C 11 sermon: Getting Martha out of the kitchen
Patrick McManus, a very funny author of books about
outdoor adventures has this theory that people possess a certain capacity for
worry, no more, no less. It’s as though
we have a little psychic box that we feel compelled to keep filled with
worries. When one worry disappears from
the box, we immediately replace it with another worry, so the box is always
full. We are never short of
worries. If a new crop of worries comes
in, we sort through the box for lesser worries and kick them out until there’s
enough room for the new worries. These
lesser worries just lie around on the floor, until there’s room in the box for
them again, and then they’re put back in.
They’re welcomed by the worries that have been in the box all the time:
“Hi, guys! Glad to see you. Where you
been? Boy, you should have seen the duds that just left. And they had the nerve to call themselves real
worries!”
Jesus says to Martha in today’s Gospel, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted
by many things.” We assume many things
about Martha. We picture a frenetic
woman, slaving away in the kitchen.
Guess what? Our Gospel never
mentions a kitchen, never mentions food preparation or anything that might be
termed woman’s work. Let’s look at this
passage [Luke 10.38-52] more closely. (If you want to look at the good news
Bible in your pew, turn to page 1528 and see the section on the bottom left
side “Jesus visits Martha and Mary.”)
Notice the context: Jesus and his
disciples are on their way. They are
involved in one of their mission trips.
This signals us that the context of today’s Gospel is ministry. Martha welcomes Jesus into her home this
tells us something about Martha’s role in the Christian community. As the head of a household where the
followers of Jesus meet, Martha is more than a disciple. Luke suggests to us that Martha was the head
of a local Church in his day. Next we hear Martha greeting and calling him
Lord. Martha has a deep faith in Jesus
and welcomes him into her household, her community. But Martha was upset about her work. Work translates the Greek word diakonia. Diakonia is a central concept for Jesus. From this word we get Deacon and it means
ministry or service. Martha was a
minister. She looked after detail that no one else thought of, but she took to
much on herself. But her frustration in
today’s Gospel is she is overwhelmed and overextended. Faced with potential burnout, what did she
do? She went to Jesus. Going to
Jesus…Luke uses a term that usually means entering the presence of God, the
divine presence. This a good thing. Martha pours her heart out to her Lord,
saying Lord do you not care? There are a number of ways that we can hear Martha’s
request for help: Is it a demand? A prayer?
A whine? A ‘last resort’ cry for
help? Lord, do you not care is Martha’s
deepest concern. And when we put
together her deep need for Jesus’ care and her complaint that Mary has left her
alone, we understand that she feels all alone, abandoned, not only by Mary but
also by Jesus himself. For Martha needs to know that Jesus’“cares”—that he take
notice of her distress and her trouble.
In her complaint, Martha says me three times. (well… me, then myself, then me again) Martha is all about me, me, me. When Martha gets tired, she feels trapped by
her worries about her ministry so much that she feels isolated and alone. In her isolation, she doubts her Lord. Martha is just human, just one of us and this
is the sort of response we all experience
Now Jesus speaks. He says, “Martha!
You are worried and troubled over so many things. Apparently Martha has a very big worry box
and it is full to the brim. Luke does
not tell us with what Martha is worried about.
But clearly it is about more than housework or party preparation,
because diakonia usually means
ministry or proclamation of the Gospel.
Jesus goes on: “only one thing is necessary.” Luke is reminding us the story of the lawyer
that we heard in last Sunday’s Gospel.
Remember the Lawyer who comes to Jesus and asks, “what must I do to
inherit eternal life?” Jesus says “Keep
the commandments.” When the lawyer tells
Jesus that he has done all this, Jesus tells him that he lacks only
one thing: the one thing necessary.
Jesus invited the lawyer to a new life and now he invites Martha and us to
give up our worries and put our trust in him: To put our trust in him
completely. Jesus knows us and knows how
we can obsess and worry. He knows that
we burn out, lose our focus and our balance.
In the midst of our busy lives, He invites us to remember the one thing
necessary and to recover our balance, our sense of perspective, our
equilibrium. That’s what Sunday is all
about. Sunday is our opportunity to
pause, to rest, to contemplate, to get out of the kitchen, and to focus again
on the one thing necessary. Jesus
invites Martha to find her strength and her source of hope. We come to the table of the Lord for
nourishment, for the bread of life, for the one thing necessary.
Our Gospel today is not just about two sisters from long ago. It is about us and our Community at
Nativity. It is about the tension we
feel in our busy lives of serving the Lord.
We always stand in the need of prayer.
Let us come into the divine presence, and talk to Jesus, just as Martha
did, and let us pray that we might have the joy of contemplating the mighty
acts of God whereby he has given us life and immortality through Jesus Christ
our Lord. AMEN