The gospel lesson today, the story of Martha and Mary, fittingly follows last week’s lesson of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke. The story of the Good Samaritan not only challenged us to love our neighbor, but to love neighbors across cultural boundaries and risk our own safety and certainty in life. Today’s gospel is another story that challenges us to consider and cross our boundaries, despite what is culturally normal or expected. Today’s lessons ask us to respond to the presence of God, whether God is initially perceived or not, with a love that transcends physical hospitality. A love that synchronizes our lives with the movements of God, and a love that invites us to not only encounter the divine, but participate in it.
In Luke’s story of Martha and Mary, we encounter a common scenario (one that many of us have encountered) In the scene Luke describes we have two women (sisters in this case) welcoming Jesus into their home. In this case, one sister, Martha is doing all the work and Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet. Isn’t it the case, that there always seems to be one person taking the on the responsibility for all the preparations for a dinner or gathering. We all step into that role at sometime, when we feel responsible for facilitating the best possible experience for everyone involved. We can become so concerned with facilitating the details that we remain distant, even isolated from the guests we are entertaining or visitors we are receiving. What can happen, and what seemed to happen to Martha in this story is that this perceived responsibility robbed her of an opportunity to fully encounter her guest- in this case Jesus. Too “worried and distracted” as our text says, or too “anxious and troubled” as the RSV says, Martha was unable to hear the words that her Lord was speaking.
On the other hand we have Mary, the younger sister, seated at Jesus’ feet. Mary for whatever reason does not help with the meal preparations, but listened to what Jesus was saying. What kept Mary sitting enthralled with Jesus’ words? There are many interpretations, but we do know from the text that it bothered Martha. In a moment of what could have been anger or frustration Martha turns, not to her sister, but to God. She makes a request of Jesus to tell Mary to help her.
There have been times in my life, when I have become more focused on the external details of a situation opposed to the internal emotional or spiritual dynamics happening. When things were not going well or I am nervous about something I might focus on something external, that in the end is completely arbitrary. This could perhaps be what was going on for Martha. Martha may be wrapped up in the external ways she can be serving her Lord by fulfilling the proper protocols of hospitality, instead of responding to this visit as a unique opportunity, as a time to sit and listen to Jesus’ words. This is Martha’s pitfall. We already know from John’s gospel that Martha is a woman who has put her faith in Jesus, but her overwhelming concern for the obligations of hospitality has robbed her of the words that Jesus was imparting to her sister and herself.
Martha is concerned with the duties of a woman to provide hospitality, but to a detriment; societal pressures keep her busy and in turn, resentful of her sister who has broken the traditional role of women and offered her full attention to Christ. By sitting at his feet not in an act of submission, but leaning into the wisdom and love that Jesus’ teachings imparted was a step toward revolution. A revolution that Jesus defended not only to Martha, but also to the disciples who questioned the presence of women around Jesus. This challenge to societal norms in Jewish culture of the day had lasting effects as we hear this event later echoed by Paul’s words to the Galatians; “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”
There are endless interpretations of the story of Martha and Mary, many of which I encountered in preparing for this sermon; One common agenda in interpreting this text is to “redeem Martha” from the place of rebuke that Jesus left her in. This agenda I believe, is projecting our tendency to keep our hands busy and our lives full to the point of conveniently not having time enough to hear the words Christ is speaking to us. We keep our egos inflated with the ever so important duties of daily life that we never find the time to step out of this hectic paced existence and sit at the feet of Jesus. This pitfall of Martha’s (that many of us fall into) keeps one from claiming a place among the disciples, and stuck in a traditional roles that may not be what God is calling us to. Let us imagine we are in Martha’s shoes for a minute; How are we going to respond to God’s presence in our lives? Are we going to object to our brothers and sisters not partaking in the work we have made ourselves busy with? Will we stop long enough to see that Jesus is inviting us to slow down- sit with him, be fed and learn in order to go out and feed others with spiritual food. We can fail God if we fail to stop and take God up on this offer.
This story of Martha and Mary, sisters who regularly hosted Jesus in their home makes me wonder what it would have been like to be a woman desiring to follow and serve Jesus in his time. Typically, in Jesus’ day, women were not students of religion. Women were not deprived from the religious life, but as we can see still played out today throughout institutionalized religion, women’s roles were often in submission to men and women were rarely in leadership. Family obligations in Jewish culture restricted women from fulfilling as many divine commandments as men, as well as exempting them from religious duties. Martha was concerned for her sister, sitting at Jesus’ feet- a place for a disciple, a distinctively male role- and not helping with preparations of the meal. Cultural norms and traditional roles of women especially around religion may have fueled Martha’s reaction to Mary blurring the boundaries male and female roles.
It would be in alignment with the rest of the gospel to say that this is a story about the reordering of the world as we know it, the high shall become low, the first last, the busy will become still and the still will partake in “the best part”. And in this story the woman doing the dishes will be given a place amongst the theologians studying at the feet of Jesus.
This text causes me to stop and ponder what cultural or religious norms am I trying to satisfy that keeping me from being the disciple seated at the feet of Jesus where we are all called to dwell as followers of Christ.
The gospel reading today offers us much to consider about hospitality, discipleship, gender roles and what is required of us as followers of Jesus today. Mary Daly, a formative feminist theologian reminds us that Jesus was in the business of “smashing the images that obstruct the becoming of the image of God”. Clearly, Jesus’ visit with the sisters in
Let us remember that we, the church, make up God’s flesh in the world. The kind of hospitality Martha was offering Jesus is important, as we have heard in our first lesson. It is in offering love and hospitality to our neighbors, that we will encounter Christ and find the opportunities to sit at the feet of Jesus to be spiritually fed. The story of Martha and Mary does not disregard the active life of Christians, but asks us to choose with Mary “the best” or most lasting way of being a follower of Christ. We have been gifted many things in this life including opportunities to serve, to listen, to love and to be loved. Let us not confuse these gifts from God.
In conclusion, consider these words: God is calling us not to service alone, but participation in and with the divine. When we know we are in the presence of something holy do we drop the obligations of this daily life and fall down in defiance of all the social norms that keep our hands busy and our hearts closed off? Or do we welcome God to interrupt our lives, switch things up and lead us out of the comfortable role of host or hostess to one who is receiving? When God does speak to us are we able to hear him over the clanging of the dishes, the various noises that fill out hearts, heads and lives? God is waiting for us to put down the many things that concern us, and participate in and with the divine. Amen.
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