Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost – Year C Proper 11 (RCL) 2010
Genesis 18: 1 – 10a, Psalm 15, Colossians 1: 15 – 28, Luke 10: 38 – 42
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish Portland, OR
Sunday, July 18, 2010

BLESS THIS MESS

Let us pray: Gentle and patient Jesus you are always calling us to new visions of our relationship with you and with others. Help us to value the learning’s from our sacred stories and keep our hearts and minds open to new ways in which we might find your truth. In our eagerness to be of service to others, help us to remember to take the time first to nourish our spirits with your Word and our hungry hearts with your Sacrament, which give us all that we need to serve you and others in your name. Amen.

(SUNG) TAKE MY LIFE, AND LET IT BE CONSECRATED, LORD TO
THEE; TAKE MY MOMENTS AND MY DAYS, LET THEM FLOW IN
CEASELESS PRAISE.

Do you remember the promises around the benefits of the new age of technology? The gadgets and inventions of the guru’s of efficiency and organization promised us a “paperless” office; more time for leisure and learning as a result of less time needed for the mundane tasks of our work and household routines. For me these promises have yet to be fulfilled. As I spend more and more time retrieving voicemails and emails; surfing more websites for biblical commentary and sermon preparation resources; catching up with friends and family via Facebook and plugging and unplugging my cell phone and laptop from their chargers, I find myself with less and less time to sit back and reap the benefits of all this freedom the tools were designed to give me. The reality of our lives in the consumer conscious culture of the early part of the twenty first century is that we are all far too busy keeping up with the technology of our society to have any time to be able to engage with the deeper longings of our souls. We often long to simply “unplug” the complexity of our lives so that we might be able to focus on those deeper moments of connection with our spiritual selves. The alarm clock rings and we are off – filling our days with the necessities of work and family responsibility and rarely having the chance to whisper a word of prayer that we might hear God’s voice asking us to find some time for meditation and reflection. We have been dragged into our society’s compulsion to constantly produce more and more “stuff” so that the god of consumption might better be served and reward us with more and more “things” to help distract us from the ever widening gulf between the “haves” and the “have nots”.

Into this whirlwind of busyness and production – the never-ending cycle of consume and replace – comes our Gospel lesson this morning of the story of Martha and Mary. Our busy, busy lives are modeled in the activity and preparation which consumes the host, Martha – who is, after all only trying to carry out the duties of hospitality which are of paramount importance in her culture and society. Jesus enters “a certain village” un-named in this author’s account but from the other Synoptic accounts we know the town to be “Bethany” which is about 2 miles from the big city – Jerusalem. Note that the author of Luke/Acts tells us that Martha welcomed Jesus into “her home.” Once again we will be standing at the edges of “societal propriety”. Women of that culture, first of all, rarely owned a home – and if they did would never have looked to entertain a single male (and possibly his entourage of disciples and followers) without considering the possibility of gossip and scandal which might have resulted. None of that is recounted in our narrative; and so we might assume that Martha was a person of some means and social status who welcomes Jesus into her house that it might become a place of refuge and rest before the final journey toward Jerusalem. This Martha is no “shrinking violet” who serves merely as a device for the plot as a contrast to her sister Mary. This is a female “head of household” who looks to welcome the rabbi and healer into her home and honor his presence with them by fulfilling her role as “diakonos” or servant to the hospitality codes of her culture.

(SUNG) TAKE MY HANDS AND LET THEM MOVE AT THE IMPULSE OF
THY LOVE, TAKE MY HEART, IT IS THINE OWN; IT SHALL BE
THY ROYAL THRONE.

