Loading...Ah, Mary and Martha!
These two sisters, disciples, and believers are great characters.
They are honest, they ask hard questions, they learn from Jesus,
and they help us to understand what a life of following Jesus includes.
What they are NOT, however,
is an example of competing factions in the church.
They are not an example of an “either/or” sort of discipleship.
And, they definitely are not an excuse to pit women against one another, nor can they be a model of what’s “allowed” for women in a life of faith!
There really isn’t all that much to the details of the story that Luke gives us:
• Jesus comes over for a visit – he and his disciples who are travelling (although the group fades so far to the background as to disappear);
• Martha busies herself – “distracts” herself – with tasks;
• Mary sits at Jesus’ feet and listens.
But, we’re left with questions about this story. Questions such as:
What are the tasks that Martha is busy with and distracted (a very important verb) by? We don’t know for sure, but we can imagine that they have to do with hospitality and serving. Likely the tasks are food related, but there could be more that she’s busy with, or something else.
Is Mary being a lazy bum?
Why does Martha “triangulate” Jesus into her relationship with Mary? (I can imagine Mary saying, “If you’ve got something to say to me Martha, then just say it!”)
What is Jesus getting at when he says, “the better part”, as in “Mary has chosen the better part”?
Because gender roles, family systems, and hyperbole aside,
Martha and Mary are exhibiting – practicing – the two ways that Jesus has told his disciples to be disciples!! They are to both serve and learn.
Just a few verses ago, Jesus is at the house of Simon the Pharisee and the woman “known as a sinner” comes in and serves Jesus by washing his feet with her tears, drying them with her hair, and anointing them with perfume – service.
And, Jesus has been teaching his disciples along the way, including what to do when they go out to proclaim the good news and to heal.
It cannot be that Mary’s sitting and listening is the “better part” over serving,
because Jesus has been teaching the disciples about service as an integral part of being a disciple; and later in the story, Mary and other women serve Jesus’ body after crucifixion as they prepare his body for burial.
Maybe the question to ask, then, is
what is “the better part”?
What is it that we are called to do, rather than being distracted by the many and various tasks which can, frankly, use up all of our time and energy?
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Two days in a row this week, the Spokesman Review used a “Screaming Headline.” I don’t even know how big the font was on Friday morning when the headline was about the attack by truck in Nice, France, but I’ll be that some of you could read the headline from across the room without having to squint or use binoculars.
One of those days, the headline was about Nice, France where more than 80 were killed.
The next day, we learned of the attempted military coup in Turkey during which at least 60 were killed in the “unrest”.
Really, truly, I’d like for it all to end.
I’d like for all of the unrest,
all of the killings,
all of the fear – to end.
But, how on earth do we respond – not react, but respond – when we are stunned, scared, overwhelmed and fatigued?
How do we respond?
Responding and not reacting means thoughtfulness;
it means that we cannot act solely on our emotions, even I that’s what we REALLY want to do!
Wouldn’t it be great if there was some sort of 1-800- number that we could call and they’d give us all the answers?
Wouldn’t it be great if God would swoop in and make all the mean people STOP being so ... mean?!?
Wouldn’t it be great if God would at least explain to us why there is all the meanness around?
But,
But, we cannot wait around for some magical 800# operator to tell us what’s up.
We cannot wait around for the mystical, cosmic fixing-up of the world.
We must respond.
We must respond thoughtfully and compassionately.
We must respond with what Anne Lamott calls “a show of force equal to the violence and tragedies: mercy force; un-negotiated compassion force; crazy care-giving to the poor and suffering, including ourselves.”
What might this kind of force look like?
• Helping a neighbor move out of a house where there is domestic violence;
• Mow the grass and pull weeds for an elder down the street;
• Show up to cook or to serve at the Dinner Table at West Central Mission;
• Offer a safe place in your front yard for kids in the neighborhood to play in a sprinkler in the heat;
• Advocate for just laws for low income housing tenants;
• Get to know someone who is different from you – in terms of age, race, culture, social-economic status, politics;
• Learn the deeper stories of the situation for people seeking asylum or refugee status.
As Anne Lamott suggests, pick out and try to do three anonymous good deeds for someone else (pick from this list or think of other merciful and compassionate and kind acts), so that we can all be part of the force of love.
BUT – and this is a big “but” –
don’t do them like Martha did, to distract yourself or to fill the day with busywork!
Do the work of the kingdom:
the work of service AND of thoughtful intention
(which, by the way, means listening first).
Do this because this is the discipleship to which we’ve been called; this is the “better part”.
The “better part” that Jesus speaks of
is listening and learning, then serving and doing
all for the sake of God’s beloved people in the world
(not so that we can “look busy”!).
The “better part” is both Martha and Mary, and their participation in discipleship.
The “better part” that Jesus speaks of
is being a part of the grace-filled, love-filled, mercy-filled force in the world
that is the force of God’s love for us all.
Amen
