“Martha, Martha . . .”
The story of Mary and Martha is a
familiar story in my life . . . especially growing up as a kid. It was one of the few biblical references
that my mother used when dealing with siblings and me. Typically it would be at a time when one of
us—typically, me—would be complaining about some chore or task we had been
given to do. For me it usually had to do
with cleaning up the kitchen and doing the dishes. I would complain that it was not fair, and my
mother would respond, “You did a good job, Martha.”
I used to resent that statement. I resented it because I felt like I was the
one who was getting the short end of the stick . . . like I was the one who was
being over-burdened . . . the one who was missing out on all the fun everyone
else was having while I was in the kitchen busting my butt. Yeah, I understood where Martha was coming
from, and hearing patronizing words of empathy . . . or was it sarcasm . . .
did not make it any better.
Martha has a complaint. A horde of guests show up for dinner. Someone has to do the work of preparing the
meal, so Martha gets right to work. In
the meantime, her sister—Mary—plops herself right at the feet of the guest of
honor to listen to what he has to say.
She does not offer to help Martha with the meal preparations. In Martha’s eyes her sister is slacking off
and dumping all the work on Martha. Is
this a legitimate complaint . . . or, is it a case of sibling rivalry? I imagine it is a combination of both, but
the end result is that Martha gets hit with the guilt trip.
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are
worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will
not be taken away from her.”
Ouch!
That had to hurt. Martha is shot down. She does all the work and Mary gets the
affirmation. Doesn’t seem fair, does it?
Author C.S. Lewis was considered one
of the great Christian apologists of the 20th century. An “apologist” is a “defender” of something,
and in Lewis’ case it was a defender of the Christian faith. He wrote many books that are considered
classics of the faith . . . Mere
Christianity, The Great Divorce, The Four Loves. He wrote some of the most popular stories on
faith as children’s books, especially The
Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in what is known as The Chronicle of Narnia . . . which have been made into various
movies over the generations. With
wisdom, insight, and a bit of humor, he was a defender of the faith.
As I have mentioned before, my
favorite C.S. Lewis book is The Screwtape
Letters. It is a book that is set
right before the second world war . . . before England has officially entered
into the war. The plot of the book is
that a young junior devil is given his first assignment “up there”. His name is Wormwood. His assignment is to keep the individual
assigned to him from converting over to the “enemy”. The enemy in this case is Jesus and the
Christian faith. Like anyone starting a
new job, there are lots of things that need to be learned, lessons to be
grasped, and mistakes to clean up. It
isn’t easy and Wormwood knows it. Thus
he seeks out advice from a senior devil . . . his uncle. He writes letters to his uncle asking for
help. The book is the responses to
Wormwood’s letter with advice on keeping his assigned human from jumping over
to the other side.
The sorts of things that Screwtape
suggests are things that would divert or distract the human from giving his
attention to Jesus and his teachings. He
tells him to get the individual interested in the opposite sex . . . help him
to fall in love . . . that would keep him busy for a while. He tells him to get him involved in a hobby .
. . hobbies can become all consuming. He
even tells him to get the individual involved in some cause . . . make him a
crusader for something . . . anything that will distract him from the
“enemy”. The bottom line is that
Screwtape is telling Wormwood that the key to being successful is to distract
the individual from Jesus and his teachings.
If the individual is distracted then he cannot focus on the “enemy” and
his ways. Distraction is the key.
In our story this morning, Martha is
distracted. Jesus tells her she is
distracted . . . distracted by all of her worries and her being upset. Because she is distracted she cannot see the
greater good which her sister has chosen to do.
I do not think the words that Jesus spoke made Martha feel any better;
no, it probably just added fuel to the fire and made her even more
distracted. In her mind, feeding the
guests was the most important thing . . . not sitting around talking. I imagine that if it had been me, I would
have gone back to the kitchen and started banging pots and pans around to let
everyone know that I was still there.
But, we do not know how the story ends.
We only know that Jesus tells Martha that she is too distracted to see
the greater good in the situation.
What is the “greater good”?
Well, to understand that remark, we
need to go back a little further in the story.
Prior to Jesus and his disciples showing up at Mary and Martha’s house,
Jesus was confronted by one of the experts of the law. The expert wanted to know what it was that he
must do to inherit eternal life. Of
course, Jesus does not answer the question directly . . . no, he asks the
lawyer what the scriptures say. We all
know what the answer is . . . love the Lord with your whole being—heart, soul,
strength, and mind; and, to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Jesus tells him he has answered correctly and
that if the lawyer did this then eternal life would be his.
But, the lawyer wants to know who his
neighbor is.
Jesus tells him the parable of the
Good Samaritan . . . how a person is making a trip, gets robbed and beat up,
and is left for dead. Three people come
across the beaten man with the first two choosing not to help for various
religious and moral reasons. The third—a
Samaritan (not a real popular people with the Jews)—stops and helps the man . .
. covers all his expenses until he is healed up and able to continue on. Jesus asks, which one is the neighbor.
Of course, it is the dreaded and hated
Samaritan who is the neighbor much to the chagrin of the lawyer.
In this prelude to our story about
Martha, we learn what is the “better thing” . . . it is to focus on
relationship . . . relationship between the individual and God . . .
relationship between the individual and others.
It is to love the Lord completely and to love your neighbor as you love
yourself. Anything less than that is a
distraction from doing God’s will.
A shooting in Baton Rouge . . . a
shooting in Minneapolis . . . a shooting in Dallas . . . a tragic mauling of
lives in a senseless act of violence in France . . . an attempted military coup
in Turkey . . . continued terrorist attacks across the world . . . wars raging
across the globe. Are you feeling a
little distracted?
A crazy political campaign season that
has more plot changes and surprises than any soap opera on television . . . a
congress and senate that cannot work together because they want things their
way . . . a rise in claims of racism, sexism, and all the –isms of our
times. Are you feeling a little
distracted?
Throw into that our everyday worries
and concerns . . . the things that create stress in our lives . . . just
whether or not we are going to make it another day . . . are you feeling a
little distracted?
Sure, we are. We all are.
And it is these distractions that keep us from focusing on the “better
thing” . . . to love God and one another.
Please understand, I am not saying
that any of the things I mentioned are not important and deserving of our
attention . . . they are important as they point to the greater problem that
comes down to relationships. All of
these issues come down to how well we relate to one another . . . how well we
listen to, respect, and treat one another . . . how we treat others as we would
treat ourselves. How we would treat
ourselves.
Martha was distracted.
The two travelers who refused to help
the injured man were distracted.
And, I imagine, that in the end, the
lawyer who was questioning Jesus, will be distracted for many reasons from
doing the “better thing”.
Jesus tells us that God calls us into
relationship . . . relationship with God as individuals . . . relationships
with others. Upon these two calls lie
the key to life . . . in the present moment and in the eternal scheme of
things. We cannot allow ourselves to be
distracted from doing that which we are called to do as the followers of Jesus
and as the children of God. We must
focus upon relating through love with God and others. If we can begin to put that rubric upon
everything that we do as individuals and as groups, we can begin to change the
world. We can begin to relate.
There would be no more shootings . . .
no more war . . . no more political animosity . . . no more violence . . . no
more separation . . . no more hatred. Sound
too simple? Well, when Martha
complained, Jesus told her to celebrate her sister’s choice of choosing the
“better thing”. With the lawyer, Jesus
told him to “go and do likewise.” As
the followers of Jesus we have been given our marching orders. Go forth . . . be safe . . . and, don’t get
distracted from what God has called all of us to do. Amen.
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