Done With Distractions
- Jul 18, 2010
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Galatians 5: 22-26; 6: 1-2
Jesus has been teaching his disciples about serving others, sending them out to teach and heal, and telling the parable of the Good Samaritan. Now his teaching takes a different turn.
Luke 10: 38-42 7-18-10
Done With Distractions
In five short verses, Luke gives us a snapshot of gospel hospitality.
Hospitality is an art form, and each artist does it differently. You might be the Martha Stewart type, spending days planning a meal, re-decorating a room to go with the theme of the meal, learning about your guests’ whims and dislikes. Or you could be at the other end of the spectrum, with Domino’s on speed dial. It’s not your décor or your cooking ability that makes for hospitality.
According to the dictionary, hospitality is giving a friendly reception and generous treatment to guests and strangers. Martha is doing a good job of providing for the needs of her guests, until she can’t stand the heat of the kitchen any longer, and demands, “Jesus, make Mary help me.” Did you ever say similar words to your parent about a sibling? As an adult, have you complained to a teacher or other authority figure about people who’re not pulling their weight?
When blaming enters the room, the climate of warmth and welcome turns cold and destructive. Martha marched into the midst of Jesus and the disciples—her righteous indignation leading the charge: “I’ve been doing all the work all by myself, to feed you and make you comfortable, while my airhead sister sits on her sitter in the cool den, thinking about things beyond her station!”
Martha wouldn’t even address Mary directly. Rather, she tried to put the honored guest to work as judge to settle her problem—in her favor, of course. Her anger at Mary led her to berate her sister in front of guests. It even overshadowed her love for Jesus. Her self-righteousness took away the joy she might have had in serving him. Her service turned, from a gift to Jesus, into a weapon against her sister that sent shrapnel all over the room.
Jesus went to the heart of the matter. It’s not what Martha was doing, or what Mary wasn’t doing. It was Martha’s attitude about the whole thing. She was “doing to distraction.” She forgot why she was doing all that cooking in the first place.
What did Jesus tell his followers again and again? That the one thing they must do is to love: love God and love neighbor, even when the neighbor is a family member! Love can be shown through service, but service alone doesn’t show love. Service, in fact, can be an end in itself—can distract us from remembering why we serve, whom we serve. Too much can bring burnout to us and resentment toward those we serve.
The truth is, it’s impossible to do all things well. You can’t be at the top of your class in school or the career ladder AND the most talented athlete AND the very best parent AND the host with the most AND have the prettiest yard and the most envied house, all at the same time. If you try, you’ll surely neglect some very important things—most likely, your relationships, with God and with other people. You’ll be trapped by the tyranny of the urgent—always running and doing whatever jumps highest or cries loudest to catch your attention.
And the last time you had a quiet moment with God was … how long ago? Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things.
A proverb [15:17] says, better to eat vegetables with people you love than to eat the finest meat where there is hate. Hospitality is the gracious ambiance you provide, not the elegance of the house or the sumptuousness of the meal. And gospel hospitality goes a step further. Gospel hospitality creates a welcoming space for Christ. It allows his word to be spoken, and heard, and acted out—without the distractions of too much busyness, or of strife between people.
This puts service in a rather different light. It means we don’t have to work ourselves to frustration to win God’s approval. Church folk are notorious Marthas, because we feel the responsibility of being Christ’s hands here on earth. If no one else is doing it, we try to do it all. Who’s the last one out of the kitchen after a fellowship meal while the rest of us are still sitting around the table—the first to volunteer to help with any and every cause? Does the shoe pinch?
Martha, dear Martha, you are worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her. Jesus invites us to stop--to hear his good news: that by grace alone we’re saved and not by our works. If we can accept that, it frees us to prioritize our lives for the most important thing: loving God first. Jesus praises Mary because she chose—didn’t just fall into doing something--but deliberately chose to sit at his feet and soak in his presence.
Of course, the world needs “doing” as well as “being.” It takes Martha and Mary together, in balance, to make a whole Christian. Doing without listening can degenerate into busyness that loses its purpose. Listening without doing soon becomes a mockery of the words heard. Neighborliness without godliness is only half of discipleship. And godliness without neighborliness is not godly at all. But since most of us in this room have more Martha than Mary in us, we need to hear Jesus call us to be still, and to be in his presence.
One of my sons used to have a favorite t-shirt with a series of four statements:
- first, “to be, or not to be—that is the question.” [Wm. Shakespeare]
- then, “to be is to do.” [Socrates]
- next, “to do is to be.’ [Sartre]
- finally, “do be do be do….” [Sinatra]
Just as Frank Sinatra’s scat singing tweaks the solemn philosophical statements about being, so the story of Martha and Mary tweaks any notions we might have that we can be followers of Jesus either by frantic service, or by quiet contemplation alone. It takes both. At Springwood, you have opportunities for balance. For study and worship, many of you are here each Sunday. You can also take time each day for personal devotions. You might consider joining the Wednesday night bible study. You can serve Christ and neighbor through the various ministries of the church or finding other ways to serve in the community.
But there’s something that comes before either service or worship. Martha invited Jesus into her home. Only after that could she and Mary serve him, offer him hospitality, listen to his teachings, follow him. Do you invite him into your life? And do you take time to listen to him?
The sisters invited Jesus to be their guest, because they wanted to spend time with him—but, for Martha, everyday distractions got in the way, and they got in the way of her relationship with Mary, too. The test of a right relationship with God is the fruit it bears in our other relationships. Would that Martha’s love of Jesus might move from her heart to her outstretched hand, and to her lips. So, “do be do be do”, Martha—and all of us who are prone to Martha-hood: do be done with distractions! Christ is here—in this house of worship, in your own home. Let us enjoy him forever.