This code of hospitality and the responsibility to entertain and provide for the needs of the traveling visitor is laid out clearly in the story from the Genesis account of Abraham’s encounter with the three mysterious “visitors” who appear before his tent by the Oaks of Mamre. This encounter serves as a wonderful model for the idea of taking to heart the concept of providing for the stranger among us. In the desert encounter with the three men, one of whom is the Lord God, Abraham and Sarah receive in return for their faithfulness, God’s continued promise to give them a Son who will be the fulfillment of the Covenantal promise. In the Lukan account, once again the Lord God, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, visits God’s people prior to the fulfillment of the new Covenantal promise fulfilled in God’s son, Jesus and the ultimate sacrifice made for humanity upon the cross at Jerusalem. The care and nurture of the visitor; the fulfillment of the hospitality code of her society and the personal connection between Martha, Mary and Jesus make for no light “dismissal” of the importance which Martha would have placed upon her welcome of her guest. She would have been frantically going about the business of making her home a haven of rest and peace for the road weary Rabbi. Contrasting Martha’s responsible role as host and head of household – is her sister Mary who also breaks with the cultural expectations of her society and takes a position at the feet of the teacher to listen to his words. This would definitely have been a role taken by the male disciples of that culture and was an accepted act of respect and deference given to a person of influence and importance by those who looked to learn from the wisdom and insight of the teacher – but certainly not an accepted role for a female of that time and culture. Once again, we find Jesus smashing the norms of his society and culture in order to break through with the radical gospel message of God’s Kindom come among us.

We have expectations of ourselves, and we have expectations of our God and how that relationship works between us. We agree to take on the responsibilities of our lives, to do the job, to earn the rewards of our work well done – and when we look for our final accounting with our creator we hope to hear, “well done, good and faithful servant.” Yet in today’s Gospel story we want to identify with Martha, we want to say, “Lord, why is it that we always have to do all the work – could you please point out to our wives, or our husbands or our children that everyone is expected to do their fair share and no one gets to sit around and daydream about your Word while the rest of us are trying to simply do the things that must be done?” And Jesus smiles and reminds us that if all we do is do, do, do – all we get is dodo. Jesus points out that we are too often distracted by the many “things” which we know have to get done and too often we fail to take the opportunity to sit at Christ’s feet and listen to what is being said in the Word made flesh who dwells among us.

(SUNG) TAKE MY VOICE AND LET ME SING ALWAYS, ONLY, FOR
MY KING; TAKE MY INTELLECT, AND USE EVERY POWER AS
THOU SHALT CHOOSE.

The events of today’s Gospel lesson immediately follow those that we read last week, in which Jesus compels the inquiring young lawyer after telling him the story of the Good Samaritan, to “go and do likewise”. It is a command from our Rabbi to be disciples of action; to be doers of the Word rather than merely hearer’s. The message from the story of Martha and Mary appears to be the exact opposite – in this story Mary is commended for her faithfulness in being at the feet of the teacher and listening; while Martha is chastised for her action, her busyness and her distraction by “things”. That response is often difficult for some of us who are Martha’s. Some of us are doers and preparer’s and the one who is always to be counted on to make sure that everyone has everything that they need – who are righteously justified when we take umbrage that others are not doing their fair share! Because, after all God which is it? Are we to be doers of the Word (“go and do likewise”) or are we to be hearers of the Word (“Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken from her”)? Is it black, or is it white? Is it either or is it or? Oftentimes to our annoyance and consternation Jesus’ response is; “it’s shades of grey”; Jesus’ response is, “it’s both and”.

(SUNG) TAKE MY WILL AND MAKE IT THINE, IT SHALL BE NO LONGER
MINE. TAKE MY SELF, AND I WILL BE EVER, ONLY, ALL FOR
THEE.

The late Henri Nouwen, who sparked much energy and challenge in our exploration of his short work, The Wounded Healer - had this to say about our “busyness”. He was talking about the busyness of Christmas, but it could have just as well been about the busyness of Fourth of July or any other “normal” day in our busy schedules. He said: “I often think, a life is like a day, it goes by so fast. If I am so careless with my days, how can I be careful with my life? In many ways we are like the busy person who walks up to a precious flower and says, ‘what for God’s sake are you doing here? Can’t you get busy someway?’ And then finds themselves unable to understand the flower’s response; ‘I am sorry sir, but I am just here to be beautiful.’ Nouwen asks, “How can we also come to this wisdom of the flower that being is more important than doing?”

Part of the lesson to be gleaned from God’s Good News of this day is of the importance of being able to strike that balance between our call to be Disciples of action and our invitation to be Disciples of discernment and introspection. I offer you my mantra of calming when I become too deeply embroiled in the activity of my life – when I become too cluttered with the noise of the committee that often takes up residence in my head, I use this simple phrase from the 46th Psalm and pray it backward:

Be still then and know that I am God
Be still then and know that I am
Be still then and know that I
Be still then and know that
Be still then and know
Be still then and
Be still then
Be still
Be.

Amen.