Luke 10:38-42
July 22, 2007
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
In our society today, it is increasingly difficult to take a vacation from work. Even if you had vacation days to use, you can’t find the time to use them. Maybe the nature of your work won’t let you. Maybe your employer makes it difficult for you to get away. And when you do get away and are finally out of town, you may still have your cell phone on and your laptop connected to the internet so that you are always available. And upon your return from vacation, you can expect a desk piled high with urgent projects and hundreds of emails to read! Sometimes we think that it’s not worth it to get away.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, the average employed American works a 46-hour workweek; 38% of those surveyed in their study worked more than 50 hours per week. We work too much. There’s hardly any time to catch your breath.
When I was growing up, my father frequently told me to, “Make yourself useful!” When I was just a little boy, he made me a shoeshine box out of scrap wood. He painted it blue and filled it with black and brown shoeshine paste, brushes and spit-shine cloths. He wanted me to go to downtown Boston to shine people’s shoes! I never did but I did become the shoeshine boy for our entire family. Whenever pairs of shoes needed to be shined, they were left for me to shine! I don’t have my old blue shoeshine box anymore, but I do have a shoeshine box and I still shine shoes!
When Martha was growing up, she probably heard the same words that I did: “Make yourself useful!” She welcomed Jesus into her home—and by the way, it is remarkable that a woman of her time owned her own home. Martha’s life was one of hard work. Not only was she a gourmet cook in the kitchen, we might speculate that she kept the synagogue sparkling clean and baked cookies for their sidewalk tea. She measured the success of her days by what she had achieved. She was making herself useful and was often out of breath.
Mary and Martha
Whenever we read this passage about Mary and Martha that is only found in Luke, we are tempted to fault Martha. Yet, Martha is doing exactly what was expected of a host in the ancient world. Why then does Jesus not commend her hard work and instead commend Mary of her appropriate place at his feet?
When we read Luke’s gospel, we are keenly aware of timing. There is a sense of urgency that runs throughout his gospel—a sense that now is the time of action. Salvation must come today. Read from this perspective, we recognize Jesus’ role in God’s overall plan for salvation. Might Jesus’ commendation of Mary when he should have commended Martha be related to this urgency that salvation is coming now?
Notice that it’s Martha who welcomed Jesus and probably at least twelve of his disciples into her house. Earlier in Chapter 10, Jesus sent out 70 disciples to go before him and gave them instructions about being received into a household. For those who receive them, Jesus tells the 70 to grant them peace and to remind the hosts that the kingdom of God has come near. Last Sunday, we read about the Good Samaritan and how the Samaritan had compassion for his neighbor and demonstrated hospitality. Jesus ends the parable with the command, “Go and do likewise.”
Martha was doing what Jesus and his disciples expected—she welcomed Jesus into her house and offered hospitality. She went and was doing likewise. But then Luke introduces us to Martha’s sister named Mary. Mary likes to sit at the Lord’s feet and listen to his teaching. What we can assume is that Jesus was again teaching about the coming of the kingdom of God. The urgency of the kingdom coming prompts Jesus to break the law and to heal on the Sabbath day. So we see that Mary, a first-century Jewish woman who is supposed to help with the household chores, sat at the feet of Jesus, where only men were expected to do and assumed place of a disciple, was aware that the kingdom of God was near. She broke the traditional customs and social boundaries of her days because the kingdom of God was near.
Mary neglects her duties as a member of the hosting family and sits and listens at the feet of Jesus. Mary recognizes the importance of this visit. But Martha is busy—very busy in fact. She was distracted by many tasks. With Jesus’ entourage, Martha is busy serving her guests. Martha is not distracted doing work for herself. She is distracted in the service not performed by others and specifically Mary! Martha recognizes the importance of serving her guests, and she is frustrated with her sister for sitting around on the floor when she could be helping. After all, it was Mary’s duty to serve.
Out of desperation, out of breath, Martha appeals to Jesus to help her sister recognize her place in the household. Martha may have called Jesus, “Lord,” that indicates that she knew who Jesus is but her plea was not “Lord-centered” but self-centered: “Do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.”
Jesus’ response to weary Martha was of no relief. The truly controversial feature of this story is Jesus’ validation of Mary’s actions. Martha was only doing what was expected of her as a woman in a first-century Jewish household. Mary, on the other hand, had neglected her role and had shamefully adopted the role of a man—a man who sat at the feet of a rabbi. Learning in such a manner was not the place of a woman. But by sitting at the feet of the Lord and granting Jesus her undivided attention, Mary offers Jesus true hospitality. She may not be busy serving her guest, but she hears his teaching and begins to see that when the kingdom of God draws near, it challenges life as normal.
Sabbath Time
Martha’s words to Jesus to have Mary help out with the house chores might have been filled with a measure of anger and resentment. But Jesus’ reply to Martha was likely given in a tone filled with love. Martha had welcomed Jesus to her home—perhaps many times. She was one of his dearest friends. So dear, that on the last journey to Jerusalem, Jesus has stopped to visit. His words urge Martha to just stop her frenzied activity, and listen. Jesus invites Martha to Sabbath time—to join Mary in welcoming him into her heart. To join Mary in simply catching her breath and being in his presence.
Harvey Cox, the Harvard theologian once said that the meaning of Sabbath rest is “to catch one’s breath.” How many of us need to catch our breath today—to receive some Sabbath rest as Mary did and what Martha needed?
