This sermon is available in audio form through Mixcloud below. For a transcript (not word perfect, I never read direct from my notes) see below. It's based on: Luke 10. 38-42.
Our Gospel reading today is part of a series of short unconnected incidents, unique to Luke, which he compiles together near the centre of his Gospel. We’ve been slowly working through a number of them for the last few weeks and most of them are quite well known. This one is no different.
Jesus seems to visit the home of Mary and Martha quite regularly, they’re mentioned a few times in the Gospels, the most famous incident being where he raised their brother Lazarus. But here we have Him simply visiting them, and Mary is hard at work being a good host. Hospitality was, and still is, a big deal in the Middle East, if we flick back to our Genesis passage (Genesis 18. 1-10a) for a moment we see Abraham rushing into the tent when guests arrive to instruct Sarah to prepare food and drink for them, to decline to provide hospitality is a big deal. We can probably quite easily identify with that, here and now we know the importance of hospitality. Someone comes over, on goes the kettle. One of the first things we say to guests is to ask if they would like tea, its fairly ingrained in the British psyche. So I want to modernise the story a little. Picture the scene. You’ve invited Jesus to your home to rest and to share dinner. And off you go into the kitchen to attend to the pans and put the kettle on. You pop into the living room to lay out the coasters and your sister, who should be helping really, is sat on the floor listening to Jesus, you put the coasters out and back you go into the kitchen. You’re stirring various pans and adjusting temperatures to stop things boiling over. Kettle boils, you could really use a hand to keep an eye on things but there we are. Out come a dozen or more cups and you’re back into the living room to put them out. She’s still sat there, doesn’t even acknowledge you. You can feel your blood starting to boil. Back to the kitchen, boiling water into the tea pot, onto a tray with a plate of biscuits and some of the cups. Quickly stir a pan and turn another down as it boils up. Back into the living room to put them out, and she’s still just sat there. Jesus doesn’t even seem to care that your sister should be helping you and isn’t, he’s part of the problem. And finally you reach boiling point and out it comes ‘don’t you care that she’s left me to do everything, tell her to help!’ And cool as anything, Jesus responds, ‘You’re so busy and distracted with so many things, only one thing is needed, your sister has chosen it and it won’t be taken from her’. Wow, and that’s where the story ends, we don’t get anything else, Martha doesn’t reply, Jesus has the last word. Martha was so busy doing all the things which she thought were important, being a good host, again a massively important thing in this context, that she’d completely missed what was actually important. Jesus is there, this amazing teacher who is also God’s son, and you’re so busy you’re not listening to Him and learning. Jesus is in your house and you have no time for Him. I wonder how often we find ourselves so busy that God gets squeezed out of our schedule. We have to pick the grandchildren up from school, we have to go to that fitness class, we have to do the shopping, we have to get our friend a birthday present, then there’s tea out with a friend and that programme we’ve been watching which is getting to a really good part. Our lives can become so busy, with good and important things, that we forget God, or we relegate Him to whatever is left, an hour or so on a Sunday. And the thing is, all these other things and many more are really good things, important things. But they’re not the most important thing. I’m certainly guilty of this, it’s easy to do with a collar, and whilst I’ve only been ordained 3 weeks I’ve spent quite a few years in ministry. It’s easy to get so busy doing the job that you don’t leave enough time to be with God, whatever that looks like for you. But if we become so preoccupied with all the things we are meant to do we miss out on who we are doing it for. And it’s not just us as individuals, we as a Church need to remember to do this too. All too often we can fill Church programmes with concerts and lunches and art exhibitions and wine tastings and Christmas tree festivals and raising money for various charities and running debt relief or counselling services that we forget the most important thing. All these things are wonderful, important and enjoyable things, there’s nothing at all wrong with any of them. But where is our heart? What do our hearts think is most important thing about Church, is our heart with all this stuff and getting on with that, or is our heart to come here and worship God, to meet with Him and be changed. Is the main thing for us sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening? I wonder when the last time was that as a Church you sat down and prayed together about what God wanted you to do this year. Not just look at what we did last year and decide to do it again, not look over the parish boundary to see what they’re doing over there and copy it if it looks good. But stop and talk to God, ask Him what He wants us to be doing this year, where He thinks we should be spending our energy. And as we head into the summer, when things may be a little quieter, it’s a good time to do this, to spend time praying about the next 12 months as a Church. Because if we aren’t checking with God we may see some results from what we’re doing but it won’t be the best results. If we’re so busy doing that we aren’t talking with God, we can easily end up doing stuff that isn’t important or isn’t His best for us right now. Now in no way is Jesus saying here that we should all sit in contemplative silence all the time and never do anything, I hope I’ve made that clear. What He’s saying is to keep the main thing, God, the main thing. Because here is the crux of the matter, if we are so busy doing things that we aren’t spending any time with God, actually talking with Him and listening to Him, we aren’t being filled, we’re not being spiritually filled. Which means everything we are doing is in our strength, not His, and if we are to have any chance of doing what He wants us to, help the Kingdom of God break into our world, we can’t do that in our power, only in His. Afterall it’s His Kingdom not ours. We have no chance if we’re not leaning on Him. If we’re doing it in our own strength we will get overworked, overstressed and burnt out, we’re not built to do this without Him. But if, as individuals and as a Church, we are making time to be with God, reading Scripture, spending time in prayer, talking with Him as we go about our days, in whatever ways work for you to do these things, people find different things work for them. If we are doing these things, we learn to lean on Him, use His strength and not our own, and when we do that we start to learn where He wants us to be putting our time and energy, where He is already at work so that we can join in with it and suddenly we aren’t working for God, we are working with God. Suddenly we are working alongside the creator of the universe in bringing His light into our often dark world. And what an amazing thing that is, to work alongside God, with His help and strength. And if we are leaning on Him, then we get rewarded doubly, we do it in His strength, and His Spirit brings it to life and makes it work, we see fruit. If we keep the main thing, God and spending time with Him, the main thing, we see fruit, sometimes after a long time of faithfully following, faithfully doing these things, He doesn’t promise instant results, but we will see fruit, fruit which God is growing. And if you’re so busy that you’re getting annoyed with your fellow Christians who are praying and spending quiet time with God rather than helping, maybe you need to slow down and rather than get them to join you, join them in what they are doing, because if we are spending that time in prayer, it won’t be long before God sends us out to do things in His name, He never leaves us just sat contemplating forever. So keep the main thing the main thing this summer, use it as a practice ground, don’t let all the other important things crowd out God, but keep Him front and centre, and then, and only then, can we as disciples and as a Church truly talk with Him and truly listen. And then go and do what He asks, in His strength, not our own, and see the fruit which He will bring in our towns and villages. Amen
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AuthorAn Anglican Curate in my 20's I was raised in an Anglican Church, went to a Youth Club run by an Evangelical Church, attended a Baptist Church while at Uni and was a member of a New Monastic Community after graduating. As such my faith has been influenced by these experiences and traditions into what I hope is a more rounded viewpoint. Archives
September 2022
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