, putting people “in their place.”But putting people in their place is never the point of
the Gospel
Story, unless it is where Jesus attacks those who have the power to put
people
in their place (super-zealous religious leaders, occupying armies of a
foreign
country, political appointees who care not one whit for the needs of
the poor …
and so on).A careful reading of the
Gospel Story will reveal that as an antidote to such malicious
behaviour …
Jesus does indeed insist on putting those whom the world ignores and
neglects
in their place, their rightful place, which would be in
the care
and loving of God through the compassionate actions of a neighbor
(remember the
Parable of the Good Samaritan two weeks ago?… and just verses before this story of Mary and Martha in
the 10th
Chapter of Luke?).
So
in spite of the fact that as a woman you may have belonged to some kind
of
Martha Circle in another parish and wished you could belong to a Mary
Circle …
or heard from the church based upon this story that you should indeed
stay in
your place (I’ve even seen where this text has been and is used to
speak
against the Ordination of women as Pastors or Priests) … or (whichever
gender
you may) hear this story only as one which places two sisters against
each
other … any of that is to walk so far around
the story that we may as well go back to the jokes.
So
here are two more:
#5
Martha’s
way: To easily remove burnt-on food from your skillet, simply add a
drop or two
of dish soap and enough water to cover the bottom of pan, and bring it
to a
boil on the stovetop.??
Mary’s way: Eat out every
night and avoid cooking.
#6
Martha’s
way: Spray your Tupperware with nonstick cooking spray before pouring
in tomato
based sauces and there won’t be any stains.’
Mary’s way: Feed your garbage
disposal and there won’t be any leftovers.
The
jokes are funny … sort of … but you see what happens … we get lost in
them and
so avoid the Story as Story … and
when we lose the Story as Story, we lose the Gospel.
The
whole point of a biblical Story or of a Jesus Parable or reading one of
the
Psalms or even (shudder) reading one of those long paragraphs written
by Paul
of Tarsus … the whole point is to have us ask the question, “Where Am I in the Story, the Parable, the Psalm,
the Letter of Paul to the Colossians?”
Let’s
look at the choices.
In
the 5 verses from Luke’s Gospel, this story is not about personality types but about something else … namely hospitality
and what Luke calls “the
Kingdom of God come Near” … in those 5 verses of hospitality the
question is
now: where might you find yourself?
Two
possibilities that come to our attention immediately are:
Mary
Martha
If
you see yourself as Mary, what might that mean?
Well,
it might mean that you find yourself engaged in life so much so that
you need,
want, require, yearn for the depth of its meaning … and nothing will
distract
you from going for that.Yes, things may
build up around you, even pull at you, even throw themselves down in
front of
you … and yet, what you want, what you need is to listen, to learn, to
acquire,
to soak up … what? … truth … hope … love … compassion … caring … peace
… joy …
understanding.
Ok,
but what if you see yourself as Martha?Then the jokes start, don’t they?You’re a busybody, you’re pre-occupied, you’re always
fretting about,
you’re what we called in Seminary “the Worrier of the Cup” … but if
that’s
where you’re headed right now in this Story … STOP IMMEDIATELY and
re-read the
1st verse.
“Now as they went on their
way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed
him into
her home.” (Luke 10.38)
There’s
so much in that first verse … and it’s nearly always overlooked.
Let’s
read it again slowly and carefully …
“Now,”
writes Luke the Storyteller, “as they” … they
who?Well, from what comes before, we
know it is Jesus and his followers … we assume Jesus and his disciples (the small group) but it could
be more … but let’s say simply “Jesus and his followers” to be safe …
[go
on]
“he”
… i.e. Jesus … “entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha
welcomed
him into her home.”