The story of Martha and Mary reminds us that the church needs both Martha and Mary. Martha is the perfect example of what it means to serve one’s neighbor. Her work in the kitchen is her ministry and call. Martha exemplifies the active life of ministry and Mary, that of the contemplative part. Mary, sitting in the presence of the Lord, and just breathing, leads us into knowing the Lord’s Prayer. It is the prayer of the worshipping community. In our busy lives, we need to stop and rest—to keep the Lord’s Day by being a part of the community. We can’t accomplish our ministry when we forget the balance of work and rest. The world needs both those who serve through their work and those who sit and breathe and pray.
Today we are always busy, always achieving, always consuming, always surrounded by noise. In the days when I had my blue shoeshine box, Sunday used to be different—a day of physical rest, if nothing more. Our parents took us after church for a stroll through the Boston Public Gardens and a ride on the swan boats. We would have family picnics at the zoo. There were Sunday drivers who visit relatives to deepen the ties to the extended family. There was no shopping to be done when the “blue laws” were enforced. We’ve lost the balance between work and rest. There is no time in our busy lives for rest and to catch our breath.
Martha and Mary are meant to teach us that we are each created with a built-in rhythm—the need to stop our frenzied, overstressed, over-worked lives and to just take a deep breath and enjoy the presence of God. We have no trouble embracing the Martha in us. The question is: “How do we embrace the Mary in ourselves?
Embracing Mary
On a Sunday morning, it is a challenge for us at FCBC to receive Jesus’ invitation to stop and breathe. Being the sandwiched worship service in our sanctuary, we are frequently making a fast dash inside with our youth coming out and making a fast exit with the Cantonese service people coming in. Perhaps we need to create an opportunity for me to say, “Now just stop, and take a deep breath.” Maybe instead of a musical prelude, we just sit in silence for a moment to simply be in the presence of God.
When we may find it difficult to attend even one hour of worship, we can learn some ways of embracing Mary to keep our Sabbath rest in our personal lives. Some of us read the daily devotional materials like The Secret Place or The Upper Room that are available to you in the vestibule. The time of the day that you have a moment with God doesn’t matter; what does matter is scheduling a regular time to rest and breathe in God’s presence. For me, I get up early in the morning usually before the sunrise when the world is quiet and waking up. At that time, I am quiet and God speaks to me so that I may hear.
Many of us eat on the go and even if we are eating at home, we eat in shifts whenever anyone is ready to eat. As families and with our friends, we can keep the Sabbath together. We can invite people to a special meal, taking out the best china and crystal and making the meal the dining experience for the evening. There’s no other program except to share God’s abundance with one another and to take time to rest and thank God for food, health, family, friends, and rest.
Some companies have as a benefit, “personal days” or “mental health days.” These are not sick days, but meant to be times for an employee to refresh and renew one’s mind and spirit so that one can be more productive at work. In our biblical story, Mary is taking a “spiritual health day” to be with Jesus. Martha is more worried about production schedules, but Jesus invites Martha to understand that her spirit needs a time to build a relationship with God just as much as she needs to be a productive and effective host.
2008 Sabbatical
By now, you have read in the church newsletter or heard from me that the Deacons have approved a sabbatical renewal leave for me in the summer of 2008. By next summer, I would have been your pastor for 10 years and I need to catch my breath. Hopefully, I have been a good Martha for you and this church. I would like to be a better Mary for you and this church.
One of my life-long personal and professional goals is to visit Israel and to have a spiritual pilgrimage in the place where Jesus walked. My plans are to take a month in June to study as a student with other pastors, priests and rabbis the biblical traditions and stories. I want to catch my breath by reading textbooks, engage in conversations with other faith leaders, pray, and reflect on God’s presence among us.
Martha was so busy with her serving that she failed to pay attention to Jesus. The word “attention” comes from two Latin words, ad and tendere. When combined, they mean “to reach toward.” When we pay attention to Jesus, we are reaching toward Jesus in the faith that he desires to interact and reach out to us. When we pay attention to Jesus, we are trusting that the Jesus we want to be in relationship with is one who wants to be in relationship with us.
After my month-long study course, I am planning a two-week spiritual pilgrimage tour to Israel and possibly Egypt in July for a group from our church. I don’t want to be the only one to pay attention to Jesus. I want you to embrace the Mary in you and to pay attention to Jesus too. It’s my prayerful hope that as we reach toward Jesus, Jesus will interact and relate to us.
Our True Identity
God wants us to take seriously the value of our one and only precious life. We must pay attention to Jesus when he honors Mary for listening instead of laboring. When the Kingdom of God is near as Jesus has taught us, getting all of the house chores completed is not as important as being in the presence of God.
Jesus’ encounter with Martha and Mary teaches us that our true identity is not determined by the work we do. Rather our true identity is to be found in our relationship with Christ.
It is possible to embrace both the Martha and the Mary in each one of us. It is possible to respond to Jesus’ invitation to stop and catch our breath, and enjoy the Sabbath rest. I hope that when I go on sabbatical next summer that you might consider joining me in Israel to pay attention to Jesus and in faith, Jesus will relate with us so that we may be embraced by God.
Let us pray.
Sovereign God, in six days you created the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day you rested from all your labors. But we confess that we have an aversion to resting. We admit that we are a society that is addicted to work, hoping to reap the raises and promotions that we believe long hours of labor will bring us. We acknowledge that we are a people who often brag about how full our schedules are, wearing our busyness like a badge of honor. We confess that many times we are a church that is willing to have meetings and conduct business, yet we grow uncomfortable when it comes time to pray and meditate. In your steadfast love, forgive our sin, and enable us to enjoy the rest you want us to have. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, in whose grace we trust. Amen.