Martha doing the right thing, and panicking. – A sermon for Pentecost 6, July 21st, 2019
Text: Luke 10:38-42
I’m going to make many of you feel old now. The brady bunch went off the air 8 years before I was born, and so I have never heard the line Marsha, Marsha, Marsha on tv. Only referenced by other people or said sarcastically. It is an unfamiliar enough line that this week during text study when I referenced it I thought it was Martha, Martha, Martha.
And Marsha, Marsha, Marsha, that exasperated tone, is how we usually hear Jesus talking in our text today. Oh Martha, you just can’t figure anything out. Silly, flighty Martha, concentrating on all the wrong stuff! Don’t be a Martha! Be a Mary! Stop focusing on the world Martha! Focus on Jesus!
There’s an abundance of ways people look at this text, and many of them throw Martha under the bus.
Martha’s doing the right thing though.
And, well, so is Mary.
What’s going on here? Jesus has just finished telling the story of the Good Samaritan, which ends how? Go and do likewise! Show hospitality and mercy to all.
Martha is showing hospitality. She’s seeing that Jesus and disciples are staying at her house, and she’s working to provide for them. Now, Mary is also providing hospitality as well, showing interest and spending time with guests is just as important as caring for them. And we could go into depths about the differences there, but I today I want us to focus on Martha, and Jesus’ response to her.
Martha is panicking. I think she’s having a panic attack, near nervous breakdown. Reading it through many times, different versions, I don’t think this is just normal annoyed that her sister isn’t helping her, it’s not fair type response. We read “Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked.” Distracted can also be seeing as overwhelmed, the word in Greek is perispao. Peri means around and the word Spao drawn, it’s the word that we get spastic or spaz from. Martha is drawn spastically. She’s distracted, but not by a shiny thing, or busy work, but distracted because she’s freaking out internally. Jesus and the disciples just showed up, at least 13 extra people to host suddenly, if not more others who would be following Jesus around at this time. And they come to her house. So, she abruptly has a multitude of people to feed and house, and she looks in to see how they’re doing and what’s her sister doing? Not helping. Just sitting there. And so, Martha comes in and well, sort of breaks down. Tell her to help me!
It’s the middle of summer now. How many of you have accomplished the projects, tasks, and trips that you gave yourself at the beginning? How many are starting to think, ok… this is not all going to get done?
Sarah and I just got new bedroom furniture, so we’re moving furniture around and that makes a good time to get new curtains and curtain rod like we’ve been wanting, VBS is next week, so we have all that planning to do, and then it’s my parents 40th wedding anniversary on August 4th and we have a gathering for that to go to. And that’s just the next 2 weeks. Oh and it’s a million degrees out as well.
American culture has a work ethic to it, to a fault many times. Even when many of us go on vacation we cram all that time full of activities. You can’t just go to the beach or lake, you have to do this, and that, and the other, and maybe a few more things too. How is it that when we’re supposed to be resting, we still can’t make ourselves just take time off.
How many of you have heard someone say, or even said it yourself, I need a vacation from my vacation?
These summer months, where we’ve told ourselves that everything will slow down and we’ll be able to rest, often are just as overwhelming. And then it’s school, and then it’s fall activities, then Halloween, then Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Boom. Just like that.
Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.
This is not a text about Martha bad, Mary good. It’s a text about sabbath, and Jesus’ pastoral request that Martha take it.
Jesus is not admonishing Martha here, he’s pastorally telling her, it’s going to be ok, Martha. You are safe Martha, I am here.
Sit please, Martha and breathe, listen to me, and rest.
Everyone, take a deep breath. And now slowly let it out. Close your eyes and again, breathe deep. Let it out slowly. God is here. Again breathe deep, and exhale slowly. Christ walks with you. Breathe, and exhale. The Spirit fills you. Breathe, and exhale.
How do you feel? That was 10 seconds of just pause, breathing and listening.
We need to be like Mary, not because Martha’s wrong, but because we too often, just like Martha, become overwhelmed with everything that is surrounding us that we miss Jesus’ call to sit, breathe and rest.
People of God, may you hear Jesus’ calming response to Martha as a call to you too. You are worried and distracted by many things, there is need of only one thing. Sit, breathe, and listen. Amen.
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