Now
there’s the part I guarantee nearly everyone misses.Here in Luke’s recounting of the Gospel
Story, it is Martha’s home, and Martha
does the inviting … not the home
of Mary and Martha (although tradition has made it so, especially since
those
two women appear in other places in the New Testament, namely in the
Gospel of
John, and in that story, Lazarus, you will recall … the brother of Mary
and
Martha is present as well) … but here
in this story, it’s Martha’s home …
and what takes place is something Luke the Gospel Writer always puts
before us
… the unusual, the unexpected, the turn of events, the heretofore
un-thought of
… think Middle Eastern custom, culture,
way of doing things … picture a woman, head covered with a scarf,
maybe
even a veil, walking out of her
dwelling into the street and not only confronting a man, not only
speaking to
him, but inviting him into her home.How
does this look?
Can
you hear the neighbors?
“What
kind of woman is she?What does she
think she is doing?”
But
that’s part of the whole Gospel Story … in the kingdom of God
which Jesus comes to announce, things are turned around, upside down,
rough
places are smoothed, paths are leveled, and there is equality … for
everyone.
So,
not elsewhere in the Gospels, but here it is Martha’s home, she invites
and
welcomes, she opens the door, she sets the table, and look … she has
even
invited her own sister, Mary.
Is
there anyone else in the story to whom you might find yourself attached?
Well,
Jesus of course.If you see yourself as
Jesus, that’s interesting (!) … but not beyond propriety … if you see
yourself
as Jesus, sitting and teaching, sharing and offering, speaking and
engaging …
maybe it is that you find yourself so caught up in the Good News, so
occupied
with the reign of God as it should be that even a remark that seeks to
brush
aside someone who interrupts the reign of God with a preoccupation, a
distraction … even such a remark can be understood as knowing how much
more
important peace, love, compassion, inclusiveness, welcoming, and the
like are …
than whether the tea is hot and the scones are arranged alphabetically
on Aunt
Bessie’s China …
But
is there anyone else in the story?…
other roles in which you might find yourself?
Look
deeply inside the text … peer into the shadows … close your eyes and
listen to
the sounds that come from the reading …
There
are many others there … and maybe you find yourself sitting alongside
them …
aligning yourself with them …
Martha
and Mary’s parents?… are they hidden in
the shadows, looking on with great pride as the Teacher has chosen to
speak to
their daughters, share the meaning of the Torah with them, talk with
their
daughters about God’s world, God’s love, God’s compassion?
Who
else?
Disciples,
maybe?Listening from the doorway or by
the open window (remember this is 1st Century Galilee and Judea
… no double-pane insulated windows) …
Peter,
tapping his foot, wanting to go for some lentil soup himself, but
fearing that
if he does Peter and James and John will get to hear something he won’t
… might
Peter be there?Perchance you find
yourself as Peter in life … emboldened by the Story, yet too brusque in
the way
you want to get it across.
Maybe
a Roman soldier or two standing just around the corner?Keeping an eye on things, making sure this
Gospel-Freedom-Liberation-Theology Business doesn’t go to far … Don’t
want too
many lawbreakers, too many people who cross boundaries, going where
they
shouldn’t, being invited into homes and such … If you see yourself as a
Roman
soldier in this story, you and I should have coffee this week and talk
that
over ...
Maybe
you see the next-door neighbor? … curious since Martha has been telling
you
about this man Jeshua Emmanuel, as she calls him … and you want to hear
more,
you want to know if maybe he has a teaching which can help you, heal
you, make
the brokenness in your soul find a way back toward wholeness and Shalom
…
Well,
there are many characters in the Gospel Stories for us to sit next to …
and we
should always think about biblical accounts that way, for the Story is
a living
Story, and when we find ourselves in it, it lives in us, it catches us,
holds
us, and heals us, and compels us to become the life of faith itself,
opening
and welcoming and embracing, and that all people, everyone, has a place
in the
story, around the table, at the feet, bringing food, sharing
hospitality,
living the kingdom.
I
want to leave you with a poem by Katha Pollitt, entitled “Martha” that
comes
from her book, the mind-body problem,
and takes us on a journey from the middle of her home where she
welcomed Jesus
… to the place where evil tried to crucify hospitality itself … and
beyond.Copies of the poem are available
in the Chapel after the Service.