What do you do when God
comes to visit? How in the world do you “host” God? The Gospel Lesson,
of course, relates to us the story of two sisters and their quite
different approaches to this matter of hosting God. As we hear this
morning how they did it, I trust you will discover the way you do it as
well.
(v. 38) Jesus and his
disciples, the text says, were going “on their way.” Where were they
going? They were on their way to Jerusalem where Jesus is to surely meet
his fate. (v. 39) They stopped along the way at a “certain village” where
the 70 disciples whom Jesus sent out on an earlier mission had already
been. As a matter of fact, Martha had probably hosted a pair or more of
these 70 missionaries in her home. Here we learn that Martha and Mary are
supporters of the movement. Jesus probably received a report from some of
the 70 who had been hosted there:
We were well-received there, Jesus, you must meet them! They
let us
stay as long as we needed.
Martha and Mary knew
the importance of hospitality. Much has been said about the apparent
division of labor between Mary and Martha in their hosting.And there was a
definite division of labor in this house apparently. Martha is the cook.
Division of labor in hosting is important but there is so much to more to
this text than that. There is so much more to this text than division of
labor because Martha and Mary are hosting God! Jesus has come for a
visit!
(vv. 39-40) Mary sat
and Martha cried out. Now, somebody had to fix something to eat. Jesus,
perhaps tired and hungry, needed to be taken care of. What do we have
here? Do we have here one who does the real work of the household while
the other enjoys the company?
It is important to read
carefully when trying to understand a passage from the Bible. In this
case it is very important to catch how the text describes Martha. The
text says Martha is “distracted.” Other translations of this Greek verb (periespato)
indicate she is “overbusied” or “overburdened;” the literal translation is
“pulled or dragged away.” Martha is distracted—distracted by what? By
serving. Ouch! She was called to serve. She was serving her Lord. How
much more joyous or fulfilling a service can there be? But for Martha
there was no joy in her serving; it was simply not fulfilling for her. It
literally dragged her away. Jesus reinforces this understanding of
Martha’s condition (v. 41). Jesus says, “You are worried (“anxious,”
“solicitous”) and distracted (a different word than the first—“troubled,”
“disturbed”). Jesus says Martha is worried, troubled, distracted by many
things. The Greek word here means “uproar, din; an outward expression of
mental agitation, outcry, tumult, commotion, noise, and confusion like
that of excited crowds or the milling about of a throng in a house of
mourning.” (v. 41). That’s what’s going on with Martha. The text uses
three different Greek words to describe her condition. They describe
someone who is full of noise, confusion, and uproar in her mind, heart,
and spirit. [translations from Ardnt, W.F. and Gingrich, F. W.,
transl. and ed., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other
Early Christian Literature, University of Chicago Press, 1957.]
Have you ever felt that
way in your service? Have you ever felt called to serve in a way that was
less in keeping with your desire and inclination? Have you ever found
yourself involved in the life of your family, your community, or your
church in a manner that was less fulfilling, less enjoyable, perhaps even
made you anxious or overburdened? Does this at all feel familiar to you?
Do you need to listen to Jesus, just as Martha did?
This text reminds me of
the wisdom of John Wesley, the founder of the movement that became our
United Methodist Church, who, in his Covenant Renewal Service shares this
admonition:
Commit yourselves to Christ as his servants.
Give yourselves to him, that you may belong to him.
Christ has many services to be done.
Some are easy and honorable,
Others are more difficult and disgraceful.
Some are suitable to our inclinations and interests,
Others are contrary to both.
In some we may please Christ and please ourselves.
But then there are other works where we cannot please Christ
Except by denying ourselves.
The
United Methodist Book of Worship 1992, p.291
Sometimes the service
we find ourselves called to do with our families, our workplace, our
school, our community, our church are easy, enjoyable, and a natural fit.
But there are so many others things, brothers and sisters, that simply
must be done. From time to time we are called upon to fulfill other
service for the good of the rest. It is service that simply some must do
for the health of the family, workplace, school, community, or church.
Isn’t that what was going on with Martha. That’s what was going on with
her and Jesus named it. The Bible says, “Don’t grow weary in
well-doing.” Clearly Martha had done just that. Martha was not
centered. She was not fulfilled in her service.
It is easy to imagine
how the day in and day out drudgery of the kind of work that Martha found
herself doing can be distracting, unfulfilling, even agitating. But that
is not the case with all the people of God. Consider the life of a
minister in the church a long time ago, Brother Lawrence who was a monk in
the monastery of Carmelite Order in the fifteenth century. Brother
Lawrence said,
I cannot imagine how religious persons can live satisfied
without the
presence of God.
Brother Lawrence always felt the presence of God
wherever he was. What was his job in the monastery? He was the cook. He
humbly referred to himself as “the lord of the pots and pans.” Of his
service he said,
The time of business does not, with me, differ from the time
of prayer;
and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons
are at
the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as
great a
tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament.
Brother Lawrence realized and experienced the goal of spiritual life:
centeredness. Wherever he went, whatever he did, he was always so
centered on the presence of God in his life that he found fulfillment and
joy in his every service.
I think Brother Lawrence
remembered what Jesus said:
Whenever you do it to the least
of these brothers and sisters of mine, you
do it to me.
Jesus says in your service you are always hosting him.
So what was going on with Martha and
Mary? To Jesus, the problem was not that Mary sat while Martha worked.
The problem was centeredness. That’s the “better part” that Mary chose.
Martha was hosting her Lord. He was right there a recipient of her loving
service. If Martha had found that experience of centeredness, that sense
of worth and value in her helpfulness, she surely would have found
fulfillment and joy in that service. Her experience would have been just
as fulfilling and joyous as Mary’s at Jesus’ feet. Brother Lawrence, you
see, never left his place at the feet of his Lord. He knew Jesus doesn’t
just come for a visit. Jesus lives in his heart.
Let me suggest this morning that
sometimes, maybe most of the time, our perception is that God only visits
you now and then. You haven’t yet developed the spiritual sensibility and
perception or simply realized the truth that God resides at the very
center of your life even as you were created. When you believe that God
only comes for a visit now and then fulfillment in your service is so much
more susceptible to your inclinations and likes and dislikes. But God
never really just comes for a visit; God stays and makes a home in your
heart. God has been there all the time, calling to you, inviting you,
loving you. You are not even at home yourself until you make your home in
God. When your centered on God who never leaves you, your every service
in his name brings fulfillment and joy.
There is good news here. When God
just comes for a visit, things change. After Jesus spoke with her, can
you not imagine that Martha kept on serving, perhaps even a little bit
like Brother Lawrence. Maybe she learned from her Lord that very day a
lesson that would sustain her in her service long after his suffering,
death, and resurrection. So don’t despair if your awareness of God’s
presence in your life is that of a periodic visitor. God is patient and
gracious. After every visit of God you perceive in your life changes you;
you are never the same again.
Let’s imagine how this story ends.
Martha, Mary, and Jesus all have dinner. It would not surprise me at all
that, as we know Jesus, he served them for he is always such a gracious
guest. Garret Keizer, in his comments on this text in the periodical
The Christian Century puts it this way:
He would have headed for the kitchen,
and found bread, and broken it—
and you know the rest.
[The
Christian Century, “Poor Martha” by Garret Keizer, July 4, 2001]
