Martha, Martha, Martha!
Luke 10:38-42
Back in 1990, a futuristic movie was made about what the world might look like if Christian fundamentalism were to sweep the globe. It was called “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Based on the novel by Margaret Atwood, it is an excellent script about how people survive when there world has gone crazy in the name of God. In the story, religious factions use nuclear weapons to destroy each other. Women who remain fertile after all the ecological destruction become handmaids to rich families, bearing the children that the wives can no longer conceive – following the story of Abraham taking Hagar to bear a child when Sarah was thought to be barren. Servants are called “Marthas” based on our scripture lesson for today. It is a chilling and compelling vision of what can happen when religion goes bad and I would recommend either the book or the film version to you. It is also an example of how a misunderstanding of the scriptural story takes on a life of its own.
In fact, our scripture lesson is a perplexing story. It has been used as a basis to condemn works righteousness, to show the importance of worship attendance and to justify ascetic Christianity that values being with God much more than being with people. Yet, in lots of ways, this is a very simple story.
“Make Mary help me!” Martha pleads. Sometimes I read this story and I can’t help but hear Jesus respond with his best Jan Brady voice and say, “Martha, Martha, Martha!”
We get a clue from Luke that there is an urgency present in this story when Luke tells us that this is one of the “on his way to Jerusalem” narratives. Somehow Mary has sensed this. Otherwise, what she is doing by not helping out is inhospitable, unfair to her sister, and worst of all means she is “acting like a man” which may have been what Martha considered the worse offense.
Martha recognized the importance of hospitality. She has guests in her home – an entourage with Jesus. They need food, drink, comfortable surroundings. The gift Martha is offering her guests is a noble gift. Martha’s plea to Jesus is one every over-worked church leader has heard echoing in our own heads. “Jesus, tell the rest of those good-for-nothings to get off their butts and help!” Can I get a witness?
Context is everything. Martha was so busy doing the good things that she knew needed to be done and as a good person she was willing to do, but at that moment, something else was more important.
At the Town Hall meeting last Saturday evening here in our sanctuary I had a “Martha moment.” It had been such a busy weekend. The Town Hall meeting was winding down and it was almost time to say goodnight when I felt Holy Spirit’s nudge. You see, in the conversation we were having that night were folks from our church and folks from other places. We were talking about whether discrimination as in making choices over against other choices was different from discrimination that served as injustice. One of our guests, a pastor from another local congregation, had mentioned that he would discriminate against asking me to preach in his pulpit and he assumed I would do the same with him. He was right about that. I didn’t get to say it that night but I am very careful about who gets to speak with authority from this pulpit – not because I want to protect you from things that will challenge you but because I want to protect you from those who would use religion as a weapon. There is a clear distinction in my mind. Yet, it seemed like Holy Spirit was saying to me that night as we were winding down the Town Hall meeting, [PP4] “This is a kairos moment.” Greek language has two words we often translate as “time.” One is “chronos” and means time in a chronological sense. “Kairos” is an opportune time or what we might call a Holy Spirit moment.
On Saturday night I tried to explain what I was sensing to the gathered group that indeed there are times when we need to step outside our comfort zone and take risks. I offered the pastor with whom we had the exchange an opportunity to pray our closing prayer. It felt like a reasonable risk and an opportunity to actually live out the concepts we had been discussing that night – bridging the gaps, listening to people who don’t share our perspective, healing old wounds. I was stunned when he declined. I understand that it was a spur of the moment request and he was caught off guard by it, still I thought what a great opportunity this would be for him to demonstrate the depth of his faith and offer grace to those gathered – to reach across the chasm of our theologies and let the Spirit speak. Jesus called us to pray for our enemies. Is it unthinkable to pray for people with whom we disagree? I thank God for Dr. Love picking up the ball and moving us towards closure that night. As I reflected upon that evening it occurred to me that this was similar to what happened at Martha and Mary’s house that night with Jesus. Mary chose what was important at that moment for her to be doing. It didn’t mean she wouldn’t ever help out in the kitchen or that she would neglect pulling her weight in the family. It was just an opportunity to experience kairos time and know God’s presence in that opportune moment in a powerful way.
Once again, Jesus challenges our assumptions – even the assumptions about what most of us would consider important church work – to say to Martha and to us, there are times when we let the good work we are doing distract us from being present with God. Is there any worse irony?
Over the last four months, lots of us have been working really hard – on raising money through Blessed and Blessing Others, on raising awareness through “Would Jesus Discriminate?” and with our Pride activities to make sure we had an effective presence to the 350,000 people who participated in that weekend. And I would be willing to bet next week’s offering that at some point, every one of us who was sweating or carrying or scrubbing or planning or worrying or cooking or marching or mailing thought to ourselves, “Where’s everybody else? I’m here doing all this work for Jesus and I’m getting sick and tired of those people who just sit in a pew and never lift a finger. What is the matter with them? Why aren’t they committed? How come I end up doing so much and others just slide along? They are just a bunch of slackers, that’s what they are, the whole lot of them!” And suddenly, we find ourselves in the exact place where Martha was – the distractions of doing our good work overwhelm the power of our good work. I thank God that there is a Martha in all of us. And I know this is dangerous to say in a gay church, but I thank God for the Mary in each of us too – those who recognize when God is doing something special and we need to pay attention. We need both. Amen?
Sources:
http://fusionanomaly.net/handmaidstale.jpg
http://hometown.aol.com/intdesfan/myhomepage/movies.html
www.homileticsonline.com Messy Mary, July 2007.
