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A Magnet for Marthas
Luke 10:38 – 42 |
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Summary
A Magnet for Marthas We are told that Jesus entered a certain village, where “… a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.” Martha, apparently, is the greeter for this little congregation. And she is not just any old greeter, going through the motions to get her “service” requirement checked off. She is a carefully trained, highly motivated greeter who properly welcomes Jesus the way people are supposed to be welcomed to the church. She doesn’t let this man get past her without her approaching him, shaking his hand and saying something to him. She is no doubt reminding herself, “This could be Jesus I’m greeting here!” She’s done the greeter training program. She is actively and proactively thinking of ways in which she can reach out to people. She knows all of the Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations — she has them memorized. She’s doing all the right things to make this guest feel welcomed, to usher him into the presence of God. She’s rushing around, getting refreshments ready, making sure there are enough chairs, that everybody is properly greeted, that everyone feels welcomed whether they’re first-time visitors or have been coming for 20 years. And then there’s Mary. What in the world is she doing? Nothing! All she does for Jesus is sit at his feet and listen to him! What is she thinking? What is she doing, really, to build up the church? What is she doing to make people feel welcomed? What if unchurched people — or first-time visitors — come to the door and she just sits there and ignores them so she can listen to what Jesus is saying? Really! That’s all she’s doing! Sitting there, “listening to what he’s saying”! Why isn’t she up putting Jesus’ teachings into action? What if Paul didn’t do anything but sit at Jesus’ feet, listening to what he’s saying? James? Where’s James? What would he have to say about this? After all, what does Mary think she’s doing? Is she supposed to be “showing us her faith” by just sitting there? Really, this is downright offensive! Mary is driving people away from the church! She is obviously one of those people who don’t care whether the church grows or not! She must be one of those people who think that the church is fine just the way it is! What is she doing to attract new members? Hey Mary! Mary! What Would Jesus Do?!? Let’s ask him …. Okay, so this is more than a little unfair. But, really, sometimes it seems that the church — the whole church, not just this one — is a magnet for people like Martha: task-oriented, goal-driven people who believe they are not faithful unless they are working frantically on some project or other, who just cannot stand not having a mission to accomplish — with Five-Year Plans and projections, along with bulleted lists and meaningful, measurable, obtainable goals, the attainment of which is expected by close of business, Friday. However, in this case, anyway, it is Mary who has chosen the better part — Mary, sitting there with her feet tucked up and her hands behind her head, “clarifying her Christology.” Two biblical stories Let us be clear that we are not to take this passage as some kind of a slam against activism, or a recommendation that the “contemplative” life takes precedence over all other kinds of discipleship. At the time when Jesus paid his visit to Mary and Martha, there was no such thing as “active” versus “contemplative”; that conversation doesn’t begin until several centuries later. And it’s no accident that this visit happened immediately following Jesus’ encounter with a certain lawyer, who drew out of him the teachable moment we know of as the parable of the Good Samaritan. What we have before us, in these two stories, taken together, is an illustration of the many ways in which discipleship can happen in this life. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” a lawyer asked Jesus, just a couple of long paragraphs earlier. Does Jesus say something like, “Do? You don’t have to DO anything! Just sit and listen! No, he tells the lawyer a parable that serves to recommend placing oneself at risk in a “bad neighborhood,” and putting oneself out of pocket, to care for a total stranger. If this course of action is not a completely “Martha-esque” activism, then what is? Yes, there are times when such a complete commitment to doing — that involves mind, body and all available physical and material resources — is called for. “Go and do ...” are Jesus’ final words to that lawyer. Some of us are really good at this kind of activism. Martha no doubt would have found a way to outdo that Good Samaritan, six different ways from Sunday. What confronts us here, more than anything, is the radical nature of following Jesus Christ. We see in these two stories how “discipleship” — following Jesus — truly sets things on their heads, completely reverses society’s expectations. They show us how discipleship requires one course, then another completely different one, with no apparent overarching framework other than the commandment to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbor as we love our very self. A reversal of expectations In these two scenes out of the ministry of Jesus — the Good Samaritan followed by the formidable Martha — cultural expectations and deeply engrained prejudices are set upon their heads in a way that we perhaps can’t fully appreciate, removed as we are by two millennia from the Palestine through which Jesus walked. To a lawyer of Israel, Jesus recommends the behavior of a Samaritan as most closely following the activism expected by God of those who would think of themselves as God-centered, God-focused people. Samaritans and Jews, as I’m sure you know, were bitterly hostile in those days; each community thought of itself as the only truly God-centered community. When Jesus asks the rhetorical question “Which of these three … was a neighbor,” the lawyer cannot even bring himself to say, “the Samaritan.” Instead he says, “The one who showed him mercy.” A Samaritan was the one who truly demonstrates the mercy of God? Impossible! We see the same outrageous reversal of expectation in this story of Martha and Mary. Martha is doing what women were expected to do in that time and place. She is running around frantically serving up food and drink, while the men sit at the feet of the Master, absorbing his teachings. Except in this case, as the saying goes, one of the “men” is a woman — Mary, blatantly taking on the role reserved solely for male disciples. One wonders if she really sees herself as boldly treading paths heretofore reserved for males. Not likely — the conversations springing from the various waves of feminism are even further removed historically than those concerning “actives” and “contemplatives.” No, Mary is just doing what seems right for her to do at the time — which makes what she’s doing that much more commendable. She is not self-consciously making some kind of daring sociopolitical statement; she is just doing, for Jesus, what she feels moved to do. And Jesus does not hesitate to tell her, and everyone else within hearing, that she has “chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” One commentator tells us that “this episode reveals the nature of authentic hospitality.” This is no “anti-activist” screed recommending listening and learning and trusting in grace over “works-righteousness” or anything like that. Martha’s faux pas — and it is a minor one — is not that she is greeting and welcoming and serving and being hospitable. The problem is that she has, temporarily, lost sight of the reason for hospitality; for her, hospitality has, briefly, become an end in itself. Jesus brings her back on course. The purpose of hospitality, the purpose of all our greeting and making welcome, must be above all nothing more than a creation of space, making space for people to come and sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to him and learn from him and then, as in the admonition to the lawyer in the parable of the Good Samaritan, “go and do.” As we follow Mary and sit at the feet of Jesus and listen and learn, may we thank God that the church is indeed a magnet for Marthas. Indeed, where would the church be, if Paul had done nothing other than sit at Jesus’ feet and listen? Where would we be if James, the brother of the Lord, had not been bold to admonish us to get up and show society and the world what we have learned at the feet of Jesus? Yes, the “better part” of discipleship is listening to, and learning from, the teachings of the Lord. But may we never lose sight of the end: “Go and do likewise.” |
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